Edward Durnford and Elizabeth Langley's third son Colonel Arthur George Durnford
Arthur was born in Westport in Ireland.
He entered the Royal Engineers on June 21, 1856. He served at Chatham until 1857, Ireland until May 1859 and then Gibraltar until 1864. From 1860 to 1864 he was Adjutant at Gibraltar.
On his return to England he was with 40th Depot Company at Chatham and transferred to the 10th Co. at Shorncliffe in 1865 and then 33rd Co. at Malta.
Arthur George Durnford, Commanding 33rd Company Royal Engineers, Malta ..1869
Between May 1870 to July 1882 he was posted at Aldershot, command of B Troup, command of the C Troop, Dover,
Instructor at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham. He was promoted to Major in 1873, Brevert Lieutenant- Colonel in 1881 and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1882.
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| Shorncliffe Barracks 1904 |
In July 1882 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer at Shorncliffe, and 1883 Assistant Director of Works at the War Office.
*In November. 1884 he accompanied the Bechuanaland expedition.
He was promoted Colonel in July 1, 1885.
In 1889 he was appointed Colonel on the Staff and Commanding Royal Engineer of the North-Western District (England) and subsequently transferred in the same capacity to the Southern district where he served until Aug. 31, 1894 when he retired.
In 1886 he was at a function with Prince of Wales on behalf of Queen Victoria. He also presented a series of reports to the House regarding Agricultural taxes.
He was married to Victoria Devon and had two sons and two daughters. He died in 1912.
Special thanks to Andrew Cherry who took the time to find and photographs these graves in Exeter.
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The Bechuanaland Expedition or Warren Expedition, of late 1884/1885, was a British military expedition to Bechuanaland, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany, the Transvaal and to suppress the Boer freebooter states of Stellaland and Goshen.
In December 1884 Major-General Charles Warren was sent as HM Special Commissioner to command a military expedition to Bechuanaland, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal, and to suppress the Boer freebooter states of Stellaland and Goshen, which were backed by the Transvaal and were stealing land and cattle from the local Tswana tribes.
Warren's force of 4,000 British and local troops headed north from Cape Town, accompanied by the first three observation balloons ever used by the British Army in the field. On 22 January Warren met the Boer leader Paul Kruger at the Modder River where Kruger sought to bring the expedition to a halt on the basis that he would take responsibility for maintaining order in Bechuanaland.
Warren did not abandon his march however and on reaching Bechuanaland he dissolved up the republics of Stellaland and Goshen without bloodshed and Bechuanaland became a British protectorate.[1] Warren was recalled in September 1885.
Scottish missionary John Mackenzie (1835–99), who accompanied Warren, described his experiences with the expedition in an 1887 work, Austral Africa: Losing It or Ruling It
The Montshiwa Church was built by the Royal Engineers under Colonel Arthur George Durnford at the time of the Warren Expedition of 1885
Mafikeng Hall Museum and Cemetery
The scene then shifted to Christopher Bethall's grave. He had been a sort of personal assistant to the king of the Baralongs and was killed in an attack by the Boers. This led to some scenes of the modern local inhabitants going about their daily activities and a reminder that some 7 000 blacks had also been participants in the siege which made "the place of stones" famous. The work of the Royal Engineers was noted in the church which was built under the direction of Arthur George Durnford which still has its original roof and a well dug in 1885 which is still in good condition.
Victoria Harnet Louisa Devon born Teddington Middlesex She was the daughter of Charles Devon and Mary Long Victoria was born in 1837, and they married in 1866 in Mailing in Kent.
Her father was a Barrister and Magistrate and her family links follow some of ours, through to Jamacia and some of their stories are very interesting.
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After their marriage, Arthur and Victoria went to Malta
Children:
1.5.1 Ethel Mary Victoria Durnford 4 May 1867 Valetta Malta bap Barracca Chapel
1.5.2 Gwendolen Alice Mary Durnford 11 Aug 1869 Malta Bap Barracca Chapel
1.5.3 Arthur Cecil Somerset Dunford Mar 1875 Gillingham Kent
1.5.4 Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford Sept 1876 Farnham Surrey
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| Barracca Chapel |
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| Valetta Malta |
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| Inside one of Malta's Churches |
Some of the architecture in Malta is unbelievable, it has a very rich history and past.
The Family of Arthur Durnford, and their daughter Ethel, is told in a separate section..
Ref 43.3..5.a The Life and Times of Alan Tarbat
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Ethel Durnford married James Edward Tabart, in 1903 in Weybridge, St James Surrey. She died 1949
He was a Minister and at the time of his death they were living at 1 Romsey Road, Winchester. He died in 1939
They had two children Alan Cecil Tarbat born 1904 - d 1978 and
Evelyn Mary Tarbat born 1906 d 1945
James was not only a Deacon, Curate and Vicar at Fareham, where he is buried, but he was an entomologist, whose papers are retained at Cambridge University.
