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Remembered Today:

Captain Cecil Edward Peter Stewart-Robertson Cameron Highlanders


Skipman

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12 minutes ago, Skipman said:

Excellent Rolt. How much do we believe, who knows. The article in the Graphic mention D.C.M. and Bar (pre-1914) Not sure where I might confirm this?

 

Mike

Failing all else they should be in the London Gazette, but under which name?

 

His story was not believed by most of the residents of Eastbourne. At some time before his disappearance he had made his living by selling studs and bootlaces from a tray.

He claimed to have been picked up by a yacht which landed him in Germany.

RM

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Have you any idea who Kenneth [Ian George] Matheson was? (To whom the medals were sent?)

RM

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10 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

Have you any idea who Kenneth [Ian George] Matheson was? (To whom the medals were sent?)

RM

 

He was something to do with the Clan Donnachaidh Society, possibly related somewhere along the line. Mrs Robertson Matheson was hon. Sec in September 1902

 

Mike

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  • 1 year later...

Been having another look at this remarkable man.

 

1871 Cencus

 

Have found a wedding certificate (attached)

 

Also from the London Gazette

 

Temp.2nd  Lt. C. E. P. S. Robertson relinquishes the actg. rank of Capt. 12 May 1919.

 

Temp.2nd  Lt. C. E. P. S. Robertson is cashiered by sentence of a General Court-Martial. 30 Aug. 1919.

 

Also another interesting piece of information from a newspaper article which quotes his as saying " I discovered that my only son had been killed on the Somme, and I know now that he had fallen but a few yards from where I had been fighting. I had not even known that he was in the front line. "

 

Do not know the name under which any son served, regiment or date of death (presumably after or on 1/7/1916) Anyone able to identify a son?

 

Mike

temp stewart robertson wc.PNG

Edited by Skipman
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4 hours ago, Skipman said:

Been having another look at this remarkable man.

 

1871 Cencus

 

Have found a wedding certificate (attached)

 

Also from the London Gazette

 

Temp.2nd  Lt. C. E. P. S. Robertson relinquishes the actg. rank of Capt. 12 May 1919.

 

Temp.2nd  Lt. C. E. P. S. Robertson is cashiered by sentence of a General Court-Martial. 30 Aug. 1919.

 

Also another interesting piece of information from a newspaper article which quotes his as saying " I discovered that my only son had been killed on the Somme, and I know now that he had fallen but a few yards from where I had been fighting. I had not even known that he was in the front line. "

 

Do not know the name under which any son served, regiment or date of death (presumably after or on 1/7/1916) Anyone able to identify a son?

 

Mike

temp stewart robertson wc.PNG

 

Interesting. As Cecil Edward Peter Drouet he married (probably Ellen Elliott) in Fulham in 1904. Robertson was certainly his mother's surname not his father's.

 

I think my Drouet / Sewart Robertson stuff is on another computer.

 

RM

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Thanks for your continued interest RM. there's nothing straight-forward about this man, not sure what to believe. Don't know if there's a son or not?

 

Mike

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Just now, Skipman said:

Thanks for your continued interest RM. there's nothing straight-forward about this man, not sure what to believe. Don't know if there's a son or not?

 

Mike

In the 1901 England Census he is listed as living in Holborn, London with a wife called Elle/an (aged 33) (possibly the one he married in 1904) but no children.

 

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1 minute ago, rolt968 said:

In the 1901 England Census he is listed as living in Holborn, London with a wife called Elle/an (aged 33) (possibly the one he married in 1904) but no children.

 

 

Thanks again. I suppose any son killed at the Somme would probably have been born before 1901?

 

Does anyone have any tips in searching for a double-barrelled name "Stewart-Robertson" ?

 

Mike

 

 

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1 minute ago, Skipman said:

There is an officer's file.  Anyone wishing to photograph this file for me, feel free to pm me.

 

Mike

 

I wonder if "Charles .." is an indexing error or if he used that as well!

I am trying to see if there is anything in the courts martial registers.

RM

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His mother was born in Shandon, Ireland. Although her father was given as Frederick Frere Robertson, Gentleman on her marriage certificate, he must have been something in 70th Foot in 1838. (British Armed Forces And Overseas Births And Baptisms).

 

RM

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There's a article from the Sunday Post 1924 that I'm still transcribing, here's what I have so far.

 

The Sunday Post May 25. 1924.

