TOPIC:

Hello everyone I am new, I am writing a book about a local entrepreneur in Llandudno and discovered that as a side line he was secretary of the Mafeking Relief committee. I then discovered a couple of letters from Trooper Lempriere which he had forwarded to the local paper as others from Llandudno might be interested. But I am intrigued as looking at Ancestry there is a man called Clement Rozelle Lempriere in the 1891 and 1901 Census returns living in the west Midlands. Why would he have joined the Denbighshire Hussars and Imperial Yeomanry and why identify with Llandudno? he refers in a letter I have permission from the National Library of Wales to reproduce in the book as the other Llandudno lads being a bearer party for a dead officer. There is a plaque for those who served in the 2nd Boer war in the local town hall and his name is at the bottom on the left. Although my reference to him will be a brief intro. in to the letter which I can post on this site if you wish, I have become introgued! Any ideas would be welcome.

Hywel
Welcome to the Forum. My I.Y. CD shows one "3661 Tpr. Clement Rozelle Lempriere" as with 29th Coy., 9t Bn., I.Y. As you say. the Denbighshire Hussars. At the time, there was some competition to enlist in the IY and the 29th Coy may well have been the only one he could join. And his involvement with the Mafeking Relief Committee most likely was as a fund raiser or administrator. He would not have been involved in the actual Relief operations, of course. Interestingly, there were two other "Lemprieres" serving during the Boer War; both officers (H.P. and H.A.) Sounds like relatives?
Keep us posted regarding your writing.
Regards
IL.

Hywel,

3661 Trooper Clement Rozelle LEMPRIERE was one or the 27 (or 31) recipients of the Llandudno gold tribute medal, presented on 28 Feb 1903.
As you mention, his name was also inscribed on a brass tablet "which is fixed about the centre of the right-hand wall as one enters the Assembly Room of the Town Hall" (Llandudno Advertiser, 06/031903).

SEE: LLANDUDNO TRIBUTE MEDAL

SEE: LLANDUDNO MEMORIAL TABLET



9-carat gold medals were presented to:

1st Volunteer Active Service Companies, 1st Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers [3rd V.B.R.W.F.] –
7417 Sergeant C. JONES (died, Cape Town, 05/05/1900 - did his family receive a medal?)
7304 Lance-Corporal [Lance-Sergeant] Ernest George MOORE
7326 Lance-Corporal Alfred HELSTRIP
???? Private F. DAVIES
7302 Private H. DEVERIL [Deverill] (died, Kimberley, 08/05/1900 - did his family receive a medal?)
7324 Private Samuel ENGLAND
7303 Private Leonard George GRIFFITH
7418 Private Francis Joseph MERCY
7323 Private Frederick William PARRY
7307 Private Griffith WILLIAMS

2nd Volunteer Active Service Companies, 1st Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers [3rd V.B.R.W.F.] –
7513 Bugler Edward DOYLE
7566 Private Herbert C. CODMAN

29th (Denbighshire) Company, 9th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry –
3668 Squadron Sergeant-Major Tom DAVIES
3607 Sergeant Richard DUNPHY
3713 Lance-Sergeant Edward Reginald OWEN
3652 Lance-Corporal Samuel HUGHES
3625 Lance-Corporal Owen ROBERTS (K.I.A., near Abraham's Kraal, 13/11/1900 - did his family receive a medal?)
3656 Trooper William Frederick ALLMAN
3614 Trooper George Charles GOODWIN (died, Jagersfontein, 27/07/1900 - did his family receive a medal?)
22344 Trooper W. HUGHES
22345 Trooper William David HUGHES
3651 Trooper Edward Oliver JONES
3616 Trooper Walter KENYON
3661 Trooper Clement Rozelle LEMPRIERE
3649 Trooper Hugh Thomas Baugh PARRY
3635 Trooper Evan Owen WILLIAMS
3637 Trooper Thomas Parry WILLIAMS

38th (Buckinghamshire) Company, 10th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry –
24698 Trooper Bert T. RICHARDSON

77th (Manchester) Company, 8th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry –
27581 Staff-Sergeant George Gilbert Scott TURNER

89th (Montgomeryshire) Company, 9th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry –
34620 Trooper William BROOKES

Royal Army Medical Corps –
14491 Private Arthur JOSEPH

Presentation made by Lady Mostyn, in the Town Hall, Llandudno.


