Personalities, Surname F

Fairholme, Major W E, CMG, Royal Artillery

Entered 1879; Major, 1897.  Staff Service —Staff Captain (Intelligence), Head-quarters of Army, 1893-94; DAAG (Intelligence), Headquarters of Army, 1894-98; employed with Turco-Greek Boundary Commission, 1898; Assistant-Commissioner, Crete, 1898-99; Special Service, South Africa, 1899-1900; AAG, South Africa, 1899-1900; Assistant-Military Secretary to Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gibraltar, July 1900.  War service:  South African War, 1899-1900; on Staff.

Faure, L S de V

Passed the cape Civil Service Exam, in 1888, and in the following year was appointed Clerk in the Surveyor General's Office, which position he held until 1891, when he entered the Mashonaland Civil Service. In 1893 he took part in the Matabele War, and returned to the Cape Civil Service in 1894 as Clerk to the Civil Commissioner and Magistrate at East London. He served in the Matabele Rebellion in 1896, in the same year entering the Rhodesia Civil Service in the Civil Commissioner's Office and the Deeds Office Registry, Bulawayo. His active service also includes the Boer War in 1899-1902, and during that time he was appointed Magistrate at Rustenburg. He was employed in the Military Service until 1903, when he became Clerk in the Lieutenant-Governor's Office at Pretoria, being promoted to Chief Clerk in 1904.

Fawkes, Stephen Hawkesworth

Served in the Boer War in 1900 with the 13^th  Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. Subsequently, in Sep, 1902, he became Registrar to the Hon Mr Justice Fawkes, and was appointed Chief Clerk and Assistant Resident Magistrate al Ladybrand, ORC, in 1904.

Feilding, Hon Very Reverend Basil

Met his death through the capsizing of a canoe in which he was touring the Rhine, in July, 1906, was brother to the Earl of Denbigh. He had pursued an active career in the Roman Catholic Church, and spent a year in South Africa as Roman Catholic chaplain to the British Forces during the Anglo Boer War.

Fiaschi, Major J H, New South Wales Medical Staff Corps

This officer has made himself notable for the zeal and skill with which his humane duties were carried out, and the efficient condition in which he kept the ambulance under his command.

Fiddes, George Vandeleur, CB (1901), BA

He was educated at Dulwich College, and was subsequently a scholar of Brasenose College, Oxen., where he took a second-class in Classical Moderations in 1879. He was appointed a Clerk in the Colonial Office in 1881, after competitive examination, and served as Private Secretary, to Lord Onslow (1887), Baron H de Worms (1882-92), and Sir Robert Meade, March, 1896. In that year he was promoted to a first-class Clerkship in the Colonial Office, and in 1897 was appointed Secretary, to the High Commissioner, Cape Colony; was appointed Political Secretary to the Commander in Chief, Lord Roberts, in South Africa in June, 1900, and Secretary to the Transvaal Administration in Dec, 1900; Chairman of the Rand Water Board Commission, 1901-2; and Principal Clerk, Sep, 1902.

{GCMG], KCB (c), QSA (0), (G V Fiddes CB Est Secy to CC), 1902 Coronation, 1911 Coronation.  Spink Dec 83.

Fiennes, Hon Eustace, Captain Oxfordshire Yeomanry

He is the second son of the 14th Baron Saye and Sole, of Broughton Castle, Banbury. He was educated at Malvern College In addition to serving with distinction in the North-West Rebellion, Egypt (medal and clasp, and Khedive's Star), he served in the Pioneer Expedition to Rhodesia in 1890 in the BSAP, and also during the Boer War (medal and three clasps). In 1900 he contested North Oxford shire in the Liberal interest, and was defeated by 733 votes. He was elected for the Banbury Division of Oxfordshire at the election in 1906. He married, November 6, 1894, Florence Agnes, widow of Arthur Fletcher, and daughter of John Bathfelden, Bellcombre, Constantia, Cape Town.

Fincastle (Viscount), A E Murray, Captain 16th Lancers. 

