 






|
 This
portrait by Sir Frank Dicksee is reproduced by
kind permission of the Regimental Trustees of the
Essex Yeomanry.
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An oil
painting of a be-medalled officer in the khaki
service dress uniform of the Essex Yeomanry hangs
in the headquarters of 70 (Essex Yeomanry) Signal
Squadron at Chelmsford. The demeanour and steady
gaze of the subject, marking him out as a leader
of men, has been captured splendidly by the
artist. The two gold vertical stripes on the
lower sleeve of his tunic testify that he was
twice wounded in action during 'The Great War' of
1914 -1918. He grips a riding crop in front of
him with both hands; behind him hang two flags
emblazoned with regimental badges. To his right
is a leaded stained glass window, a panel in
which bears his coat of arms, beneath it a latin
inscription proclaims - INCORRUPT A FIDES (Incorruptible
Faith). This portrait, painted about 1920 by the
eminent artist Sir Frank Dicksee (1853-1928),
depicts Colonel F.H.D.C. Whitmore one of the most
distinguished Commanding Officers of the Essex
Yeomanry, who later became a dedicated Honorary
Colonel of the Regiment and a devoted patron of
the Essex Yeomanry Association. Francis Henry Douglas Charlton
Whitmore was born on April 20th 1872 at .Gumley
Hall, Leicestershire, the son of Captain Thomas
Charles Douglas Whitmore, late of the Royal Horse
Guards (The Blues), and Louisa Cradock Hartopp.
In 1890, Captain Whitmore moved to Orsett Hall,
near Grays, Essex, a dilapidated mansion on the
Orsett Estate bequeathed to him on the death, in
1884, of Captain Digby Hanmer Wingfield, a fellow
officer in The Blues. This ostensibly generous
settlement of an 'honourable debt' between
Captains Wingfield and Whitmore was not all it
seemed. The Orsett Estate of 8,500 acres was
heavily in debt and young Francis, on seeing
Orsett Hall for the first time, had described it
as an uninhabitable shell, without light, water
or sanitation'. Francis was educated at Eton but
had to forego a place at university to return to
Orsett Hall at only 18 years of age to begin the
unenviable task of reviving the Orsett Estate and
restoring Orsett Hall. He assumed total control
of the estate in 1896 and his Herculean efforts
over the following years, using both his
agricultural and commercial acumen, turned the
hall into a fine country residence and the estate
into a thriving farming enterprise. When Francis'
mother died in 1892, his father lost interest in
Orsett and retired to his London home with an
annuity from the estate, dying in 1907.
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Francis Whitmore's military career
began at the age of 20 when he received a commission as
lieutenant in the 1st Essex Volunteer Artillery in 1892.
This unit, with its headquarters in Southend, had a
battery at Grays and gained remarkable achievements over
the years in the National Artillery Association's
meetings at Shoeburyness, winning well over a hundred
prizes including the prestigious Cinque Ports Challenge
Cup three times. At that time Essex was without a
yeomanry regiment. County landowners and farmers with a
desire for volunteer cavalry service in Essex had to
content themselves by joining the Essex Troop of the Duke
of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars. Major (later
Brigadier General. Sir Richard) R.B.Colvin, then of
Stratford St. Mary, had raised the Essex Troop within
that regiment in 1889. When the Boer War broke out ten
years later, Colonel Colvin went to South Africa in
command of the 20th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry (Rough
riders ). On returning to Britain in 190 I, he was given
the task of raising and commanding a volunteer cavalry
unit in the county, to be titled the Essex Imperial
Yeomanry and based on the concept of the mounted infantry
units which had been so successful in countering the hit
and run tactics of Boer Commandos. The county was already
conveniently divided into districts of the four hunts of
Essex and a squadron was raised in each area. Major F.H.D.C.Whitmore
was appointed Officer Commanding D Squadron (Essex Union
Hunt) with headquarters at Southend. Over the next
thirteen years the various Troops of D Squadron were
located at Orsett, Grays, Southend, Brentwood, Romford,
Ilford and Stratford. Although extremely busy running the
Orsett Estate, Major Whitmore devoted a great deal of
time and money raising the Squadron to a high pitch of
perfection. His tireless efforts recruiting local men
into the Essex Imperial Yeomanry (and maybe some gentle
arm-twisting in his capacity as Orsett's lord of the
manor!) led many of his tenants and estate workers to
enlist in the regiment. This harked back to ancient times,
in which feudal lords and landowners would raise and arm
soldiers from their estates when the realm was threatened,
usually commanding them in person. Training nights for
the Orsett and Grays Troops were often held at Orsett
Hall instead of the Drill Hall at Grays, the estate
surrounding the Hall being ideal country for mounted
infantry training.
When the Territorial Army replaced
the volunteer movement in 1908, 'Imperial' was dropped'
from the title and became simply the Essex Yeomanry. The
new regiment was classed as Dragoons, which qualified it
to carry a guidon, a richly embroidered swallow-tailed
cavalry standard. Major Whitmore was in command of the
Colour Party which received the guidon from King Edward
VII at Windsor Castle in 1909. Two years later the Essex
Yeomanry provided a detachment to line the route of the
coronation procession of King George V. At the Orsett
Agricultural Show of 1912, a 'Musical Ride' was performed
by a mounted party from the Orsett and Grays Troop of D
Squadron. The men were dressed in the resplendent green
full dress uniform of the Essex Yeomanry, which included
brass dragoon helmets with scarlet horsehair plumes. The
'Ride' carried bamboo cavalry lances, adorned with
fluttering red and white pennons, privately purchased by
Major Whitmore for the occasion. It is interesting to
note that every man on parade, except for two, were
tenants or employees of the Whitmore estate.
