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Royal Berkshire (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Regiment Memorial Cottage Homes. 79-83 Waverley Road, Reading, Berks RG30 2QB.

A terrace of three brick and rendered cottages with tiled roofs. Built in 1903, following a gift of £3,000 from Mrs Sam Lewis in memory of her late husband. Described at the time as: "Well planned and picturesque, with high-pitched gable roofs, and substantially built with a view to permanency, with a good-sized garden attached to each, the homes are undoubtably a most useful and valuable regimental possession.”

1911 Census: - No. 79, William Mitchell (55), born in Petersfield, army pensioner + wife Maud (48) + boarder;
- No.81, Alfred Adams (64), born in Windsor, army pensioner, widower + three daughters. Enlisted 1867 age 19, 66th
Regiment (66th Berkshire Regiment became 2nd Battalion The Princess Charlotte of Wales’s Royal Berkshire Regiment in
1881), 2466, discharged 30 June 1891 RI Berkshire.
- No.83, Robert Crosse (79) born in Taunton, army pensioner + wife Jane (76).

South Wales Borderers Regiment Memorial Cottage Homes - 2 & 3 Dorlangoch, Brecon, Powys LD3 7RH.

Pair of tile and rendered slate roof cottages built in 1904. The land was given by Lord Tredegar, with money gathered from regimental sources and private subscriptions. Designed by Mr C J E Large and built by Mr T E Morgan of Brecon. Originally named ‘Chillianwallah’ and ‘Rorke’s Drift’ by officers of the 2nd Battalion. It was felt that the regiment was better connected with these places than areas of conflict in the 2nd Anglo Boer War.

The first two occupants were Colour-Sgt. Standen and Private Henry Banks. Both were wounded in South Africa.

Colour-Sgt. Standen received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. He enlisted into the 24th Regiment (later to become the South Wales Borderers) in 1880. Standen went through the South African campaign with the 2nd Battalion up to Modderfontein, where he was shot through the thigh and invalided home. Private Banks went through the Burmese Campaign of 1887 (for which he received the medal with two clasps) and was afterwards stationed in in India (Bengal Presidency). In South Africa he was attached to D Company (mounted infantry) and at Paardeberg was shot in the left leg just below the knee joint necessitating amputation. A dum-dum bullet also struck the right leg near the knee, travelled through the thigh and out of the hip joint, causing a compound fracture and the contraction of the limb.

1911 Census: ‘Rorke’s Drift’, Brecon - Henry Standen age 50, b. Brasted, Kent, army pensioner and sawyer labourer, his wife Sarah Ann age 50 + 5 daughters and 2 sons;
‘Chillianwallah’, Brecon – Charles Price age 45, b. Talgarth, Breconshire, army pensioner, wife Mary Ann age 35, + 2 daughters and 2 sons.

Colour-Sgt. Standen – service no. 4074. 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers. QSA medal clasp 1901.

C W Price – service no. 30703. 88th Welsh Imperial Yeomanry, Bugler. QSA medal, clasps Transvaal, S Africa 1901 + 1902. Cape Colony clasp.

In answer to Smethwick’s post – “Regarding the Wiltshire Regiment Cottage Homes”

David, thank you for privately messaging me regarding your post on this thread. If I may join in, not wishing to detract from this excellent thread, I can add a little detail to your biography of 2817 Private Arthur Chapman.

Chapman served with G Company under Major Francis Richard MacMullen.

On Friday the 12th of January 1900, the troopships Gascon and Sumatra arrived together at Port Elizabeth from Table Bay. The Gascon was carrying the 2nd Wiltshire and 1st Royal Irish Regiments and Major General Ralph Clements who would take over from Major General John French in the Colesberg area, taking both of these battalions with him.

On the 25th of January, French made a reconnaissance in force towards at Plessis Poort, a mountain pass five miles East of Bastard’s Nek. This was the scene of the Wiltshire’s first action. The order to attack came at 3 pm. G Company were on the right of the Wiltshire’s position. The fighting was unexpectedly heavy. The Battalion suffered one death, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Molyneux Carter’s Bugler who died of his wounds the next day and several wounded. There were no casualties from G Company.

On the 14th of February 1900, Major General Clements had intended to retire his force from Rensburg Siding to Arundel at 5 am, but due to the large numbers of Boers in the vicinity who were ultimately under the leadership of de La Rey, he brought the retirement forward to midnight on the 13th. Both D & G Companies under Major Macmullen (Major Herbert Alfred Stock who had commanded D Company had been taken prisoner at Plessis Poort) failed to receive the order to retire from their Outpost Duty on Vaalkop. This was due to the Wiltshire’s second in Command Major Finlay Cochrane Beatson unwittingly countermanding the order to retire early given by Lieutenant Colonel Carter. Therefore these two companies were left behind and were forced to fight a desperate rear-guard action before being completely overwhelmed by superior numbers. MacMullen died along with twelve other ranks. There were forty-five wounded and one hundred and twenty-six were taken prisoner.

Arthur Chapman was one of the wounded and he was also taken prisoner. I do not know the nature of his wound, but it is this wound which ultimately ended his military career. He of course was held prisoner at Watervaal until release on the 5th of June 1900. He walked the thirteen miles from Watervaal to Pretoria where he was discharged medically unfit on the 24th of July. He was, as you say, awarded the QSA medal with two claps, Cape Colony and Orange Free State.

Answering this post has made me realise that although Chapman received the Orange Free State clasp, he never actually served in the Orange River Colony between 28 February 1900 and 31 May 1902 as per the entitlement criteria. He was transported through it from Rensburg to Watervaal. There must be many more similar cases.

The following are the last of my notes, to date, on the memorial cottage homes.

