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Remembered Today:

Captain Cecil Edward Peter Stewart-Robertson Cameron Highlanders


Skipman

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Am researching Cecil Edward Peter Stewart-Robertson  His medal index card is a bit busy. He was well into his 50's when he enlisted in the 6th Cameron Highlanders, being wounded at Loos. He served as Q.M.S. and A/R.S.M., commissioned into Labour Corps on account of age.

 

What does this part of his M.I.C. refer to " See C.E.P. Drouet, R Highlanders, No 57b/2593

 

Any evidence he was awarded the D.C.M and Bar (before Great War)?

 

Mike

59cbd4c408dfa_ForumCEPStewart-Robertsonmic.png.99e08541b89a9d08e7dfaab9ab551630.png

59cbd4eb7d558_ForumCEPStewart-Robertsonmic2.PNG.2374ab8703ae5756da2fc8c2988eb53e.PNG

 

 

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I can't find the other card, but there was a Cecil Edward Peter Drouet born in King's Lynn in 1859.  This is probably him - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19061103.2.98 - 

 

He appears in the prison registers in 1907, having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Messrs. Spiers and Pond. Ltd.  Old Bailey - https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?name=19071119

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This story appears in the  Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 29 September 1913 

 

FOUND UNCONSCIOUS AT SEA. “DROWNED MAN’S” STRANGE STORY..

 

" Some clothes found on the beach Eastbourne two years ago were identified then as belonging to Cecil Drouet, d’Eriow, and it was supposed that had been drowned. The man has now, however, reappeared in Eastbourne and states that he remembers going out to bathe, but recollects  nothing more until found himself in a Hamburg hospital. He was then told that had been picked unconscious by yacht some miles out at sea. After recovering from his illness he had been wandering Scotland. D’Erlow claims son of the late Colonel L. R. C. Drouet, afterwards Count but though succeeded to that title had not used it. "

 

Mike

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Are you able to see what the story is about in the Portsmouth Evening News of 28th July 1908?  The transcription is mangled, but something about 2nd Scots Fusiliers? Deserter?

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Died Newton Abbott June 1937. There was a local family of note the Stewart-Robertsons at this time, very active in the community during the Great War, one matron of Red-Cross Hospital. Wonder if they knew of this character.

 

Mike

1 minute ago, IPT said:

Are you able to see what the story is about in the Portsmouth Evening News of 28th July 1908?  The transcription is mangled, but something about 2nd Scots Fusiliers? Deserter?

 

Will check.

 

Mike

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The plot thickens even more! 

In 1906 C E P Drouet was supposed to have inherited £750,000 (or possibly half if you read more carefully).  He was then, according to various papers living in Kilburn and the manager of a sub department of Spiers and Pond. There is a complicated explanation of how he was one of the heirs which I will need to read more slowly.

He was prosecuted the following year for de-frauding Spiers and Pond. His defence council said that the inheritance had affected his brain and gave that as a mitigating circumstance.

And thickens more: He was appeared in court on 27 July 1908 as a deserter from 2 RSF, having given himself up to the police on 23 July 1908.

RM

Has anyone found anything about Drouet's wife? According to at least one newspaper at the time of the inheritance (or not) she was the daughter of an MP. Possiby neice?)

RM

Edited by rolt968
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1 minute ago, Skipman said:

The 2/RSF man is "William Stewart" not sure if this same man?

 

Mike

I think he was in 2RSF as CEP Drouet. He must have joined up quickly though bearing in mind his conviction in 1907. Curiously the War Office had got back into communication about him at the time of the newspaper report.

RM

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In 1882 (Egypt) he was Cpl C E P Drouet, 57B/2593 (presumably) of 1 Royal Highlanders, still with battalion. (ancestry - see 3rd post). The memory of the army is long!

RM

 

There is actually a picture in the Penny Illustrated of 15 September 1906.

RM

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I think the "d'Eriow" should be "d'Erlon", and the family may be descended from Count Drouet d'Erlon, who was one of Napoleon's Corps Commanders at Waterloo.

 

Ron

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3 minutes ago, IPT said:

 

This is what I can see;

drouet.jpg

That's the one I saw. He gave himself up to the police on 23rd July as a deserter from 2 RSF. Five days later the War Office had not got back to them!

RM

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The father, Lloyd Richter Creak Drouet, born Bahamas, was at one time a Captain in the 2nd West India Regiment. He was born in the Bahamas.

 

He appears to have married Sophia Geraldine Stewart Robertson,in 1857 and divorced her in 1863.

 

 

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Many thanks all, very interesting. I'm trying to figure out what relation he was to this local family.

 

Major James Stewart-Robertson, O.B.E., D.L., J.P.Laird of Edradynate Estate, Strathtay, a Captain and honorary Major in 3rd Black Watch. I think there were three sisters, one of them was Mary Stewart-Robertson. Their father also James, of Edradynate.

 

Mike

Edited by Skipman
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19 minutes ago, IPT said:

The father, Lloyd Richter Creak Drouet, born Bahamas, was at one time a Captain in the 2nd West India Regiment. He was born in the Bahamas.

 

He appears to have married Sophia Geraldine Stewart Robertson,in 1857 and divorced her in 1863.

 

 

According to their marriage certificate Lloyd Richter Creak Drouet, father was Peter Drouet, "Deputy Military Storekeeper". Sophia's father was Frederick Freer Robertson, Gentleman.

I am still trying to disentangle the genealogy which I assume that CEPD gave to the local paper in 1906. It doesn't actually go back further than his father and aunt.

 

What is the Aberfeldy connection?

RM

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There's an article in the Graphic - Saturday 15 March 1919

 

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000057/19190315/033/0026

 

A portrait of Captain Cecil Edward Peter Stewart-Robertson, commanding a P.O.W. Company of the British Expeditionary Force. Born at Aberfeldy in 1855, he first saw action in 1870-1871, as a volunteer in the Franco-Prussian War, and received the French medal and the Legion of Honour. He served from 1874 to 1890 winning the D.C.M.twice, amongst other decorations, including the Zululand and Afghan Campaigns, the Egyptian (1882) and Burmah Expeditions. Although fifty-nine years of age, he re-enlisted in October 1914, in the 6th Cameron Highlanders. He went to France with the 15th (Scottish) Division as S/13923 Quarter-Master-Sergeant, serving at Loos, where he was wounded in September, 1915, on recovery going on to serve on the Somme, at Arras, and Ypres as C.S.M., and R.S.M. He was also mentioned in despatches, eventually being transferred and gaining a commission in the Labour Corps.

 

 

 

Mike

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He was wounded in September 1915. Daily Casualty List, 16 October 1915, (thegenealogist)

RM

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The account in the Eastbourne Gazette of 1 October 1913 is fascinating. According to that:

 

He served in the Cape Mounted Rifles in the latter part of the Zulu War.

His mother served with the Red Cross nursing on the German side in the Franco Prussian War.

He happened to be on holiday and so was in Paris during the siege.

He enlisted as Driscoll and served in Burma.

Between his disappearance in 1911 and his reappearance/discovery in 1913 he was on the stage (among other places in New Zealand).

He went to an "One of the English Universities"  and was private secretary to the "last chief justice of the Ionian Isles".

His mother was a relative of Alasdair Stewart Robertson of Clan Donnachaidh.

 

It is interesting that in all of this he calls himself Cecil Eduard Louis Stuart Drouet D'Erlow (sic). The name he has deleted (Peter) was his real grandfather's.

 

Now how much do we believe!

 

RM

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