43.3.2.5.b The Lineage of Alan Tarbat - His parents Royal Playmates

The Lineage of Alan Tarbat

AlanTarbat , was the grandson of Colonel Arthur George Durnford Royal Engineers and his wife Victoria Devon.

Jemima Isaacson was a direct great granddaughter of King William The Conqueror, the complete historical account of the family can be found at www.edurnford.blogspot.com

Andrew Durnford was the son of Elias Durnford and Martha Gannaway. He and his brothers began a 250 year tradition of serving with the Royal Engineers

His gg grandparents were Andrew Montague Isaacson Durnford and Jemima Isaacson.  Major Andrew Durnford was Mayor in Bermuda.  

They had two sons, Andrew Montague Isaacson Durnford and Anthony William Durnford.

Anthony William Durnford married Barbara Brabazon, from the Brabazon Family of Tara in Ireland.  Barbara had married John Moore, and had three children with him. 

There was a highly public legal battle with regard to her leaving John and having an affair with Anthony  They later married.

Their children were:

      1        Edward William Durnford         1803 – 1889  m  Elizabeth Rebecca Langley 1804 – 1894
2.      George Arthur Durnford           1804 – 1856
3.      Catherine Jemima Durnford      1806 – 1820
4.      Arthur Gifford Durnford           1809 – 1886      Marianne Wiffen  1821- 1864

His great grandparents were

Edward William Durnford and Elizabeth Rebecca Langley

Edward William Durnford was born 1803 and baptised in St Mary’s Marylebone London.  Elizabeth Rebecca Langley was born 1804.

Edward, like his father and uncles before him joined the Royal Engineers.

In 1825 he was nominated a "Candidate for the Corps of Royal Engineers," and joined the Ordnance Survey at Cardiff.  In August 1826, he was posted to Chatham and was gazetted 2nd-Lieutenant in Sept. of the same year.

(a) He joined the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1827 and served there until 1842 when he transferred to the English Survey in which he served until 1844.

(b) He was promoted 2nd-Captain in 1841.  In 1845 he embarked for service in China.

(c) In 1849 he served in Scotland until 1855 when he embarked for service in the Crimea.

He was however, detained at Malta and served there until 1856, when he embarked for Ireland where he was employed upon district duties until 1857, being appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the Royal Engineers serving there.

In the meantime, he had been promoted to Brevet Major in July 1854 and Lieutenant-Colonel in December of the same year.

Shortly after his promotion to full Colonel in 1860 he was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer in Ireland, which he held until 1866 when he again embarked for Malta as Commanding Royal Engineer and Colonel on the Staff.

He remained at Malta until his promotion to the rank of Major-General in 1868.  He was promoted Lieutenant-General in 1874, and in the same year he was gazetted to the rank of Colonel Commandant in the Corps.

He was further promoted to the rank of General on Oct. 1, 1877.  He died a the age of 85 on Jan. 30 1889.  Elizabeth died January 1894 in Portsea, Hampshire.

 Edward and Elizabeth were married in 1829 at St John’s Church Cardiff   Elizabeth died 28 Jan 1894 in Southend .  Before her death she was living at 22 Peltham Road Portsmouth    

She was the daughter of Captain John Langley b 1771 in London, and Annabella Claringbold.   She was born 1778 and died August 1848 in Cardiff.

Her father was the Captain, Lieut-Surgeon  and Paymaster in the Royal Glamorgan Militia.  He inherited Golding Hall under the will of his uncle, General Archer Arnold Langley, and sold it in 1818.

Elizabeth was one of 12 children. Among her brothers was General Sir George Colt Langley KCB, a General in the British Army.  He attended Adam's Grammar School for his schooling.

George married Maria Catherine Penrice and one of their children was Major Lionel Langley of the Royal Engineers.  (Maria’s sister, married Edward and Elizabeth’s son Edward Congreive Langley.)

Major Lionel Langley of the Royal Engineers in Portsmouth, went on a shooting expedition.

He was the son of General Sir George Colt Langley of the Royal Marines and, at the aged of 40, had served his Queen in defending her empire for many years.

During the expedition at Kullur Madras, India, Major Langley was killed by a tiger.
His remains were returned home and interred in Highland Cemetery and a memorial was put up in St Jude’s Church, Southsea – from John Sadden’s The Portsmouth Book of Days.     

Another of her brothers John Henry Langley was a solicitor in Cardiff and another Robert Langley was an Attorney and assistant country clerk in Cardiff in 1851

The Langley's have a fine historical background, as the family were descended from the Langley's of Golding Hall in Shropshire.  There is possibly a link between Geoffrey de Langley 1226, and Edmund de Langley b 1341 son of King Richard III and nephew of our 17th great grand uncle.

Some members of the Langley family were merchants, and some held postings in Jamaica.

Col. Andrew Langley 1702   Member of the Assembly in Jamaica in 1688 and held other posts up to 1702.

