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Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:05 pm

Can anyone assist with this one please? A recent acquisition was this - I've seen it eslewhere as Bartle Frere's Staff, Pretoria 1880, I can manage to pick out Owen Lanyon & Henry Hallam Parr to Frere's right. The officer on his left appears to be Hugh Rowlands V.C., but does anyone have a clue with the rest?

Thanks in anticipation,

John Y.

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:25 pm

Dear John,
I think the chap on the right of the picture may be Colonel Sir Fred Forestier-Walker. Directly behind Frere might be William Lyttleton, his private secretary and on Frere's right seated could be Colonel Lord Grenfell. However, I'm not very good at this sort of thing.
Damian

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:09 pm

John,

Although Grenfell was offered a post with Wolseley (after he replaced Chelmsford), he and Buller declined and they both came home after Ulundi. He was then appointed Bde Major at Shorncliffe, but after Majuba (Feb 1881) Grenfell volunteered for service in South Africa and arrived in Cape Town on 3 April 1881. So according to his memoirs, Grenfell (then Major F W Grenfell), he does not appear to have been in Pretoria in 1880.

I regret I do not have a 1880/1 Army List which may help.

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:02 pm

Martin & Damian,

Thanks to both of you for your input.

Martin,

The awkward thing about Frere is that Wolseley all but usurps him in 1879, therefore Hart's Army List for 1880, only gives Parr as his Military Secretary. His A.D.C.'s post remains vacant, I don't know if it was filled after Nevill Coghill left him.

By the time of the compiling of the 1881 List, Frere had been recalled. A quarterly official list is a possibility, obviously dated prior to September 1880.

Damian

The officer, in mufti, seated on Frere's right is certainly Colonel William Owen Lanyon, C.B., C.M.G., of the 2nd West India Regiment, his thinker pose is quite common in other photographs. See attached.

Personally, I don't think the officer you thought might be Colonel F.W.E.F. Walker, 1st Battn., Scots Guards, can be Walker. There are a few reasons behind my assumption; no insignia of rank on his patrol jacket's collar, officers of the rank of Major & above would wear their rank on the collar of a patrol jacket; no obvious ribbon for his C.B. & the officer in the photograph is wearing a miniature medal on the right of his patrol jacket, which I'm going to guess is a Royal Humane Society award. The images I have of Walker do not have him wearing any such award. So I think I can discount Walker.

I've checked the images I have of the Honourable William Littleton, and the stature & looks of the man behind Frere, appear to match, so that's one I can scratch off. Thanks for that!

John Y.