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Category Archives: Toker

Z is for Zagazig

30 Sunday Apr 2023

Posted by Anne Young in A to Z 2023, CdeC baronets, military, Toker

≈ 15 Comments

When I was a girl, in a gloomy corridor of my grandmother’s house in Adelaide there was a lithograph of Tel-el-Kebir, the 1882 battle that won the Anglo-Egyptian War for the British. It probably came from my step-grandfather, George Symes, whose regiment, the Yorks and Lancs, had a part in the victory.

1890 Bird’s eye view of the battle of Tel-el-Kebir drawn by G. W. Bacon. Image retrieved through Geographicus Rare Antique Maps: a zoomable image is available through the link.
Zagazig is shown on the horizon. The Bengal infantry are to the left on the other side of the canal, the Cameronian Highlanders are in the front of the charge to the left. The 84th Regiment (York and Lancaster) are to the right, being led by an officer with a raised sword and next to the cannon.
The picture of Tel-el-Kebir hanging in my brother’s house

In 1882 Alliston Toker (see L is for Languages) was D.A.A.G. [Deputy Assistant Adjutant General] to the Indian contingent at Tel-el-Kebir and subsequent pursuit to Zagazig; he was mentioned in despatches, receiving the brevet of Lieut.-Colonel and the 4th class of the Order of Osmanieh

13th Bengal Cavalry at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir on 13th September 1882 retrieved from BritishBattles.com

The Anglo-Egyptian war was fought over who should control the Suez Canal.

From 1879 Colonel Ahmed ʻUrabi (or Orabi or Arabi) sought to depose the Khedive Tewfik Pasha and end British and French influence over the country. Egypt had been bankrupted by interest payments on loans incurred to fund an over-ambitious programme of infrastructure projects. The country’s finances were controlled by representatives of France and Britain.

In June 1882 there were riots in Alexandria, and the British bombarded the city.

The British were afraid they might lose control of Egypt, forfeiting loans and interest repayments. They were also concerned about the security of the Suez Canal which, since its opening in 1869, had become a vital part of the global communications of the British Empire.

Garnet Wolseley‘s 24,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops was the largest Imperial overseas force since the Crimean War in the 1850s. On his arrival Wolseley took control of the Suez Canal, secured his communications, created a strong base, built up stores, and concentrated his forces.

To defend Cairo the Egyptian forces dug in at Tel El Kebir, north of the railway and the Sweetwater Canal, both of which linked Cairo to Ismailia on the canal. The defences, though hastily prepared, included trenches and redoubts.

Wolseley planned to approach the position by night and attack frontally at dawn, hoping to achieve surprise, and a final, decisive victory.

Night marches are risky but the approach march of the main forces was made easier because the desert was almost flat and unobstructed.

Orders to prepare for battle were issued at 3pm on the afternoon of 12 September. One hundred rounds and two days’ rations were issued to every man. The orders instructed “Commanding officers are to be very particular about the fitness of water-carts, which will be filled and follow in rear of the battalions, and to make sure, by the personal inspection of company officers at 5 p.m. to-day, that every man has his water-bottle filled, if possible, with cold tea.”

The troops were told to maintain strict silence on the march; orders were to be given in whispers and rifles would be unloaded to avoid chance shots. No lights were to be shown; smoking was banned. Tents were left standing until dusk, campfires burning thereafter, so as not to alert the enemy to the fact that the British were on the move.

The advance from Ismailia began at 1.30am. An estimate of one-mile-per-hour average speed was calculated for a dawn attack. Navigation was by the stars. There were frequent halts to check direction and alignment. The march from the perspective of the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders was described in the regimental history:

“The weird night march, long to be retained in the annals of the regiment and the country, can never be forgotten by those who took part in it ; the monotonous tramp, the sombre lines, the dimly discerned sea of desert faintly lighted by the stars, were at once ghostly and impressive. The pace was necessarily slow ; one halt was made, and shortly afterwards the directing star having become concealed another one was chosen, and the direction slightly changed to the right. The 42nd, 74th, and 75th, did not at once conform, and the consequence was that a halt had to be made as these regiments found themselves almost facing each other.
This line was quickly and silently re-formed, and the advance continued.
Just as dawn was breaking two shots were fired from the left front, and Private James Pollock of the regiment fell dead. It was now evident that the regiment was close upon the enemy. Bayonets were at once fixed.”