Born April 22, 1871, and is the eldest son of the Earl of Dunmore. He was educated at Eton, and joined the 16th Lancers in 1891, serving for nearly nine years in India. His active services include the Sudan Campaign in 1896, as Special Service Officer with the Egyptian Cavalry, the Indian Frontier Campaign in 1897, and with the Guides' Cavalry in the Malakand Expedition, when he was awarded the VC for his pluck at the action of Nowagi, in the Swat Valley. He acted as ADC to Sir Bindon Blood in the Buner Expedition in 1898, and took part in the Boer War with the Inniskilling Dragoons in 1899; subsequently with the 16th Lancers. He afterwards raised and commanded a regiment of Yeomanry (Fincastle's Horse) with the rank of Lt. Colonel, and took part in the fighting around Colesburg, in the relief of Kimberley, the battle of Paardeberg, and the subsequent fighting in the Orange Free State. Viscount Fincastle has travelled and shot all over India, including elephant shooting in Mysore. He played polo in the 16th Lancers Regiment team in several tournaments in India. He married, Jan 10, 1904, Miss Dorothy Kemble.

Firman, Lieutenant Colonel R B

He was originally in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, of which he acted as adjutant. On the outbreak of the Boer War he volunteered his services, and went out as Captain of the 35th Company of Imperial Yeomanry in the early part of 1900. He was soon promoted Lieutenant Colonel, with ultimate command of a mobile column operating under Sir Leslie Rundle mainly in the eastern portion of the Orange River Colony. He was at one time well known as an amateur jockey, and still rides a good race.

Fisher, Edward Montague

Served in the 10th Royal Hussars from 1887 till 1889, and from 1889 till'1891 in the 2nd Vol. Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment In 1892 he joined the Cape Police; served in the Bechuanaland Rebellion in 1896-7 (medal with clasp). He was appointed Sub Inspector of the Cape Police in 1899; served in the Boer War in 1899-1902 (medal with clasps), and was appointed Inspector in the Corps in 1902.

