TOPIC:

I assume that the above C. F. von Mengershausen is the same man as this one.


....A considerable stir has been occasioned in local Volunteer circles by an incident which has just occurred in connection with the personnel of the Edinburgh contingent of the Imperial Yeomanry. Among the non-commissioned officers of the University Battery who volunteered for service was a young medical student called C. F. Von Mengershausen, who has been a member of the City Volunteer Artillery for three years. Young Mengershausen is the son of a medical practitioner in Natal, but despite his name and his birthplace he is a colonial Briton of unimpeachable loyalty. After sixteen days' service in the Lothians and Berwickshire unit Private Von Mengershausen received intimation that his outlandish patronym was occasioning disquietude in the official mind. Captain Sir James Miller gave orders that the young trooper be discharged. The aggrieved colonial at one appeared to his superior officer, and pointed out that he was a naturalised British subject, and that his father was a Justice of the Peace under British rule, but it was in vain, Captain Miller refused to recant the order. Von Mengershausen sought an interview with General Chapman, who sympathised with the young man, and suspended the discharge temporarily. On Saturday, however, the Natalian received an apologetic epistle intimating General Chapman's disinclination to interfere in the matter. Another attempt will be made to-day by Von Mengershausen to secure his acceptance through Colonel Mackay, commanding his late Volunteer regiment. Despite these rebuffs, the young Colonial is still eager to serve, and if finally rejected on account of his name, it is said, will sail for South Africa direct and join a local corps. ....With a view to ascertaining the official side of the story a representative of the "Evening News" called to-day at the headquarters of the yeomanry contingent in Castle Terrace, and had an interview with Colonel Baillie-Hamilton. The fact that Mengershausen had offered his services and had been rejected was admitted, and that his name was the sticking point was not denied. It was not, however, because it suggested anything of the nature of possible disloyalty. Mengershausen's good faith and loyalty were never for a moment suspected. The explanation vouchsafed is simply this that so many Scotsmen of good qualifications were volunteering for service in the contingent that it was thought advisable by the officers to give their claims the preference over one of Mengershausen's antecedents. The unit is meant to be a Scottish one, and although the officers have every sympathy with the student in his disappointment they say that any qualified Scotsman who may have had to be passed over in favour of Mengershausen would have had ground for stronger complaint than he has, and it was simply with a view to obviate any such feeling that they took step which has been so much misunderstood. As a matter of fact Colonel Baillie-Hamilton stated that so particularly anxious are they to have the Scottish element in the contingent as strong as possible that only two Englishmen have been accepted and solely because their qualifications were exceptionally good.
Edinburgh Evening News, Monday 29th January 1900


....The following gentlemen have passed the recent first, second, and third professional examinations in medicine and surgery:
....First Professional Examination. - [including] C. E. F. von Mengershausen
Edinburgh Evening News, Wednesday 24th April 1901