TOPIC:

The tablet is in the cloisters at New College.
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Lieutenant William Brian Lancelot Alt, City Imperial Volunteers. Killed in action at Diamond Hill, 12th June 1900, aged 22/23
Second Lieutenant Percy Frederick Brassey, 9th Lancers. Killed in action near Macfarlane's Farm, Kimberley, on 16th February 1900, aged 23
Captain Douglas Hamilton McLean, 69th (Sussex) Company Imperial Yeomanry. Died of enteric fever at Johannesburg, on 5th February 1901, aged 37
Lieutenant Douglas Marriott, 50th (Hampshire) Company Imperial Yeomanry. Died of enteric fever at Deelfontein, on 30th March 1901
8491 Private George Ralston Peddie Waddell, 19th (Lothians and Berwickshire) Company. Died of enteric fever at Germiston, on 8th February 1901, aged 26
Lieutenant George Edmund Stevenson Salt, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Died of enteric fever at Modder Spruit, on 3rd April 1900, aged 27
Lieutenant Richard Bassett Wilson, 9th (Yorkshire) Company Imperial Yeomanry. Died of wounds at Rustenburg, on 26th July 1900
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The Imperial War Museum gives this translation of the inscription: .
. ....Lieutenant W. B. L. Alt, the first officer of the City Imperial Volunteers to be killed in action, was the son of Colonel W. J. Alt, V.D., commanding the 22nd Middlesex (Central London Rangers) Volunteer Rifle Corps. He received a commission in 1897 in his father's regiment, of which he was appointed captain a few months ago. He was one of the youngest officers in the City Imperial Volunteers, for he was only twenty-two years old when he was gazetted, in January last, a lieutenant in the regiment. At that time he was at New College, Oxford, of which he had been a member three years.
....By Old Cliftonians Lieutenant Alt will be best remembered as a distinguished athlete, who did much to heighten the reputation of that school. A member of a family with strong military tradition, young Alt was regarded by a wide circle of friends as a highly promising officer.
....At his father's residence, Airlie Gardens, Campden Hall Road, London, a large number of messages of sympathy were received. His grandfather, Colonel Alt, was an officer in the old 63rd (now the Manchester) Regiment; an uncle, Lieut. H. D. Alt, of the 34th (now the Cumberland) Regiment, took part in the assault at the Redan; and another uncle of his, Lieut. Bulso Alt, first of the 1st West India Regiment and then of the 98th succumbed to fever in the in the Ashanti campaign of 1864.
Western Daily Press, Monday 18th June 1900
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....Second-Lieutenant Percy Frederick Brassey, who was wounded in the latest operations, completed his twenty-third year on December 10 last. He is the second son of Mr. Albert Brassey, M.P., by his marriage with the Hon. Matilda Maria Helena, second daughter of the late Baron Clanmorris, and sister of the present lord. He was born on December 10, 1876, and entered the 9th Lancers on May 27, 1899.
Birmingham Daily Post, Thursday 22nd February 1900
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Bizarrely, the same newspaper printed the following piece the next day.
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....There is considerable anxiety as to the fate of Lieutenant Percy Brassey, eldest son of Mr. Albert Brassey, M.P. for North Oxon, and M.F.H. [Master of Foxhounds] of the Heythrop. Lieutenant Brassey was with his regiment, the 9th Lancers, when General French made his dash for Kimberley. When the diamond city was entered Lieutenant Brassey was missing, and Colonel Little heliographed a message to that effect to the family. When the official lists were published Lieutenant Brassey was reported wounded, so that it seems probable he is in hospital or is been cared for. Since then it has been impossible, notwithstanding the most strenuous exertions, to obtain any information either as to his whereabouts or the nature of his wounds.
Birmingham Daily Post, Friday 23rd February 1900
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. . ....Great regret will be felt in rowing circles at the sudden death of Captain D. H. McLean, at Johannesburg, from the effects of enteric. Sport in its various branches has already paid heavy toll during the South African campaign. Cricket has lost Lieutenant Milligan, golf Lieutenant Tait, and now rowing loses Captain D. H. McLean, an oarsman of great distinction, and a "coach" of remarkable ability. He coached the Oxford crew last year almost up to the last minute, when he left to take up his commission as captain in the 69th Company Imperial Yeomanry. His younger brother, who was also a very fine oarsman, died equally suddenly some time ago from fever. Not any men have so good a record as D. H. McLean and his brother achieved between 1882 and 1887. McLean was president of the O.U.B.C. before he went down, and his valuable qualities as a coach were at the service of his university ever afterwards. Many a good crew in the victorious decade that began in 1880 owed their form and pace to his patient tuition.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 12th February 1901