FitzPatrick, Sir James Percy, Knight Bachelor, MLC

He was born at King William's Town, July 24, 1862. He is the son of the Hon James Coleman FitzPatrick, an Irish barrister, who supported the political fortunes of Daniel O'Connell in his declining years, as well as those of the Liberator's son, John O'Connell, and who afterwards became Judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony Sir Percy was educated at St Gregory's College, Downside, near Bath, and went to the Transvaal in 1884, where he has resided practically ever since, either on the alluvial diggings, or trading, hunting, or prospecting. In 1886 he settled at Barberton, leaving three years later for the Witwatersrand. He accompanied the Randolph Churchill expedition through Mashonaland in 1891, and in 1892, on returning to Johannesburg, took charge of the intelligence department of the firm of H Eckstein & Company, of which he became a partner in 1898, representing the firm on the boards of many of the premier mining companies of the Rand. Few men are more conversant with all the details of the mining industry or with the general affairs of the Transvaal than Sir Percy, as those will know who remember his evidence before the Industrial Commission in 1897, and subsequently before the Concessions Commission. He was one of the first to become associated with the Reform Committee in 1895, to which he acted as an indefatigable hon. secretary. For his participation in that movement he was arrested in January, 1896, and, with other ringleaders, was refused bail. He was put on trial in April for high treason against the Government of the SAR, and was condemned to suffer two years' imprisonment, to pay a fine of £2,000, or as an alternative another year's imprisonment, and thereafter to be banished from the State for a period of three years. This sentence was reduced to one year's imprisonment in the following May, but he was released during the same month. In 1897, when everybody thought (and rightly) that the Industrial Commission was intended merely as a farce, Sir Percy nevertheless pressed hard for the Uitlanders to take it seriously, if only for the purpose of once more putting their ease on record. In Feb, 1899, although this fact is not generally known, it was he who suggested to the Transvaal Govt, a conference between Mr Kruger and Lord Milner, and another between the Govt, and the people of Johannesburg. This was a most earnest and sincere effort to avert a war, as Sir Percy plainly stated, and his suggestions resulted in the Bloemfontein Conference and the 'Capitalist Negotiations'. However, these meetings were turned by the Boer Govt, to purposes other than peace. As evidence of his party's sincerity, he proposed, in order to remove causes of constant friction, that the mining people should forego their Bewaarplaatsen Rights, and buy them at a valuation instead of going to law and to the Raad for restitution in tote, and should also acquiesce in the Dynamite Monopoly, "Provided the profits, as originally intended, should go to the Government"; in fact that the terms of the original concession should be enforced if the Govt, would introduce the reforms in administration of the Liquor and other laws, as recommended by the Industrial Commission, and make some equitable concession of political rights to the Uitlanders. When the Capitalist Negotiations came about the Government, at first through Mr Lippert, and afterwards through Dr Leyds and Mr Reitz, refused to allow Sir Percy (although a partner in the leading house of Eckstein) to take part. He was the one barred. As soon, however, as the Government tried to introduce the Franchise question, the other representatives of the Capitalists refused to take part until Sir Percy FitzPatrick and some other representatives of the Uitlanders were admitted. After some delay the Govt, gave way, but Sir Percy would not participate in the negotiations without a written invitation which would release him from the condition of three years' silence which had been imposed on him in connection with the Reformers' sentences. This was given, and Sir Percy, having been authorised by the representatives of all classes to voice their case, went into the matter heart and soul, incidentally proving step by step how the Govt, had authorised the negotiations, and showing the devices by which they had sought to inveigle the negotiators into a false move. Sir Percy drew up the five years' franchise memorandum which was embodied in the Capitalist Negotiations documents (published in March or April, 1899), and which afterwards served as the basis of Lord Milner's Bloemfontein proposals. Before sending this memo, in, he showed it to the State Secretary, and State Attorney in Pretoria, who both said that it was absolutely just, but that Mr Kruger would never be induced to agree to it. Sir Percy's answer to this was, "Well, let us try. Let it be a basis for discussion, to bring us together and avert trouble." Sir Percy, as spokesman for the guarantors of the War Loan and representative of the public committee, took a principal part in the War Debt negotiations with Mr Chamberlain. He is one of the nonofficial members of the first Transvaal Legislative Council, and was elected by that body as one of the two Transvaal Representatives on the Inter-Colonial Council of the Transvaal and ORC, from which he resigned in 1904. He was President of the Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines in 1902. Sir Percy has a facile pen. He was, years ago, editor of the Barberton Herald, and besides many able contributions to the Press on questions of the moment, he has published an account of his Mashonaland trip, Through Mashonaland with Pick and Pen, and a charming volume of short stories under the name of The Outspan. But in England he will be more generally known as the author of The Transvaal from Within—a work which is every w here regarded as the textbook upon the events which led up to the inception of the Reform movement, and eventually culminated in raid and war. Sir Percy was made a Knight Bachelor in 1902 in recognition of his great services in connection with SA. He married, February 16, 1889, Elizabeth Lillian, daughter of John Cubitt, of Pretoria.

Flint, Lieutenant Colonel E M, Royal Artillery

Entered 1871; Lieutenant Colonel, 1897.  Staff service:  Adjutant Auxiliary Forces, 1883-88.  War service: Boer War, 1899-1900.

