Douglas William Parish Labalmondiere
His early life.
Douglas Labalmondiere was born in his father’s house at
He had an elder
brother George, and six sisters. His
father died on 26th March 1823 and was buried in Bath Abbey, when
Douglas was just 8 years old. He went to
Eton College in April 1826. On 5th
April 1831, aged 16, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and was commissioned in the 83rd of
Foot on recommendation, ( i.e. without the need to purchase his commission), on
21st June 1833. At this time
it was normal for well to do potential officers to enter the army by purchasing
their commissions, without the need for any training in military affairs.
Douglas’ obituary records that he passed out of Sandhurst
at the head of the list with exceptional honours.
His military career.
The 83rd of Foot was originally
styled Colonel Fitch’s Regiment of Foot, and has now been amalgamated into the Royal
Ulster Rifles. Douglas spent 17 years
with the regiment, of which 13 were spent overseas. Douglas sailed from Cork to Halifax Nova
Scotia with the regiment in June 1837.
From Halifax the regiment sailed on to Quebec where the border with the
United States was being fiercely challenged, and native French Canadians were
rebelling against the British conquest of Canada resulting from the victory of
General Wolfe. The regiment fought
skirmishes with the rebels at St Denis and St Charles. At St Charles a howitzer was lost to the
enemy, but later recovered in a storming of St Denis. In 1840, after further action at Three
Rivers, upstream from Quebec City, they moved on to Toronto. The conditions for fighting in the winter, at
temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, can be imagined. In May 1843 the regiment embarked at Toronto,
and sailed for Spithead, where they arrived on the 10th
of July. Landing at Gosport, they were
transported by train to Weedon, the Military arsenal
near Daventry, on the Grand Junction Canal.
In 1849 they sailed for Poona, in India, and were then posted to
Karachi.
Douglas
bought promotion to Lieutenant in 1838, and a captaincy in 1844. He was serving in Calcutta in 1850, when he
received a letter offering him the post of Inspecting Superintendent of the
Metropolitan Police in London. Douglas
wrote to accept the offer, and arranged to sail for London post haste.
His sponsor.
The offer of
Inspecting Superintendent from Sir George Grey, Secretary of State for the Home
Department, had been canvassed on Douglas’ behalf by J. J. Coney, because
Douglas was not in London to lobby for himself.
Coney collected together a portfolio of testimonials praising Douglas’
record and character, including his time in Ireland where he served as a
Temporary Poor Law Inspector, charged with the fair distribution of food to the
needy. ( To comprehend the awful
conditions in Ireland at that time I refer you to ‘The Reason Why’, by Cecil Woodham-Smith ). The combination of vigorous canvassing by
Coney, and the excellent testimonials presented to the Secretary of State, were
sufficient to win the post for Douglas.
John
Jeane Coney was married to Douglas’ elder sister
Eliza, and resided at Braywick Grove, near
Maidenhead. He described himself as a
landed proprietor and Magistrate in the 1851 census. Braywick Grove was
bequeathed to J.J.Coney by a relation, Mr Boucher,
and it later became known as Braywick House. J. J. Coney died in 1862, and is buried in
Bray churchyard, and the house passed to his nephew, The Rev. Thomas Coney, who
was a retired Army Chaplain. The house
continued in Coney ownership until 1907, when it was sold to Sir James Clark.
The Kelly’s
Directory for 1903 stated
“Braywick Grove the property of Mrs Coney and
the residence of Henry Bernard Samuelson Esquire is a fine mansion of red
brick, erected in 1675 by Sir William Paull and
enlarged in 1750 by Lord Windsor. It
contains a magnificent drawing room of considerable proportions, and being on a
slight eminence, commands a fine view of the surrounding country. The river Bourne runs through the grounds.”
Braywick
House exists today, converted to offices, with a number of different tenants
sharing the space. The gardens have all
been sold for housing.
St Mark’s Hospital
Church in Maidenhead was the church for the Maidenhead Workhouse, but now
serves the congregation for a part of the town.
A stained glass window in the church is inscribed
‘To the glory of God and by desire of Helen Mary Coney who died April 15
1886 this window was erected to the memory of her father and completed by her
brother Walter John Coney 1886.’
John Jeane Coney came from a Somerset family, educated at Oriel College Oxford, and admitted as a Barrister-at-Law in
Lincolns Inn in 1823. His grandfather was a director of the Bank of England.
His uncle, Richard Boucher (1754-1841 )
was vicar of Bright Waltham ( Brightwalton ) in
Berkshire for 53 years between 1788 and
1841.
His travels
Douglas
wrote long diaries of his travels during a part of his life.
In
August 1835 he records sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Quebec, thence to
Montreal. On by steamer to Toronto, and
Niagara. From Niagara on to Buffalo, by
packet boat on the Erie Canal to Utica, and then on to Saratoga. A train took him on to New York.
In
1837 he recorded some days with his regiment in Canada. He arrived at Quebec on 12th July,
after a 14 day voyage. In October he was
with 2 companies sent to Three Rivers.
In January he was picked by Thomas Leigh Goldie to take despatches to
Washington. Douglas recounts his journey
through Burlington, Albany, New York, Philadelphia on to Washington. While there he sits in the gallery of the
House of Representatives, and attends several social functions. In due course he returns for duty in Canada.
In
July 1838 Douglas’ dairy shows him in Kingston, Upper Canada, handling an
escape of prisoners from the jail.
The
next dairy entry is in February1839, which finds him back in England after a 16
day passage via New York, on 12 month’s leave.
