Personalities, Surname T - V

Talbot, Lieutenant Colonel Lord Edmund Bernard, MP. 

Entered,11th Hussars, 1875; Lieutenant Colonel, September 1900.  Staff service: Special Service, South Africa, 1899-1900; DAAG, South Africa, February 1900.  Lord Edmund Talbot, born in 1855, is the brother of the Duke of Norfolk.  He married in 1879 the daughter of the 7th Earl of Abingdon.

Tamplin, Hon Major Herbert Travers

He was born in 1853; son of R W Tamplin, FRCS. On leaving school he went to study law at the Middle Tem¬ple of the Inns of Court, and was called to the Bar in 1875. He came to South Africa in 1880, and became an Advocate of the Supreme Court, Cape Colony, that same year; ED Court, May, 1881; High Court, Jan, 1903; acted as Solicitor-General in 1880, 1890, and 1892; Queen's Counsel, May 1898; Editor of Cape Law Journal, 1885 to 1899; MLA. Victoria East, April 1891 to Dec 1902; Acting Crown Prosecutor, Dec 1902; confirmed in the appointment 1st March, 1903. Lieut 1st City Grahamstown Volunteers 1883; Commanding Officer 1896; Lieut Col 1899: served in Langeberg Campaign 1897; served in Boer War 1899 with 1st City Grahamstown Volunteers, subsequently on Staff of Brigadier General Sir E Y Brabant, KCB, commanding the Colonial Division; in numerous engagements, including the relief of Wepener; OC Troops, HMT Bavarian, April to May 1901; Commandant, Oudtshoorn, May to Sept 1901; Commandant No 4 Area Sept to Dec 1901; Inspecting Officer, CCF, Kimberley and Mafeking Districts, Jan to Aug 1902; Acting Commandant Kimberley, June 1902, Volunteer Long Service Decoration, 1901; Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration, 1903; Colonial Forces Field Service Medals, Boer War, 1899 to 1901, and 1901 to 1903. Is Hon Colonel of the 1st City Grahamstown Volunteers. Married a daughter of the late John Cooper Forster, FRCS, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, London.  Click here for him in a group photograph.

Tatchell, Captain Edward

Born Aug 17, 1870, and entered the Lincolnshire Regiment, in 1893. He served in the Nile Expedition in 1895, being present at the battles of the Atbara and Khartoum (despatches, medal, and Egyptian medal with two clasps), and the Boer War in 1899, where he was employed with the Mounted Infantry, taking part in the operations in the Orange Free State, including the actions at Poplar Grove, Driefontein, Houtnek (Thoba Mountain), Vet River, and Zand River; the operations in the Transvaal, including the actions near Johannesburg and Pretoria and Diamond Hill, and the operations in the Orange River Colony, including the actions at Wittebergen (despatches ).

Tatham, Lieutenant Colonel Frederic Spence

He was born in the capital of the Garden Colony in 1865; is son of R Tatham, and was educated at Bishop's College He saw his first active service in the Basuto War of 1881 (medal and clasp), and again served in the Boer War during the years 1899-1902, when he won the QSA and five clasps and was mentioned in despatches. But Colonel Tatham's record has not been confined to soldiering. Since 1893 he has sat in the Natal Legislative Assembly and has been Chairman of Ways and Means since 1897. He was appointed KC in 1902; is a member of the Port Advisory Board; member of the Board of Examiners for Bar Appointments; is President of the South African Expansion League; and founded the SA League in Natal. In the crisis of 1899 he took an active part in shaping the policy of Natal, and raised and commanded the Natal Royal Regiment, consisting of Artillery, Infantry, and Mounted Infantry. He brought the great railway strike in Natal to a close in 1901 on intervening between the strikers and the Government at the latter's request. He was also largely responsible for the South African action against the objectionable shipping ring, takes great interest in educational matters, and is a member of the Board of Governors of Michaelhouse Diocesan College He married, in 1887, Ada, third daughter of William Molyneux.

Teck (Duke of), HSH Adolphus C A Albert Edward George Philip Louis Ladislaus of Teck, KCVO; Captain 1st Life Guards. 

Entered 1888; Captain, 1895.  The Duke, born 1868, was the son of  Duke and  HRH Princess Mary of Cambridge, and the brother of the Duchess of York.  He married the daughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster.

