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Remembered Today:

Officers with long or unusual names


museumtom

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Lord Uxbridge commanding the cavalry was the officer who "lost" his leg next to Wellington at Waterloo. The remains of leg was amputated and IIRC he had it buried in the grounds of his house.

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B)-->

QUOTE(Rob B @ Feb 24 2006, 04:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dave,

I am sure the man who lost his leg at Waterloo next to Wellington was either Uxbridge or Paget-and I can think of other things to say rather than "I think sir I have lost my leg"-more like B******S!

Rob

Whilst I take on board what Tim Birch had to say on the subject of what officers said when wounded etc I think that that was the ideal.

Somewhere above I posted an account of the death of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, as told by one of his men. From this we learn that he was, to his driver, simply Colonel Fiennes.

"At Fontanellla Fredda the Colonel left the car and stepped onto the verge on to some trip wire and set off some mines which threw him up into the air. Major Peter Borwick went over to help him, but he too went up on some mines. I managed to get them back on to the road, this alerted the Germans who ,let us have a few shots of shellfire. Although I managed to get the car started it would not move. I got out to see what the trouble was and found that an unexploded shell was jamming the back wheel. The Colonel was shouting at me to get a move on (or words to that effect!)."

Sadly, I don't think that we shall ever know what the "words to that effect" can have been, but I doubt that they were "dashed bad show" etc etc

Source: http://homepage.eircom.net/~scotsgreys/

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Not Great war, but my favourite neighbour when I was a child was Mrs Cave-Brown-Cave, she had lived through both wars but I don't know if any relatives of that surname served.

Wasn't an RAF officer called Cave-Brown-Cave one of the pilots who flew to the far east and to Australia in the 1920s?

Somewhere I have seen a newspaper account of the Ozzies making fun of his name.

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Lee

G'day mate

You might be forgiven in thinking the bottle of wine was included for the same price. ;)

Cheers

Bill

Bu**er the wine, get the tinnies out, mate

Lee

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Cheers Squirrel,

I was trying to remember Uxbridge but could only get as far as Slough for some reason (too many burgers in the eighties I fear). Anyway,as I said its probably an apocryphal story.

You may well be right Beppo, and there are unlikely to be anymore families with that surname!.

Dave.

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Hello

probably family tradition.

On the subject of strange names - my G dads middle name was "Mons" thats where his dad was when he was born - I think thats a great name and if/when I get to that stage in life - the poor little sod is getting "Mons" as a middle name regardless of gender

And another relly was called "Foxhall" - whats that all about ?

Ian

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Anyway, I still think the best name for an officer came from one of our favourite telly progs.

Who could forget 2nd Lt. STRANGELY - BROWN ??? :D

I believe from the context Strangely Brown was a nickname rather than the suggested officers actual name, making a joke out of the public school background of George and his friends...

Blackadder Goes Forth -- Episode 6; Goodbyeee

by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton

George: Oh me? I joined up straight away, sir. August the 4th, 1914. Gah, what

a day that was: myself and the rest of the fellows leapfrogging down

to the Cambridge recruiting office and then playing tiddlywinks in the

queue. We had hammered Oxford's tiddlywinkers only the week before,

and there we were, off to hammer the Boche! Crashingly superb bunch of

blokes. Fine, clean-limbed -- even their acne had a strange nobility

about it.

Edmund: Yes, and how are all the boys now?

George: Well, er, Jacko and the Badger bought it at the first Ypres front,

unfortunately -- quite a shock, that. I remember Bumfluff's house-

master wrote and told me that Sticky had been out for a duck, and the

Gubber had snitched a parcel sausage-end and gone goose-over-stump

frogside.

Edmund: Meaning...?

George: I don't know, sir, but I read in the Times that they'd both been

killed.

Edmund: And Bumfluff himself...?

George: Copped a packet at Galipoli with the Aussies -- so had Drippy and

Strangely Brown. I remember we heard on the first morning of the

Somme when Titch and Mr Floppy got gassed back to Blighty.

http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/88...adder/ba4-6.txt

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B)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rob B @ Feb 23 2006, 03:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->

There was a Brigadier McGregor McGregor of Clan McGregor Bt Late Scots Guards serving in the 1980's so look hard and you will find them.