Ethel and her sister Gwen would play with the grandchildren of Queen Victoria when they were on holidays near Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
Their son Alan went to Oxford and became Assistant Master at Wells. He became a writer of poems He died in 1978 and is buried at Fareham close to his parents.
His sister Evelyn and her husband Cecil both died following the Japanese invasion of Singapore, where they had gone to teach. They were interred at a Prisoner of War camp, Sumatra Malaysia, (maybe Sandraken) where Evelyn frequently recited the Michaelmas Prayer to the others. Evelyn died of beri-beri and malaria 11th January 1945.
Her husband Captain Alfred Cecil Parr of the 1st Battalion, and Minister, Vice-Principal of St Andrews School, died at Kami, Thailand, of malaria and malnutrition on 24th June 1943.
(Maybe on the Burma Railway)
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| In the centre
of the Thailand–Burma Railway Centre is a statue based on the image
drawn by Australian POW Ray Parkin of 'Two Malarias with a Cholera'. |
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Gwendolene Alice Mary Durnford was born in Malta and lived in England. She did not marry and died 10th February 1934, at St Thomas' Devonshire.
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Arthur Cecil Somerset Durnford was born 1875, baptised 19 March 1875, at Gillingham in Kent.
He was in the British Army and died in 1897 at Cape Coast Castle Ghana.
Arthur Cecil Somerset Durnford.
Eldest son of Colonel Arthur George Durnford, he was born on Jan. 26, 1875 at New Brompton, Chatham
He was baptised at Gillingham Church, Kent, on Mar. 19, 1875 and educated at Hill House School, Guildford from Nov. 1885 to midsummer 1887, Sandroyd House, Cobham, Surrey till Easter, 1889 and Uppingham May 1889 until August 1891 after which he was tutored privately until he passed in to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst.
He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, the West India Regiment on Mar. 25, 1896.
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| Aldershop Museum |
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| Uniform of 17th Reg. |
He was attached to the 17th, the Leicestershire Regiment at Aldershot from 25th April 25 1896 to 12th September 1896.
The Leicestershire Regiment was accordingly formed on 1 July 1881. The regimental depot was at Glen Parva, and the regiment consisted of:
- The 1st and 2nd Battalions (formerly the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 17th Foot)
- 3rd (Militia) Battalion (formerly the Leicestershire Militia)
- 1st Leicestershire Rifle Volunteer Corps, redesignated as the 1st Volunteer Battalion in 1883
The 1st and 3rd battalions fought in the Second Boer War 1899 - 1902. The 2nd Battalion was stationed as a garrison regiment at Gibraltar from early 1900
On Oct. 17, 1896 he embarked for Sierra Leone. He proceeded from Sierra Leone to Cape Coast Castle with two companies, West India Regiment, to which he was appointed Adjutant and Quarter-Master on May 5, 1897.
He arrived at Cape Coast Castle May 11, 1897 and died of malarial fever, May 23, 1897.
Malaria in the 1890's was virtually unknown. In fact in 1880 Charles Laveran a French Army surgeon stationed in Algeria was the first to notice that parasites were in the blood of a person suffering from malaria. Quinine had been used from 17th Century. When the Panama Canal was being built 26000 workers were employed, of which 21000 went to hospital with malaria! On August 20th, 1897, Ronald Ross, a British officer in the Indian Medical Service, was the first to demonstrate that malaria parasites could be transmitted from infected patients to mosquitoes.
Yellow fever is also spread by mosquitos, and is still prevalent in Africa today.
What was he doing in Sierra Leona? Another amazing story unfolds, this time of the sheer number of African Slaves processed and shipped from Cape Coast Castle. There were dungeons underneath the structure, and the slaves were stored in small cells before being shipped out. Slavery was abolished in 1804, well before their posting
Still these soldiers no doubt would have imagined what horrific events had occurred at Cape Coast Castle. Timeline wise, this period of history is almost the beginning of the Second Boer War, which no doubt Arthur would have been involved in.The history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is undoubtedly the most familiar narrative Americans have of Africa. Upwards of 12 million slaves were shipped out of Africa to supply labor to the New World, and several million died along the way. It stands as one of the greatest migrations---although a forced migration---of humans ever in history.
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| Pres Obama visited in 2009 |
Before traveling through the infamous Middle Passage, slaves were brought to the coast, and held in fortifications such as Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Up to a thousand slaves could be kept in the dungeons. Conditions were appalling, with 200 slaves in one room, and no space to lie down. The floor was littered with human waste, making it now several inches higher than it was when originally built. Many became ill with malaria and yellow fever.
