Elkington Family History

Lt. Col. John Ford Elkington 1866-1944
     
The story of John Ford Elkington is one of dishonour, courage and heroism . He was one of five sons and one daughter born to Lt. General John Henry Ford Elkington whose family had a strong Army tradition and background.
 
     
On the 4th March 1864, the 2nd battalion of the 6th Royal Regiments boarded H.M.S. Orontes for Jamaica in the West Indies. The voyage ahead was long by today’s standards, calling at Gibraltar, Madeira and Tenerife. By the 31st March they sighted the Cape Verde Islands taking coal on at Port Grand, St. Vincent.
 
     
They had reached Trinidad on the 12th April and cast anchor. This was an important place in the West Indies with mail being delivered here from eight or ten shipping lines, arriving monthly.
 
 
By the 18th April they had reached Jamaica and after taking on board a pilot they were able to finally cast anchor in Kingston Harbour. Here they could see the white wooden barracks of Newcastle on the side of St. Catherine’s Peak. The hills leading up to the fort were covered in forests of Mahogany, Cedar, Yellow Sander and Coffee Plantations with the valley below covered in Sugar-cane.
 
 
   
The tortuous road to St, Catherine’s Mtn.
Newcastle, famous for its pure air and sitting on the top of St. Catherine’s mountain was an ideal stronghold for the Army. The officers’ quarters were neat little isolated cottages, surrounded with flowers, trees and shrubs. The parade ground was a large terrace which had been excavated and levelled with a mound round its lower edge, forming a promenade as well as a drill ground. There was one large wooden building where divine service was held by all denominations in their turn which also served as a schoolhouse and lecture hall. The married sergeants’ quarters were distributed on each side of the ridge, in separate cottages, with flower gardens to each. Above the barracks on a flat side of the mountain, Col. Hobbs apportioned a garden for each company, which were reclaimed and cultivated, raising almost all sorts of vegetables, viz.: yams, cocoas, sweet potatoes, cauliflowers, cabbages, potatoes. Many officers also kept horses.
     

In the beginning of 1865, Colonel John Henry Elkington was appointed Deputy-Adjutant General at Kingston, when Col. Hobbs was taken ill and had to return home to England with his family. Sadly Col. Hobbs died on the journey home.

Into this world came Margaret Jamieson of Glasgow Scotland. who had married John Ford on 25 January, 1865 in Anderston, Glasgow.. They lived in one of the cottages assigned to officers. By June, Margaret and John were expecting their first child. Not an easy time for the people living in Jamaica because whilst enjoying every comfort in this delightful station, a report that the negroes had broken out in open rebellion at Morant Bay on 7th October, 1865, was made known. Suffice it to say that a protracted uprising took place which lasted into the following year and there was a slaughter of not a few local residents.
 
In 1865, impoverished peasants on the British island of Jamaica petitioned Queen Victoria (1819-1901) for permission to use government-held lands for planting, but were denied. Discontent centered in the Jamaican parishes of St. Ann and St. Thomas, where a mob of natives stormed and set fire to the courthouse in Morant Bay while the parish council was in session; the chief magistrate and 18 other white persons were killed. Declaring martial law, Jamaica's Governor Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) ruthlessly suppressed the rebellion, one of whose leaders, George William Gordon (d. 1865), a member of the Merchants and Free Persons of Colour, was tried, convicted, and executed. Eyre, who had exaggerated the extent of the threat of native rebels to the white planters, induced the Jamaican assembly to vote itself out of existence. In 1866, he was recalled to England, and the British Parliament established Jamaica as a crown colony under a new royal governor.
     
In the Spring of 1866, Sir Henry Storks was the guest of the officers of the 6th Royal Regiment for several days after the inquiry was finished. After the insurrection, the Maroons were entertained in the city hall, as a mark of approbation and gratitude for the manner in which they assisted in quelling the rebellion.
Into this tumultuous world, on the 3 February 1866 was born John Ford Elkington, the first of the six children born toJohn Henry Ford and Margaret Jamieson.
The Hill Station at Newcastle, Jamaica
   
As his father was in the Army, like all Army families John Ford, with his family, had to follow his father in his profession and on the 24th March, Her Majesty’s Ship Tamar arrived at Kingston Harbour with the 84th Regiment, to relieve the 2nd Battalion 6th Regiment. On the 25th they marched from Newcastle to Uppark Camp, and remained there until the 1st April 1867, where they embarked for Cork in Ireland. Later that year, in Anderston, Glasgow, a second son was born and named Robert Charles Goodall.
     