Rob

During WW2 my father served in the 60th Rifles under Lieutenant the Lord St Just.

His mates just called him Peter Grenfell.

Really tricky these Ruperts. :lol:

I wnet to college in 1980 with a bloke living opposite called' Crispin De Mowbray....destined for the Army perhaps ?

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In the Regiment that I served in the was an Officer whose surname was Harding-Newman who we called Hardly Human and another one called Bloxhall-Hunt I dare' nt print what we called him.

John

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You may well be right Beppo, and there are unlikely to be anymore families with that surname!.

Dave.

Dave

I did a little googling and think I have found the Cave-Brown-Cave that the Australians mocked because of his name:

"On 17/05/1927 a special formation of Southampton flying boats was formed at Felixstowe, Suffolk and five months later left Plymouth under the command of Group Captain Cave-Brown-Cave for a 24000 mile 'cruise' to Australia. The Squadron arrived at Seletar on 28/02/1928 to become the first unit of The Far East Command. This was commemorated on the Squadron crest which includes the motto 'Pertama Di Malaya' (The First in Malaya). The unit was re-designated No. 205 Squadron on 08/01/1929. At the beginning of 1935 the Squadron was re-equipped with Short Singapore flying boats and became the first R.A.F. unit overseas to be re-equipped by air."

Source: http://splashdown2.tripod.com/id12.html

Here is his biography. I assume that the extra "e" in Browne is a mistake?

http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Cave-Browne-Cave.htm

I also found a female Cave-Brown-Cave. Was the woman you knew Frances Cave-Brown-Cave? See here:

http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=...1%2FGCPP%20Cave

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Hi again Beppo.

No, sadly that's not the woman. I've consulted with my mother who is sure that her first name was, believe it or not, Violet!. I can't remember for sure (if I ever knew). Oddly my mother remembers her as quite terrifying but I suppose a small child's perceptions are different.

On odd but not 'posh' names, I went to school with a John Johnson, whose father was a John Johnson and whose Grandfather was a John Johnson who all lived in the same farmhouse and to make matters worse, the Grandfather's wife was Joan and the Father's wfe was Jean!. Just imagine trying to sort out the post each morning!.

I also worked with a Dave Crapper, and believe me you didn't snigger more than once! I suppose growing up with a name like that is going to make you or break you.

Cheers.

Dave.

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Guest grantaloch

How about some of our generals that fought the battle of the somme,a couple that spring to mind are.Maj general the honerable Montegue Stueart Wortley.Maj Gen.Sir Thomas Doyley snow. Lt Gen or General Hubert De lA Pour Gough. Maj General Henery De Belvoir De Lisle. and lastly Lt St George Shillington Cather.V.C. i think the spelling is about right.(Grantaloch) Bob.

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One of the old timers in my village, now sadly deceased, was named after the places his father fought at with the Norfolks. Edward Montauban Theipval Seely was always known as Monty to everyone hereabouts and "Salt of the Earth" he was too. His father Charlie Seely won the MM possibly at either of these places but whatever, these places must have made an impression for him to name his eldest son after them.

Lionboxer

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Guest Bill Woerlee

Mates

Here is one poncy fellow, John ("Johnny") William Henry Tyler Douglas who was the English captain in 1911/12 and 1913/14. He subsequently joined the army rising to the rank of colonel. He gained the same batting reputation as "Boring" Boycott - he would stand in the middle and block ball after ball and make 10 runs in a session. He gained the sobriquet in Australia made up from his initials as Johnny "Won't Hit Today" Douglas. His last disaster against the Australians occurred at the Gezireh Sports Club Cairo, 1916 when he thought that he had enough quality players to defeat an Australian team from the AIF in one morning. After the Australians were bowled all out for 57, they thought the rest was to be a cake walk. Sadly, no one had recognised the famed Sydney Express, Albert "Tibby" Cotter, the Brett Lee of 1906-12, who together with Clive Single, [4th ALHFA and former NSW player] destroyed the English batting lineup 10 wickets for 4 runs, a total that included one bye. :)

Harold "Lol" Larwood, a brilliant fast bowler, recognised Tibby as one of his heroes and styled his bowling technique on Cotter's style. I suppose this was payback time with "Bodyline", something that gets some Australians upset but as far as I am concerned was a legitimate playing tactic. It worked. Bradman was intimidated and Jardine won the series.