At 5.45 a.m. Wolseley’s troops were six hundred yards from the entrenchments and dawn was just breaking, when Egyptian sentries saw them and fired. The first shots were followed by multiple volleys from the entrenchments and by the artillery. British troops charged with the bayonet. The Highlanders charged “to the shrill music of the pipes, and cheering as they ran”.

Wolseley had written in his 1871 “Soldier’s Pocket-Book for Field Service”:

“A ringing cheer is inseparable from charging. I do not believe it possible to get a line in action to charge in silence ; and were it possible, the general who would deprive himself of the moral assistance it gives the assailants, must be an idiot. It encourages, lends nerve and confidence to an assailant : its very clamour makes men feel their strength as they realise the numbers that are charging with them. Nothing serves more to strike terror into a force that is charged than a loud ringing cheer, bespeaking confidence.”
Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, 1882; painting by Henri-Louis Dupray. In the collection of the National Army Museum.
The painting depicts the moment at first light when the Highland Brigade, having advanced within 150 yards of the Egyptian trenches and fixing bayonets as they went, stormed the enemy at bayonet-point.

The British advance was shielded from view by the smoke from the Egyptian artillery and rifles. Arriving in the trenches at the same time, all along the line, the resulting battle was over within an hour. The Egyptians fought strongly, Sir Archibald Alison, a Highland commander, reported in ”The Highland Brigade” by James Cromb, recalled:

‘Retiring up a line of works which we had taken in flank, they rallied at every re-entering angle, at every battery, at every redoubt, and renewed the fight. Four or five times we had to close upon them with bayonet, and I saw these men fighting hard when their officers were flying.’

It was a crushing defeat for the Egyptians. Official British figures gave a total of 57 British troops killed. Approximately two thousand Egyptians died. The British army had more casualties due to heatstroke than enemy action.

British cavalry pursued the broken enemy towards Cairo, which was undefended.

The regimental history of the 79th states:

“At 4.30 p.m. the same day the regiment, with the 74th and 75th, marched about five miles towards Zagazig and bivouacked for the night. The following day it moved on to Zagazig, 13 miles distant.
On entering Zagazig, about 6 p.m., the 72nd Highlanders were seen encamped on the other side of the canal, and raised many a cheer as the regiment passed. They formed part of the Indian contingent, and had pushed on in front of the Highland brigade.”
Occupation Of Zagazig, after the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir from Recent British battles on land and sea by James Grant, page 492 retrieved through Google Books
On the road to Tel-el-Kebir – Zagazig (looking towards the Battlefield) by F Murdoch Wright. Watercolour dated 1882 – 1890 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
The British were at Ismailia and marched to Tel el Kebir. Fugitives from the battle fled to Zagazig.

Zagazig, is situated in the eastern part of the Nile delta. It is just under 60 km west of Tel el Kebir and 70 km north of Cairo. Many fugitives from the battle fled there.

Organised Egyptian resistance collapsed after Tel el-Kebir and the puppet regime of the Khedive was restored by the British. ʻUrabi was captured and eventually exiled to the British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Egypt became a British colony in all but name.

Also serving in the battle was Tyrrell Other William Champion de Crespigny (1859 – 1946), brother of the 4th baronet and a distant cousin. I wrote about him in ‘U for Unregistered in 2021‘.

