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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Officers with long or unusual names


museumtom

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I am surprised at the amount of interest in this little posting of mine but there you go. Now for my confession................ my full name is; Thomas Michael Anthony John Burnell so I am not in a position to comment........

Tom.

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Some families her in Oz have a tradition of keeping one particular name running through the male generation.

One I know of is Augustus. This one goes back at least five generations.

Another tradition is if a relative died in WW1 then his name is carried on through the family.

Cheers

Kim

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I am surprised at the amount of interest in this little posting of mine but there you go. Now for my confession................ my full name is; Thomas Michael Anthony John Burnell so I am not in a position to comment........

Tom.

My son is the only one of my four offspring with three Christian names: numbers two and three to keep both grandfathers on board, and in case he rowed for Cambridge, where the initials would look good on his kit.

Returning to the Great War, an officer commissioned from the ranks into RWF had very politically correct names 'to get on' namely Henry Edward George. There's foresight for you.

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I've always liked the name of the author of "Sniping in France" - Maj. Hesketh Hesketh-Pritchard. I find it very difficult to say.

And try saying that with a mouthful of bully beef and biscuits!

Fascinating thread this. I noticed a while ago while searching for something else at CWGC, that were a number with the surname Death, or De'ath, wonder if they felt already ill fated going into action?

The very first time I flew and clearly visible to all those with a cabin seat on that side of the plane was the word DE'ATH painted in large black letters on the top of a light aircraft on the runway. Not a comforting sight! Must have been the owners surname

Caryl

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And can anyone come up with a quadruple-barrelled surname. My best shot is

William Henry Cullen Pery-Knox-Gore, the machine gun expert of 2RWF, who transferred to MGC.

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And can anyone come up with a quadruple-barrelled surname.

I posted one earlier.

Another, is the son of a Danish Count:

Pte. 73446 KRAG-JUEL-VIND-FRIJS, OVE

Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan Regiment)

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"try Pine-Coffin for size. Genuine"

There was a major called Mike Pine-Coffin serving in the late 80s; think he was an infantryman but not sure

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"try Pine-Coffin for size. Genuine"

There was a major called Mike Pine-Coffin serving in the late 80s; think he was an infantryman but not sure

And, far-removed from the Great War, there was a curator in the British Library with this same monniker in the 70s.

There's a bit about the Pine-Coffin family here.

Jim

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My own favourite is Leo de Oriellana -Tollemache Tollemache of the 1st Lincolns killed in action 1914

I think most of em used a shortened version.

Some took their names from places

In the case of George Robert Marmaduke Stanbury-Taylor the Stanbury came from where he was born.

Was it PG Woodhouse said that a double barrel name was the badge of mediocrity?

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There was a spate of double-barrelling in Victorian times: I believe it stemmed from the wife's side wishing their family name to be perpetuated. This could be done formally, I believe, by application to the courts. Cannot find my reference, though.

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aha! from Wikipedia:

the surname of the extinct family of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos was the quintuple-barrelled Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.

Corporal, Home Guard, surely?

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and:

If you wish to legally change your name, or your children's names, you can use the Deed Poll process, which has been used by hundreds of thousands of people for over 150 years.

By Deed Poll, you can officially change any part or all of your name. For example, you can change your forenames, surname (or both), add names, remove names, change the spelling of your names or rearrange your existing names. You can change your name by Deed Poll as often as you want, at any time and for any reason provided it is not for deceptive or fraudulent purposes.

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and:

If you wish to legally change your name, or your children's names, you can use the Deed Poll process, which has been used by hundreds of thousands of people for over 150 years.

By Deed Poll, you can officially change any part or all of your name. For example, you can change your forenames, surname (or both), add names, remove names, change the spelling of your names or rearrange your existing names. You can change your name by Deed Poll as often as you want, at any time and for any reason provided it is not for deceptive or fraudulent purposes.

And you will find that instead of being "Freddy Mercury", in the event of a serious crime you will be charged as "Joe Bloggs" the name you were registered with at birth according to the 1937 act.

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Was it PG Woodhouse said that a double barrel name was the badge of mediocrity?

Might have been PG Wodehouse.

Whatever, this chap below did not think so. Wonder if they called him 'Bertie' ?

Must get back to the real business finding of T. Williams and Fred Smith......

Name: FEATHERSTONEHAUGH-WOOSTER, ROBERT ALBERT

Initials: R A

Nationality: Australian

Rank: Private

Regiment: Australian Infantry, A.I.F.

Unit Text: 43rd Bn.

Age: 31

Date of Death: 04/10/1917

Service No: 2809

Additional Information: Son of Henry and Annie Cora Featherstonehaugh-Wooster, of 200, Rowe St., Railway Town, Broken Hill, New South Wales. Native of Adelaide.

Casuality Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 7 - 17 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31.

Cemetery: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

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Corporal, Home Guard, surely?

Brigadier General Robert Byron Drury Blakeney

Royal Engineers Founder member of the balloon corps and British Fascisti 1926-1927

Home Guard 1940!

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And then there is the Londonderrys

The Rt Hon the 7th Marquess of Londonderry,namely:

Sir Charles Stewart Henry Vane -Tempest-Stewart

Secretary of State for Air. 1920-21

Educated at Eton and Sandhurst

ADC to Lieut General Sir W Pulteney August 1914-August 1915

2nd in Command RH Guards. August 1915. ( MID twice)

Made an utter fool of himself as a member of the prewar Hitler appeasement gang and as an apologist for Hitler's Germany,a view opposed throughout by his cousin, WSC.

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Just stumbled on to this post. I was a bit gutted that my particular fave, LORD IAN BASIL GAWEN TEMPLE HAMILTON-TEMPLE BLACKWOOD has already been mentioned.

However, with regard to names being in vogue (see Brooklyn, Britney etc today), I recall Richard van Emden's Boy Soldiers book mentioning that he had come across many names of soldiers related to nationalisim & patriotism at that time.

Many chose names from military leaders in or places the Boer War. Examples given are:

Baden

Powell

Mafeking Baden

Baden Mafeking

Mafeking

Ladysmith

Redvers

Bullers

Roberts

Modder River

Spion Kop (the poor kid was named James Spion Kop Skinner)

Bloemfontein

Majuba

Transvaal

Stromberg

He also says how during Queen Victoria's Jubilee years calling your new daughter Victoria increased fourteenfold. The word 'Jubilee' was also used as a middle name. All on Pg. 11-12 of his book.

I guess that these trends exist today, it is just that society tends to focus on celebrity as opposed to patriotic or campaign names. Bit gutted about this as my wife and I were hoping that when our first one is born to call it Fallujah, Basra or my particular favourite - Sunni Triangle....

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One of my mother's close friends had the first name Jubilee as she was born in Queen Victoria's Jubilee year.

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not to mention the TV character James Maynard Kitchener Lampwick.

One of Frank Richards's adoptive brothers was Redvers, b. 1901.

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My husband used to work with a man called Verdun, but everyone called him Vernon. I've come across a few Douglas Haig as Christian names and also recall someone having Morval as their middle name.

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