Gildea provided 32 examples of memorial cottage homes (he also gave an example of an endowed bed in the Portsmouth Home). With the kind assistance of some regiments and individuals, so far, I have been able to locate 29 of these, as well as several others that were not mentioned in Gildea's book. Hopefully, I will discover some more in due course. Those that I have been unable to locate from Gildea are three of the private memorial cottage homes at Fort William, Caversham and Farnborough. I have not given up and if anybody has any leads I would be grateful. (A museum in Fort William is looking at the photograph in Gildea's book of St. John's Cottage Home to try and place it.)

I am about 90% sure of the location for the 18th Royal Hussars memorial cottage home at Tidenham, Gloucestershire. This is what I have:

Clap-y-ates, A48, Stroat, Chepstow, NP16 7LT. (Formerly Nos. 60 & 61 Clappyatts).

Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper 27th November 1904 – “18th (Princess of Wales’s Hussars Cottage Homes. Erected for the use of disabled soldiers of the Regiment. One cottage at Cheshunt, near Enfield, is now vacant. Two more at Tidenham, near Chepstow, Gloucestershire, will be ready for occupation shortly. Selected occupants will have the use of the cottages free of all charge for life, subject to the approval of the Trustees. Candidates are requested to apply at once, stating their claims and circumstances to The Adjutant, 18th (Princess of Wales’s) Hussars, York.”

Entry from angloboerwar.com website, December 2020 (davidh): “4643 Pte. Walter Daniel Beatwell who was one of the two men (the other being 3049 Pte. Lionel James Bee) who were selected from 20 applicants to be housed in two cottages on a site presented by Colonel Marling in 1904 for the use of men incapacitated by wounds or disease in South Africa. These cottages were at Tidenham, Gloucestershire and their purchase or construction was funded by public subscription. Beatwell was invalided to pension after sustaining a gunshot wound to his upper right arm at Witpoort 14/10/1900. Bee was wounded near Middelburg 8/12/1900 and was also invalided to pension and died in 1944.”

Lionel James Bee appears on the 1909 Register of Electors, Parish of Tidenham, living at Clapp-y-atts, Scroat, Chepstow.

Sir Percival Scrope Marling (1861-1936), eldest son of Sir William Henry Baronet, of Stanley Park, Stroud. Served in South Africa 1899-1902.

Also from elsewhere on this website: Memorial brass plaque inside York Minster listing the names of officers, NCOs and privates of the XVIII (Queen Mary’s Own) Hussars who died for their country during the South African War 1899-1902. Underneath the list of names is the following:
“ON THE RETURN OF THE REGIMENT FROM THE WAR COMRADES
AND FRIENDS DEDICATED TWO COTTAGE HOMES TO
THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FELL. SINCE THESE
FAILED TO FULFILL THEIR OBJECT THEY WERE SOLD
AND THIS MEMORIAL SUBSTITUTED, THE BALANCE OF
THE PROCEEDS BEING DEVOTED TO THE ASSISTANCE OF
OLD SOLDIERS OF THE REGIMENT IN TROUBLE OR DISTRESS.
OCTOBER 1914”

The memorial cottage homes were built by/on land owned by Percival Scrope Marling, 3rd Baronet, VC, CB, DL, who took over the command of the 18th Hussars in the 2nd Anglo Boer War. The estate of Colonel Sir Percival Scrope Marling VC was auctioned off in 1920.

There is a 1904 plan in the Gloucestershire Archives for a pair of semi-detached cottages for the XVIIIth (Prince of Wales) Hussars Cottage Homes at Tidenham. I have been unable to view this, but the Council's archivist has described the plot to me as being "on the road from Chepstow to Lydney. The cottages would be on the left hand side of the road coming from Chepstow towards Lydney." This fits with Clap-y-ates.

The architect for these memorial cottage homes was A W George, Sedbury, Chepstow. The plaque on the front of the building appears to read "PSM 1905'. Presumably, Percival Scrope Marling?

Interested Forum members
While trying to make something of the UKNA records regarding the Boer war service of a Cpl. James Morrison of Lovat's Scouts, I ran across a reference to he and his wife residing in LOVAT Cottage, Clachnaharry, in Inverness. Atached is a screen shot of said cottage; a charming looking little residence at the indicated address.

Regards
IL.

IL - a newspaper search tells me that there were and still are several Lovat Cottages in Scotland but they all seem independent of each other. The one you are interested in does get the first mention:

Rossshire Journal 30 July 1915:



Searching between 1900 & 1909 for a James Morrison connected to Lovat's Scouts the most interesting find is found in the Northern Chronicle 18 April 1900:



Beaufort Castle was and still is the ancestral home of the Lords Lovat.

I have found three other James Morrison/Lovat's Scouts mentions:

January 1900 - a James Morrison and Hugh Morrison both of Beaufort were amongst the volunteers for the newly formed Lovat's Scouts.

November 1901 - James Morrison, Kiltarlity was listed amongst those who had attested for the new draft for Lovat's Scouts.

The above mentions do not quite seem to hang together but they all seem to be about the same man but whether he is your man is another matter.

June 1906 a long article about Lovat's Scouts lists the c/o's of the various Squadrons which include Major James Morrison, No.7 Squadron.

There is also a Lovat Street in Inverness and Preston, Lancs and as for Lovat's Arms .............

Hope the above is of use, David.

PS - A 1929 article also shows there was a Lord Lovat Cottage Scheme in Canada but I think that had connections to the now very controversial shipping out of British children, especially girls, but I'm not going there. My late mother-in-law was orphaned by the end of WW1 flu epidemic and came under the care of Dr Barnado's, something she would never talk about. The paperwork we received from Dr Barnado's after she died showed she had been approached about going to Canada and said "NO".