TOPIC:

Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking- 10th Hussars
Died of enteric at Bloemfontein 16th April 1900. Aged 36.
Son of Colonel Meeking of Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire.





2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Charles Edward Meeking - 2/Grenadier Guards
Died of enteric at Bethlehem 2nd February 1902. Aged 21

....Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking, of the 10th Hussars, who has died of fever at Bloemfontein, was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Meeking, Richings Park, Colnbrook, Bucks, by his marriage with Adelaide Caroline, fourth daughter of the late Mr. Christopher Tower, of Huntsmore Park, and his wife, Lady Sophia Frances, eldest daughter of John, first Earl Brownlow. He was born on March 24, 1864, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1885. He entered the 10th Hussars as a second lieutenant in February, 1888, received his lieutenant's commission in September, 1889, and his captaincy on January 2, 1897. Captain Meeking married in 1893 Violet, the eldest daughter of Mr. John Fletcher, of Saltoun, and leaves two daughters.
The South Bucks Free Press, Friday 20th April 1900


....A memorial service for the late Capt. Bertram Meeking, of the 10th Royal Hussars, who died from enteric fever at Bloemfontein after surviving the wreck of the Ismore and losing his horses and saddlery, was held at Iver Church, on Wednesday, and was attended by a detachment of his regiment. Colonel and Mrs. Meeking and family, the Dowager Lady Churchill, Lady Hope, Sir Robert Harvey, Mr. Christopher Tower, Mr. Egerton Tower, and Miss Tower were among the mourners. The service, which was of a very impressive character, included the hymn, "God's faithful soldiers rest in peace."
The South Bucks Free Press, Friday 27th April 1900

This cigarette case was presented to Squadron Sergeant-Major Alfred Geering, 10th Royal Hussars, as a memorial to Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking.
Geering, as Sergeant-Instructor, did not accompany "A" Squadron to the Cape.

Engraved with the badge of the 10th Hussars and the inscription: "PRESENTED TO / SERGT MAJOR A. GEERING. / IN MEMORY OF / Captn B.C.C.S. Meeking, / 10th Royal Hussars. / DIED AT BLOEMFONTEIN S.A. / April 16th 1900". With Birmingham hallmarks for 1899 and maker's initials "A & J Z" (for Arthur & John Zimmerman).

The 10th Hussars sailed on the ill-fated Transport Ismore, which was wrecked off St Helena Bay on 3rd December 1899, with the loss of almost all of the regiment's horses.






York Herald, 6th December 1899

The officers on board the ill-fated Johnston liner “Ismore” include Major Alexander, Major Hughes-Onslow, Captain Meeking, the Hon. T. Lister, the Hon. T. Cadogan, Mr Shearman, and the Hon. G. Portman. Major Hughes-Onslow, who had the misfortune to lose the whole of his horses in “A” Squadron, is well known in the neighbourhood as a first-rate man to hounds, and one of our best soldier jockeys.


South Wales Daily News, 20th April 1900

DEATH OF CAPTAIN MEEKING.

Captain Bertram Meeking, of the 10th Hussars, whose death from enteric fever is reported, was a son of Colonel Meeking, of Richings Park, Colnbrook, near Slough. The news of his death, received by wire on Thursday, has caused profound sorrow. He was on the ill-fated Ismore, and sent home a thrilling account of the wreck of the transport and the loss of chargers and saddlery that he sustained thereby. Captain Meeking’s wife was in South Africa with him. We understand that Captain Meeking was the husband of the eldest niece of Miss Talbot, of Margam.


Evening Standard, 19th April 1900

Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking, of the 10th Hussars, who has also died of fever at Bloemfontein, was the son of Lieut.-Colonel Charles Meeking, of Richings Park, Colnbrook, Bucks, by his marriage with Adelaide Caroline, fourth daughter of the late Mr Christopher Tower, of Huntsmore Park, by his wife, Lady Sarah Sophia Frances, eldest daughter of John, first Earl Brownlow. He was born on March 24, 1864, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1885. He entered the 10th Hussars as a Second Lieutenant in February, 1888, received his Lieutenancy Commission on September 2, 1897. Captain Meeking married, in 1893, Violet, the eldest daughter of Mr John Fletcher, of Saltoun, and leaves two daughters.






