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Hello all,

Many years ago (December 2006), I thought I had purchased Commander Egerton's sword. Sadly, the item never turned up. To cut a long story short, the police got involved, the eBay seller ended up in court and I got my money back. The police impounded the seller's entire stock, but Commander Egerton's sword was never found.
F.G.E. is a distant cousin of mine (my second name is Egerton).

Here is a small watercolour of him, framed as a memorial:



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And a cabinet photograph



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I came across this site researching the background to the Memorial to Lt Egerton in St Mary's Church. Byfleet - I am a churchwarden there and am visiting a game reserve next to Ladysmith next month. The reference to him being killed there - 250km from the sea yet being a Naval officer - sparked my curiosity. I have worshipped at St Mary's for over 40 years and had no idea we had such a significant war memorial in the building. You will see it has been beautifully maintained. I've had to post a link because the file size is too big and loses quality if I compress it. I'm planning to visit the Siege Museum, his grave and the Lady Anne Battery plaque when I'm there.

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The connection to Byfleet is that his parents lived on and owned St George's Hill in Weybridge which is in our parish. They are buried in our church yard.

Thank you for this, Mike

I am a distant cousin of Commander Egerton. My great grandmother was from a branch of the family and my middle name is Egerton.

Here is your photograph (with perspective corrected).

Neville



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Thanks Neville. I have sent the photo to the Imperial War Museum to update his entry in the War Memorials Register.

I've just returned from my trip to South Africa and a successful visit to Ladysmith. Rather surprisingly the Siege Museum makes no reference to Lt Egerton by name, despite the fact that a suburb is named after him, although the role of the Naval Brigade is well documented. We had to do our own research to locate the Naval Gun Plaque - again the museum has no information on it - which for the record is outside 12 Jones Road (should anyone wish to visit). His grave is in a beautifully maintained ABW Grave Site in the main town cemetery and his name is also inscribed on large War Memorial (although the initials are incorrect). When I work out how to compress my photos to less than 0.5MB I will add them here.