He  was the son of John Langley of St Peter's Cornhill who was Alderman of London  his daughter Elizabeth Langley who married Fulke Rose in 1678 in Jamacia and Jane married Anthony Swymmer of Jamacia,  When Andrew died the Swymmer's inherited his estates.

John Langley was an English merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1653.

Langley was a merchant of the City of London and a member of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. He was one of the Court Assistants from 1643 to 1648 and from 1649 to 1650. He was elected alderman of the City of London for Langbourn ward in December 1649 or January 1650. From 1650 to 1652 he was on the Committee of the East India Company. In 1652 he was Commissioner for the Admiralty and Navy and also Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company.[1]

In 1653, Langley was nominated as Member of Parliament for City of London in the Barebones Parliament. He was a member of the Committee of the East India Company from 1653 to 1655 and from 1656 to 1657. He was one of the Court Assistants from 1664 to 1671. He was Deputy-Governor of the Levant Company from 1671 to 1672 and was again one of the Court Assistants from 1672 to 1673.

Langley became poor in his old age and a pension of £20 per annum was granted to him by the Court of Common Council on 10 October 1679.

Elizabeth's great grandfather Thomas died in 1790 in Jamaica.

1. The children of Edward and Elizabeth were:

  

1.      Anthony William Durnford                1830 – 1879  m  Frances Katherine Tranchell 1834 - 1888

2.      Edward Congreve Langley Durnford   1832 – 1927  m  Julia Penrice 1829 – 1909

3.      Annabella Barbara Durnford                1834 – 1885  m Lieut Col. Edward Thomas Lloyd RE           1804 - 1883

4.      Catherine Jemima Durnford                1836 – 1904  m Rev William Chessborough LePoer                               Kennedy    1835 – 1865  and Dr John William Moore Miller 1821 – 1884

5.      Arthur George Durnford                 1838 – 1912   m  Victoria Harriet Louisa Devon 1837 – 1921

6.      Harriet Marie Boetler Durnford 1840 – 1916

Rev William Chessborough LePoer was another genealogist within the Durnford Family.  He and Catherine had three sons.  

Herbert John Whiteside MacKenzie Kennedy   1858 – 1914 he married Sarah Bisdee

Chessborough Gordon MacKenzie Kennedy      1858 – 1898 m  Ethel Slane

Major Edward Charles William MacKenzie Kennedy 1863 – 1932 m Ethel May Fuller

His Grandparents were

5.  The children of Arthur and Victoria were:

5.1   Ethel Mary Victoria Devon             1867  - 1949    m Rev James Edward Tarbat 1863 -1937

5.2   Gwendolyn Alice Mary Durnford      1869 – 1934

5.3   Arthur Cecil Somerset Durnford        1875 - 1897

5.4   Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford          1876 – 1951  m  Bessie Muriel Ford 1877 – 1965

His Parents

5.1. The children of Ethel and James Tarbat were:

5.1.1    Alan Cecil Tarbat                           1904 - 1978

5.1.2    Evelyn Mary Tarbat                         1906 – 1945  m Rev Cap Alan Cecil Parr 1904- 1943

The Family of Ethel Durnford

Ethel Durnford was the daughter of Arthur and Victoria Durnford.  Arthur was born in Ireland, while his father, General Edward Durnford of the Royal Engineers as he was in charge of mapping the country.

Following a long family tradition, Arthur enlisted in the Royal Engineers.

They married on 21^st August 1866 in Addington in Kent.  Arthur was then off to Malta, to serve with his brother and father.

While at Malta, two children were born, Ethel, and Gwendoline. 

Then in 1871, they returned to Aldershot, living at Victoria Road, Aldershot.

In 1875, their son Arthur Cecil Durnford was born, followed by Guy Edward Jervoise Durnford in 1876.

Her father in 1884/5, served with the Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir Charles Warren, as a Commanding Royal Engineer, and was mentioned in despatches.

Her father retired in 1894, and later lived at West Hill Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, where he died in 1912.

Ethel and her sister Gwen, as children, played with the grandchildren of Queen Victoria, Princess Patricia, Princess Margaret, and Prince Arthur, at Queen Victoria’s residence at Isle of Wight.

Their mother was invited to Princess Patricia’s wedding, proving that their Royal connections were solid.

For the children to count amongst their childhood friends, the grandchildren of Queen Victoria, there had to have been a close relationship between their parents.

Arthur and Victoria had 4 children,

5.1       Gwendolen Alice Mary Durnford

5.2       Ethel Mary Victoria Durnford,

5.3        2^nd Lieut Arthur Cecil Somerset Durnford

5.4       Lieut Col Guy Edward Jervois Durnford RE.

 

Childhood friends, children of Prince Arthur, Queen Victoria's great grandchildren.

The Royal Connections

  Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert; 1 May 1850 – 16 January 1942), was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so. In 1910 he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of St John and held this position until 1939.

