TOPIC:

Francis Herbert Hemingway

Lieutenant, 4th (Militia) Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment - 1889
Trooper, Bechuanaland Border Police – First Matabele Rebellion 1893
Lieutenant, 4th (Militia) Battalion, Shropshire Light Infantry – Anglo Boer War
Captain, 4th (Volunteer) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment - WWI

- British South Africa Company Medal 1893 reverse to 1696 TROOPR F.H. HEMMINGWAY. B.B. POLICE.
- Queens South Africa Medal (Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901 & 1902) to Lieut. F.H. HEMINGWAY. 4/K. Shropshire L.I.

Frank Hemingway was born into a family of achievers in Foden Bank, Sutton, Macclesfield, Cheshire on 2 April 1870, the son of Civil Engineer and Property Owner James Hemingway and his wife Mary. His father’s occupation was provided as Railway Contractor and a very successful and prosperous one he would seem to have been.

According to the 1871 England census the family were living at Foden Bank House, Byrons Lane, Sutton. In the house with 1 year old Francis were his many siblings – Charles Robert (10), James Angus (5), Phillip Cranshaw (3) and baby Allan Scott Hemingway (1 month). As befitted the house of a man-of-means, there were no fewer than five servants on hand to cater for the family’s every whim – Hannah Chapel was the Nurse, Maria Lewis the Cook and Elizabeth Reid, Emma Stonley and Martha Pearson the Domestic Servants.


The BBP (Southern Column) ambit of operations in 1893

I’ve mentioned that he belonged to a family of achievers – Charles Robert was a Justice of the Peace, an O.B.E. and a Civil Engineer on the Railways – Principal of the Logan and Hemingway Railway Contractors. Phillip and James were both Civil Engineers; Allan was a Solicitor – brothers who were born after the 1871 census – George Edward was a Burma Railway Engineer and accomplished cricketer; William McGregor was a Schoolmaster, Cambridge Blue and turned out for Gloucestershire County; Frederick Ricketts was an Assistant Commissioner in the Indian Civil Service as was Henry Edmund; and Ralph Eustace was a First Class batsman playing for Nottinghamshire and a practising architect. Frank must have felt either at home or intimidated by this auspicious company.

1879 wasn’t a very kind year to the Hemingway family. On 22 September the pater familias passed away at the age of 45. Probate was granted in December 1879 with his personal estate being sworn under £80 000. His wife was the recipient of all the household furniture and effects and the tidy sum of £700 per annum for life. Eldest son Charles Robert was awarded £500 and, not forgetting the servants, he bequeathed life annuities of £30 each to Martha Pearson and Elizabeth Reid with the residue of his estate to all his children in equal measures.

Thus it was that the 1881 England census found Mary Hemingway as the head of the family, still living at Foden Bank House. With her were daughter Edith (19), Francis, now 11, and the “new additions” in the forms of Allan (10), William (9), Frederick (6); Henry (4) and Ralph (3.) A Nurse and two Parlourmaids completed the picture.

As was almost always the case with children of well-to-do families, the sons were sent away to Boarding School. Frank didn’t escape this fate and was trundled off to the prestigious Repton School, entering the halls of the venerable seat of learning in May 1884 and departing from its hallowed corridors in April 1888.

Two years later, according to an article headed “Costly Forgetfulness,” which appeared in the Shepton Mallet Journal of 24 October 1890, Frank was in a spot of bother. The article read thus:-

“Francis Herbert Hemingway, student, of Batcombe Rectory, was summoned by Edmund MacDonald, excise officer, for having used a gun without a licence, at Batcombe, on September 11th. Defendant pleaded guilty.

Mr Bennett said that the prosecution was ordered by the Board of Inland Revenue. The defendant had stated that he had forgotten to take out a licence, and they had no reason to doubt his statement. Under those circumstances, he would remind the Bench that they had the power to reduce the penalty to any sum they thought fit. The Chairman said that the magistrates acquitted the defendant entirely, oaf any intention to defraud the revenue, but they fined him £1 and costs, for neglecting to take out the licence.”

