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Herbert Chidgey Brine Payne

C.M.G.; C.B.E.; Serbian Order of St Salva; 5 x Mentioned in Dispatches

Second Lieutenant, 2nd Royal Surrey Regiment – 1880
Lieutenant, North Staffordshire Regiment – 1885 – West Indies & Zululand
Captain, Army Pay Department – Anglo Boer War
Chief Paymaster and Colonel, Army Pay Department, Salonika – WWI

- Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George (C.M.G.)
- Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.)
- Queens South Africa Medal (Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith) to Capt. H.C.B. PAYNE. A.P.D.)
- Kings South Africa Medal (South Africa 1901 & 1902) to Capt. H.C.B. PAYNE. A.P.D.
- 1914-15 Star to COL. H.C.B. PAYNE. A.P.D.
- British War Medal to COL. H.C.B. PAYNE.
- Victory Medal to COL. H.C.B. PAYNE
- Serbian Order of St Sava (3rd Class Commander)

Bertie Payne was born in Tulse Hill, Surrey on 12 October 1862 the son of Lt Colonel James Payne and his wife Caroline, born Jolly.

At the time of the 1871 England census, our first glimpse of Bertie, he was a boy of 8 in a sea of family members and servants, all under the roof of his father’s house in Slough Road, Rotherhithe. His father, aged 44, had retired from the army and was now a successful Mill Owner employing 30 hands. He was joined in the home by older siblings Ada Caroline (14), Alice Elizabeth Maud (13), Amy Constance Beatrice (11), Gertude Nina Bally and Ellen Mary Bally (twins of 10 years of age) and Walter Cecil (6), Hugh James Wilson (5) and Frederica Emily Wood (1). Also in residence were his maternal grandmother, Caroline Jolly, his aunt, Emily Jolly and a plethora of servants in the forms of Emma, Ellen and Agnes.



A few years later Payne was sent off to Harrow where, in January 1877, he entered The Park, one of the Small Houses as a Boarder. He was to spend the next three years there, leaving in 1879. With soldiering in his blood he was destined for a life in the military and, on 8 September 1880, at the age of 18, it was announced in the London Gazette that he had been granted a commission in the 2nd Royal Surrey Regiment. Early the next year, in the 1881 England census, he was recorded as being a visitor in the house of Cornelius Wilson, the Rector of Lapford in Devon. He was described as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Royal Surrey Militia.

The London Gazette of 13 June 1884 announced that Payne had resigned his commission as a Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Royal West Surrey Regiment only to find that the same publication, on 23 May 1885, published his transfer into the North Staffordshire as a Lieutenant. He was to spend some time with his new regiment, including a posting to the West Indies from 30 July 1885 until 8th December 1886, at which point he sailed with his regiment for South Africa.

This stint of service was a harbinger of things to come, some 14 years later when he arrived on South African soil for a second time – to serve in the Anglo Boer War. South Africa in the late 1880’s was a very different place to what it had been almost ten years earlier at the time of the Anglo Zulu War. Although still raw, the memory of the disaster at Isandlwana and the, partial, repair to the British Army’s reputation which was Rorke’s Drift, were starting to fade in the minds of almost everyone other than those who were there. Payne and the North Staffs were stationed in Zululand, in the very heart of a now subjugated foe but there was to be no fighting this time round.

After a while he was sent on to the island of Mauritius where he spent the period from 25 August 1890 until 21 March 1893. Most of this service was in the role of Adjutant to the regiment – a position he filled from 9 January 1889 until 8 January 1893.


The North Staffs in Malta 1894 - Payne circled

What followed next was a posting to Malta in the Mediterranean where he was present from 22 March 1890 until 30 August 1895. This latter date coincided with a transfer from the North Staffordshire Regiment to the outfit he was to spend the rest of his career with – the Army Pay Department. Already a Captain from 30 November 1893, he was posted to Devonport on his transfer, serving there until 12 April 1896. A temporary posting to Gosport followed but it was back to Devonport he went until 12 August 1899.

By this time one would have had to be deaf to have not heard the rumblings emanating from the southern tip of Africa where the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, their noses already well and truly out of joint after the calamitous Jameson Raid of 1896, were sabre rattling and, as the end of the 19th century drew near, were demanding the withdrawal of British troops allegedly massing at their borders. This led to an unanswered ultimatum on 11 October 1899 and the commencement of war the next day.

Despite war being expected for some time the British had only about 10 000 men in the neighbouring colonies of Natal and the Cape. It came as no surprise therefore that the Boers overwhelmed this puny presence and laid siege to the towns of Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith and, in what became known as Black Week in December 1899, inflicted a series of reverses on the British Army which led to consternation at Home.

Several regiments, the war being inevitable, had already set sail for the front to augment the meagre force in the country. Payne, with the Army Pay Office was one of those to arrive before the first shot was fired in anger. He was attached to the Natal Field Force commanded by none other than General Sir Redvers Buller – a man beloved by his men but a ditherer not fit for the responsible position he now held. He had tried to warn the authorities back home that he hadn’t been in command of an army for a long time but was shouted down and given the task of heading up the army to take on the Boers.