Foljambe, Captain A W de B S, Rifle Brigade

Arthur William de Brito Savile Foljambe was born on 27 May 1870, eldest son of the Earl of Liverpool.  He was educated at Eton and RMC Sandhurst, being gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade in May 1891.  He was promoted Lieutenant in 1893 and Captain in 1897 when his battalion, 4th Rifle Brigade moved to Dublin.  There he served from 1898-1900 as ADC to Earl Cadogan, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which post led him ultimately to a career of civil service.  In 1900 he was appointed a Member (4th class) of the Royal Victorian Order.  From 1900-1901, he was Staff Captain of the Dublin District but when his regiment left for South Africa and the Boer War, he accompanied it and served there for two years.  He returned home with the Rifle Brigade but was put on half-pay when he was appointed State Steward to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1906-08.  He was promoted Major in 1907, in which year his father died and he assumed the title of 2nd Earl of Liverpool.  In 1909, he became Comptroller of His Majesty's Household, which post he held until 1912.  During this period he also became Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 8th Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles).  He held this post also until 1912 when he was sent to New Zealand as Governor and Commander-in-Chief.  This post he held until 1917, having been made GCMG in 1914.  Continuing his interest in matters military while in New Zealand, he raised and organised the New Zealand Rifle Brigade in 1915, but was forbidden permission to accompany it into combat.  He was not only Honorary Colonel of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade but also of the 11th Regiment (Taranaki) New Zealand Rifles.  He was made a Privy Councillor in 1917 and also became that year the first Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Dominion of New Zealand.  He held this post until 1920 when he retired and was made GCB, having been made GBE two years earlier.  He was also a Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He died on 15 May 1941 and was succeeded by his brother, Honourable GWFS Foljambe.

MVO 4th class breast badge reverse unnumbered, QSA (3) CC OFS SA02 (Capt Hon, MVO, Rifle Bde.) all tailor's copies, 1911 Coronation, 1935 Jubilee.  DNW Dec 93 £2,000.  DNW Dec 02 £1,600.

Folkestone (Viscount), J Pleydell Bouverie, MP Major, 1st Wilts Rifle Volunteers

Eldest son of the 5th Earl of Radnor.

Follett, Colonel S W,

One of the victims of the wreck of the SS Hilda off St Malo on November 18,1905, joined the 9th Lancers as a subaltern in 1875; was brevetted as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1902, and retired in 1904. He commanded his regiment of Lancers in the Boer War, receiving the QSA with seven clasps and the KSA with two clasps.

Ford, Lieutenant John Everard Hugo

He was born at Southport, Dec 14, 1873, and is son of Lt. Colonel J Ford, late RA. He was educated at Wellington College, and was in South Africa when the war broke out in 1899. He went on active service as a Serjeant in Prince Albert's Own Cape Vol. Battalion (QSA and four clasps), subsequently receiving a commission as Lieutenant in the RFA in 1901, and embarked with his Battalion for India at the end of that year. He served at Kamptee until May, 1902, when he was seconded for the purpose of joining the Gold Coast Regiment, serving with that until he retired from the Army in 1905, and went out to British East Africa exploring.

Forester-Walker, Major G J, RA

He entered the Royal Artillery as Lieutenant in 1894; obtained his Captaincy in 1895, and became Major in 1900. In Anglo Boer War he served on Lord Methuen's Staff in the advance on Kimberley, and was subsequently with Lord Roberts's army up to the capture of Pretoria and the operations to the east of that place. With the local rank of Lieutenant Colonel he took part in the operations against the Mullah in Somaliland in 1903-04, and was slightly wounded at Jidballi.

Forrester, Thomas Paul Wallace

He was born at Gravesend, England, in 1853; is the eldest son of William Alexander Forrester, of Juniper Green, Edinburgh, and was educated at the Albion House Acad., Woolwich. He has been connected with the South African trade nearly all his life with the shipping house of Houlder Brothers and Company Ltd, of which he is now managing director, and he is also a director of the Houlder Line, Ltd During this time he has made many visits to South Africa. He has had nearly 23 years' service as an officer in the Essex Volunteer Artillery, joining as Second Lieut, and retiring in 1899 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and the Volunteer Decoration (1898), since when he has continued to render service on the Council of the National Artillery Association. His principal recreations are boating and walking. Mr Forrester was married, in 1880, to Mary, daughter of Henry Mills, of London.

Fortescue, Lieutenant Colonel Honourable C G, CMG, Rifle Brigade. 

Entered 1881; Brevet-Colonel, 1899.  Staff service: Employed Gold Coast, 1897-99; Private Secretary to Secretary of State for War, 1899; Brigade-Major, Natal, 1899.  War service: Burmese Expedition, 1888-89 (medal with clasp); West Africa, 1897-98 (Despatches; CMG; Brevet of Lieutenant Colonel); South African War, 1899-1900; on Staff.