The England census of 1891 revealed that Mrs Hemingway, finding Foden Bank House too large for her needs, had moved to Park House in Longford, Gloucester. Frank, now a Lieutenant in the Militia was living with her as were a Cook, Parlourmaid and Housemaid. Frank had been commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 4th (Militia) battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment on 18 May 1889 and Gazetted a Lieutenant on 4 May 1892, resigning his commission on the same day. This was likely because he had decided to seek adventure elsewhere.

The following year, 1893, he appeared as a Trooper with no. 1696 in the Bechuanaland Border Police. Quite when, exactly, he had joined their ranks is unclear but he seems to have arrived in the midst of the first Matabele Rebellion – an uprising by Lobengula against the Europeans who were flocking to his territory in search of gold, fame and fortune.

As part of the Southern Column under Colonel Goold-Adams’ the little force left Macloutsie on 11 October 1893. Its marching-out state showed 225 officers and men of the B.B.P., four maxim and two seven pounder guns and 230 officers and men of Raaff’s force. On the Shashi River, this European force was joined by Khama, the Paramount Chief of Bechuanaland with an impi of 1800 tribal warriors. They entered Matabeleland and fought the only engagement of note in the 1893 campaign at Imbandine (Empandeni).


A uniformed member of the BBP in 1893

Vere Stent, a Special Correspondent with the force wrote the following dispatch from the camp on the Inkwisi River on 2 November 1893. It read as follows:-

“Just in time for a hurried dispatch-account of our first engagement. At nine o’clock today, the main camp was alarmed by the sound of heavy firing in the rear, no doubt, from the baggage train moving to join us. In less than ten minutes from the sounding of the alarm, three troops of Raaff’s Horse, under Raaff himself, were moving out at the gallop with two troops of the B.B.P., leaving the infantry to guard the camp. Hardly had they disappeared before the maxims rang out, telling of hot work in the distance; three minutes later and the leading wagon was greeted with cheers.

Close after them came our mounted men, hard pressed by a horde of yelling fiends. A moments confusion followed while the horses were being got into laager and the men were beginning to look anxious when, from the south face, came again the roar of the maxim. The effect was magical and the loud cheers that followed told of the confused retreat of the enemy, awed and beaten back. Upon the retreat of the enemy into the surrounding kopjes, the mounted men again moved forward to the rescue of the remaining wagons, from which still came heavy firing.

A half hours rapid work and the enemy were forced to give up their booty, so dearly bought, not before they had managed to set fire to, and destroy, one wagon of the B.B.P. The fighting was now confined to attacking the kopjes occupied by the enemy. The fighting became very hot and the loss of the enemy is estimated as from 200 to 500. After this Gambo (Lobengula’s General) retired. We pushed forward, through the Mangwi Pass we clattered. Two night we slept in the rain, lying down where we halted, with the horses “laagered.”

Hemingway would have played his role in the defeat of Lobengula’s impis – a force of some 8 000 men routed by 1800 of whom the Europeans numbered in the hundreds. Defeated he may have been but the advantage against Lobengula was not pressed home, the failure to do so would come back to haunt Cecil John Rhodes three years hence but, for Hemingway, the war and his sojourn in Africa was, for the moment, over.

For his efforts he was awarded the British South Africa Company medal with 1893 reverse. This was, according to the medal roll, despatched to his mother’s place of residence, Longford House, Gloucester.

Hemingway sailed back to England and was next heard from just after the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War in South Africa. This war, between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State and Great Britain commenced on 11 October 1899 and, with only a puny presence in the country when the Boer Commandos crossed the borders of Natal and the Cape Colony, the British and their Colonial allies were hard-pressed to offer meaningful resistance. This resulted in a series of reverses in December 1899, known as Black Week. Passions at home were inflamed and young men throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and the Colonies made it known that they wanted to avenge Britain’s honour.

Almost a seasoned veteran of combat in Africa (compared to his peers), Hemingway was Gazetted on 10 April 1900 as “Formerly Lieutenant the Prince of Wales’s (North Staffordshire Regiment), to be Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry)”. Contemporary newspapers reported that he was serving as Instructor of Musketry and was frequently referred to in the local Hereford press in respect of training, camps, inspections, social occasions etc.

