Merkin

Alternatively, the DfE can see this is a good thing to have rather than a dilapidated building with no prospects blighting the quay for years to come.

hope they are successful 

15 minutes ago, 2bees said:

Are planning mad? The building is no more than a barn with windows! Oooh keep the quay, why? There aren’t loads of fishing boats coming into the Harbour (spell check…2 times changing it is enough) anymore. We need nice places.

I’m over my old attitude of saving buildings just because they’re old, we should save buildings of architectural interest (& Peel), I have a book about Manx architecture it’s very good. shame about the Majestic ofc (& looks like the Groudle is heading the same way) but there are other Baillie Scott buildings which are less “mass produced” & are being saved take Castletown police station for example. 

 

Yes Bees.  Feel ya, 100%.  This is not logical in any sense.  Feels personal and spiteful.  It is hardly an attractive building as it stands and getting an old building with significant inherent defects up to 2022 building regs is not gonna work.  The age of the building should not determine whether it is of significance.    What Douglas and the island needs is updating.

$

Get it knocked down ASAP ffs and something useful built there.  

did this pub ever happen?

It might help if you give us a little more info about your interests and age. 

These guys sometimes hold singles events

- https://www.facebook.com/groups/296583279193/

24 minutes ago, Max Power said:

You'd better tell them then. 

Lol.

World - listen up!  A 3 year old car is cheaper and just as reliable as a new car!! 

Rot. Anything under 5 years old perfectly ok. 

On 6/8/2019 at 11:28 AM, MrPB said:

Things are changing fast. You won’t be able to give a diesel away soon. Anyone who buys a new car with cash is crackers. You might as well set fire to a mountain of cash. It’s simply not a sensible way to deploy capital. 

I'd extend that to say that anyone who buys a new car using any means is crackers. 

55 minutes ago, MrPB said:

I’ve never understood why anyone would want to buy a depreciating asset with a loan or their own money when they could be using their capital or a loan to generate more money. If a bank tried to sell you something for £40,000 and said it would be worth £7,500 in 5 years time you’d be reporting them to the FSA but that’s pretty much the prognosis for any new or nearly new BMW or Merc. Just pay a fixed monthly amount and walk away at the end of the contract and let’s your PCP company try to trade your car (packed with electronics that are pretty much going to pack up and be expensive to repair at some stage rendering it almost worthless) in 5 years time. 

I imagine that the amount you pay to lease is more than depreciation. It has to be otherwise the business model wouldn’t work.  I’d rather buy things outright without credit than have to incur an additional 30% premium due to cost of finance. 

Yeah, I’ve never leased a car but can see the attraction.  Good to see new a new business setting up though I guess. 

My personal experience of reading the former  NOT joke was fabulous.  Keen to hear the views of others.

Also, hear Rex Leasing are up to good things. 

2 hours ago, Barrie Stevens said:

If the Mods say this is too big and take it down I will understand! It is linked to the earlier threads about "Most hunted" IOM and "British Library"...If anyone has the patience to read it!..

One or two trolls have had their say. This is what truly happened and which cost me a lot of money to research It is lodged in various archives, libraries, societies and the Muniments room of the Earl of Wemyss and March.

Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris 92nd Regiment (Gordon Highlanders) and of Gosford House East Lothian Scotland. His role in the Charge of the Light Brigade, Crimea, 25th October 1854.

A tale of Scottish military history and of the supranatural!

By

Barrie Stevens

The simple white stone plaque to the memory of Captain Walter Charteris of the now former Gordon Highlanders, set in a dark corner of Aberlady Kirk, Longniddry, East Lothian, conceals the untold story of a Scottish infantry officer’s part in the collective cavalry action at Balaclava October 25th 1854 known generally as, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris, third son of Francis 9th Earl of Wemyss and March (1795-1883), was killed during the Crimean War at Balaclava on October 25th 1854. He was twenty six years old and serving as ADC to his Uncle Lord Lucan, commander of the British cavalry during that mismanaged war against Russia.

