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The obituary for Colonel Templer from The Times, 4 January 1924.

Colonel James Lethbridge Brooke Templer, who died on Wednesday at Laughton Grange, Lewes, aged 78, will be remembered for the services which he rendered to military ballooning.

He was formerly Adviser in Ballooning to the Government and Superintendent of the Balloon Factory at Farnborough, and he was also the organizer of steam road transport for the Army.

The son of John Templer, a Master in the old Court of Exchequer, he was born in 1846 and was sent to Harrow and then went up to Trinity, Cambridge. Balloons had been used in war as far back as 1794, just before the battle of Fleurus; in the American Civil War; and in the Siege of Paris in 1870-1. But when Templer, then a captain in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, became connected with military aeronautics in 1878, very little progress had been made. An aeronautical committee had been set up in 1871, and it was proposed to use balloons in the Ashanti campaign, but the idea was abandoned on account of the weight involved in the transport. Templer soon made his influence felt at Aldershot. In 1884, by which time ballooning had become a recognized military science, and most of the Powers were organizing regular balloon establishments, a balloon corps with three balloons went out with Sir Charles Warren's Bechuanaland Expedition. In 1885 Templer himself took three balloons to the Sudan and was present at the action at Hasheen, being mentioned in dispatches and receiving a clasp to the medal. Then in the course of the South African War, in which he served as Director of Steam Road Transport, he dispatched altogether four balloon sections. He had been the first to show the superiority of goldbeaters' skin for the envelope, and this was strikingly demonstrated in October 1901, when at Fourteen Streams one balloon was worked 13 days in succession with one load of gas, and the Boers were thereby prevented from relieving the place.

Under his regime the system was introduced of filling balloons with hydrogen gas compressed in steel cylinders, and special plant was laid down at Aldershot for obtaining a purer quality of hydrogen by means of electrolysis. With his chief assistant, Colonel Trollope, Colonel Templer also sent a balloon section to China in the summer of 1900.

Colonel Templer retired in 1906, and was succeeded as Superintendent of the Balloon Factory by Colonel Capper (now Major-General Sir J. E. Capper).

CoIonel Templer married in 1889 Florence Henrietta, third daughter of the late J. S. Gilliat, M.P., formerly Governor of the Bank of England.

The Locomotive Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament to legislate the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on public roads. The second law in 1865, the so-called Red Flag act required all road locomotives, including automobiles, to travel at a maximum speed of 2 mph (3 km/h) in town and 4 mph (6 km/h) in the country. In addition, each vehicle required a crew of three, a driver, a stoker and a person to walk 60 yards (55 m) ahead of the locomotive and wave a red flag to warn of the impending vehicle.

The development of the car forced a change in the regulations. The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 removed the requirement for the crew of three and raised the speed to 14 mph (23 km/h).

This article from The Times, 23 November 1903 mentions the 1865 Act but not the later Act in which the speed limit was raised.

A return has been issued as a Parliamentary paper (223) of orders that have been issued by the Secretary of State for War directing the drivers of traction engines employed by the War Office to conform to the limits of speed laid down by and other regulations contained in the Locomotives Act, 1865. The terms of a memorandum issued from the War Office giving directions as to the circumstances in which officers and soldiers in charge of these engines should take advantage of tho Crown exemptions to cover any departure from the general law appeared in The Times of November 20. The present publication contains a circular dated from tho War Office, January 17, 1901, and addressed to general officers commanding districts, pointing out that, while it is not admitted that the War Office is bound by any of the Highways and Locomotives Acts so far as they apply to the use of steam transport on roads, the provisions of such Ants should on no account be ignored other than for some special and unavoidable military necessity. A number of sections of the above statutes which bear upon the point under consideration are set forth, together with legal decisions as to the liability of the Crown in cases in which the law has been broken by soldiers and Volunteers in charge of engines. Two corrections of a paragraph in tho circular of January 17, 1901, are appended. In the second, dated September 25,1903, it is stated that the question of speed requires special consideration, and if on any occasion it may be found necessary to permit road locomotives to exceed the statute speed, the drivers or other persons in charge should be given a written order by an official authorized by the general officer commanding, allowing them to proceed at a higher rate of speed than the statute.

I was in touch with the National Army Museum yesterday about reproducing the images from the album on this site. The NAM have a reasonable policy of charging a licence fee for this but with 100 photos and £10 per photo the cost is prohibitively high so I won't be taking that opportunity any further.

djb wrote: I was in touch with the National Army Museum yesterday about reproducing the images from the album on this site. The NAM have a reasonable policy of charging a licence fee for this but with 100 photos and £10 per photo the cost is prohibitively high so I won't be taking that opportunity any further.

I agree with you fully David......
I contacted them for some copies and information and the price they would have charged me was astronomical.....
Will have to go and hand copy the information I want......

Mike

From City Coins #18, c April 1973. Reserve R25

QSA (3) CC OFS RoL (W Smith Steam Road Transport)

The write-up says 'The British used steam rollers for transporting stores over rough ground. During the Relief of Ladysmith General Buller attempted to use them to ford the River Tugela. This is probably an introduction by the Army to the use of a heavy mechanical vehicle as a tank. Mr. W. Smith in civilian life was a driver of a steam roller. A very desirable and important medal to a very unusual unit.'

Had a look through my archive images relating to steam road transport , not many sorry to say but I have uploaded 3 images to add to the post and photo archive.