Foster, Colonel W H, MP, Commanding Yeomanry Cavalry

This officer, who for many years has been associated with the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, volunteered immediately he found the country had need of his services.  Like many other wealthy and notable volunteers, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain in fighting his country's battles save the esteem of a grateful nation.

Fowle, Captain Henry Walter Hamilton, JP

Served in the Boer War, 1899-1900, with Roberts's Horse, subsequently being seconded for service under the Military Governor at Pretoria; acted as Military Commissioner of Police and Assistant Prov. Marshal for Heidelberg and district in 1900-1; was Assistant Commissioner of Police at Pretoria in 1901; and from that time until 1902 he held various positions, including Political Officer to the Military Commissioner of Police at Johannesburg, Military Intelligence Officer for Johannesburg and district, and Assistant to the Director of Military Intelligence, Army Headquarters, and to the Prov. Marshal (two medals and six clasps). He is a JP for the Transvaal; was Chief Secretary, for Permits under the Peace Preservation Ordinance in 1902, and in 1903 was appointed Registrar of Asiatics in the Transvaal.

Fowler, Sir Thomas, Baronet, Lieutenant 2nd Battalion Royal Wilts Yeomanry Cavalry.

Fowler, Lieutenant William Edward Nesfidel

Served through the Boer War in the Imperial Yeomanry (QSA with four clasps and KSA). He is now on the Reserve of Officers, and became a Lieutenant, in the Barotse Native Police in 1904.

Fox, Henry Wilson

orn at Cavendish Square, London, Aug 18, 1863. He is the son of Wilson Fox, MD, Physician in Ordinary to her late Majesty Queen Victoria was educated at Charterhouse, Marlborough College, University College, Lond, and Trinity College Cambridge, of which he was Exhibitioner and Scholar; BA, Natural Science Tripos. He was called to the Bar, November 29, 1888, and was Equity Scholar of Lincoln's Inn (1888). He was admitted Advocate of the Supreme Court of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and Advocate of the High Court of Southern Rhodesia in 1894. Mr Wilson Fox, after leaving the Cambridge University, spent some time in the office of Sir Charles Mills, then Agent General to Cape Colony. In 1889 he went out to Johannesburg on the Johannesburg staff of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa. In 1892 he took to journalism, and immediately came to the front as the editor of the South African Mining Journal of Johannesburg. In this capacity he assisted Mr John Hays Hammond in drafting the Rhodesian Mining Laws. This brought him into touch with Mr Cecil Rhodes, and ultimately led to his being appointed Public Prosecutor of Rhodesia in the same year. When the rebellion broke out in 1896-7 in Matabeleland and Mashonaland he carried out the duties of Director of Transport and Commissariat for the Salisbury force with quite exceptional success, under, of course, quite exceptional difficulties, being mentioned in despatches, and wears the medal with clasp. In May, 1897, he returned to England for a holiday, and was unexpectedly offered the appointment in June, 1898, of manager of the Chartered Company, a responsible and arduous position which he still fills, and for which his all round knowledge of mining, finance, law, and South African politics gives him exceptional authority. He took a prominent part in the extraordinarily successful flotation of the Charter Trust and Agency, and represents the Chartered Company on most of the principal Rhodesian directorates, including the following: African Concessions Syndicate, Ltd; Antenior (Matabele) Gold Mines, Ltd; Ayrshire Gold Mine and Lomagunda Railway Company, Ltd; Beatrice (Rhodesia) Company, Ltd; Bonsor Gold Mining Company, Ltd; Charter Trust and Agency, Ltd; Clark's Consolidated, Ltd; Jumbo Gold Mining Company, Ltd; Mashonaland Agency, Ltd; New Rhodesia District Development Company, Ltd Northern Copper (BSA) Company, Ltd; Penhalonga Proprietary Mines, Ltd; Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Company, Ltd; Rhodesia Copper Company, Ltd; Selukwe Gold Mining Company, Ltd; Surprise Gold Mining Company, Ltd; Wanderer (Selukwe) Gold Mines, Ltd; Wankie (Rhodesia) Coal, Railway, and Exploration Company, Ltd; and Willoughby's Consolidated Company, Ltd Mr Wilson Fox has recently come into further public prominence in connection with his great scheme for harnessing the Victoria Falls in the Zambesi for the transmission of power to the Witwatersrand Gold Fields. As the distance is 600 miles as the crow flies, this project on completion will mark an epochal stride in the practice of long­distance transmission of electrical power. The project is supported by some of the greatest minds known to electrical science, among whom may be mentioned Sir Douglas Fox, Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bart., Lord Kelvin, and Mr Arthur Wright, of London; Mr Ralph D Mershon, of New York; Professor Dr G Klingenberg, of the Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaft, of Berlin; Mons. Andre Blondel, of Paris; Dr Edouard Tissot, of Basle; and other names of worldwide distinction. In financing this vast undertaking the Chartered Company are, it is understood, allied with the powerful electrical and financial groups headed by the Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaft and the Dresdner Bank. When completed, the transmission of power at low price to Johannesburg should very greatly modify and improve the state of the mining industry on the Rand, as at present the cost of power constitutes the second largest item in the bill of working costs. Mr Wilson Fox has invented and patented a system of hydraulic storage, which, according to the opinions of several of the greatest electrical experts in the world, will revolutionise the practice of long-distance transmission, partly by effecting numerous economies, partly by enabling the transmission lines to run a constant load, and partly by allowing a much larger sale of power from the same supply under the ordinary load factors. Mr Fox is a fervid supporter of the Imperialistic ideals of Mr Cecil Rhodes, and is a fine speaker either on political or commercial subjects, with an unusual hold over public meetings. He is a most popular man in South African circles, and a good sportsman. He represented Cambridge University at lawn tennis in 1885-6, was the chief exponent of the game in South Africa for several years, and still plays for the English championship every year. Golf and shooting are his other principal recreations. He married, on July 19, 1898, the Hon Eleanor B Sclater-Booth, sister of the present Lord Basing, and has a son, born in 1900.

