Major Lionel Randolph Coleridge Sumner, MC

 

 

Major Lionel Randolph Coleridge Sumner, MC

 1893-1960

 Dress Tunic, c. 1911

 

 Sumner joined the 5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment on the 23rd of December, 1911, as a second lieutenant. Prior to 1908, the 5th Battalion had been designated as the 2nd Volunteer Battalion. The regiment had been organized in 1859 as the 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers and retained its rifle green uniforms until 1925. Sumner was advanced to lieutenant in 1913. He became a temporary captain on the 10th of June, 1915, which was made permanent in June of 1916. Sumner was made acting major of the 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment for a brief period in June of 1918 whilst serving as second in command. He was mentioned in despatches on the 16th of March, 1919, and awarded the Military Cross. In 1920 Sumner went to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer in the Nigerian Civil Service. He was placed on the Territorial Reserve list in 1922. Sumner remained in Nigeria until retiring in 1944 as a District Commissioner. He then returned to England at Southmead.

 

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Departed the collection in 2024.

Major Nigel Rutherford-Young

 

 

Major Nigel Rutherford-Young

 1942-

 Mess Dress, c. 1968

 

 Rutherford-Young joined the 1st Battalion of the London Scottish Regiment in 1961 as a private soldier. He was appointed an Officer Cadet in 1967 and gazetted to the reorganized G (London Scottish) Company, 51st Highland Volunteers on the 2nd of May, 1968. Rutherford-Young was advanced to lieutenant in 1970 and received his captaincy in 1972. He was promoted to major on the 1st of November, 1974, and assumed command of the London Scottish Company. In 1994 the 1st Battalion, 51st Highland Volunteers, of which the London Scottish Company was assigned, was redesignated as the 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). Rutherford-Young retired from the Black Watch (Volunteers) on the 6th of January 1998.

 

Major John Darling Young, KStJ

 

 

Major John Darling Young, KStJ

 1910-1988

 Mess Dress, c. 1932

 

 John D. Young was born in Australia and educated at Eton and Oxford. He was gazetted to The Life Guards on the 3rd of September, 1932. Young was advanced to lieutenant in 1934. He was made a temporary captain in January of 1938 and detached to the Yorkshire Dragoons as an adjutant. Young’s captaincy was made permanent on the 2nd of March that year. Returned to The Life Guards, he was promoted to the rank of temporary major in December of 1942. Young retired from the service on the 27th of April, 1946, and was granted the honorary rank of major. During the Second World War, he served in the Middle East and Italy. Young’s wife inherited the Thornton Hall estate upon the death of her brother in 1944, where they resided in Young’s retirement. He was appointed High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1960 and Deputy Lieutenant there in 1968. On the 3rd of May, 1969, Young was made Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and subsequently created a Knight of St. John on the 22nd of August. He served as a magistrate on the Stony Stratford Bench from 1969 to 1974.

Captain John Alexander Harper Gow

 

 

Captain John Alexander Harper Gow

 1926-2022

 Forage Cap, c. 1945

 

 Gow was the son of Brigadier John Wesley Harper Gow, CBE, late of the Scots Guards. The family resided at Hallhill House of Howwood in Scotland. Gow was gazetted to the Scots Guards on the 25th of May, 1945. He had served in the ranks from September of 1944. Gow was advanced to W.S. (War Substantive) lieutenant in November of 1945. He joined the 3rd (Tank) Battalion of the regiment just prior to its disbandment, arriving in Germany in January of 1946. Gow was then posted to the 1st Battalion in Italy before returning to England with the Training Battalion. In January of 1949, he was made a permanent lieutenant. Gow transferred to the Black Watch (Territorial Army) in April of 1954, becoming a captain. He resigned his commission on the 20th of February, 1957. Later in life, Gow joined the Royal Company of Archers and was made a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Ayr and Arran in 1988.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Pelham Heneage, DSO MP

 