Little is collectively known about his part in that action and most academic books on the subject make but cursory mention of his death.

My interest was stimulated when in 1981-82 I acquired from a London militaria dealer by the name of Colin Bowdell of Armoury Antiques one 1821 Pattern Light Cavalry Sabre No 5068 made, according to an accompanying receipt, by Wilkinson’s of Pall Mall to the order of The Hon Walter Charteris, “a Highlander” in the March of 1854.

I was curious even then as to why a Highlander would want a cavalry sabre and was told that maybe he was a mounted officer. Likewise, I was curious about the notch on the blade towards the hilt and which had obviously at some stage been beaten flat thus enabling the sabre to be returned to the scabbard.

Strange to relate but as I gripped and swung the sabre it seemed well balanced almost as if it had been made for me and Colin Bowdell remarked upon the same. In those days of course Wilkinson's of Pall Mall in London did make swords to measure.

A trip to the Guildhall Library of the City of London and reference to both the Army List and The Gentleman's Magazine showed that not only had he been serving in the 92nd Regiment (The Gordon Highlanders) but had been killed at the battle of Balaclava October 26th 1854 whilst serving as ADC to his maternal uncle Lord Lucan.

The next stage of my research was to visit the then Public Record Office now National Archives at Kew. I accessed the original army records for the 92nd. Thus Walter Charteris, as I discovered, was born at Amisfield, Haddington, close by to Edinburgh, on April 10th 1828. This former family estate is now a golf club, although Walter’s other home, Gosford, still thrives and is the seat of the present Lord Wemyss aka Earl of Wemyss and March.

There the matter might have ended save that I wanted for some reason to have my fortune told and via the phone directory made contact with a clairvoyant and medium Mrs Josephine Day who lived in a council flat in World's End, Chelsea, London. Incidentally Mrs Day claimed to be a medium sometimes employed by the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for the purpose of soirees and that she had attended such at Clarence House.

Following what was a remarkably accurate reading Mrs Day mentioned that she could psychometrise objects and read back the spiritual vibrations. She also mentioned that she occasionally was asked to perform psychometry on objects held by the British Museum.

Accordingly, I asked Mrs Day if she would be prepared to "read" two swords in my possession. One being the sabre formerly belonging to Captain Walter Charteris and the other a late 1890s pattern infantry sword once owned by Major John Selby of a volunteer regiment called The First Surrey Rifles.

The reading of John Selby's sword prove accurate. He had been a man in the City of London she said. He was familiar with the Mansion House and attending functions and that if he was not a lawyer then he lived amongst lawyers. He died she said from a condition in the chest and throat area.

This proved to be true as John Selby was a silk merchant in the City. Lived at four, King's Bench Walk, Inner Temple and there were others named Selby living nearby who were lawyers. Thus he lived amongst lawyers. John Selby's occupation was silk merchant and his death in 1922 caused by cancer of the oesophagus.

Josephine Day's reading of the sabre of Captain Walter Charteris was much more dramatic. As soon as I drew the weapon she saw an image of me with a smashed head and blood dripping onto the carpet!

As she closed her eyes and focussed Mrs Day was able to tell me that the sword’s former owner had a name like "Walt" or "Wally" and that he was twenty six years of age when he passed over. There was a lot of noise like thunder when he was killed and he was riding a horse brought out from "England" and following a leader in the form of another man on a big white horse. I presume this to have been Lord Lucan.

The medium then said that he came from a good family with a “Big House,” was very ambitious for a military career and would have held lands of his own had he lived. She also saw looking into a crystal ball a vision of him in two uniforms. When he was killed she said he was wearing a blue uniform with gold stripes down the trousers. At this point her hand described a gold belt and cross belt and a big hat. But she also said that this dark blue uniform was not his real uniform as Walter Charteris himself then apparently appeared wearing a scarlet tunic.