Teck, HSH Prince Alexander A F W A G of Teck, KCVO, Captain 7th Hussars. 

Entered 1894; Captain, April 1900.  War Service: Operations in South Africa 1896-97 (Despatches); Boer War, 1899-1900.

Templer, Lieutenant Colonel S L B

One of the best known of our Service aeronauts, and has done splendid work in command of the balloon detachment during the Suakin operations of 1885, and later as Superintendent of the Balloon Factory at Aldershot.  In South Africa, however, he is director of steam transport, and controls the use of the huge traction engines which have already done excellent service in Natal.  Colonel Templer is the organiser of steam transport apparatus for use with troops in the field. He retired from the Army in 1892, after 32 years' service.

Theron, T P Theron, Member of Cape House of Assembly

A sheep farmer, an ardent Bondsman, and "much envied by his fellow Africanders for his townsman's aptitudes”.  He was born in 1839 at Tulbagh, elected Member for Richmond in 1884, and re-elected in 1888.

Thesiger, Captain G H, Rifle Brigade

George Handcock Thesiger was born on 6 October 1868, elder son of Lieutenant General Hon C W Thesiger and a grandson of the first Lord Chelmsford.  His uncle was General Lord Chelmsford who commanded the British troops in the Zulu War, and amongst his cousins was Wilfred Thesiger, later to become a noted explorer who won the DSO with the SAS during the Second World War.  After an education at Eton and RMC Sandhurst, Thesiger was gazetted to the Rifle Brigade in March 1890 and joined the 2nd Battalion.  He served in the Nile Expedition of 1898, being present at the battle of Khartoum (Despatches London Gazette 30 September 1898), and subsequently served in Crete.  He went to the Boer War with the 2nd Battalion in October 1899, and was present throughout the siege of Ladysmith.  He took part in the famous night attack against the Boer Howitzer on Surprise Hill on 10 December 1900, later describing the action in his own words: "When we had gone about 1,000 yards we had to halt for an hour and a half on account of the brightness of the moon... We then advanced very slowly in column of sections until reaching the bottom of the hill when Gough’s company deployed into line... The men went up the hill magnificently, arriving at the top in excellent line.  It wasn’t till we got within ten yards of the top that we were discovered.  We then fixed swords and charged.  The Boers ran down and we carried on about 70 yards beyond the gun and then lay down and fired volleys while the Sappers took the gun in hand.  Unfortunately the first fuse went out and this caused a delay of a most precious ten minutes or so.  Altogether we were at the top about half an hour.  At last the gun blew up and the Colonel gave orders to retire.  We realised we were in a pretty tight place as the Boers had worked round us... and were between us and our comrades at the bottom of the hill.  The men behaved splendidly and we rolled down the hill somehow, and they pulled themselves together at the bottom and got into line.  Each lot had to cut their way through independently and we managed to stick several of them. we lost pretty heavily, but I fancy there are very few Battalions who could have got out of it without disaster.  It was a fine thing for the Battalion and has bucked up the men tremendously".  On 6 January, 1900, he took part in the attack on Wagon Hill and was severely wounded.  He served afterwards on the Staff and took part in the operations in the Transvaal, including the action at Belfast (Despatches London Gazette 8 February 1901 and Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel).  During 1901-02, Thesiger was at the Staff College, and from 1902-06 was Deputy assistant Adjutant General for Musketry at Salisbury Plain. He was Assistant Military Secretary to the GOC in Ireland from 1908 to 1909, and from this post he went to Africa as Inspector-General of the King’s African Rifles.  For these services he was created a CMG (London Gazette 3 June 1913) and in December of that year he was appointed to the command of the 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade in India.  Thesiger was made a CB (London Gazette 1 January 1914).  Thesiger returned with the 4th Battalion to England in the autumn of 1914 and took it to France in December of that year.  His command of the 4th Battalion in their counter-attack on St Eloi and the ‘Mound’ on 14-15 March 1915 met with the high approbation of his senior commanders and he was rewarded with the first vacant Brigade.  Thesiger was appointed to command the 2nd Infantry Brigade in May 1915, and in August 1915, he was promoted to Major-General and given command of the 33rd Division, from which he was transferred, in September, to the 9th (Scottish) Division. The official History of the Great War records that during the battle of Loos: ‘Major-General Thesiger, commanding the 9th Division, having heard that the 73rd Infantry Brigade was unsteady, had gone forward, personally, to investigate the situation about Fosse 8, but on reaching the eastern face of the Hohenzollern, he with two of his staff officers were killed'.  Major-General Thesiger has no known grave and is commemorated by name on Panel 129 of the Loos Memorial to the Missing, France. Thesiger was one of six Major-Generals, the highest ranking officers, to be killed in action during the Great War.