 

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Pelham Heneage, DSO MP

 1881-1971

 Dress Jacket, c. 1903

 

 Heneage graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1900 and was gazetted to the Royal Horse Artillery on August 18, initially assigned to S Battery at Aldershot. He was promoted to lieutenant in July of 1903. Heneage accompanied S battery to South Africa in 1904, first to Krugersdorp and then to Pretoria. He was transferred to J Battery in 1907 and posted to Rawal Pindi, Punjab; the battery returned to England the following year. Heneage obtained his captaincy in January of 1912 and was transferred to the 70th Battery of the Royal Field Artillery. He was made a Staff Captain in early 1915 and then promoted to major, becoming a Brigade Major in 1916. During this period, Heneage served in Serbia and was awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle, 4th Class in April of 1917 for operations in November and December of 1915. Subsequently, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in June of 1917. Heneage was made a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General that August and promoted to acting lieutenant colonel in May of 1918. He returned from his staff position to the Royal Field Artillery in 1919 as a supernumerary major. Heneage retired from the service in May of 1924 and was granted the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was elected to Parliament in 1924 for the Louth Division of Lincolnshire, remaining a Member of Parliament until 1945. Heneage was made Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Lincolnshire in March of 1936, knighted by the King on February 16, 1945, and served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1947. He was made Honorary Colonel of the 529th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery of the Territorial Army in December of 1947 and served in that role until 1956.

 

Regimental Sergeant-Major Alfred C. Batchelor

 

 

Regimental Sergeant-Major Alfred C. Batchelor

 Walking Out Dress, c. 1911

 

 Batchelor enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry on the 15th of November, 1895. He joined the 1st County of London Imperial Yeomanry (Rough Riders) when the regiment was formed in July of 1901. In 1902 the Lord Mayor of London and other influential City people successfully petitioned for the regiment's name to be changed to City of London Imperial Yeomanry (Rough Riders). Batchelor had risen to Acting Sergeant-Major by 1911 (the position this tunic is an example of). When the rank of warrant officer was introduced across the Regular Army in 1881, it was not extended to the Volunteer Force. As Regimental Sergeant-Majors were afforded the rank of warrant officer in the Regular Army, those in the Territorial Force were given the rank of Acting Sergeant-Major. Batchelor remained with the regiment as the Great War began. In 1915 warrant officers were permitted in the Territorial Force and Batchelor was then elevated. He was discharged from the army on the 3rd of September, 1918.

16th (The Queen's) Lancers

 

 

Other Ranks, 16th (The Queen's) Lancers

 Chapska, c. 1912

The regiment was raised in 1759 by Colonel John Burgoyne as the 16th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, being the second of the new regiments of light dragoons; it was also known as Burgoyne's Light Horse. In 1766 the regiment was renamed after Queen Charlotte as the 2nd (or The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, the number being an attempt to create a new numbering system for the light dragoon regiments. However, the old system was quickly re-established, with the regiment returning as the 16th (The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in 1769. The regiment arrived in New York in October 1776 for service in the American rebellion.

The regiment was dispatched to Ireland in March 1816 where it was re-designated as a lancer regiment in September 1816, becoming the 16th (The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Lancers). The regiment was sent to India in 1822 and saw action, using lances, against the Marathas at the siege of Bharatpur in January 1826. The regiment's title was simplified to the 16th (The Queen's) Lancers in 1861. It served in India between 1865 and 1876 and again between 1890 and 1899.

The regiment landed at Cape Colony in January 1900 for service in the Second Boer War and took part in the relief of Kimberley in February 1900. The regiment, which had been based at The Curragh at the start of the First World War, landed in France as part of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade in the 1st Cavalry Division in August 1914 for service on the Western Front. The regiment was retitled as the 16th The Queen's Lancers in 1921 and amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922.

 

Corporal, 16th Lancers, in full dress uniform, 1900
By Percy William Reynolds