Captain Charteris had been an officer in the Gordon Highlanders, the 92nd, and so would have had to acquire a cavalry staff officer's uniform and sabre when appointed to be ADC to his uncle Lord Lucan the commander of cavalry at that time. His usual uniform tunic however would have been red or scarlet.

Mrs Day told me that he was pleased I had found the sabre as it was meant to be. I began a sort of conversation asking questions and received answers. I warned that I was writing it all down and that I would investigate. Walter was pleased.

He also conveyed via the medium that he had  a memorial to his name. I asked where. The medium described a round white stone with gold lettering. I asked where it was to be found and Walter Charteris replied that it was in the Kirk.

I asked where? Which Kirk? And the response was "A-B-....Lady".

Walter Charteris then took the medium Josephine Day on a trip around the old family home of Gosford House, Longniddry, East Lothian. This house is so big it can be seen from within Edinburgh.

He told of a fire that had saddened them all. He took the medium up the sweeping white marble stairs and focussed her attention on some paintings "to the right." Particular attention was paid to an image of two boys but heat seemed to emanate from one of them in particular.

As regards the fire well the house was so damaged when it was taken over for military service in the 1940s. This also shows that the Charteris family were aware of this even despite being “on the other side”.

Next, Captain Charteris showed the medium a small house in the grounds of this family estate and in which the present owners lived. There was also nearby a coach or carriage and in the garden a white marble bath used as a garden ornament.

Walter Charteris then went on to explain that he had no need to go to war. He volunteered. Apparently a clairvoyant living on the family estate had predicted his death if he embarked upon the Crimean adventure. Upon hearing this Walter's mother the Countess of Wemyss had had the woman whipped.

Captain Charteris also described some scenes from the Crimean War and in particular an occasion of entertainment performed by soldiers with a crescent moon badge in the headress. I take these to have been Turkish troops as Britain and France had gone to war with Russia supposedly in a bid to save Turkey from invasion by that country.

Walter also mentioned a fire in which some of his kit was lost and we do know that there was a damaging fire in the base camp at that time.

Most surprising of all however was Walter's claim that his body had not been buried on the battlefield but brought back to Scotland. It had been put in a box stored in a deep cellar and packed in what looked to be white sand. Later I was to discover that bodies were often packed in finely powdered gypsum to preserve them in transit.

Now from Walter's army records I knew that he had been born at Haddington, East Lothian and so I travelled instantly to that part of the world hoping to find the white marble monument there in St Mary's Kirk.

No such luck although I did find and photograph the traditional burying grounds of the Earls of Wemyss and March in the Kirkyard outside.

One significant feature of the Kirk was at that time a large blue circular dais used by another congregation sharing the Kirk.

Later I showed Mrs Day a photograph of this site and asked if Walter’s remains had been buried there and not in the Kirk at Aberlady. She reported heat rising from the image and also described a black velvet covered coffin and at the funeral a lot of noise and likewise the presence of Walter’s mother as well as his old nurse. Walter’s mother she described as wearing a voluminous “purple” dress?

Mrs Day also described the blue circular dais and that the interior of this particular Kirk was weatherworn. This latter was true as the Kirk had suffered damage during the English Civil War and parts of the interior had become over time exposed and weather worn as can be seen to this very day.

One stroke of good luck was to meet a retired Scottish Office civil servant by the name of Stuart MacPhail who apparently knew the then Lord Wemyss aka Earl of Wemyss and March and promised to mention my quest to him. As a result some days later I received a letter from Lord Wemyss informing me that the memorial to Captain Walter Charteris was to be found in Aberlady Kirk near by to Gosford House. Hence Walter’s attempt to convey the site by the phrase “A” “B”...”Lady”.