That he wasn’t immediately destined for the fighting down south was confirmed by his appearance in the 1901 England census where, on the day the enumerator called round, he was a 30 year old boarder in the house of Henry Wood, a retired Army Pensioner at 2 West Parade, Hythe in Kent. He was described as being of Independent Means. He must have departed for the front soon after, seeing service with the small contingent of the Hereford Militia who were attached to the 4th Cheshire Regiment and were known to serve around Bethulie and Springfontein in the southern Orange Free State. This is confirmed by the medal roll whereupon his name appears, dated 15 July 1901 at Bethulie Bridge.


Hemingway was operational in the southern Orange Free State/Northern Cape

Hemingway’s outfit would have been deployed in the innumerable drives undertaken by the British to try and hem the Boers into a corner, thereby making their lives miserable and their escape impossible – all culminating in their surrender. That was the theory but history tells us that, although the drives were partially successful, and conducted in tandem with the Scorched Earth policy where Boer homesteads, crops and livestock were raised to the ground, the war dragged on until 31 May 1902 with many an intrepid Boer Commander leading his men through lines of Block Houses and other obstacles to fight another day. Another reason for their presence there was to prevent incursions into the Cape Colony by Boer Commandos in search of supplies and men from "friendly" Dutch speakers who, as subjects of the Crown, would be committing treason were they to be caught aiding and abetting the Boer cause.

He appears on the SS. Brittanic’s manifest, published in the Daily News of 25 April 1902, of those who left Cape Town for England. The list contains not only his name but almost all the officers and men (all 420 of them) of the 4th Cheshire Regiment, including the Officer Commanding and fellow who signed the medal roll alluded to previously – Lt Colonel C.H. Beck.

Back home in England Hemingway gained a mention in the Hereford Times of 12 July 1902 where, under the heading “Hereford Militia,” the report read, partially, as follows:-

“The annual training of the 4th Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (formerly the Hereford Militia) was brought to a conclusion on Saturday by the regiment being dismissed at the Barracks. The Battalion was called up on June 9th for 27 days’ annual training for the first time since it was disembodied in November 1900, and proceeded to Aldershot. Two days after arrival at Aldershot the regiment took part in the rehearsal for the Royal Review. After attending a Church Parade medals for service in South Africa were presented to Lieutenant Hemingway and 16 N.C.O’s and men by the General commanding the Brigade.”

Not many months after he was at Aldershot, Hemingway tied the marital knot with 28 year old Hildegardis Maud Leigh Townsend at St Clements’ in Bournemouth on 20 October 1902. He was a 32 year old Esquire living in Southcote Road at the time vows were exchanged. A year later the couple were blessed with the arrival of Frances Mary, baptised in the Parish of Canford, Dorset on 5 September 1903.

Frances was still very much a baby when her mother passed away under somewhat bizarre but tragic circumstances. The Swanage & Wareham Guardian of 9 January 1904 provided the details under the headline “Shocking Accident at Broadstone – A Fatal Game of “Snap Dragon.”:-

“The district of Broadstone was plunged into gloom on Monday night on its becoming known that Mrs Hemingway had succumbed to injuries received on New Year's Eve through being accidentally burnt. The deceased lady, with Captain Hemingway, Mr and Mrs Tellemache, and other friends were the guests of Mr and Mrs Chater, and during the evening the old pastime of Snap Dragon was being carried out.

For this purpose methylated spirit was by mistake used instead of rum, and it would appear this became suddenly ignited and flared up with the result that Mrs Hemingway, Mrs Tellemache and Mrs Chater, who were standing near, received injuries, despite the prompt measures taken for their assistance. The deceased lady was very severely burnt but was at ease, attended to by Dr Littledale, who was present. She died, as was already stated, from the shock on Monday night.

Captain and Mrs Hemingway had not long been married, and the deceased lady leaves an infant a few months old. At the inquest Mr Frank Chater, maltster of Broadstone stated on the evening of 31st December he had some friends at his house. About twenty minutes to ten a game of snap dragon was commenced, in which the deceased joined. The snap-dragon was lit with rum. To replenish the flames he took up a small bottle from the side table, thinking it contained rum. There were two bottles on the table and the one contained methylated spirits.