The Essex Yeomanry, under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Deacon of Halstead,
with Major F.H.D.C.Whitmore as Second-in-Command,
mobilised for war service on August 7th 1914 and
proceeded to France to join the Royal Horse Guards (The
Blues) and the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)
in forming the 8th Cavalry Brigade of the 3rd Cavalry
Division. The Essex Yeomanry received its baptism of fire
in Flanders in February 1915, when the regiment left its
horses behind the lines and entered the trenches as
infantry at Zillebeke, south-east of Ypres. On May 13th
1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, Colonel Deacon
was ordered to make a dismounted counter-attack - at all
costs - against a position 1000 yards to their front,
which had been taken by the enemy. As the regiment moved
forward to the start line, Major Whitmore was severely
wounded and evacuated to a casualty clearing station. The
Essex men advanced with the 10th Hussars on their left
and the Blues on their right. They fixed bayonets, and,
with a resounding cheer, the Essex Yeomanry charged
across 400 yards of unbroken ground and up a steep slope
to capture the position known as Frezenberg Ridge. In
this fierce engagement five officers, including
Lieutenant Colonel Deacon, and 46 men were killed, and 5
officers and 86 men wounded. Major Whitmore, recovered
from his injuries, rejoined the Essex Yeomanry in
September 1915 and took over command. Further action
followed among the slag heaps of Loos in late September
1915 and in a feature known as the Hohenzollern Redoubt,
near Amiens, in January 1916
At 8.30am on April 11th 1917.
Lieutenant Colonel Whitmore, at the head of the Essex
Yeomanry rode into Monchy-Le-Preux, near Arras, a
recently captured town which had been an important German
headquarters. The enemy was determined to recapture it -
8th Cavalry Brigade's task was to stop them. Whitmore's
men were immediately subjected to a prolonged barrage of
intense artillery fire which reduced the town to ruins,
while incessant machine gun and rifle fire took its toll
of men and horses. Enemy aircraft, unmolested except for
small arms ground fire, strafed the defenders with their
machine guns, killing many of the led horses. At 11.10 am
Colonel Whitmore sent a message to Brigade Headquarters:
'Have sent several messages conveying all information on
E. Y. and X R.H. What remains of those regiments are
holding on to North-East, East and Southern exits of the
village. Require both MGs and ammunition. Am afraid we
have had many casualties. Counter attack expected.
Reinforcements required as reserve. Majority of horses
casualties '. All through the day and into the night the
Essex men held on despite mounting casualties, lack of
water, and no reinforcements. Just after midnight an
exhausted, and again wounded, Colonel Whitmore handed
over to a relieving column and led the remnants of the
Essex Yeomanry and 10th Hussars out of Monchy-Le-Preaux.
One officer and 18 men had been killed, and 12 officers
and 94 men wounded. Lance Corporal Harold Mugford from
Chelmsford, a machine gunner in the Essex Yeomanry, who,
with the entire Machine Gun Section of the regiment, had
recently been transferred to the newlv formed Machine Gun
Corps, received a Victoria Cross for his gallantry in
action in support of the Essex Yeomanry at Monchy-Le-Preux.
Resting behind the lines after
their gallant defence of Monchy-Le-Preux, Colonel
Whitmore presided at a banquet in the ruined Chateau of
Courcelles on the evening of the 4th of June for Old
Etonians of the 8th Cavalry Brigade. We can imagine the
scene in the shattered dining room as glasses clinked and
cutlery rattled to a background of rumbling gunfire from
the distant trenches. The thought must have passed
through the colonel's mind as his cigar smoke drifted
along the table; how many of the young officers before
him, now engaged in animated conversation, would be at
the next Old Etonian Banquet. Colonel Deacon of Halstead,
Major Roddick of Waltham Abbey and Lieutenants Johnston,
Swire, Reid, Tower and Lingeman of the Essex Yeomanry,
had already. made the supreme sacrifice. Colonel Whitmore
rose, stubbed out his cigar, tapped the table, and called
for the final toasts of the evening. Solemnly, the
soldiers raised their glasses to: 'Absent Friends '.
After a moment's silence, Colonel Whitmore proposed, with
gusto, 'Floreat Etona!'
A sad day dawned in April 1918 when
the Essex Yeomanry, Whitmore' s beloved regiment, was
broken up and the squadrons dispersed to reinforce other
cavalry regiments. Lieutenant Colonel Whitmore was given
command of the 10th Royal Hussars, now in the 6th Cavalry
Brigade, which he led with distinction from the desperate
moments of the great German spring offensive of 1918,
through to the ultimate defeat of Germany in November
1918 and the occupation of the Rhineland. Apart from the
British Military Mission, Colonel Whitmore and a
colleague were the first two British officers to enter
Berlin in March 1919, arriving shortly after the
Spartacist riots in the city. During The Great War,
Francis Whitmore won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
in 1917, was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD) in
1918, and was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished
Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1919. He was
Mentioned in Despatches on four separate occasions, and
wounded twice. Other than being a brave, efficient, and
well loved commanding officer, he was also a stickler for
'spit and polish', even in the most trying conditions.
During a conversation with Anthony Forbes-Whitmore in
1999, Albert 'Smiler' Marshall, then 102 years old and a
Great War veteran of the Essex Yeomanry, referred, with
due deference, to his former Commanding Officer as 'Colonel
Brasso!' Colonel Whitmore had been a perfectionist all
his life and expected everyone he came into contact with
to strive for the same goal.
After the Great War 
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