Related posts and further reading

  • U for Unregistered
  • M is for medals
  • Faulkner, Neil. “All Sir Garnet! The Battle of Tel El-Kebir, 13 September 1882.” Military History Monthly, the-past.com, 6 Nov. 2021, https://the-past.com/feature/all-sir-garnet/ . Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.
  • Mackenzie, Thomas Arthur, et al. “Historical Records of the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.” 1887 pages 169 ff. retrieved from archive.org
  • Wolseley, Garnet Joseph. “The Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service.” MacMillan and Co., 1871, page 249 retrieved through archive.org
  • Cromb, James. “The Highland Brigade.” 1886, page 302 retrieved through Google Books

Wikitree:

  • Alliston Champion Toker KCB (1843 – 1936)
  • Tyrell Other William Champion de Crespigny (1859 – 1946)
  • Garnet Joseph Wolseley (1833 – 1913)
  • 2156 Pte J. Pollock – Cameron Highlanders – Killed at Tel-el-Kebir 13th September 1882
  • Gen Sir Archibald Alison 2nd Bart

N is for New Zealand

17 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by Anne Young in A to Z 2023, military, New Zealand, Toker

≈ 10 Comments

One of my first cousin five times removed was a soldier named Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834–1866). Born at Eaton Place in London on 18 July 1834, he was the second son of Philip Champion Toker (1802–1882) and Elizabeth née Branthwayt (1808–1889), the third of their eight children. Alliston Champion Toker (1843-1936) (see ‘L is for languages‘) was Arthur’s younger brother.

Arthur’s father was a proctor of Doctors’ Commons, a London society of civil-law lawyers. Proctors were like attorneys in common-law courts and solicitors in the courts of equity.

In 1854 Arthur joined the 65th Regiment of Foot as an ensign by purchase.  He served first in the Crimea, then in 1860 he was transferred to New Zealand.

From 1860 to 1865 the 65th Foot had 41 officers and 940 other ranks stationed there, all on the North Island, at Auckland, Wellington, Wanganui, Napier, and Taranaki.

Toker fought in the Māori Wars from 1860 to 1861 and in further hostilities in New Zealand from 1863 until his departure in 1865.

The War began with a dispute between the government and Māori landowners over the sale of a property at Waitara. The result was inconclusive. Although there was a ceasefire  neither side explicitly accepted the peace terms offered to it. The British claimed that they had won the war, but it was widely held that they had suffered an unfavourable and humiliating defeat.

The “Roll of the Officers of the York and Lancaster Regiment” (George Alfred Raikes, 1885) records Toker’s service in New Zealand:

present in the following Engagements and Skirmishes, viz.: —Kohea Pah, March 17th and 18th, 1860 ; Expedition to Warea, April 20th to 30th, 1860, Chief Officer in Command, Colonel C. E. Gold ; Mahoetahi, November 6th, 1860 ; Kairau,December 29th and 30th, 1860 ; Huirangi, February 10th, 1861. … Served also at the Storming and Capture of Rangirui, New Zealand, November 20th and 21st, 1863 ; Mentioned in a Despatch from Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B., to the Secretary of State for War, dated Rangirui, November 26th, 1863.
From The New Zealand Wars vol. I, by James Cowan. 1922. frontispiece retrieved from archive.org

In the Battle of Rangiriri on 20 and 21 November 1863 more than 1400 British troops defeated about 500 Māori warriors. This battle cost both sides heavily, more than any other engagement of the New Zealand wars. A hundred and eighty Māori prisoners were taken, a loss which sharply reduced Māori capacity to oppose the British.

A Despatch from Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B., to the Secretary of State for War, dated Rangiriri, November 26th, 1863 was published in the London Gazette of 19 February 1864 (pages 770-2).

Cameron described the enemy position:

The enemy's works consisted of a line of high parapet and double ditch, extending, as I have before stated, between the Waikato and Lake Waikare, the centre of this line being strengthened by a square redoubt of very formidable construction, its ditch being ] 2 feet wide, and the height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the parapet 18 feet. The strength of this work was not known before the attack as its profile could not be seen either from the river or from the ground in front. Behind the left centre of this main line and at right angles to it, there was a strong intrenched line of rifle pits facing the river and obstructing the advance of troops from that direction.