Lord Wemyss also told me that the medium’s descriptions had been most accurate. There is a white sweeping marble-like staircase in Gosford House. He and his wife did then live in the old stables during the winter which unusually were in the grounds. Furthermore that in the stables there was indeed a coach, a carriage and Nineteenth Century American horse-sleigh. The white marble bath he said had been installed in the Big House but that when it was removed during modernisation it had been placed in the stable gardens as an ornament.

Regarding the painting of the two boys it seems that this was executed by the Scottish academician Raeburn and that one of the boys was named Walter Charteris and that he died age 21. Furthermore, that the other boy became the father of our Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris 1828-1854 and he had been so name after this namesake to wit his father’s deceased brother.

Once again I travelled to Scotland only this time taking with me on the 'plane the sabre that Captain Charteris had been holding in his hand when killed at Balaclava.

Once in the Kirk I soon found the white marble stone just as described and likewise other Charteris family memorials including the tomb of Walter's mother Louisa Countess of Wemyss.

A report in the Illustrated London News for November 1854 carries a description of Balaclava, and tells of how a grapeshot first passed through the cap of Lord William Paulet, Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, ‘and decapitated Charteris, Lord Lucan’s Aide-de Camp’.

The unpublished memoirs of Walter’s brother, then Lord Elcho, later 10th Lord Wemyss, being Junior Lord of the Treasury and a member of the War Cabinet during the Crimean War mention the sabre. ‘I have here in the Charter Room, I saw it yesterday, the sword he then held in his hand, the blade of which is notched by the bullet in its deadly flight.’ The then Lord Wemyss provided me with a photocopy of this item.

The sabre was certainly notched, with a ¾ inch semi-circular dent on the leading edge close to the hilt and parallel with the engraved family crest, Walter’s initials, ‘WC’ and the motto, ‘This is Our Charter’.

 

The mode of the sabre’s return, and the fulfilment of the prediction of Walter’s demise, came about in this fashion.

One John, later, Sir John Blunt, was a Foreign Service Office official and Turkish speaker attached to the Staff of Lord Lucan.

Writing in his memoirs at the turn of the century, part of which are preserved in the National Army Museum, Blunt describes the moments just before the fatal charge.

Captain Charteris turned to Blunt and asked for the loan of his handkerchief. Blunt replied that it was dirty to which Walter responded that it would suffice, but that he would not be returning it. The handkerchief was handed over and used by Walter to tie his sabre to his wrist.

In his memoirs, John Blunt remarks upon Walter’s gloomy countenance, the reason he later discovered, being a clairvoyant’s prediction of death in battle which had long played on his mind and which he then perceived was about to be fulfilled. Contemporary records maintain that Walter often discussed his fate with brother officers.

The Crimean War historian A.W Kinglake in his classic work, “The Invasion of the Crimea,” recounts these events and makes mention of Walter’s death and how it fulfilled ‘an incurable presentiment’ .

The official account of Walter’s death states that he was killed when Lucan and his force advanced down the valley some distance behind the Light Brigade under Lord Cardigan. It is said that Lucan halted his force when a spray of grape shot hit his command.

On the other hand Henry Joy, a soldier who was Trumpet Major to Lord Lucan, wrote that Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris was killed by rifle fire as he, Lord Lucan and the Staff were riding down the plain. His account would have it that this event took place before Captain Lew Nolan rode down with the fatal message that led to the charge of the Light Brigade.

The official account has Walter Charteris killed as Lord Lucan led his command in support of the Light Brigade but which was halted when they came under the fire that brought down Walter Charteris and others.

The National Army Museum holds memoirs of Walter’s cousin, George Bingham son of Lord Lucan and likewise the latter‘s ADC, recounting that they went out to recover Walter’s body under Russian “plunging fire” but succeeded only in bringing back his sabre, scabbard and watch.

The National Army Museum at Chelsea has on file records of the posthumous sale of Walter’s private possessions according to custom.

Captain Charteris purchased his Captain’s commission in the early part of 1854, and it was in the February of that year that Lucan applied for an infantry command, a staff position on which would have been more appropriate for someone having Walter’s qualifications.