Cheers

Bill

PS On a sadder note, Cotter of the 12 ALHR died in the melee that followed the charge at Beersheba, 31 October 1917.

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My late father had a theory that aristos gave their children daft names to ensure that they got a good bullying at Public School. If they survived that then going over the top would not seem so bad! Seems to have worked!

Edwin Astill

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I have a double-barrelled surname running to fifteen letters plus the hyphen. When I started work, I dropped the first part (only using it now when dealing with officialdom), and found that two others in our small government department section of 10 people had done the same.

I had a problem six years ago when I needed a large sum of money from a building society that had a new computer system. I rang up one evening to arrange the transfer but they couldn't access my account details; I yelped but had allowed a day's leeway. The society's IT expert rang next day to say they had fixed the problem, so I tried again - same difficulty. I yelped even louder, so they had another go at solving the matter. Turned out my name was too long for the computer to handle. Wonder what it would have made of some of the fine examples already quoted in this thread?

What I don't like is being called by the first part of my surname only, but I suppose in today's multi-ethnic society there are quite a few nationalities where the first name is the surname (as in Saddam Hussein, I think) or even a middle name is a surname, so people get confused. (I wonder if any organisation that still sends out application forms requesting Christian names; this became a no-no twenty years or so ago.)

Moonraker

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The longest I could find are:

The Hon. JOHN FREDERICK HEPBURN-STUART-FORBES-TREFUSIS DSO (Brigadier General, General Staff)

GUARDS CEMETERY, WINDY CORNER, CUINCHY

GRAHAM de MONTMORENCEY ARMSTRONG-LUSHINGTON-TULLOCH (Lieutenant, Connaught Rangers)

RUE-DU-BACQUEROT No.1 MILITARY CEMETERY, LAVENTIE

LORD IAN BASIL GAWEN TEMPLE HAMILTON-TEMPLE-BLACKWOOD (lieutenant, Grenadier Guards)

YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

and the longest single name:

SANKARANARAINAPILLAI (Sepoy, 80th Carnatic Infantry)

NAIROBI BRITISH AND INDIAN MEMORIAL

30 other Commonwealth War Dead have names running to over 20 letters...

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From over 530 Commonwealth casualtys with the name Rupert, around 400 are NCOs or OR.

175 are Australian (no comment, I'm saying nowt).

Rather explodes the Rupert myth, unless:

Rupert was a useful name to have for survival.

A lot of Ruperts were thrown out of OTC.

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From over 530 Commonwealth casualtys with the name Rupert, around 400 are NCOs or OR.

175 are Australian (no comment, I'm saying nowt).

Rather explodes the Rupert myth, unless:

Rupert was a useful name to have for survival.

A lot of Ruperts were thrown out of OTC.

It depends.

How long have British army officers been nicknamed "Ruperts"?

Post WW2 surely?

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much more recent than that, and, seemingly, only Army. Not in vogue in my sphere of influence which ended in 1996 ........... OK, so I belonged to a RAF Mess, but I met a lot of people in everyday life who would have used the word if it had been in common circulation. I believe it has strong SAS connections, but perhaps I get that impression from watching TV.

The RAF phrase most used [and generally affectionately] was seagulls, from the cry 'Oh! Oh!! [shrilly and drawlingly uttered] ... try it out in seclusion. Work up to adding 'I say!

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In today's parlance a Seagull Manager is one who flies in, makes a lot of noise, creates utter confusion and leaves just as noisily. No change there then apparently.

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OK not officers but I've often wondered about their unusual names?

Pte. William Bethune Walker, 4th. RB. KIA 8/5/15

Pte. Walter Theophilis Farthing RMLI, KIA 5/6/16 on HMS Hampshire

Pte.2. Aubryn Vesy Hurlstone Hardy, RAF, died 22/10/18

BW Roy

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