Arthur was educated by private tutors before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich at the age of 16. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the British Army, where he served for some 40 years, seeing service in various parts of the British Empire.

During this time he was also created a royal duke, becoming the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, as well as the Earl of Sussex. In 1911, he was appointed as Governor General of Canada, replacing the Earl Grey as viceroy. He occupied this post until he was succeeded by the Duke of Devonshire in 1916. He acted as the King's, and thus the Canadian Commander-in-Chief's, representative through the first years of the First World War.

After the end of his viceregal tenure, Arthur returned to the United Kingdom and there, as well as in India, performed various royal duties, while also again taking up military duties. Though he retired from public life in 1928, he continued to make his presence known in the army well into the Second World War, before his death in 1942. He was Queen Victoria's last surviving son.

It was at an early age that Arthur developed an interest in the army, and in 1866 he followed through on his military ambitions by enrolling at the Royal Military College at Woolwich, from where he graduated two years later and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 18 June 1868.  The Prince transferred to the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 2 November 1868 and, on 2 August 1869, to the Rifle Brigade, his father's own regiment, after which he conducted a long and distinguished career as an army officer, including service in South Africa, Canada in 1869, Ireland, Egypt in 1882, and in India from 1886 to 1890.

Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria Agnes; later Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn; 25 July 1860 – 14 March 1917) was a German princess, and later a member of the British Royal Family, the wife of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. She also served as the Viceregal Consort of Canada, when her husband served as the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queens Margrethe II of Denmark and Anne-Marie of Greece are among her great-grandchildren.

Her father was:

Prince Frederick Louis Guelph married Duchess Elisabeth Albertine Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and their daughter was Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg, Queen Consort of Prussia 1776 – 1810.

She married HRH Prince Frederick Charles Alexander Hohenzollern of Prussia and their son was

HRH Prince Frederick Charles Hohenzollern of Prussia who married HRH Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt Dessau of Prussia.  They were 2^nd cousins.

On 29 November 1854 she married her second cousin Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. He was a grandson of Frederick William III of Prussia by his father Prince Charles of Prussia.

They had four children:

Princess Marie Elisabeth Luise Friederike of Prussia1855-1888 married twice (1) Prince Henry of the Netherlands (1820–1879); (2) Prince Albert of Saxe-Altenburg

Princess Elisabeth Anna of Prussia1857-1895married Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg

Princess Anna Victoria Charlotte Augusta Adelheid of Prussia1858 - 1858 

Princess Luise Margarete Alexandra Victoria Agnes of Prussia1860- 1917 married Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn

Prince Joachim Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Leopold of Prussia1865 -1931married Princess Louise Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Their children were

 

Princess Margaret of Connaught (Margaret Victoria Charlotte Augusta Norah; 15 January 1882 – 1 May 1920) was Crown Princess of Sweden and Duchess of Scania as the first wife of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf.

Known in Sweden as Margareta, she died 30 years before her husband's accession to the throne of Sweden

Prince Arthur of Connaught KG KT GCMG GCVO GCStJ CB PC (Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert; 13 January 1883 – 12 September 1938) was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria. He served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 20 November 1920 to 21 January 1924.

On 15 October 1913, Prince Arthur married his cousin Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife (17 May 1891 – 26 February 1959) at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, London.

Princess Patricia of Connaught (Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth; later Lady Patricia Ramsay;^[  17 March 1886 – 12 January 1974) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Upon her marriage to Alexander Ramsay, she relinquished her title of a British princess and the style of Royal Highness

The Duke and Duchess of Connaught with their children in 1893

OSBORNE HOUSE, Isle of Wight. Queen Victoria and family in the grounds of Osborne House, 1898. Photograph from the Ryde album.
Left to right:
Leopold of Battenberg, Princess Aribert of Anhalt, Duchess of York with Prince Edward and Princess Mary (on knee), Princess Margaret of Connaught Prince Alexander of Battenberg (on ground),
Duke of York with Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Duchess of Connaught, Princess Patricia of Connaught (on ground), Princess Henry of Battenberg, Princess Ena of Battenberg, Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, Prince Maurice of Battenberg

Copyright © Historic England Media ID 1126355 Date: 23rd July 2008 Source: Historic EnglandSource: English Heritage Images Credit: Historic England Photo Library

Royal visit during colonial times in 1881 by Prince George (later King George V) and Prince Albert during their three-year tour of the British Empire visiting the Americas, the Falkland Islands, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, the Far East, Singapore, Ceylon, Aden, Egypt, the Holy Land and Greece between 1879 and 1882.    Photo taken at Government House. Brisbane

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[1] Of interest is that Anne Vane, was the partner of Prince Frederick Louis Guelph, 15^th Prince of Wales, and Duke of Hanover 1708 – 1752.  Their son was FitzFrederick Cornwell Vane Hanover.

Ann married William Standhope and John Hervey, she was mentioned in the writings of Sir Robert Walpole, one of Victoria’s ancestors