Walter may well have had to acquire his cavalry kit and sabre in a hurry when Lord Lucan was surprisingly appointed to the cavalry.

Described by his elder brother Lord Elcho, (1818-1914), himself a co-founder of the London Scottish, as a ‘gentle, tall good looking youth,‘ Walter Charteris was commissioned by purchase as Ensign into the 92nd, the Gordon Highlanders, on February 6th 1846. His later promotions to Lieutenant and Captain were likewise all by way of purchase.

Incidentally, we know from the 1841 Census that at the age of about thirteen Walter Charteris was being educated at the Manse, Kirkurd, Peeblesshire, Scotland under the tutelage of Revd. Walter Paterson.

Captain Charteris was a late arrival in the theatre of war, reaching Turkey on August 13th 1854. He moved away with the Army to the Crimea on September 14th of that year. Service records for the 92nd held at the National Archive at Kew record these facts.

Apart from being mentioned by Kinglake, Captain Walter Charteris also appears, or is mentioned, in The Times newspaper in a letter written by a Captain Shakespear RA (Royal Artillery) as extracted below.

Sir,— “Captain Charteris rode up to us; he was accompanied, I think, by Captain Methuen, of the screw steamship Colombo. The former said, ‘You will see something now; the Light Cavalry are going to attack down the plain.’ I exclaimed, ‘You will all be destroyed. I will go and bring up the troop and try and give assistance.” (Letter to the Editor The Times 3rd April 1855 page 10)

In latter years, historians have questioned the activities of Charteris in relation to the Charge of the Light Brigade. Certainly on October 25th 1854 he must have been on some sort of scouting mission because he reached Army HQ at 6.30 am and told Lord Raglan that the Russians were on the move and had begun to attack.

On visiting Aberlady Kirk I noticed the brass mounts set around the memorial stone of Walter Charteris and had the idea of taking a photograph of the sword hanging from the monument. Only afterwards did I realise that this was where the sabre had once been mounted in its scabbard.

The position of the sabre can clearly be seen in the photo image included in this document where there are three mounts in a row. The other mounts top right probably held Walter’s claymore or broadsword, his official sidearm, and likewise his dirk.

Walter Charteris was a scion of a prominent Scottish family whose estate, Gosford, is large enough to be clearly seen from within Edinburgh and is now open to the public. His brother, Lord Elcho, was in the War Cabinet. He was ADC to Lord Lucan his Uncle by marriage, Walter’s mother being Lucan’s sister, Louisa the Countess of Wemyss, the former Lady Louisa Bingham, and whose fine white marble tomb is in Aberlady Kirk aforesaid.

Another brother Frederick William Charteris (1833-1887), later Captain (The Hon) F.W. Charteris RN, was then a Midshipman aboard Admiral Lyons’s flagship “Agamemnon.” Lt Col. (The Hon) Richard Charteris, (1822-1874), an elder brother, served post-hostilities in the Crimea with the Scots Fusilier Guards.

So was the body of Captain Walter Charteris brought back to buried in the old family tombs outside St Mary’s Kirk Haddington? Well that I cannot say for certain. He certainly died before others of his family who have their graves in Aberlady Kirkyard and thus may have been of necessity buried in the old family plot.

Official records were not instigated in Scotland until much later than their introduction in England in 1837. In 1982 the then Minister of St Mary’s Kirk Haddington informed me that the pages of the Kirk burial register for the relevant period had been torn out!

Walter did recount that his remains were brought back from the Crimea at the absolute insistence of his mother but against opposition from the rest of the family. But why no record or even family rumour if there was such an apparently noise funeral with both mother and nurse there present?