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....Lieutenant D. Marriott, 50th Company Imperial Yeomanry, who died of enteric at Deelfontein on Tuesday, was commissioned in March, 1900, as Second Lieutenant in the Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiners). On joining the Imperial Yeomanry he was appointed to the 17th Battalion. with the temporary rank of Lieutenant in the Army.
The Evening News [Portsmouth], Tuesday 2nd April 1901
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. Peddie Waddell. - At Germiston, South Africa, on the 8th inst., of enteric fever, George Ralston Peddie Waddell, aged 25, 19th (Berwick and Lothian) Company Imperial Yeomanry, only son of Mr and Mrs Peddie Waddell of Balquhatstone, Stirlingshire.
Dundee Courier, Thursday 14th February 1901
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www.angloboerwar.com/forum/17-memorials-...erial-yeomanry#48923
www.angloboerwar.com/forum/17-memorials-...-stirlingshire#49318
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....The Late Lieut. G. E. S. Salt.—We noticed last week the sad death of this young officer in hospital at Ladysmith. In a letter to a friend in Devonshire from a brother officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers we learn how gallantly he behaved on the field of battle. "The regiment behaved splendidly. For four days and nights they were out on a hill without any coats, within 300 yards of an enemy they could not see. Salt l am exceedingly proud of. He worked the Maxim splendidly. As soon as they began getting into position his corporal was wounded and another man killed. He worked the gun himself till all the sights were blown off the machine. He had three shots through his helmet in a minute, and one grazed his cheek. I hope he will be recommended for the D.S.O. He deserves it."
Lichfield Mercury, Friday 20th April 1900
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www.angloboerwar.com/forum/17-memorials-...elsh-fusiliers#52979
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. ....Lieutenant Wilson, Imperial Yeomanry, dangerously wounded at 0liphant's Nek, is a son of Brigadier Wilson, CB., Cliffe Hall, near Darlington, who lately commanded the West Yorkshire Volunteer Brigade, at Aldershot, and is now commanding the 3rd Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, Doncaster Militia, at Finner Camp, Ireland. Lieutenant Wilson formerly served in his father's regiment, but since January last has been in Lord Bolton's Regiment of Yorkshire Yeomanry. He took part with distinction in the fighting when the French General Villebois was killed. His uncle is commanding the 3rd Durham Light Infantry (Barnard Castle) Militia, in South Africa.
The Yorkshire Herald, Saturday 28th July 1900
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....Keen sorrow is felt on Tees-side with Colonel Wilson, C.B., and his family on account of the news that Lieutenant R. B. Wilson, the eldest son of the honoured Colonel, has been shot through the head during the fighting in South Africa. A War Office message, very brief in its nature, was received at Cliffe, Piercebridge, on Thursday, and it was at onoe forwarded to Fermanagh, Ireland, where Colonel and Mrs Wilson are at present quartered. The Wilson family is well represented in England's little wars. Another son, D. D. Wilson, is also in South Africa with the York and Lancaster Regiment, and yet another, F. O'Brien, is a midshipman, and was with Admiral Seymour's relieving force to Tientsin. Lieutenant Wilson has had four previous narrow escapes whilst in action, having had three horses shot under him, and a bullet wound in the left arm.
North-Eastern Daily Gazette [Middlesbrough], Monday 30th July 1900
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....Baden-Powell reports that one of his cyclists and the post-cart were captured by the enemy near Rustenburg, and that Second Lieutenant R. B. Wilson, Yorkshiie Hussars, and No. 433 Lance-Corporal James McClure, Victoria Bushmen, died of their wounds on the 26th inst.
The Times, Wednesday 1st August 1900