 

In the quaint old market-place of Penzance there has stood for the past two years a careworn pedlar, hawking matches and studs to earn a precarious living. By birth a member of a famous Scottish family, his career has been one of the most remarkable on record. Ever since his arrival in the Cornish town his cultured voice and erect bearing have attracted considerable attention, but in spite of the misfortune that had overtaken him he gave no hint of his real identity. Not a soul guessed that he was none other than Captain Stuart Robertson, D.C.M., whose exploits during the past fifty years have made him world-famous, and who fought at the front during the whole of the war, although well past sixty years of age, and rose from the rank of private to that of captain. Too proud to complain of the bitter hardships he has undergone during the past few years, he has given no hint of the identity which accident has now revealed. In 1916 an officer marked his papers "The gamest man in the battalion,” and that is his motto even in his present plight. An old campaigner who has fought in practically every campaign in the world since the Franco Prussian War, the hero of a hundred fights, actor, pugilist, big game hunter, a man whose reckless courage has made him famous everywhere, he drifted down to Penzance to seek seclusion and peace when, as he told me, he found he was no good for anything else.” How he has managed to live since then it be difficult to say. Forced to live in the tiniest of rooms near the quay at Penzance, with scarcely a possession left him of any value, every day, wet or fine, has found him at his stand in the market-place. Even now to look at him it is almost impossible to believe that he will be seventy years of age next birthday, or that his strenuous life has made so little mark upon him.

"My life has been a strange one,” he said to me, but I have no complaint to make on that score. A fighter I was born, and a fighter I hope to remain. I thought to keep my career a secret down here in Penzance, but it is not because I am  ashamed of anything. I would much rather prefer to return to my friends were I able to earn my own living, although I know that, even now, there are many who would be only too glad to help me. It is a far cry from the old days at Aberfeldy when I had before me the prospects of a career free from care and worry. But nothing I could do could restrain mv fighting instinct. Nothing else' appealed to me at all, and since the age of|fifteen I have been compelled to obey that instinct. That is why at the age of sixty I went to the recruiting sergeant in Glasgow during the war and gave age as thirty-five. But with the end of the war I found that my health had broken completely. I had family troubles, and in the end I found myself in London unable to work, and with the blackest of prospects. But I could not bring myself to ask help of my family. I made up mind that I could never recover my health in London, and so I took the road was not cheerful experience at first, but I was determined get away from all the old scenes, and so, instead of making towards Scotland I w»ent into the West Country. It was months before I reached Penzance, which seemed to offer me the peace that I wanted, and in this quiet and healthy Cornish town I have gradually recovered my health.  I just took up my stand in the marketplace. The folk stared at me at first, but they proved very kindly. It was an ordeal to me. for I can remember only too well these other days when I never dreamed of having to earn my bread from day to day. I kept my secret well until a few days ago, and sometimes wish that I had kept it still. I had the advantage of being brought up carefully. My father was a colonel in the army, and my grandfather a major-general _ so that the call of the army was always in my blood. My father had been living in Scotland some time when I was born at Aberfeldy, on the estate of mother’s family, she being a Struan. I can therefore claim to be a member of one Proudest of Scottish families. "As a boy I was always getting into trouble through my escapades and I am afraid I caused my mother no little uneasiness. I was brought down to England and sent to Ongar Grammar School but I had no great love for education. Still I had to be properly educated, and was sent to Oxford, going up to Magdalen College. I had always pined for adventure and I was soon to get my full share of it.

 

I was in Paris when the Franco-Russian war broke out, and in spite of the entreaties of my parents I insisted
on remaining in France. Within a few weeks, despite my youth, I had joined the French Army, and was quickly sent to the front, to taste for the first time the real meaning of war. I was in General Bazaies' Army which tried to stop the German advance near Metz. There were endless days of terrible fighting, and we were gradually forced back, the casualties being enormous. At Gravelotte I was wounded and rendered helpless, being saved from capture only by the action of a comrade. Within a few weeks I was dubbed the mad Englishman. There was nothing too hair-brained for me for me to attempt. I took part in the arrangements of the escape made by M Gambetta from Paris in a balloon and in others, which ended disastrously. When peace was declared I was worn to a shadow, and my parents must have believed that I had seen too much of war to ever think of joining the army. On the other hand it had become my foremost ambition, and led to many arguments with my father. He told me that the Legion d'Honneur which I had been awarded should have been enough to satisfy me, and wanted me to study for the law under a famous lawyer who had long been a friend of the family. I would not agree, and thought more of fighting in any form. I had made the acquaintance of Jem Mace, the famous pugilist.

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His mother's family are looking less and less like real Stewart-Robertsons. Frederick Freer Robertson (Cecil Drouet's maternal grandfather) was a sergeant in the 70th Foot. He remarried in Leeds in 1843. (   West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935 - ancestry).

RM

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You're doing well. Interesting to see if can find Cecil Drouet's birth. Wonder if he ever was in Aberfeldy. Certainly the Stewart-Robertsons were a well-to-do family of the area at this time. One being Commandant of the local Hospital.