Possibly Lord Lucan did return from the Crimea with a box containing Walter’s remains packed in powdered gypsum along with his sabre, scabbard and watch? We know from Charteris family records that Walter’s brother Lord Elcho was one of the first to meet with Lord Lucan at his London home shortly after the latter’s return from the Crimea.
Certainly, the Army Chaplains Returns make no mention of Captain Walter Charteris having a grave. Likewise a survey of private memorials made post-war by surveyors of the Royal Engineers makes no mention of Walter Charteris.

I wonder of the situation then was somewhat similar to our own times in 2013 when we see on television the coffined remains of soldiers brought back from the campaign in Afghanistan where they have fallen victim to roadside mines known as “IED” or Improvised Explosive Devices?

It is an open secret that some of these coffins contain little or no remains.

However, the story of Captain Walter Charteris does not end just yet. There is a twist to the tale!

Walter Charteris told the medium Josephine Day that although he had not married there were people around and about the Gosford House estate then yet living who are his descendants following liaison with servant girls and maids.

Indeed, I took a small piece of stone from the wall of the old coach house and stables at Amisfield another of the Charteris family estates where Walter had been born. Without prompting, and on a subsequent visit to Mrs Day, Captain Walter Charteris described himself as a boy playing in the coach house jumping from one coach to another from door to door as they stood in line. He also spoke of liaisons with servant girls in those carriages in later times!

This may have some bearing anon as it is reported that Walter Charteris fathered an illegitimate son with coachman’s daughter Emma Geddes. The name Geddes is itself Scottish and somewhere in the back of my mind I thought that I had read of how the coachman father of Emma Geddes had once worked on the Charteris family estates in Scotland???
In connection with this there are those whose family history and folklore would have it that Walter Charteris fathered a child with a servant girl a coachman’s daughter Emma Geddes, his mistress so to speak, at the family’s West London home Stratford Place in 1854 on the occasion they all celebrated the twenty first birthday of Frederick Charteris Walter’s brother born 1833 aforesaid.
Most certainly, it is said that the unmarried Emma Geddes gave birth to her illegitimate son William Joseph Geddes (1854-1898) at 10, Simon Street, Salford, Lancashire in 1854 exactly nine months after the birthday celebrations.

Walter Charteris was at this time expecting to embark for the Crimean War and had after all seen a clairvoyant and been told about his certain death in battle if he proceeded to volunteer.

Regarding Walter’s “mistress” Emma Geddes we know that she was born at 6 Spring Mews St Mary le Bone 12th July 1830 and baptised age one year at Bryanston Square St Mary le Bone London on June 3rd 1832.

In 1851 age 21 she was living at 6, St James Place, Clapham, Surrey England.

Also in 1851 age 21 she was resident at the London home of the Charteris family Stratford Place. This may have been the home of Walter’s brother Lord Elcho.

In 1854 Emma Geddes has moved to Manchester where she is living at 10, Simon Street, Salford where her illegitimate child - the son of Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris - is born apparently on 24th November 1854. If this be so then the boy’s father Captain Walter Charteris was killed at Balaclava on 25th October 1854 almost one month before.

Emma would have been well aware of this as it was proclaimed in the Times newspaper, a casualty list was published and the death of Walter Charteris referred to in Parliament.
Incidentally, Emma’s mother and father are at this time living a few hundred yards away in Balloon Street, Manchester under the alias of “Baker”.

On the 17th September 1861 Emma Geddes married Charles Moore Carder at the church of St Nicholas, Liverpool. She was then age 31.

In 1861 something has happened and Emma is living at 53 Lydia Ann Street, Liverpool, then age 31. She is with her son and living under the alias of “Smith”.

In 1871 at the age of 41 she is living at 49, Lydia Ann Street, Liverpool.

On 17th October 1882 at St Simon’s church she marries Robert Pritchard Smith and they then live at 54, Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool. Emma is by then age 52.

The year 1891 sees her living age 61 at 90, Upper Pitt Street, Liverpool, Lancashire.

In the year 1911 Emma dies at 11, Alfred Street, Liverpool, Lancashire age 81. She has outlived Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris by fifty seven years.