Toker led a detachment of 72 men with scaling ladders and planks. Cameron planned that “The skirmishers of the 65th Regiment were to cover the advance of the ladder party, and when the latter had succeeded in escalading the entrenchment, were to follow with the support”. Cameron noted the enemy defended with great tenacity and resolution. Cameron praised his officers, including Toker and the ladder party, for gallantly leading their men.

The repulse of the Royal Navy storming party, Rangiriri Pa. (20th November 1863). From The New Zealand Wars page 323 retrieved from archive.org
Earthworks of Rangiriri Pa, taken 20th Nov. 1863 watercolour by Charles Heaphy
Looking along the top of an earth wall at right. There is a trench to the left of it, and the left wall of the trench has regular arched niches in it. In the right background is a lake with canoes on it. Two cabbage trees are on the left.
The defence works were built on the ridge between July and November 1863, by the Waikato supporters of the Maori King movement, in preparation for a confrontation with British troops under General (Sir) Duncan Alexander Cameron.
Image from the National Library of New Zealand.
From The New Zealand Wars page 321 retrieved from archive.org

In 1865 the 65th Regiment was recalled from active service in New Zealand where it had been stationed for 19 years. The ‘John Temperley‘ was chartered to transport the troops home. It left Auckland on 25 October 1865 with 267 troops of the 65th Regiment, including Lieutenant Toker and his fellow officers and their families and “7 staff sergeants, 1 schoolmaster, 14 sergeants, 5 drummers, 150 rank and file, 18 women, and 29 children”.

On 6 December, with the regiment still at sea, the London Gazette announced the promotion of Lieutenant Arthur B. Toker, from 65th Foot, “to be Captain, without purchase, on half-pay”.  By going on half-pay he was effectively retiring from active service.

Sadly, Toker was never to enjoy a peaceful retirement. On 1 January 1866, just before reaching England, he died of typhoid fever.

Arthur Toker never married.

Included in a series of photographs of officers of the 65th regiment in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand

Related post

  • Deaths at sea

Wikitree: Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834 – 1866)

L is for languages

14 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by Anne Young in A to Z 2023, army, India, Toker

≈ 13 Comments

My first cousin five times removed Alliston Champion Toker (1843-1936) was a soldier and translator.

He was born on 10 December 1843, third son and youngest of the eight children of Philip Champion Toker (1802–1882) and Elizabeth née Branthwayt (1808–1889).

Educated at Brighton College, Sussex, and Victoria College, St Helier, Jersey, Toker was nominated as a cadet for the Bengal Infantry by a distant relative, Major General Sir Robert Vivian KCB, the step-son of a sister of Toker’s paternal grandmother. He attended Addiscombe Military Seminary, military school of the British East India Company. In 1860 Toker entered the Bengal Infantry as an Ensign, the lowest grade of commissioned officer. (Beside Addiscombe, Toker also attended the School of Musketry, Hythe, and trained in army signalling at Aldershot.)

Toker had a distinguished career in India. In 1864-5 he served in the Bhootan Expedition (the Anglo-Bhutan War). In 1882 he was Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (a senior staff officer) to the Indian contingent at Tel-el-Kebir and the pursuit to Zagazig (an incident of the Anglo-Egyptian War); he was mentioned in despatches, brevetted as Lieutenant-Colonel and awarded the Order of Osmanieh, 4th Class. He was made a CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath), for services in the Burmese Expedition of 1886-7. He became a Colonel, Bengal Staff Corps, in 1886 and from September 1887 to August 1892 was Departmental Secretary to the Military Department of the Government of India. He was promoted to Major-General in 1897. In 1906 Toker was made Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB).

In the course of his career Toker became proficient in Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Urdu, and was Official Translator to the Government of India for 14 years. He oversaw the translation of all Indian Army military textbooks into Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi. It was said he spoke seven Oriental languages, as well as five European. At the age of 72 he thought he would like to get his degree in Oriental languages and went to Cambridge as an undergraduate, only to find that the tutor was a man he had coached for the job. He had no special privileges at the university, except that he was allowed to sit at the dons’ table.