 

Mike

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2 minutes ago, Skipman said:

Cecil Drouet Born King's Lynn.

 

Mike

Jan-March 1859

The Ongar bit is correct. He was at school there at the time of the 1871 census.

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Cecil Edward Peter Stewart-Robertson registered at 8/12 Star Road, Fulham in 1922 (London electoral registers - ancestry). (No wife - at least no other voter.)

Edited by rolt968
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Thanks again. I wonder why he chose the Aberfeldy story and if he actually had any connection at all with the town. I think I really need to get his service record somehow. I wonder if his past caught up with him and that was the reason for him being 'cashiered' ?

 

Mike

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1 minute ago, Skipman said:

Thanks again. I wonder why he chose the Aberfeldy story and if he actually had any connection at all with the town. I think I really need to get his service record somehow. I wonder if his past caught up with him and that was the reason for him being 'cashiered' ?

 

Mike

I suspect his past caught up with him, but which past I wonder.

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8 hours ago, rolt968 said:

I suspect his past caught up with him, but which past I wonder.

 

Which past indeed. I wonder what the Stewart-Robertson family made of it.

 

Mike

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Given his obviously combative nature, it is possible that he was convicted under Section 16 of the Army Act, "conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman", for which cashiering was the mandatory sentence. He may have verbally or physically abused another officer or a soldier, or even a civilian. It is possible that failure to disclose a previous sentence on enlisting was the reason, but I think that would have been tried under a different section.

 

Ron

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suspect we shpuldn;t believe anything this guy says about himself that can;t be confirmed on a piece of paper somewhere...

 

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?name=19071119

for 1907

 

Cross-examined. It would be Mr. Wallis's duty to check what I had done in my department. I made all investigations really on account of my manager, who accepted my statements as facts. I has always given Mr. Wallis reason for trusting me up till then. Before these credit notes were sent out to customers they would be verified to a certain extent by the checking department, with which I had nothing at all to do. In order to carry out these frauds it was necessary to have some name and address to which false credit notes or cheques could be sent. I adopted about six different names for carrying out this fraud—Carlton, D'Erlon, Cavendish, Power, Graham, Fraser, and Goodwin.

 

...Cavendish was a registered moneylender to whom I owed money. I believe I had about three credit notes made out in his name. The first credit advance passed in the name of Cavendish is June 26. I cannot remember whether that is the tame date as the first one I passed in the name of Bennett. The address I gave first, the first credit advice, to Cavendish was 61, Kempstall Road, Hampatead. That was not the address of Cavendish—a Mr. Reynolds lived there who keeps a general shop. I said to him, "If a letter comes in the name of Cavendish will you kindly take it in for me?" and he said, "Yes." He is a thoroughly respectable man, and I certainly do not say that he had any part in the fraud which I then carried out. 

 

 The name of "Goodwin" was also one of the fictitious names I used in order to obtain money from my employers by means of false credit notes. The address I used in connection with that name was "Swagg's Farm, Lee-on-the-solent, Hants." A Mr. and Mrs. Carter (very distant relations of mine) live there. I asked them to take in letters for me in the name of "Goodwin" and forward them to my business address. Spiers and Pond, under cover

 

 

They were sent to 4. Devonshire Terrace. Brondesbury, the address of a Mr. Goodwin,

who was my landlord. I wrote to him and explained that through some clerical error the credit had got mixed up and sent to another man of the same name at Lee-on-the-Solent, but I had arranged with my firm to send him a cheque far the amount of his rent on my account. I suppose he accepted that explanation because be never replied to it. Two or three days after they reached him he left them at my house in Kenilworth Road when I was not at home. 

My wife took one cheque round to him on her own responsibility. I never had a receipt or have seen or heard of him again. I believe he took the premises over and seized the furniture. The other cheque I endorsed in the name of "A Goodwin," and to the best of my belief paid it to Cavendish. He did not ask how I came to have the cheque, I borrowed the money in the name of Dronet. Neither Cavendish, Goodwin, nor Mrs. Carter knew I was committing a fraud. Other names used by me were "Fraser," "Graham," and "Power."

Drouet was sentenced to nine months in the second division.

My italics. Bennet appears to have been found not guilty- its a long case I've just extracted the names he used and addresses he gives FYI

.

Cecil Drouet at 75 Iverson road Hampstead - electoral reg 1906.

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Thanks Madmeg. I have seen some of that but not studied in full yet. I agree, he is not to be trusted at all. Just looking at this as and when get time and mainly interested from my local point of view. I'm not certain if there is any connection to Aberfeldy at all. He seems to have served during the war at least and possibly Black Watch before the war. Not sure what made this man 'tick' at all.

 

I must get his service file

 

Mike

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