Eventually a family of five sons and one daughter were born, the last child, a girl called Alice was born in Bath. in 1879.
 
 
 
Lt. Gen. John Henry Ford Elkington and his wife, Margaret Jamieson with their five sons
 
 
John Ford Elkington is standing in the middle
 
 
This photo was taken towards the end of the 1870s probably before the birth of Alice Margaret in 1879
 
John Ford Elkington was Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey and the Royal Military Academy. He joined his father’s regiment, the Royal Warwickshires in 1886, being promoted to Captain in six years. In 1898 he volunteered and served in Nigeria but was invalided home with malaria. He was in the South Africa War from 1900 to 1902. In February 1907 he was serving with the 3rd Battalion in South Africa. Between 1900 and 1912 he served in India. In 1910 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and returned to take command of the Shorncliffe Camp in February 1914.
     
His four brothers were all in the Army and distinguished themselves in the service of their country.. The 2nd son, Robert James Goodall served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and became a Brigadier General. The third son, Charles Jarvie, was a Lieutenant in the royal Engineers and died young in Cairo, Egypt in 1893. The fourth son was Lieutenant George Edward who served in the Royal Engineers. He died in South Africa at Bloemfontein of enteric Fever at the age of 29. The fifth and last son, William Ernest Walter served in the Royal Worcester and Royal Lincolnshire Regiments as a Major.
     

The five sons of Lt.General John Henry Ford Elkington
 
 

   
 

Standing: John Ford, Robert James Goodall, William Ernest Walter

  Seated: George Edward
Charles Jarvie
 
The first World War was often called ‘The War to end all Wars’ and with good reason. When it started, it was said it would be all over before Christmas. By the time Christmas arrived, the two opponents were sitting in opposing trenches and on Christmas Day a sort of weird and unreal truce was accepted and they wished each other ‘Happy Christmas’ and sang carols together. What a futile effort to be friends. On Boxing day they returned to a state of War and blew hell out of one another. More men died in this War, than ever before or since. Many were nothing but cannon fodder or worse still, drowning literally in a land of mud, trampled into the terrible sea of death by their comrades trying to find their way through an unimaginable turmoil, many injured and often in the dark of night.
     
The horses of the Cavalry suffered together with their masters and it must have been patently obvious that the days of the horse at war was over. It was in this war that tanks were first seen.
     
The leaders of these poor souls were in an even worse plight, often leading starving, exhausted and in some cases, shell shocked, men through this wilderness. What a part of hell to be in; to have to make logical and leading decisions. After the War many soldiers were shot as deserters because they could no longer fight through exhaustion or shell shock or some other disability. Some, of course were genuine deserters but many innocent men died for these reasons.
 
Into this mayhem, on the 25 August, 1914, came John Ford Elkington, now Lt. Colonel in charge of the remnants of his brigade . For four days they had had no sleep, no food, and from what is reported, wandered the battle field with all connection lost to headquarters, no maps and nothing except the leadership of Elkington to get them through. On him fell the total responsibility of leading these men onward and into battle. He had good men amongst his Battalion, including a junior officer, later to become the hero of the Second World War, known as Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, as well as that well known cartoonist, Bruce Bairnsfather.

Elkington, who was holding a position in trenches near a farm on a hill near Boisigny, had dug himself in there. He and his men had left their Bivouac at 4.0 a.m. forming an advanced guard for the 10th Infantry Brigade The Brigade was finally instructed to withdraw, trench by trench which they tried to do and to reach a large farm nearby Finally Elkington found himself in a sunken road with his battalion. No order had actually been received telling them which way to fall back as headquarters had been destroyed and they moved towards Ligny not knowing in what direction the enemy lay. The exhausted and shell shocked men fell like ninepins by the roadside. When they halted they fell asleep on their feet and some could be heard snoring as they were standing there, still at the ready if called.

As darkness fell it was almost impossible to keep the men together and it was under these conditions that Elkington met a fellow Colonel [Mainwaring] also trying to keep his own men together.
 
He arrived in the vicinity of a village called St. Quentin where he hoped to obtain food and supplies for his men. Here a crucial event took place which was to alter the whole of Elkington and Mainwaring’s careers. Some confusion arose about the presence of the British Troops and the Maire of St. Quentin felt that their being there would endanger the lives of the women and children should the Germans, who by now were in the vicinity, shell the village and kill the innocent residents for helping them. Elkington had decided that they would meet the Germans not in the Town but behind the Railway Station to avoid involving the many women and children in the village.
 