CB (m) (b/b), CMB (b/b), Queen’s Sudan (Capt. & Adjt., 2/Rif. Bde.), QSA (3) DofL LN Belf (Bt. Maj., Rifle Bde.), 1914-15 Star (Bt. Col., C.B., C.M.G. Rif. Brig.), BWM , VM with MID (Maj. Gen.), Khedive’s Sudan (1) Khartoum.  DNW Dec 02 £3,400.

Thomas, Lieutenant Colonel Sir G V, Baronet, RA

Entered 1875; Major, Egyptian Army, 1892.  War service: Afghan War, 1878-9 (medal) : Egyptian Expedition 1882-84 (medal with clasp; bronze star); Sudan, 1884 (2 clasps; 4th class Medjidie).

Thomas, Lieutenant Colonel Owen

He was born Dec 7, 1858, at Henblas, and was educated a Liverpool College He was appointed Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion Manchester Regiment in 1884, and Captain 3rd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 1887, and Major in 1897. He served as Major of the 1st Regiment of Brabant's Horse in SA from November, 1899, and he raised and commanded as Lieutenant Colonel the Prince of Wales' Light Horse, 1900 to 1902. Col Thomas was Chief Officer of the Government Life-Saving Apparatus (Cemaes, Anglesey), 1871-1899. He is JP for the county of Anglesey was High Sheriff of Anglesey, 1895-1896; is on the County Council of Anglesey; was member of Royal Commission on Agriculture (Great Britain), 1895-1898 President of Anglesey Agricultural Show, and has been awarded first prize for the best cultivated farm, and also for the best stocked farm. He was also breeder and exhibitor of the heaviest ox at the Royal Islington Show in 1882. He reported privately after the declaration of war, on the agricultural and pastoral prospects of the Transvaal. He married Aug 13, 1887, Frederica Wilhclmina Skelton only daughter of Frederick Pershouse and Mina Darby, of Pen Hall, Staffordshire, and step daughter of Robert Newton Jackson, of Blackbrooke Herefordshire.

Thompson, Francis R

At the age of thirteen, moved by the spirit of adventure, he went up to the diamond fields, working for three years on the Klipdrift diggings. He then started farming on land which formed the nucleus of his Hart's River ranch. In 1878, when the war broke out in the Northern Territories, his father was brutally murdered, and young Thompson, after receiving a wound which cost him part of a rib, and very nearly his life, escaped in a miraculous manner to a neighbour's farm, which he and the owner defended for couple of days and nights, until relieved by a contingent of the old 24th Regiment A few weeks later he joined Sir Charles Warren, and remained with him until the expedition of 1878 was over, when he became, at the age of twenty, Inspector of Natives, with power to settle disputes between the various chiefs. He served as Special Commissioner of Bechuanaland throughout the Stcllaland and Goshen troubles; again with Sir Charles Warren when he turned the Boers out of Rooigrond; and then on the Frontier Commission defining the Griqualand West Boundary. Then at Mr Rhodes' request he undertook the organising of the Compound system at Kimberley, which proved a wonderful success for the mines. After a short stay in Johannesburg, and just after he was appointed Protector of Natives and Government Inspector of Compounds, he undertook for Mr Rhodes to accomplish the first step towards opening up the northern route by obtaining the concession from Lobengula which formed the basis of the charter. Mr Thompson—or Matabele Thompson, as he came to be called familiarly—remained in Bulawayo for two years. He then entered at Oxford, and gave three years to study. On his return to SA he was elected to the Cape Parliament member for Georgetown, and served on the rinderpest Commission. Mr Thompson was married in 1893, his father-in-law having been one of the British Commissioners in the Venezuelan Arbitration in the forties.