Cape Coast Castle is one of about thirty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally built by the Swedes for trade in timber and gold, but later used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Other Ghanaian slave castles include Elmina Castle and Fort Christiansborg. They were used to hold slaves before they were loaded onto ships and sold in the Americas, especially the Caribbean. This “gate of no return” was the last stop before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.Cape Coast Castle: The first lodge at this site was built by the Portuguese in 1555 who called the local settlement "Carbo Corso" meaning short cape. This was later corrupted to Cape Coast. The Swedes built a permanent fort in 1653 and named it Carolusburg after Charles X of Sweden. It changed hands between, the Danes, the local Fetu chief and the Dutch. Finally the English gained it and held it until the late 19th century. From this Castle, The Royal Africa Company exported about 17,000 slaves per annum to the Americas in the 1700s.After the Abolition of the Slave Trade the Anglicans established the first primary school in the Colony here.
In the 1870s the West Indian Regiment(Jamaicans brought to help subdue the Ashantis) was stationed here. Their brass band music inspired local Fante musicians to create "Adaha" music, the first documented precursor of modern Ghanaian Highlife music.
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Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford.
The youngest son of Colonel Arthur George Durnford, he was born on May 29, 1876. In 1895 he received his commission in the Royal Engineers. From 1900 to 1905 he was Assistant Instructor of Submarine Mining and Instructor (Workshops) from 1910 to 1914 at the School of Military Engineering.
He served in WWI from 1914 to 1918 as Staff Officer to the Chief Engineer of the 1st Army in France and Commanding Royal Engineer of the 61st Division 1916 to 1919. He was awarded the D.S.O. He was appointed Commanding royal Engineer of the Athlone, Ulster and Chatham Districts. He retired as a Colonel in 1926. He was married to Bessie Muriel Ford. They had one son and one daughter.
Guy went to Uppingham School in 1890. He was a Captain in the royal Engineers, and Assistant-Instructor School of Submarine Mining Gibraltar
Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant 13th August 1895
Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford was born on 29 May 1876 in Aldershot. He died in at Carisbrooke Fleet, Hampshire 1951. He married Bessie Muriel Ford on 7 Feb 1901.
Bessie Muriel Ford was born on 1 Jan 1877 in Allahabad, India. Her father was Lieut. Colonel John Ford and her mother Elizabeth Fisher Knowles.
She died on 19 Sep 1965 in London, Middlesex, England. She married Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford on 7 Feb 1901.
They had a daughter Elizabeth Barbara Durnford who did not marry born 1908 in Hampshire, and they had a son.
From Forces War Records:
1904 Captain in Gibralter Royal Engineers
1904 Captain in School of Military Engineering
1910 He was an instructor at workshops at Chatham Royal Engineers
1917 He was mentioned in despatches, for services and devotion to duty during the period 26th February 1917 to 20th September 1917 He was a Major and Acting Lt Col.
1917 5th May mentioned in Despatches
1 st January 1918 New Year Honours List
Gazette Issue 30072. Mentioned in Despatches. Field Marshal, D. Haig, Commander-in-Chief, The British Armies in France, has the honour to give a special mention to those under his command who has given distinguished and gallant service and devotion to duty.
He was entitled to these medals, but the DSO was very special.
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| British Medal |
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| Victory Medal |
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| British War Medal |
Instituted on 6th September 1886 by Queen Victoria, the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) was awarded to Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford for meritorious or distinguished service during wartime.
The order was established for rewarding individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It was a military order, until recently for officers only and normally givenfor distinguished services during active operations against the enemy.
It is typically awarded to officers ranked Major (or its equivalent) or higher, but the honour has sometimes been awarded to especially valorous junior officers.
The recipient, Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford,is known as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order and is entitled to use the letters D.S.O. after his name.
Citations for the D.S.O. were published in the London Gazette during the Great War. However if the D.S.O. was a King’s Birthday or New Year award, details were not published and in most cases will not be available.
17th December 1918
Gazette Issue 31077. Mentioned in Despatches. D. Haig has the honour to submit a list of names of the mentioned officers, ladies, non-commissioned offices and men serving, or who have served, under his command during the period 25th February, 1918, to midnight 16/17th September, 1918, whose distinguished and gallant services and devotion to duty deserve a special mention.
Instituted on 6th September 1886 by Queen Victoria, the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) was awarded to G E J Durnford for meritorious or distinguished service during wartime.
The order was established for rewarding individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war. It was a military order, until recently for officers only and normally given for distinguished services during active operations against the enemy.
It is typically awarded to officers ranked Major (or its equivalent) or higher, but the honour has sometimes been awarded to especially valorous junior officers.
The recipient, G E J Durnford,is known as a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order and is entitled to use the letters D.S.O. after his name.
Citations for the D.S.O. were published in the London Gazette during the Great War. However if the D.S.O. was a King’s Birthday or New Year award, details were not published and in most cases will not be available.
1st January 1919 With the Royal Engineers at Belfast. Now Lieutenant Colonel.
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