Here are two cabinet photographs, the first being a portrait of Lieutenant William Brian Lancelot ALT, and the second an image of his C.I.V. memorial in St Mary Abbots Church, High Street Kensington.

Memorial Service, held at St Nicholas' Church, Heythrop on 11th March 1900, in memory of Lieutenant Percy F. Brassey, 9th Lancers.



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In early 1900, the weekly Banbury Beacon updated their readers four times on the fate Lieutenant Percy Brassey who was the second son of their MP, owner of nearby Heythrop Hall and the attached large estate & Master of the prestigious Heythrop Hunt, namely Albert Brassey.

24th February 1900 – they reported his parents had received a telegram from South Africa telling them he had been wounded.

3rd March 1900 – they reported his parents had received another telegram saying he was missing and his comrades were searching for him.

10th March 1900 – they announced the death of Lieutenant Percy Brassey reporting his father had received another telegram, this time from Lord Roberts, saying Percy was killed in action on 16th February. They added that Banbury Council had lowered the flag on the Town Hall to half-mast and put up a notice explaining the reason why.

17th March 1900 - the death of Percy occupied over a column of the Banbury Beacon and the article started with this paragraph:
“THE LATE LIEUT. BRASSEY – We understand that Mr Brassey has received information from the War Office of the recovery of his son’s body, which was found on the 24th, eight days after the date on which he was supposed to have been killed. Seeing that he was shot through the head and body, there is no doubt his death must have been instantaneous”

The article then went on to quote two letters sent to his Father by the Banbury Conservative Association & the North Oxfordshire Conservative Association and the short replies they received. The content of all four was much as you would expect but the last sentence in Albert’s second reply made me raise my eyebrows:
“May the war be brought to a successful and speedy termination, and a peace secured which shall be a credit to England and a blessing to the world.”

Err Albert – there were parts of the world that definitely did not wish the forces of the British Empire success and the Scots, Welsh & Irish let alone the South Africans, Australians, Canadians, Indians & New Zealanders, even by the time of Percy’s death, had all made a significant contribution to the war effort.

The article then reported at rather tedious length on a meeting of local Conservatives in the Sun Inn at Hook Norton during which fine words were spoken about Percy. It closed with a report on the 11th March Memorial Service saying that the church was filled to over-flowing.

In the 24th February article it was pointed out that Albert’s eldest son, Lieutenant Robert Bingham Brassey, was on his way to South Africa with the 17th Lancers.

On the 17th October 1901 the Banbury Beacon reported on the safe home-coming of Robert at some length but there was no mention of Percy.

Checking out medal rolls – Percy’s QSA had 3 clasps – Belmont, Modder River & Relief of Kimberley but Robert’s had five – Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill & South Africa 1901.

In July 1904 photographs of Robert’s bride, Miss Violet Edith Corry, appeared in several society newspapers. A detachment of the 17th Lancers lined the way into St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge and Robert held the rank of Captain.

On 4th December 1905 Robert & Percy’s younger brother, Ralph was an undergraduate at New College, Oxford and was killed in an accident whilst taking part in the Cambridge University Steeplechase.

In the general election of January 1910 Robert regained the constituency of Banbury from the Liberal Eustace Fiennes who had displaced his father in 1906. Robert lost the seat back to Eustace in the general election of December 1910 and the available evidence suggests he never spoke in the House of Commons, to which he never returned.

In March 1917 Violet made the front page of the Tatler when they “gave up” their home, Cottesbrooke House in Northamptonshire, to be a Military Hospital. Robert was still a Captain and serving in a “reserve cavalry regiment”.

In early 1918 Robert’s father passed away and he and Violet moved into Heythrop Hall and he was described as a “millionaire landowner”. Sadly Violet did not have long to enjoy the splendour of Heythrop Hall as she passed away in March 1919 at the age of 38 and after “an illness lasting several months”.

The next year an “interesting” forthcoming event was announced – the marriage of Robert to the “recently divorced wife of Lord Dalmeny”. The lady in question had often been seen at hunts with Robert but the wedding was going to be a quiet affair and in an attempt to keep it quiet they both independently “trudged through the snow” to the Registry Office. However, somebody blew the whistle and the paparazzi of the day were waiting for them when they emerged.

In 1926 Robert sold Heythrop Hall and Estate.

In 1928 Robert’s second wife divorced him on the grounds of his adultery with the evidence coming from a London Hotel and a chambermaid therein. They both married for a third time shortly afterwards but Robert no longer made the news, except when he attended the society weddings of his daughters. He died in November 1946 bearing the title of Major.

At the time of their deaths Robert was aged 71, Percy was aged 24 and Ralph was aged 21. They had six sisters who passed away between the ages of 66 and 89.

Kimberley West End