Map detailing the Tugela Heights and Relief of Ladysmith operations

Payne, meanwhile, was permanently transferred to the Army Pay Department in the London Gazette of 8 June 1900 backdated to 1895. He was present at the seminal battles of Colenso on 15 December 1899 and all the other frustrating attempts by Buller to carve a way through to the relief of Ladysmith. This was finally achieved on the fourth attempt and Ladysmith was entered on 1 March 1900 – not a moment too soon for the emaciated garrison and civilian population there. His work in Natal done, Payne left the Natal Field Force on 30 June 1900 and headed over the Drakensberg Mountain range to Bloemfontein in the Orange River Colony – occupied by Lord Roberts in March 1900. His arrival in the City of Roses would have coincided with the massive outbreak of Typhoid and Enteric Fever which overwhelmed the city and threatened to decimate both the civilian and military present there.

For his contribution to the war effort, Payne was Mentioned in Lord Kitchener’s Dispatch of 29 July 1902. Payne and his small staff had an enormous and highly responsible task – they were required to keep the books balanced whilst ensuring that Tommy Atkins never went short of his pay. They were also responsible for paying the large number of contractors, supplying an army on the move with anything from paper clips to food to oxen for the wagons without which war could not be waged.

Having remained in South Africa, primarily in the Orange Free State, until the cessation of hostilities it wasn’t until 15 June 1903 that he set sail for home (his medal roll suggests this date was 3 June 1902.) A week later, on 23 June 1903, he was deservedly promoted to Staff Paymaster with the substantive rank of Major. Now in peace-time, Payne was posted to the Gosport Discharge Depot on 9 July 1903 where he assumed charge of the Discharge Depot Pay Office; and later qualified as a 1st Class Assistant Accountant on 1 May 1905. This was followed by his qualification as an Accountant on 1 January 1906. He was promoted to Lt Colonel on 23 June 1908 and posted to Chester a week later – on 1 July 1908.


Payne is second from left in the back row

After six months he was transferred to Dover on 1 January 1909 with a posting to Woolwich following on 9 January 1911. Like so many officers in peace-time, Payne was considered to be a pawn on the proverbial chess board as he was moved around the country. The 1911 England census revealed that at the age of 48 he was still unmarried and residing with his widowed mother (his father had died in June 1899 on the eve of his departure for the Boer War), and his four sisters – all of whom were over 50 and unmarried. His brother Hugh (also single) and two servants completed the household in Kensington, London.

Two years later, on 25 March 1913, he was posted to Canterbury and, on 10 May 1913, to Salisbury as 2nd In Command of the Account Office Western Command.

Just as had been the case thirteen years earlier, war clouds had been gathering with increasing pace, this time round above the skies of Europe.

Kaiser Wilhelm II had long harboured imperialistic ambitions and Great Britain stood in the way of many of these. War broke out on 4 August 1914 and it wasn’t long before Payne was brought from Salisbury to Woolwich – arriving in that hub of the British war machine on 16 February 1915. He was deployed to Salonika in the Balkan Theatre, on 7 December 1915 and appointed Chief Paymaster and Temporary Colonel whilst so employed (London Gazette 16 December 1915). This position made him Chief Paymaster for Greek Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, European Turkey and the Islands of the Aegean Sea – quite a responsibility.



Accordingly, honours were now coming his way thick and fast – he was Mentioned in Dispatches by Sir A Meanay on 25 September 1916 and again on 6 December 1916 by General G. Milne. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 1 January 1917 and his third Mention in Dispatches came in the London Gazette of 28 November 1917 – again by Sir G. Milne.

Promotion to substantive Colonel and Chief Paymaster came on 11 January 1918 and, richly deserved, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services in connection with Military Operations in the Balkans, on 3 June 1919.

But the accolades heaped on him were far from over – he was Mentioned in Dispatches for a fourth time, again by General Milne, on 3 June 1919 – to coincide with his CBE. On 16 January 1920 the Serbian Government awarded him the Serbian Order of St Sava (3rd Class).

A final Mention in Dispatches was announced in the London Gazette of 7 January 1921 – by the General Officer Commanding, Black Sea who wrote as follows:

“A special word of praise is due to my Paymaster, Colonel H.C.B. Payne, C.M.G., C.B.E., for good work carried out under difficult conditions, which will be understood when I state that at one time he dealt with nineteen different currencies, varying monthly and often daily.”



The Great War over on 11 November 1918 Payne was posted back to command London District on 11 July 1921. It was in the same year that he wed Mildred, daughter of the Reverend J Lightfoot. Mildred had been headmistress of a girls school in Constantinople (Istanbul.) No longer a young man, Payne, now all of 66 years of age, was placed on retired pay from 12 October 1922. According to the 1939 Register he was living with his incapacitated wife, Mildred, at Grange Cottage, Watts Lane, Eastbourne and was “Retired Army.”

This old soldier passed away in Kensington, London on 8 February 1945. He was 83 years old.






Grange Cottage, Watts Lane, Eastbourne

Acknowledgments:
- Archivist, Harrow School
- Phillipa Hopkins, family relative for photos
- FMP & Ancestry for military, census and probate details

A superb write-up, Rory. Many thanks.