During World War 1, when he was in his 70s, Toker was employed in France as a translator in the 1915-16 Indian Expeditionary Force and from 1916 to 1919 he served in British Postal Censorship.

Sir Alliston Champion Toker by Lafayette 1 March 1928
NPG x42362 © National Portrait Gallery, London

When Alliston Toker died age 92 in Bedfordshire, England, obituaries appeared in newspapers around the world. Even a small country newspaper in Yass, Australia noted his passing. All mentioned his university studies at Cambridge in Oriental languages when he was in his 70s.

From the Yass Tribune-Courier (NSW, Australia), Monday 24 August 1936, page 6:

GENERAL WHO COULD NOT BE RETIRED
Sir A. C. Toker Dies Aged 92
UNDERGRADUATE IN HIS SEVENTIES
Ninety-two years of age, a general who could not be retired died the other day. He was Major General Sir Alliston Champion Toker, and his death occurred at his Bedford home.
A relative stated: "He was probably the oldest general in the Indian Army, and was on the active list the whole time. He could not be retired.
"Sir Alliston carried out a survey of the Chindwin district in Burmah in 1886-7. For that he received from the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts, the honour that he could never be retired from the active list. It is a very uncommon honour, and I think probably only two others hold it.
"At the age of 72 he thought he would like to get his degree in Oriental languages and went to Cambridge as an undergraduate, only to find that the tutor was a man he had coached for the job!
"He had no special privileges at the university, except that he was allowed to sit at the dons' table.
"He was in France for 11 months during the war in 1915 until the Indian Division, to which he acted as interpreter, returned to India.
Bent For Languages 
"He was the first officer to translate any military text-books into Indian languages. He had a natural bent for languages, and spoke at least seven Oriental tongues, as well as five European.
"In effect, he retired 40 years ago, and after his retirement was awarded the K.B.E."
At the India Office it was stated that the official description of Sir Alliston's position was that he remained until his death on the unemployed supernumerary list of the Indian Army.
Sir Alliston was born at Hendon, Middlesex, and entered the Bengal Army in 1860. He became captain in 1872, major in 1880, brevet lieutenant-colonel two years later, colonel in 1886, and major-general in 1897.
Sir Alliston was twice married. His first wife died in 1878, and his second, in 1926.

Related posts

  • A is for Addiscombe

Wikitree: Alliston Champion Toker KCB (1843 – 1936)

Connecting Richard Henry Crespigny (1891 – 1894) to the family tree

10 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by Anne Young in apparently unrelated Champion de Crespigny, Toker

≈ 6 Comments

Several years ago I wrote about a child who I could not connect to the family tree: Richard Henry Crespigny (1891-1894) a workhouse inmate. A cousin, NF, has recently written to me:

I think that I may have a plausible explanation regarding Richard Henry de Crespigny.

You have a Eliza Clarissa Emelia Toker in your tree.

She married Richard Bulkley Twyford Thelwall 1824-1878.

They had six children and their youngest was baptised Richard de Crespigny Thelwall.

Now Richard de Crespigny Thelwall is shown as being in Medical School at St. Mary’s Hospital London in 1888/89

For some reason he does not finish his studies. My GF always maintained that a family member was thrown out of Med School for getting a young lady pregnant. Did this Richard drop the Thelwall on the birth record of Robert Henry, being a poor student and merely disappearred?

At a later date Richard Thelwall marries an Anna Hamilton Lang (Long?) and they have five children all with the middle name of de Crespigny. By 1897 Richard is a well established clergyman.

Clarissa Champion Crespigny (1776 – 1836) was the daughter of my 5th great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) and his 3rd wife Clarissa Sarah Champion de Crespigny nee Brooke (1755 – 1782).

fb4e4-cdecclarissabyromney

Clarissa Champion de Crespigny and two of her children by George Romney. It would seem that the daughters shown are Clarissa born about 1775 and Maria born about 1776.

