Marc Thompson Posted 14 June , 2003 Share Posted 14 June , 2003 Encountered the Ceylon Planters Rifle Company as the unit name on an individuals Medal Index Card and Roll today at the PRO/NA: Can anyone shed any light on this unit? Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate Wills Posted 14 June , 2003 Share Posted 14 June , 2003 I believe this one of many such militia-style units raised (or perhaps already in place) throughout India for home defence (I have someone who was a private in the Calcutta Rifles in 1914, who was later commissioned into the Rifle Brigade). I assume this unit were raised by and from the tea plantation owners and staff. It would be interesting to know what, if any, insignia each unit wore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 15 June , 2003 Share Posted 15 June , 2003 Marc The Ceylon Planters Rifles Corps came out to Gallipoli as Birdwood's 'personal guard' as he knew them from India. 3 corps members are buried at Beach CWGC They have been covered on the forum previously so more details are available here somewhere. However from memory (never a very clever idea) I think that they numbered only about 150 or so, and that later Birdwood managed to put most of them up for commissions, except for the cook who was determined to remain in that position. Best Regards Michael D.R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raster Scanning Posted 15 June , 2003 Share Posted 15 June , 2003 It was in this section and the thread started on Friday 24th Jan this year. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Thompson Posted 15 June , 2003 Author Share Posted 15 June , 2003 Thanks for that. The previous thread provides some good information which I obviously overlooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt York Posted 15 June , 2003 Share Posted 15 June , 2003 Blazer badge of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps (CPRC) Unit circa 1910 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt York Posted 15 June , 2003 Share Posted 15 June , 2003 Saving the Union flags Military prowess has been evident far more recently in the family's history. Two faded, frayed and bullet-damaged flags serve as a reminder of an extraordinary act of courage by the late Lt. John Trant Buchan-Hepburn, Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn's father. At the outbreak of World War I, John Trant was just eighteen years old and working as a rubber planter in Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was then. Keen to fight the Kaiser, he helped to raise a regiment, the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps, which was subsequently seconded to the Royal Australian Artillery. Following training in Egypt, Lt. Buchan-Hepburn went with the Anzacs to the Dardanelles where, in 1916, they were part of a force that went ashore at Gallipoli to join the allied campaign against the Turks. Sir Alastair explains that "The campaign was unsuccessful and eventually the order was given to retreat to the troopships. But then it was realised that two Union flags had inadvertently been left behind. To retrieve them my father impulsively dived overboard and swam back to shore where he was wounded by rifle fire from the Turkish army. Nevertheless, he managed to reach the flags, wrapped them around himself and swam back, in doing so being shot again. He managed to reach the ship and was given a hero's welcome. Later, still in possession of the flags, he was transferred to a hospital ship where he had the good fortune to choose to bed down on the exposed top deck rather than on the overcrowded lower deck. . . because en route to Malta the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine. Just before it sank, again wrapping himself in the flags, my father jumped into the sea. "He managed to cling on to a piece of wreckage until he was picked up by a British destroyer which took him, with other survivors, to Malta. There he was congratulated by the general for his courage in saving the flags but informed that, unfortunately, a recommendation that he be given an award for gallantry could not be pursued because he had broken King's Regulations by jumping overboard without being ordered to do so. As his battle honour, my father was, however, invited to keep the two Union flags. "He subsequently saw further action at the Somme, Passchendaele, and at Ypres where he was badly gassed. He was eventually invalided back to Scotland together with his cousin Thomas Buchan-Hepburn who had also been gassed while serving with The Royal Scots in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carterjohn Posted 4 August , 2014 Share Posted 4 August , 2014 I have just come across a silver cup with the inscription: C.P.R.C. Dolosbage Section Officers Prize 1904 Won By Sergeant C. Worth Score 137 Can anybody shed any light on who Sgt. Worth was and how the cup has ended up here in Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 On 15/06/2003 at 15:58, Sgt York said: Saving the Union flags Military prowess has been evident far more recently in the family's history. Two faded, frayed and bullet-damaged flags serve as a reminder of an extraordinary act of courage by the late Lt. John Trant Buchan-Hepburn, Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn's father. At the outbreak of World War I, John Trant was just eighteen years old and working as a rubber planter in Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was then. Keen to fight the Kaiser, he helped to raise a regiment, the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps, which was subsequently seconded to the Royal Australian Artillery. Following training in Egypt, Lt. Buchan-Hepburn went with the Anzacs to the Dardanelles where, in 1916, they were part of a force that went ashore at Gallipoli to join the allied campaign against the Turks. etc., etc., etc. A good story, but how much of it is true? 