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Colonel Bertram Henry Samuel Romilly DSO (6 November 1878 – 6 May 1940) was a British Army officer of the Boer War and First World War. He was the brother-in-law of Sir Winston Churchill.[1]
Early life and education
editRomilly was born at Queen Anne's Mansions, St James's Park, London,[2] [3] the eldest of five children born to barrister Samuel Henry Romilly (1849–1940), son of Lt.-Col. Frederick Romilly, and Lady Arabella Charlotte Romilly (1850–1907), eldest daughter of 9th Earl of Southesk. His great-grandfathers were the legal reformer Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), Solicitor-General and Member of Parliament, who was born of French Huguenot descent; and the Scottish diplomat Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 2nd Earl of Minto.[4]
He was educated at Charterhouse School through 1895.[5] In 1896, he went to Royal Military College, Sandhurst, with the third best marks in the entrance examination for cavalry cadets.[6]
Military career
editRomilly left Sandhurst in 1898 and joined the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards.[7] He served in the Boer War with distinction; he was mentioned twice in dispatches and received the Queen's medal with five clasps. He was appointed a companion of the Distinguished Service Order in 1902.[8]
In 1904, during the Khedivate of Egypt, he was seconded to the Egyptian Army .[10] attached fo the Egyptian Camel Corps in Sudan. For his services in the last War he was rnentioned in dispatches and from 1919 to 1920 he was Military Governor of the Province of Galilee. He went on retired pay in 1924. and the following year was appointed chief instructor at the Cairo Militarv Academv. a nost he held untul
In 1904 Romilly was attached to the Egyptian Army Camel Corps in the Sudan, leading the force from 1913. By December 1914, having completed ten years seconded service with the Egyptian Army, he was posted back to his regiment, the Scots Guards, in England. In January 1915 he rejoined the 1st Battalion in France, defending a section of the front near the village of Cuinchy, in command of 'B' Company. On 4 December 1915 he married Nellie, daughter of the late Colonel Sir Henry Hozier and Lady Henrietta Blanche, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Airlie. Between 24 September 1916 and 11 April 1917, Romilly, now Lt. Colonel, was in command of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Scots Guards, stationed in South Kensington, and later Chelsea. On 3 May 1917 he returned to active service, taking command of the 2nd Battalion, then behind the line at Clery. However, he was hospitalised on July 29th, when his dugout suffered a direct hit from a German shell. After a period of recuperation from shell shock, he commanded the reserve battalion until the end of the war in 1918. From 1919 to 1920 Romilly was military governor of the province of Tiberias (Galilee) in the British mandated territory of Palestine. Between 1920 and 1924 he commanded the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards, retiring from the regiment as a Colonel in 1924. He then returned to the Middle East. From 1925 to 1928 the Egyptian army employed him as chief instructor at the Cairo Military School.
He was appointed an Officer of the Egyptian Order of Ismail in 1928.[11]
Personal life
editOn 4 December 1915, Romilly married Nellie Margaret Ogilvy Hozier at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington Barracks, Garrison of London. Nellie was the daughter of Colonel Sir Henry Hozier and Lady Henrietta Blanche, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Airlie. Nellie was the younger sister of Clementine Hozier, wife of Sir Winston Churchill. However, it is strongly suspected that Hozier was not the father of all of Lady Blanche's four children; her brother-in-law Bertram Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, who was married to Blanche's sister Lady Clementine Ogilvy, is considered the most likely candidate as their biological father.[12][13][14]
Lord Redesdale walked Nellie down the aisle at her wedding. Sir Victor Mackenzie was best man and Randolph Churchill and John Spencer-Churchill were pages.[15]
They had two sons:[4]
- Giles Samuel Bertram Romilly (1916–1967), journalist
- Esmond Marcus David Romilly (1918–1941), socialist and journalist who eloped with his cousin Jessica Mitford; killed in action while serving with the Royal Air Force
His father died in March 1940, but Bertram was unable to attend the funeral because of his own poor health.[16] He inherited the family estate of Huntington Park, Kington, Herefordshire, where he died two months later following "severe illness and great suffering".[1][17]
His letters from Sudan and France are held at Cambridge University Library.[18]
References
edit- ^ a b "Obituary: Colonel B. H. S. Romilly". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 9 May 1940. p. 9.
- ^ "Births". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 8 November 1878. p. 1.
- ^ "Births". The Belfast News-Letter. 11 November 1878. p. 1.
- ^ a b Burke, Bernard (1925). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. Burke Publishing Company. p. 1520. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ Charterhouse Register, 1872–1910. Chiswick Press. 1911. p. 500. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
- ^ "Royal Military College, Sandhurst". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 23 July 1896. p. 7.
- ^ "No. 26945". The London Gazette. 8 March 1898. p. 1436.
- ^ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6900.
- ^ You must specify issue= and date= when using {{London Gazette}}.
- ^ "No. 27660". The London Gazette. 22 March 1904. p. 1873.
- ^ "No. 33436". The London Gazette. 6 November 1928. p. 7205.
- ^ Purnell, Sonia (2019). Clementine Churchill: A Life in Pictures. White Lion Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-78131-909-3.
- ^ Pearson, John (2011). The Private Lives of Winston Churchill. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4482-0783-1.
- ^ Soames, Mary (2011). Clementine Churchill. Transworld. ISBN 978-1-4464-8895-9.
- ^ "Marriages: Colonel Romilly and Miss Hozier". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 6 December 1915. p. 11.
- ^ "Funerals – Mr. C. H. Romilly". The Times. The Times Digital Archive.
- ^ "Deaths". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 8 May 1940. p. 1.
- ^ "Romilly, Bertram Henry Samuel, 1878-1940 (Colonel)". Cambridge University Library. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
External links
editcompanions of the Distinguished Service Order