Frankland, Sir Frederick, 10th Baronet

He was born Sep 2, 1868, and was educated at Cheltenham College He was formerly Captain in the 3rd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, from which he was seconded for service with the BSA Company, serving from 1893 till 1900 in the Mines Department as Assistant Mining Commissioner at Bulawayo. Sir Frederick took part in the Matabele Rebellion in 1896 (medal) and in the Boer War in 1899-1900 (medal and four clasps). He is on the London Committee of the Brakpan Mines and the North Geduld GM Company He married Miss Mary Cecil Curzon in 1901, and has one son.

Frost, Hon Sir John, Member of the Legislative Assembly, KCMG

Born in 1828, and is a progressive farmer in the Queenstown division. He served as Commandant of Volunteers in the frontier wars of 1877-78, receiving the thanks of Parliament and the CMG for his services. He entered the Cape Parliament as member for Queenstown as far back as 1874, and has represented that division ever since, being last re­elected in 1904. He took office in the second Rhodes Ministry in 1893, first as Secretary, for Native Affairs and then as Secretary, for Agriculture, going out in the great Rhodes smash in 1896. In 1900, however, he entered Sir G Sprigg's Cabinet as Minister without portfolio, but in June, 1902, he became Secretary, for Agriculture. He was not included in Dr Jameson's Cabinet in 1904, although he is a supporter of his party. Sir John was knighted in 1904, having previously been made a CMG.

Fuller, William Henry

He was the son of Sir T E Fuller, CMG, Agent General for the Colony of Cape of Good Hope. He was born July 6, 1858, at Melksham, Wiltshire, and was educated at the SA College, Cape Town, and the London University School He has the medal for the Kaffir War 1877, and during the Boer War, 1899-1902, he commanded as Lieutenant Colonel the East London Town Guard. At the present he is director of Dyer & Dyer, Ltd, chairman of the East London Harbour Board, and Consular Agent for the USA He takes a great interest in athletic sports, and is president of the East London Rowing Association.