In 1801 the younger Clarissa married Edward Toker (1777 – 1849) of Ospringe, Kent. They had eight children. The eldest son, Philip Champion Toker (1802 – 1882) married Elizabeth Jeanette Branthwayt (1808 – 1889) in 1830. They had seven children. The eldest child was Eliza Clarissa Emilia Toker (1831 – 1888).

In 1855 Eliza married Richard Bulkeley Twyford Thelwall. They had seven children; the youngest was Richard de Crespigny Thelwall born 19 May 1871 at Batcombe Somerset.  He was baptised on 14 July 1871 at Batcombe. His father’s occupation was adjutant of volunteers. The 1871 census was taken on the night of 2 April, just before Richard’s birth. At the time of the census the Thelwall family were living in Batcombe: Richard senior’s occupation was Captain and Adjutant 3rd Battalion Rifle Volunteers. As well as his wife Eliza there were two children aged 8 and 6 and two general servants. One son had died as a small child, two other sons were at school: one at St John’s College Hurstpierpoint, Sussex; another at Christ’s Hospital Educational Institution, St John’s Hertfordshire. I have not been able to locate the oldest daughter.

On 19 July 1878 Richard Bulkley Twyford Thelwall died very suddenly at Weston-Soper-Mare. He was late Adjutant 3d Battalion Somerset Rifle Volunteers and late 65th Regiment. (London Evening Standard 27 July 1878 page 1)

He was 54 and his youngest son Richard was only 7 years old.

Eliza Thelwall nee Toker died in 1888.

In 1889 Richard de Crespigny Thelwall was studying medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, London. (The Wellcome Trust; London, England; Medical Students Register; Reference Number: b24389602_i13752728 Description Registration Year: 1889. Retrieved through ancestry.com)

At the time of the 1891 census Richard Thelwall aged 20 was living in Hustanton, Norfolk as a boarder. His occupation was Tutor School.

The 1897 UK clergy list indicates he entered the Anglican clergy in 1894 and from 1894 to 1897 was a curate of St. Paul, King-Cross, Halifax, Yorkshire.

In 1903 Richard de Crespigny Thelwall married. He and his wife had at least five children. Richard died in 1923.

Do you think Richard de Crespigny Thelwall was the father of Richard Henry Crespigny (1891 – 1894)?

Can you suggest any evidence that might be available? None of the documents I have relating to the child Richard Henry Crespigny, for example his birth and death certificates,  include his father’s handwriting.

update: Another cousin, JT, has written in February 2021

Richard de Crespigny Thelwall attended Medical School in 1888 and as the family said “he walked the wards” and hated it, and so left. He went on to try teaching and hated that too and finally attended Anglican College and became a priest.

Richard de Crespigny never had an illegitimate child/son.

Certainly his future father-in-law would never have allowed Richard de C. Thelwall to marry his eldest daughter, if this had been the case.

Related post:

  • Richard Henry Crespigny (1891-1894) a workhouse inmate

Deaths at sea

25 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by Anne Young in army, Branthwayt, cholera, Cudmore, Dana, Hickey, navy, New Zealand, Phipps, Plaisted, Sepia Saturday, shipwreck, Skelly, Smyth, Toker, tuberculosis, typhoid, Wade

≈ 5 Comments

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the sea. In fact, the prompt picture of Bondi Beach inspires thoughts of holidays by the beach, but I have recently been researching several members of my family who died at sea and I was reminded that the sea is not always benign.

JEAN_LOUIS_THÉODORE_GÉRICAULT_-_La_Balsa_de_la_Medusa_(Museo_del_Louvre,_1818-19)

The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault painted 1818-1819 and now hanging in the Louvre. The Méduse was wrecked off the coast of Africa in 1816. Of the 400 on board only 15 survived.