.Images previously posted by Smethwick
.Three officers of the 10th Hussars on the deck of the ill-fated Transport Ismore


Runcorn Guardian, 30th December 1899

THE WRECK OF THE ISMORE.
THE SPLENDID CONDUCT OF THE TROOPS.

Major Hughes-Onslow, 10th Hussars, writes home with reference to the wreck of the Ismore. The following extracts from his letter are sent by his wife: –
We ran ashore at 2.30 a.m., December 3rd on a fearful ironbound coast. By the great mercy of God every man got safe ashore, as although we were on a reef a mile from land, the Ismore was stuck so fast that we had time to get all the boats out. There was a heavy swell, and tremendous rollers on the shore, but the inhabitants of a small fishing village pointed out a narrow inlet into a little bay to us, into which we rowed. We could do nothing for the horses except throw them overboard, which we did to as many as we could, but only 25 all told got ashore, and some of them are terribly injured by the cruel rocks. Both my chargers were saved, and are all right. We have sent the horses on by easy stages to Cape Town.
During the day we made several journeys to the ship, and got off as much kit as we could, but during the night the wind freshened, and now the ship is an utter wreck and quite unapproachable, and it is dreadful to think of the loss of our beautiful horses.
We had a rough time for the three days we were bivouacked on the shore – not much to eat, and no shelter and it was bitterly cold at night, with a hot sun and sharp wind all day, but we ought all to be very thankful for the wonderful escape from what seemed almost certain death. It is a very rough and wild country, with stony hills and the biggest rocks I ever saw dotted about. Nothing could exceed the kindness of the people, who are Kaffirs and Dutch farmers. They did everything they possibly could for us, and it was extraordinarily good luck for us that we landed within three miles of a fishing village, and twelve miles from a telegraph office.
The behaviour of the troops was splendid. They were as steady as if we were parading in the barrack square; every man stood in his proper place; there was not the slightest confusion or hurry; and they did exactly as they were told. Had there been the slightest panic a dreadful loss of life must have occurred, as getting the boats off was a most difficult business, owing to the heavy swell, and when they were launched they leaked so that half-an-hour’s baling had to be done before we dared let them start. Everything had to be done by the soldiers, as the ship’s crew were all employed in trying to shut the watertight doors, and keep the sea out of the engine room. If it had got in there before the fires were put out a fearful explosion would have occurred. The men worked unceasingly till dark and all next day, and finally marched the twelve miles to St Helena Bay over a heavy sandy track, and the whole time they were as cheery as possible, and every man seemed determined to outdo the others in pluck and work. In fact they all behaved like heroes, and lived up to the highest traditions of the British Army.
The troops referred to consisted of the “A” Squadron and a troop of the “B” Squadron 10th Hussars, the 63rd Battery, and 52 men of the Royal Army Medical Corps.


Royal Cornwall Gazette, 1st February 1900

A private in the 10th Hussars writes that after arriving at Cape Town they went to Ellensbosch, where there were about 5,000 horses, and chose 150 Argentine ponies to replace the horses lost in the wrecked Ismore. In breaking in these ponies two of their best officers were so much injured that they were still going about on crutches when he wrote




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The eldest daughter of Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking (Source Wikipedia)



Violet Emily Mildred Bathurst, Lady Apsley, CBE (née Meeking; 29 April 1895 – 19 January 1966) was a British Conservative Party politician. Upon the death of her husband, Lord Apsley, she succeeded him as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol Central in a 1943 by-election. She held the seat until 1945 when it was taken by Labour.

Violet Mildred Emily Meeking was born on 29 April 1895 in Marylebone, London. She was the daughter of Captain Bertram Meeking of the 10th Hussars and his wife, Violet Charlotte (née Fletcher). She would later use the name "Viola".