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Welcome Hywel,

You can find Clement's IY Attestation Papers & Service Records on Ancestry. Select the "Military" search option and just enter his surname (taking care to spell it properly) and then enter 3661 (his IY Regimental Number) in the Keyword box. The first two records that show are Clement's - first one of the IY Medal Rolls he appears on showing his Queen's South Africa Medal was adorned with the "South Africa 1901" clasp. The second record is the four pages that comprise his attestation papers and service records. He attested in early 1900 in Wrexham and hence was one of the first wave of the IY - he got back home just in time for the 1901 census. He also appears on several public family trees on Ancestry which throw up absolutely no connection to Llandudno - his ancestors came from Sussex where he had returned to by 1939 and died there in 1944. On the 1891 & 1901 census returns he is an "upholsterer" but on his attestation papers he is a "cycle agent". Perhaps cycling was his pastime and from personal experience, half a century later, West Midlanders were very fond of cycling to Wales. So perhaps every holiday found him on two wheels in Llandudno. Returning to his Queen's Medal his service records show he also received the Cape Colony & Orange Free State clasps so he should appear on another medal roll - suspect he did not show up on my search because the Ancestry transcriber mis-spelt his name.

I am so impressed thanks to all of you for such remakable speed in replying. I agree that he must have been asked to write to the Fund members and maybe took a liking to the place. I didn't know about Lady Mostyn awarding medals either so thanks all of you. IMPRESSIVE.

C.R. Lempriere acted as a steward at a "Calico Ball", held at the Pier Pavilion during the Llandudno May Day Festivities of 1898. He was apparently dressed as Mephistopheles (Llandudno Advertiser, 05/05/1898).
This suggests he was very much part of the Llandudno community at the tail end of the nineteenth century.



He was also a member of the Llandudno St. Tudno Mutual Benefit Society, attending their annual dinner just before volunteering for service in South Africa.


Llandudno Advertiser, 22 Dec 1899

St. Tudno Mutual Benefit Society.

THE ANNUAL DINNER.

The annual dinner of the members of the above society was had at the Avondale Restaurant on Tuesday evening, Mr George Eastham presiding over a gathering of some seventy members. The vice-chair was occupied by Mr D.G. Roberts.
After dinner the usual loyal toasts were proposed and drunk with musical honours.
Mr D.G. Roberts having proposed the toast of the Chairman, J.T. Hill proposed the toast of the Army, Navy, and Auxiliary Forces, this meeting with a suitable response from Sergeant D.G. Roberts and Private Lempriere, both of whom announced their intention to volunteer for active service in South Africa, an announcement which was received with great enthusiasm.




And this must be the letter you refer to in your first post.


Llandudno Advertiser, 30 Nov 1900

The Imperial Yeomanry at Jagersfontein.

A long letter from Trooper Lempriere, dated from Bethulie, has been received by Mr G.R. Thompson, newsagent, Llandudno. The following extract as to the Imperial Yeomanry’s doings at Jagersfontein, will be read with interest: -

"We found Jagersfontein a very nice little place with a great number of English people living there. We had a quiet time of it there, except when we went out for 10 or 14 days hunting rebels. We had several concerts here, and I had the honour of filling the first place as the star in the report in the 'Bloemfontein News'. We also gave a military gymkhana on the racecourse, and I acted as clown, mounted on a white Cape pony. I am bringing the costume back with me, the Colonel has kindly let me send it on to Cape Town with some of the things he is bringing home. Everything went on well here, for we were fed well, and not much work to do. We should have cause to remember it all our lives by the sad death of poor little George Goodwin. He and I had been together since we left Maitland Camp, as it was there I got George the job to look after Major Wynn Eaton, who shares the Colonel's tent, my boss, so that brought us together all day, and we slept together at night. He only complained of feeling pains in his back and knees on Sunday. I advised him to see a doctor, and he walked up to the hospital, where they kept him, and he soon went off into the worst stage of pneumonia. You will all feel glad to know that he had every attention. I was very pleased that Corporal Dick Dunphy was allowed to sit up with him the night that he passed away. He was buried with full military honours. The coffin was a good one, brass mounted. There were six bearers—Tom Williams, Sam Hughes, W. Kenyon, and myself, from Llandudno, Arthur Galliers, from Colwyn Bay, and Jack Griffith, from Aber, and all the Company followed on foot. Some of the English ladies brought three wreaths to put on his grave".



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