Hotel de Ville, St. Quentin

Here some confusion arose because Mainwaring, who visited the Maire accompanied by an interpreter, whilst trying to arrange for food and a train for the men, signed a paper promising not to fight in the town in return for the food. Whilst this was happening Elkington was with his troops at the station where he was trying to find a train. This paper was crucial to the case of the two Colonels at their Court Martial later.

 

Elkington arrived at the Railway station and put his men in one shed and their arms, which could easily be reached if needed, in another. Here for a short while they were allowed to rest whilst having a little bread to share amongst them. Finally he got his men away and proceeded to Noyon, whereby he took command of his battalion again and fought with them for two days, but shortly after this he was arrested and put on a charge of ‘Cowardice and Conspiring to Surrender’ the charge saying that he conspired to surrender to the enemy by the signing of the paper. He was acquitted of the Cowardice charge, but the other charge was upheld and he was dishonourably discharged from the Army losing his rank.

 

Two weeks after his Court Marshall, Elkington returned to France and joined the French Foreign Legion. Here he joined the ranks as an ordinary soldier, his British Rank stripped from him. He joined in his own name and worked hard in the lower ranks. Three weeks after he joined he was on the War front again. He told a correspondent from The Times that it was not hard for him as he knew the ropes. He was saddened by the fact that many of the men in the Legion could wear their medals but he could not wear his own as he had been cashiered and had no right to them or to any rank.

When asked if he was ever recognised he replied that he was only once. A British Military Car went past and a voice shouted “Hello Elkington” but he hoped no one would take any notice of him. He was given a copy of Kipling’s Poem ‘If’ and this sustained him through the trenches and through bivouac and he carried it everywhere with him in his wallet on the long marches and it pulled him through the bad times.
 
He made a new friend; an American Surgeon called Wheeler who had joined the French Red Cross. He had become tired of the Red Cross and joined the Legion instead. Elkington met him on his way to the front and thought he was a tramp. Perhaps he though that Elkington was a tramp, who knows. When Elkington and the Legion reached Lyons, he went to have a meal in the big hotel there. There he saw the American also sitting in the dining room having a meal, both men reasonably dressed. Neither one was a tramp.
After that meeting they ate together and they marched together and became firm friends. They went into battle together and each was shot in the leg receiving serious wounds from a German Machine Gun.. His doctor friend administered a stiff dose of Laudanum and what first aid he could, sadly telling his friend that his leg would probably have to come off. He then fainted across Elkington’s damaged leg which cause him extreme pain. Elkington and his friend lay there for thirteen hours before they were found by a passing French Patrol and were taken to hospital. He was lying less than 100 yards from the German second line of trenches.
He was taken to the Hopital Civil at Grenoble where he was lying on his back for eight months undergoing many operations, and a further two months in the Hospital. He was then invalided home to his house at Pangbourne, Berkshire, badly affected by his injury and often in pain. Shortly after this, the family moved to Adbury Holt, Berkshire, where he remained until his death. At this time he had two children John David Rew and a daughter named Jean Margaret. His third and final child, a second son names Richard, sadly died in the Second World War and whilst serving as a Captain in the Rifle Brigade.
After returning home and starting his new life as a civilian, a surprise awaited John Ford Elkington in 1916. A letter was received from Buckingham Palace, requesting him to present himself to the King so that his DSO could be awarded to him in a private Investiture Ceremony.
Four days later on the 30th October, he met the King at Buckingham Palace and received his pardon and was invested with the D.S.O which he had won whilst serving in the French Foreign Legion.
Despite often being in pain from his injury, he now took an interest in local affairs. Her regularly took his seat on the Kingsclere Bench; started a men’s club and became chairman of Newbury District Hospital.
Even in death he was treated like the brave, honourable and much decorated soldier that he was and a Plaque is erected to his memory in the church at Burghclere. A fitting end for a brave soldier.
This plaque, together with a stained glass window in memory of his son Richard and another plaque in memory of his son in law was unveiled by Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in Burghclere Church in May 1946. His son in law was Sir Richard Des Voeux who was killed at Arnhem in 1944 when commanding 156 Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.
 
Standing on the back row: Col. R. Col;vin, D.S.O. Mrs. Colvin Mrs.H,.J. De Voeux Lt.Col. Brownlow 
Front Row: Mrs. J.F. Elkington Field Marhsall Montgomery holding Jane and Elizabeth Voeux
 Lady de Voeux holding her daughter Susan Lt.Col. David Elkington.
 