'Gunner' J. T. Buchan-Hepburn's 36 page Australian record is here https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3134386 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corisande Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 48 minutes ago, michaeldr said: A good story, but how much of it is true? Interesting question There is a long write up in a Scots Newspaper in 2018 - click . A lot of the copy is verbatim from the family story, so I would assume they briefed the journalist Never decorated for his actions because he had broken King’s Regulations by carrying out the solo mission without orders, a grateful general allowed him to keep the flags in recognition of his bravery. Now the Union flag is one of two that have gone on permanent loan to The Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh by Mr Buchan-Hepburn's family. They will be the newly refurbished Hepburn Suite at The Royal Scots Club and hold a large historical significance to The Club’s heritage. The second flag was a gift to Lt. John Buchan Hepburn from Lord Louis Mountbatten. Buchan Hepburn owned a rubber plantation in Atale, Ceylon which was located near Mountbatten’s headquarters in Kandy. Whilst in Kandy, Buchan Hepburn met Mountbatten and offered his estate as a humble retreat if needed. Their friendship began to blossom, they would spend time relaxing whilst Buchan Hepburn’s children were at school, discussing the history of India and Ceylon.On Mountbatten’s final stay at the Estate, he gifted Buchan Hepburn his own union flag as a generous thank you and farewell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 (edited) I may have missed something, but so far I've found: - no trace of a commission - no evidence he was involved in raising the CPRC - and no signs from his record that he was ever wounded or gassed on the WF One has to ask therefore, how much of the Gallipoli flag story is to be believed? Edited 6 February , 2023 by michaeldr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corisande Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 As far as I can see Joined Ceylon Planters Rifles about Aug 1914 Landed in Egypt Nov 1914 I have no idea what the CPRC was doing in Egypt But eventually as part of Army Corps Commanders Escort Transfers to Australian Artillery 28 Jun 1916 in France Discharged from Australian Artillery 30 Sep 1919 in London I think you are correct in asserting no trace of a commission no evidence he was involved in raising the CPRC and no signs from his record that he was ever wounded or gassed on the WF It is difficult to see whether he was in Gallipoli with Ceylon Planters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corisande Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 There is an interesting write up of CPRC at Gallipoli - https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/ceylon-planters-rifle-corps-gallipoli European tea and rubber planters established the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps (CPRC) at Kandy in the central highlands of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) in 1900. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the CPRC sent a 237-strong force under the command of Major John Hall Brown to Egypt. Arriving in October, it initially helped defend the vital Suez Canal waterway against Ottoman Turkish attack. In December the unit joined the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), being attached to Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone’s Wellington Battalion.... ... The CPRC served with the New Zealanders until March 1915, when the majority of the planters left for officer training; most went on to secure commissions in the British and Indian armies. The remaining 70-odd members of the CPRC were committed to the Gallipoli campaign, the first group landing at Anzac Cove with Lieutenant-General William Birdwood’s ANZAC on 25 April. [2] Dubbed the ‘Tea Leaves’, they were attached to ANZAC headquarters, and served as Birdwood’s personal escort until the evacuation of the Anzac sector in December 1915. Described by Birdwood as a ‘a nice lot of fellows’, the men of the CPRC also dug trenches, laid wire entanglements, carried water, and served as snipers when needed. [3] At least three Ceylon planters were killed at Gallipoli, and are buried in Beach Cemetery. Several former members of the CPRC also died during the campaign serving with other units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 (edited) The document which you have shown above (letter of 18th August 1916, from Colonel, Commandant, Australian Headquarters, AIF, London) quotes the AAG, AIF, saying “....one full Company … has dwindled, from various causes, until one man only remains … The man in question – Rifleman J. Buchan Hepburn ...” This ties in with Birdwood's autobiography 'Khaki and Gown' (1941) where on page 244 we find his following statement: in particular, see the final five lines Edited 6 February , 2023 by michaeldr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 I believe that this gentleman was very probably on the peninsula with Birdwood's 'personal escort' of CPRC men, however I feel that his Gallipoli flag story was almost certainly cooked-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corisande Posted 6 February , 2023 Share Posted 6 February , 2023 10 minutes ago, michaeldr said: I feel that his Gallipoli flag story was almost certainly cooked-up. Me too And I agree that he was never commissioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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