During World War I she served with a Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse and ambulance driver at Marsh Court Military Hospital.

She had an early interest in politics and was president of the Southampton Women's Conservative Association in 1924.

On 27 February 1924, she married Lord Apsley and they had two sons: Henry Allen John (1927–2011) and George Bertram (1929–2010).

Apsley gained her pilot's licence in 1930 and served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War, resigning her commission after being elected to Parliament.

In 1930 she had a hunting accident which left her permanently disabled and unable to walk. Her maiden speech in parliament was made from her wheelchair.

Before World War II Apsley and her husband supported pro-appeasement groups, sometimes speaking alongside fascist supporting speakers, and organised pro-appeasement talks in Bristol up to April 1939.

Her husband died in an aircraft accident in 1942, and she succeeded him as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol Central, winning a 1943 by-election with a majority of 1,559. In the 1945 general election Lady Apsley lost her seat. She contested the Bristol North East seat between 1947 and 1951, opposing the creation of the National Health Service and other elements of the welfare state, but was not re-elected to Parliament.

Between 1952 and 1954 she was a member of the Central Council of the Victoria League. She held numerous offices in the Conservative Party, and was National Chairman of the Women's Section of the British Legion. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1952 Queen's Birthday Honours, "for public and social services".

AND

The younger daughter of Captain Bertram Charles Christopher Spencer Meeking (Various sources)

Daisy Finola Meeking was born in Dublin 9 September 1896. In 1921 she married Lord Somers who in 1926 was appointed Governor of Victoria. They met at Balmoral when she and her sister were guests of the King. After she married she was known as Finola, Lady Somers.

In 1929 Finola brought back from England a new de Havilland Moth in packing cases for a 4,700 mile flight to Alice Springs and Darwin and then back down the east coast to Melbourne. She flew with a Flt-Lt. F. M. Denny, who was on her husband's staff, piloting the aircraft herself for several long stages.

After a short period as Acting Governor-General of Australia, Lord Somers finished his highly successful stint as Governor of Victoria in October 1931, and they returned to his ancestral home, Eastnor Castle near the Malvern Hills. He later became President of the M.C.C., then Chief Scout after the death of Baden-Powell.

In the Second World War the Somers were posted to Egypt where he was Commissioner for the Red Cross but died in June 1944 from throat cancer. Sadly for Finola, two-thirds of the money he left was swallowed up by death duties.

Lady Somers was Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides until 1949 when she resigned due to ill-health; she was awarded the CBE in 1950. She moved back into Eastnor Castle (actually, into the servants' quarters), lived there 'in much reduced circumstances until she moved into the former head gardener’s cottage to make way for her only daughter, Elizabeth, and her son-in-law, Ben Hervey-Bathurst.

She died 6 October 1981 in Hereford, aged 85.

A fantastic thread that encompasses so much in just a few posts.

This is Captain Meeking's sometimes rather rambling account of the wreck of the Ismore, as published in the Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette, 6th January 1900.


Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette, 6th January 1900

WRECK OF TROOPSHIP “ISMORE”.

LETTER FROM AN IVER OFFICER ON BOARD.

GOOD CONDUCT OF THE TROOPS.