A Portrait of Lt. Col. John Ford Elkington 1866 – 1944
Painted by Sir William Orpen, R.A. in 1918.
John Ford was still suffering pain from his wounds at this time.
The Medals won by Lt.Col. John Ford Elkington  
1.
2.
3.
4.
Medals
1.Distinguished Service Order
2.Queen’s Medal South Africa War
3.British Victory Medal
4.British War Medal
5.Medaille Militaire
6.Delhi Durbar Medal
7.Croix de Guerre with Palm
8. Awarded between 5 Aug1914 and 22nd November 1914 for being under fire. Often know as the Mons Star.
John Ford Elkington was also mentioned in Despatches several times.
5.
6.
7. 8.
     
The tree of Lt. Col. John Ford Elkington

1 RICHARD 1505 ELKINGTON Oxon
2. John 1535 ELKINGTON Oxon
3. George [twin?] 1566 ELKINGTON Oxon
4. Anthony 1613 ELKINGTON Somerset
5. William 1647 ELKINGTON Somerset
6. James 1674 ELKINGTON Somerset
7. Samuel 1707 ELKINGTON Somerset
8. William 1741 ELKINGTON Somerset
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Birth: 1741, Bath

Spouse: Betty FORD Wilts
Birth: ca 1741, Walcot and Colerne, Wilts
Father: John FORD Wilts
Marr: 28 Apr 1773, Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset

Children: James* 1774 (1774-)
Elizabeth Ester 1775 (1775-)
Mary 1776 (1776-1868)
Samuel 1777 (1777-1777)
Alice 1778 (1778-1825)
John 1780 (1780-1800)
William 1781 (1781-1800)
James Goodall 1784 (1784-1853)

9. James Goodall 1784 ELKINGTON Somerset
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Birth: 2 Oct 1784, privately baptised
Death: 3 Oct 1853, Dublin
Burial: 1853, Garrison Cemetery, Dublin
Occ: Army Medical Service in the Peninsula War.

Spouse: Louisa 1785 BAILEY
Birth: 1785
Death: 11 Jan 1879
Father: Captain James BAILEY
Mother: Elizabeth ? London
Marr: 31 Oct 1818, British Embassy Chapel, Seine, Paris and
remarried in St. James's Church Bath 1829

Children: William [Guilelmus] James (1819-1840)
Frederick George 1822 (1822-1858)
Louisa Elizabeth Butler (1824-1858)
Edward Bastard 1827 (1827-1831)
John Henry Ford 1830 (1830-1889)
Arthur Guy 1832 (1832-1911)

10. General John Henry Ford 1830 ELKINGTON IRELAND
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Birth: 10 Apr 1830, Dublin ?
Death: 21 Feb 1889, Guernsey
Burial: 1889, Pogo Bay , Guernsey.
Occ: Lieut. General C.B. Order of the Medjidieh, Lt. Governor of
Guernsey.

Spouse: Margaret ca 1830 JAMIESON SCOTLAND
Birth: 1847, Glasgow, Scotland
Death: 23 Feb 1935, Cookham, Berks
Father: James ca 1805 JAMIESON Scotland (~1805-)
Marr: 25 Jan 1865, Anderston, Scotland

Children: John Ford 1866 (1866-1944)
Robert James Goodall 1867 (1867-1939)
Charles Jarvie 1869 (1869-1893)
Lieut. George Edward 1871 (1871-1901)
Major William Ernest Walter 1873 (1873-1957)
Alice Margaret 1879 (1879-1917)

11. Lt. Col. John Ford 1866 ELKINGTON Jamaica D.S.O., J.P.
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Birth: 3 Feb 1866, Newcastle, Jamaica
Death: 27 Jul 1944, Adbury Holt, Newbury, Berks.
Burial: 1944, Burghclere, Somerset
Occ: Lt. Col. British Army Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Educ: Elizabeth College, Guernsey and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

Spouse: Mary REW Lancs
Birth: ca 1866
Death: 26 May 1956, Burghclere, Somerset
Father: John REW Lancs
Mother: Mrs REW Lancs
Marr: 9 Jul 1908, St. Mary's Church, Whitchurch, Oxon.

Children: Major John David Rew 1909 (1909-1987)
Jean Margaret 1945 (1914-)
Richard Ford Rew 1918 (1918-1943)
 
[With grateful thanks to John Ford Elkington’s grandson who has patiently supplied a multitude of personal papers and answered many questions, and Forrest Anderson for military matters and identifying the medals.]