Captain (The Hon) Walter Charteris left an estate of £3,182 0s 3d. It is said that the Estate remained unsettled for some years as Walter’s father could not bring himself to attend to the same.

ADDENDUM

I am given to understand by those who claim to be descended from Walter Charteris and the servant girl Emma Geddes that under Scottish law illegitimacy was no bar to inheritance.

Families report stories to the effect that the Charteris family paid £500 to Emma Geddes and/or her father to leave his employment. (Unclear whether this was employment with the Charteris family or his general employment) and thus move on with daughter Emma Geddes and her expectation)

One descendant even claims to have seen a letter to this effect when a child.

I am given to understand that under Scottish law any child whether in or out of marriage could claim from an estate provided that the deceased was domiciled in Scotland at the time (As was Walter Charteris despite being killed in Russia) or had been living in Scotland for 15 years.

Apparently no will or testament is required although illegitimate children must prove the relationship.

I am given to understand that in the presence of a spouse all children could claim one sixth of the moveable estate ie estate excluding houses and land etc.

If there is no spouse then a child could claim one quarter of the moveable estate.

Walter Charteris left an estate of £3,182 0s 3d and the following was recorded in the National Probate records for England and Wales for 1883:-

The Honourable Charteris, Walter : 29th September Administration of the Personal Estate of the Honourable Walter Charteris late a Captain in her Majesty's 92nd Regiment of Foot a bachelor who died 25 October 1854 at Balaclava in the Crimea left unadministered by the Right Honourable Francis Charteris late Earl of Wemyss and March and the Father and Next of Kin was granted at the Principal Registry to the Right Honourable Francis Charteris Earl of Wemyss and March of 23 St James' Place in the County of Middlesex the sole Executor of the Will of the said Right Honourable Francis Charteris  Former Grant: Prerogative Court of Canterbury September 1855.

Therefore Walter Charteris had made no will and died intestate with his father the then Earl of Wemyss and March as next of kin.

Walter’s father apparently was so distressed he chose not to settle the estate - in 1855 or did he want it left unsettled in view of the Emma Geddes affair? Either way it was left to Walter’s brother to settle the estate once and for all in 1883 when he inherited the title and became The Earl of Wemyss and March and was thus also sole executor to the will of both his and Walter’s father.

At this juncture I should like to point out that by 1883 William Joseph Geddes, allegedly the illegitimate son of Walter Charteris and Emma Geddes born as he was in 1854, would by then have been 29.....The matter in other words long swept under the carpet especially in regard to maintenance against the estate.

To continue:-

Therefore if Emma Geddes could prove or imply a relationship with the birth of a child impending - and we know not what the circumstances whether forced or voluntary - it may indeed be feasible that the Charteris family back then did get them to leave the area and keep quiet on payment of the sum of £500 according to family legend.

Likewise, the sum of £500 is almost one sixth of the estate left by Walter Charteris  and to which his child would notionally have been entitled in theory and in time if you are prepared to accept that Emma Geddes was counted as a spouse and acted on his behalf? I know not how the law operates in these circumstances.

There is also the additional factor of a spouse or “mistress” or mother of a child being able to claim maintenance from an estate the more so as Walter Charteris was a bachelor.

Coincidence? It may have been an acceptable formula on which to base a settlement and thereby avoid a scandal. The legend of the letter and the sum of £500 may just be true!

The character of Captain Charteris appeared in the original print of the 1968 film “The Charge of the Light Brigade” starring Sir John Guilgud, Harry Andrews and Trevor Howard. Walter Charteris was played by the actor Colin Vancao but his scenes were not included in the print issued for general release.

 Author

Barrie Stevens
12 Peverell House,
63, Arbour Lane,
Chelmsford,
Essex.
CM1 7PL

barrie.stevens@yahoo.co.uk

Ó Barrie Stevens 2013.

The author’s moral rights have been asserted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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build a tunnel!

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