The following is a letter from Captain Meeking, of the 10th Royal Hussars: – “About 2.30 a.m., on Sunday morning, I found myself more or less awake, and heard the Captain talking in loud tones on the bridge, just above my cabin. All of a sudden I heard him say “Hard-a-port any way”. The next moment there was a bump, not a very hard one, but a fearful grinding noise just under my cabin. I sprang out of my berth, and heard the Captain stop the engines and shout “Man the boats”. I pulled ______ out of bed, and stuffed on some trousers and a jacket over my night things, and got out, when I found everyone turning out, and the ship’s officers calling to their men to come and cast the boats loose. By this time our men and the Artillery men had begun to get on deck, each with a lifebelt on or in his hand, and they went and stood to their horses’ heads at once, without any confusion whatever. We then told each party off for their boats, as they had been arranged before, and they helped the ships’ officers with the boats. The ships’ officers were excellent, and never lost their heads a bit. It was quite dark, but the engineers fixed up an electric light, which helped us. It was a difficult job, for some of the boats leaked badly, not having had water in them, and if we had had to get in them at once there would have been many too many. As it was one was filled as arranged for, but half the men had to be taken out as the boat was up to the gunwales in the water, and I thought once at sea would swamp her, and we got two or three boats on either side into the water and were getting the others onto the davits just as it began to get a little light. We could see some rocks showing about 100 yards ahead and some astern, and high land about half-a-mile off, just outlined in the morning mist. It struck me as exactly like some of the bays at Scilly, Hells Bay especially. About 3.30 the Captain sent off the 3rd officer to see if we could land, and he came back and said “Yes we could, but it was very rocky”. The tide was falling and the rock we were on began to show close to the companion ladder on the port side, and we were afraid one of the boats would hit it in the swell as we were trying to get _______, who was very ill and had to be carried, into the boat. All the boats that were launched went off, and we started getting the rest of the boats into the water pretty nearly unaided, as the chief of the crew had to go in the boats already launched to steer and look after them. However, we managed that somehow, until the boats began to come back, and some natives’ boats, also manned by Cape Bay fishermen, half-white, half-black. By this time, as the tide was going down, there seemed no danger of the ship slipping off the rock, so we began to get provisions, arms, etc., into the boats, and all we could get hold of, but nothing heavy, as the water had put out the engine-room fire 20 minutes after we struck, but luckily they were just able to stop it getting into the boilers before they were cooled down a bit by spreading tarpaulins over them, or the whole thing would have blown up, and there was no more steam, and we could not work the steam winch. About 9 o’clock those that remained knocked off to get some breakfast, and whilst they were at that the ship gave an awful crack, and the Captain told us to get the rest of the men off, so we did, only about six or eight remaining. We handed down some more arms, bags and anything we could get hold of. We had tried throwing some of the horses overboard, but we gave it up at last, as some swam out to sea and some round the ship, but we got three or four ashore that way in the morning and some more in the afternoon, but many were lost, which could not be picked up by the boats. When it seemed the ship was not settling down any more a few more men got on board again, and threw more horses over, and anything that could be got up into the boats, but in the afternoon the swell had so increased it was very difficult to get alongside. The men were wonderful with the boats, and many of them much better than the ship’s sailors. At dusk all except the captain and some of the stewards and engineers left the ship, and a native boat stood by all night. It was lucky they did, as at 3 a.m. they had to leave as the ship broke in half. A few more horses came ashore, but badly injured. Altogether we have saved most of our clothes, some chargers, altogether about 28 horses, many of which will be of little good, I have lost my three chargers and all my saddlery; my poor brown mare was thrown overboard, but somehow got her jugular vein cut in two, but managed to swim to the shore, where she died from loss of blood. We managed to wire to a village 12 miles off to Cape Town for help, and two men-of-war, and the Columbian transport (39) were off the wreck at 9 a.m. on Monday morning, but could not come within 3 miles on account of the sea, but by walking 14 miles to another bay, they got us off. Naval people say nothing short of a miracle saved us all, and we realise that if there had been the sea which got up in the afternoon we could never have launched the boats as we did. I managed to send off a wire home to say I was safe, fearing some horrible account or rumour might have reached home. One only now that it is over begins to recognise it as it is more like a hideous nightmare …illegible… extraordinary that out of 450 men and 70 crew no one hardly was even hurt, for which we may indeed thank a most merciful Providence. I cannot give any reason for the occurrence beyond that it must have been a strong current on the coast, and we were not far from where the Birkenhead was lost. It was close to Columbine Point, just outside St Helena’s Bay, where the ship struck on a reef with deep water all round had she slipped off”.


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