He began to pour the contents into the dish containing the raisins. The bottle he had taken, however, contained methylated spirits and the flames shot up from the dish into the bottle, upon which the contents shot out into the room in a solid flame. He took his coat off and tried to extinguish the flame, which had injured the deceased. The lights of the room had been turned out before the game commenced, and in the darkness he had taken up the wrong bottle.

Everyone noticed that the clothes of the diseased were on fire and they followed her into the hall to extinguish the flames. Dr Littledale said he attended at once to the injuries of the deceased. There were extensive burns on the arm and about the body. All the face except the upper part of the forehead and left eyelid were burnt, and there were also burns on the ears. All the burns were of a serious degree – rising blisters. The shock was very intense.

Vomiting rapidly supervened and persisted until January 3rd, and then progressive fever, the temperature rising to 106.4 degrees before death.
Death took place on January 4th, about 8.30 p.m., from shock and heart failure caused by the burns over an extensive area of the body. Dr Littledale explained that deceased tried to put out the flames and thus rubbed the spirits over portions of her body which were not protected by her evening dress. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. The jury gave their fees to the Wimborne Cottage Hospital.”

Doubtless devastated by this shocking turn of events, Hemingway threw took solace on the golf course where, by all accounts, his game flourished on courses throughout the South West of England.

Out of the spotlight for a while, he was to be seen next in the 1911 England census where, as a 42 year old widower, he was living with his aged mother and two servants in Stoke Bishop, Bristol. Of his daughter there was no sign.

The Great War erupted onto the world stage on 4 August 1914, two months before Hemingway tied the knot for a second time. On this occasion wedding 44 year old widow Marion Charlotte Weston of The Maples, Broadstone at St John Baptist’s Church in Broadstone on 6 October. Described as a Gentleman, he was the same age living at Red Cottage, Broadstone.

It wasn’t until October 1917 that he commenced service, as an officer in the 4th (Vols) Hampshire Regiment from October 1917, relinquishing his commission in December 1919. Having seen no overseas or campaign service, he was not awarded any medals for World War I.

The 1921 England census revealed that he was living with his wife and two servants at 47 Westcliffe Road, Bournemouth. The Hemingway’s, money being no object, appear to have spent the bulk of their time holidaying in various parts of the globe. Flying was then in its infancy and the preferred mode of travel for those with leisure time at their disposal, was sea cruises. It was on one of these occasions where Hemingway, dogged by bad luck when it came to his marital life, became a widower for the second time. The circumstances are unclear as to what exactly transpired but, whilst holidaying aboard the luxury yacht, Stella Polaris, on 11 March 1929, his wife died at sea off the island of Malta.

The Stella Polaris, launched only a few years earlier, had soon earned a reputation of being a superb cruise ship, perfectly suited for more intimate voyages. On her regular cruises, the ship carried approximately 200 passengers compared to just half that number on a round-the-world voyage. With a crew compliment of some 130 people, this meant that the passengers received a true first-class service. In the summers, Stella cruised the northern waters of the North Cape, Spitzbergen and the Baltic Sea. During the spring and autumn, the itinerary included warmer ports of call such as the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean, while the winter months were the time of a circumnavigation of the globe.

The Western Dailey Express of 5 June 1929 reported that, “ Mrs Marion Charlotte Hemingway, of Owlsgarth, Dowding Road, Bath, formerly of Bournemouth, Hants. who died on the 11th March last, wife of Frank H. Hemingway, widow of John J. Weston, and daughter of the late W.H. Hayes of Malahide, County Dublin, left unsettled gross estate of the value of £7 312 with net personality of £6 691.”

Mrs Hemingway had directed that her body be cremated and her ashes scattered on the ground. She left £200 to her husband and £25 to her step-daughter Frances Mary.

According to the 1939 Register he was living alone, on Independent Means, at 12 Walpole Road, Boscombe, Hampshire. This interesting man passed away on 29 June 1955 at the aforementioned address, at the age of 85.

Acknowledgments:
- Various newspapers credited in the body of the work
- 1930 Souvenir Supplement of the Rhodesian Pioneers
- FMP & Ancestry