Thornton, Dr George

Served for six years under the Local Government Board in England, as Medical Officer in the Metropolitan Asylums Board Fever Hospitals. Subsequently he served for a year as Civil Surgeon attached to the British Forces in South Africa, and was appointed Medical Superintendent at the Pretoria Hospital in 1900.

Thursfield, John George Howard

Educated at Christ's Hospital, London. He served in the Boer War with the Second Provisional Regiment of Hussars until the Declaration of Peace; acted as Clerk to the Claims Commission in 1903, Clerk to the Resident Magistrate at Smithfield, ORC, in 1903, and to the Resident Magistrate at Kroonstad in 1904.

Thynne, Lord Alexander George

Born Feb 17, 1873, and is son of Marquess of Bath. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxon From 1895-8 he travelled extensively in the Balkan Peninsula, Albania, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Montenegro; took part in a shooting expedition in the East Coast Protectorate and Uganda in 1899, and from that year he represented the Corp. of London on the LCC until 1900 when he served in South Africa with IY and on the Staff (QSA and three clasps KSA and two clasps). He acted as secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor of the ORC from 1902-5, and accompanied the Somaliland Field Force as Reuter's correspondent in 1903-4 (medal and clasp). Lord Alexander Thynne contested the Frome Div. of Somerset in the Unionist interest in 1896.

Tillard, Richard

He was educated at Marlborough College, acted as Resident Magistrate and Sub. Collector of Customs at Port Nolloth; Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate at Mafeking in 1886; Superintendent of Telegraphs, Cape Colony, and RM at Vryburg in 1889, and again in 1899, when he was expelled by the Boers; Master of the Chief Magistrate's Court; Acting Postmaster General under the British Bechuanaland Government, Cape Colony, and RM at Fort Beaufort in 1898; acted as Cape Colony and RM, at Aliwal North and King Williamstown. He served as an officer of Volunteers in the Gaika and Basutoland Wars (two medals). He married Amy, daughter of William Ogilvie, of Grahamstown.

Todd, Lieutenant Colonel O, MB, RAMC

Lieutenant Colonel, March 1900.  War Service: Boer War, 1899-1900.

Tollemachie, Baron Bentley Lyonel John

Grandson of the Right Hon Wilbraham Frederic Tollemache, 2nd Baron, whom he succeeded in Dec, 1904, his mother being the only daughter and heiress of the 7th Earl of Kingston. The present Lord Tollemache was born in 1883, and served in the Boer War. He married, in 1902, Wynford Rose, daughter of General Sir Arnold B Kemball, KCB.

Townshend, Lieutenant Colonel C V F, CB, DSO

Entered 1881; Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, 1896.  Staff service: Employed with Egyptian Army, 1896-98; Special Service, South Africa; Staff Military Governor, Bloemfontein, March, 1900.  War service: Sudan Expedition 1884-85 (Despatches; medal with 2 clasps; bronze star); Hunza Nagar Expedition 1891-92 (Despatches; medal with clasp); Operations in Chitral, 1895 (thanked by Govt.  of India; Despatches; Brevet of Major; CB); Expedition to Dongola, 1896 (Despatches; Brevet of Lieutenant Colonel) Nile Expedition 1898 (Despatches, May and September 1898; DSO); Boer War; on Staff.

Towse, Captain E B, VC

Entered from Militia, Wiltshire Regiment, 1885; Captain Gordon Highlanders, 1896.  War service: Operations in Chitral, 1895 (medal with clasp); Operations on NW Frontier of India, 1898 (2 clasps); Boer War, 1899-1900 (Despatches; severely wounded).  See VC page.

Trench, Lieutenant Colonel F A Le P, ASC

Lieutenant Colonel, February 1895.  Staff service: DAAG Scottish District 1899.  War service: Boer War, 1899-1900.

Trollope, Captain A G

He took part with his regiment (the Buffs) in the Chitral Relief Expedition in 1895 (medal with clasp), and in the Boer War (despatches, QSA and KSA). He is a sworn translator in Dutch, and passed the Lower Standard in Hindustani and Pushtu, acted as Staff Captain on Major General Pretyman's Staff in 1900-1, and was Chief Superintendent of the Refugee Camps in Feb, 1901. He was appointed Resident Magistrate at Smithfield in 1902.