Arthur Branthwayt (1776-1808) was the second husband of my 5th great grandmother Elizabeth née Phipps (1774-1836). He died at sea in a shipwreck. He was travelling to Gothenburg and the Crescent, a frigate with 36 guns, which was lost off the coast of Jutland. 220 of the 280 aboard her died. A raft was constructed, similar to the Méduse‘s. Arthur Branthwayt’s wife, eight-month-old daughter and four step-children were not travelling with him.
Hampshire Chronicle 6 February 1809
Kentish Gazette 30 December 1808
Morning Post (London) 17 January 1809
Arthur Branthwayt’s grandson, Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834 – 1866), my first cousin five times removed, is doubly related to me as his mother married her half-sister’s nephew by marriage, the son of Clarissa Champion de Crespigny (1776 – 1836). Young Arthur died at sea of typhoid fever while returning to England from New Zealand. He had been an officer in the 65th Regiment (later the York and Lancaster Regiment) and fought in the Maori Wars. He was unmarried.
 
from William Francis Robert Gordon’s album “Some “Soldiers of the Queen” who served in the Maori Wars and Other Notable Persons Connected Herewith”. Retrieved from the collection of Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, New Zealand
 
Wellington Independent 27 March 1866

In 1814 another shipwreck took the lives of Henry Gore Wade, his wife and children. Wade was the brother-in law of my fourth great uncle Philip Champion de Crespigny (1765 – 1851).  The Wade family were returning to England from India and died when the John Palmer was wrecked.

Morning Post (London) 31 March 1814
Morning Post (London) 1 April 1814

Gordon Skelly, who died in 1771, was my 6th great grandfather. His granddaughter Sophia née Duff (1790 – 1824) married Rowland Mainwaring (1783 – 1862). Skelly was the captain of the Royal Navy sloop Lynx stationed at Shields Yorkshire. He was drowned when his ship’s long boat, ,crossing the bar of the harbour, was overturned by breakers. At the time of his death his two children were aged four and three.

Leeds Intelligencer 2 July 1771
Entrance to Shields Harbour from The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1 by William Findon retrieved from Project Gutenberg

When I checked my family tree I found a number of others who died at sea:

  • Charles Patrick Dana (1784 – 1816), my 4th great grand uncle, who died while travelling from the East Indies to England on the Sir Stephen Lushington.
  • Michael Hickey (1812 – 1840), the brother of my 3rd great grandmother died on the voyage to South Australia from Cork, Ireland,  on the Birman.
  • Kenneth Budge (1813 – 1852), my 3rd great grandfather, died of cholera while sailing near Elsinore, Denmark.
  • Walter Wilkes Plaisted (1836 – 1871), my 3rd great grand uncle, who died of phthsis (tuberculosis) on board the SS Geelong during the passage from Singapore to Melbourne. His probate file, held by the Public Records Office of Victoria, includes an inventory of his effects, a fascinating insight into his possessions.
My great great grandfather, James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912) was born at sea aboard the Siren off the coast of Kangaroo Island. His mother, Mary née Nihill (1811 -1893) was travelling from Launceston to the very new colony of Adelaide to join her husband Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore (1811 – 1891).
My husband’s great great grandmother Margaret née Smyth (1834 – 1897) gave birth to a baby boy as she travelled to Australia from Ireland on the Persian. The baby is recorded on the passenger list but it is not known what happened to him after arrival. He probably died as an infant. His death was before compulsory civil registration.
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Pages

  • About
  • Ahentafel index
  • Books
    • Champions from Normandy
    • C F C Crespigny nee Dana
    • Pink Hats on Gentle Ladies: second edition by Vida and Daniel Clift
  • Index
    • A to Z challenges
    • DNA research
    • UK trip 2019
    • World War 1
    • Boltz and Manock family index
    • Budge and Gunn family index
    • Cavenagh family index
    • Chauncy family index
    • Cross and Plowright family index
    • Cudmore family index
    • Dana family index
    • Dawson family index
    • de Crespigny family index
    • de Crespigny family index 2 – my English forebears
    • de Crespigny family index 3 – the baronets and their descendants
    • Edwards, Ralph and Gilbart family index
    • Hughes family index
    • Mainwaring family index
      • Back to 1066 via the Mainwaring family
    • Sullivan family index
    • Symes family index
    • Way and Daw(e) family index
    • Young family index

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