GASCOIGNE, FREDERIC RICHARD TRENCH,
Lieutenant Colonel, was born 4 July 1851, only son of Frederic Charles Trench
Gascoigne, and of Mrs Gascoigne, eldest daughter and co-heir of R Oliver
Gascoigne, of Parlington, Yorkshire, and Castle Oliver, County Limerick. He
was gazetted to the Royal Horse Guards, and served in the Sudan Expedition of
1884-85 (Nile), with the Intelligence Department, as Staff Captain. He was
present at the actions of Abu Klea and near Metemmeh, and with the force in
the advance up the Nile towards Khartoum. He was afterwards attached to the
Heavy Camel Corps; received the Medal with two clasps and the Bronze Star.
Captain Gascoigne retired from the Royal Horse Guards, and when the South
African War broke out he commanded the 10th Squadron Yorkshire Hussars
(Imperial Yeomanry), when they went out to South Africa, January 1900; he was
afterwards promoted Major and Lieutenant Colonel commanding the 3rd Imperial
Yeomanry Battalion 10 August 1900 to 12 April 1901. He was present in
operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, July to 29 November 1900,
including actions at Venterskroon (7 and 9 August); operations in the Orange
River Colony, May to November 1900, including actions at Lindley (1 June) and
Rhenoster River; operations in the Transvaal 30 November to April, 1901. He
was mentioned in Despatches [London Gazette, 10 September 1901]; received the
Queen's Medal with four clasps, and was created a Companion of the
Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: "Frederic
Richard Thomas Trench Gascoigne, Lieutenant Colonel, 3rd Battalion Imperial
Yeomanry. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa".
The Insignia were presented by the King 17 December 1901. He was also placed
on the list of officers considered qualified for Staff Employment, in
consequence of service in the field. He was appointed Colonel and Honorary
Colonel commanding the Yorkshire Hussars (Imperial Yeomanry), 1904-8, and
Honorary Colonel in the Army, 1904. He possessed King Edward's Coronation
Medal. Colonel Gascoigne was very fond of big game sport—has killed buffalo
on the prairie in Colorado in 1873; shot in the Rocky Mountains (1870), and in
the Abyssinian Sudan (1879). He was a keen yachtsman; member of the Royal
Yacht Society, and fond of travelling. He was a Justice of the Peace for the
West Riding, Yorkshire, Colonel Gascoigne took out two motor-cars to France in
1914, working: with them for Dr Garrett-Anderson's Hospital, at Wimereux, all
that winter; worked for the YMCA all the summer of 1915, in the Boulogne
District, and was an Inspector of Church Army Huts and Canteens in France in
1916. Colonel Gascoigne maintained a VAD Hospital in Lotherton Hall (35-40
beds) for four and a half years (November 1914 to March 1919). He married, 16
February 1892, at St Peter's, Eaton Square, London, Laura Gwendolen, CBE, Lady
of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, daughter of Sir Douglas and
Lady Gallon, of Himbleton Manor, Droitwich, and they had one son, Alvary
Douglas Frederick (Coldstream Guards), born 6 August 1893: and one daughter,
Cynthia Mary, born 6 February 1898.