Douglas
sets about preparing for a tour of Europe, in the company of a friend called Coryton. The journey
route was Ostend, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, Liege, Verviers,
Cologne, Nonnenwerth, Coblentz,
Frankfort, Baden, Strasburg, Denzlingen, Freyburg, Stuhlingen, Auerbach, Heidelberg, Schaffhausen,
Zurich, Horgen, Zug, Lucern,
Fluellen, Altorf, Glarns, Ragatz, Ems, Ciore, Hiavenna,
Lake Como, Varenna, Milan, Sesto,
Lake Maggiore, Baveno, Simplon Pass, Lax, Meyringen, Grindelwald, Interlacken, Thun, Martigny, Chamouney, Boneville, Geneva,
Lausanne, Fribourg, Berne, Basel, Strasbourg,
Mannheim, Biberich, Cologne, Amsterdam, Haarlen, S’Gravenhage, Rotterdam,
London.
All
this journey between 15th
June and August 26th.
Douglas’
diary records the low quality of the hotels, and his interest in music and
art. Most of the miles were covered in
diligences, ( a continental form of stage coach ), or on foot.
The
final transcript of Doulas’ diary covers his journey
to Poona from London in 1849. He
travelled from London to Paris, and thence to Lyons by train. From Lyons down the Rhone to Avignon, and on to Marsailles by
another train. A ship carried him to
Malta, and on to Alexandria. He sailed
up the Nile to Cairo, then by horse drawn carriage to Suez. An
Indian Navy ship, the Atalanta was waiting to
take passengers and mail to Bombay. From
Bombay, Douglas travelled to Poona to join his regiment.
(
The original diaries, and the transcripts completed by Margaret Barratt, are in
the Labalmondiere papers held by
.
His Career in the
Metropolitan Police.
Douglas’
letter of acceptance reads as follows;
Bombay March 2nd
1850
I accept with
gratitude and pride the offer of the appointment of Superintendent of
Metropolitan Police conveyed by your demise to my brother in law Mr Coney in Mr
Brand’s letter of 15th January.
I know that
the best method of proving how much I feel I am indebted to you for this
selection of me for preferment will be to justify it, and the testimonials of
those friends upon which it has been made, by endeavouring to discharge the duties of the office in a manner which
shall not bely their premise, and to this end shall be directed every
exertion of mine.
I am very
sensible of the extreme courtesy and kindness with which the application in my favor made by Mr Coney, has been throughout received by
you, and I have pride in the reflection that the recommendation of those who
have hitherto known me as a Public Officer, has been such as to enable you to
confer this appointment on one who is a total stranger to you and entirely
devoid of official interest.
I have lost
no time in starting for England, which I do today, and shall arrive shortly
after this letter, when I shall immediately do myself the honor
of waiting upon you.
Sir
Your obedient Servant
D. Labalmondiere
Capt. 83rd Regt
Sir
George Grey Bart.
Secy. Of State for Home Department
(The original letter is preserved in the Public Record Office under reference HO45/614.)
Sir Robert
Peel had steered the Government of the day towards a regular police service for
the capital, following the serious disorder that led to the Peterloo
massacre and other outbreaks of republican revolt, seeded by the rebellion in
France. An Act of Parliament to create
the first police force was passed in 1829. Many parliamentarians were actively
hostile to the idea of a regular police force, seeing it as a branch of the
army for the repression of the working classes.
To mollify those opponents, Peel dressed the original policemen in top
hats, ( sufficiently strong to enable the policemen to stand on them to see
over a high wall ) to underline their remoteness from the military. To avoid the possibility of political
interference in the new force, Peel insisted that all promotions up to but not
including Assistant Commissioner , should be made from within the ranks of the
new force.
The
first chief of the new force was Commissioner Richard Mayne,
who in theory ran in double harness with another Commissioner
named Charles
Rowan. In practice Mayne
was the stronger character, and was known as ‘King Mayne’
for his autocratic style.
Douglas had a long
and distinguished career with the Police, including command of the police sent
to Chobham Common to control the crowds while the
Queen inspected her Army in 1853, and he was instrumental in quelling a police
mutiny in 1872. On another occasion he
was chosen to head the escort to protect Queen Victoria during her state visit
to Napoleon the Third in Paris in August 1855.
When Commissioner Mayne died in 1868, Douglas
was appointed Acting Chief Commissioner, pending the appointment of Mayne’s successor.
Douglas made a strong bid to become the new Chief Commissioner himself,
and it was generally expected that he would take the appointment. But his application was not successful,
perhaps because his military background was objected to by the critics of the
Metropolitan Police, who continued to regard the force as a military arm in
disguise, ready to oppress the working classes.
The appointment went to Sir Edmund Henderson, who had served as chief of
the penal colony in Australia, and then head of the new prison service in
England. He was thought to have a good
understanding of the criminal mind.
During his service
in the Metropolitan Police Douglas felt that he was badly paid for the
responsibilities he undertook. In 1858
he wrote to Sir William Jolliffe, who had chaired a
Parliamentary Committee to review the salaries of senior policemen, asking for
some action to redress his low pay.
Douglas finally
retired on 1st December 1884 with the military rank of Colonel, and
was appointed Companion of the Order of
the Bath, Third Class. He died on 8th
March 1893, aged 77, leaving £17,180 .
There is no record of where he was buried.
His love child
Evidence
in the Parish records of St Martins in the Fields indicates that Douglas
fathered a daughter out of wedlock in 1851.
There is no trace of the child, Lina, or the
mother Caroline, in any other record.
Another Labalmondiere
connection
On
24th October 1878 a civil marriage took place at the Strand Registry
office between Roberto Graham Bontine and Gabrielle
Marie Labalmondiere.
In fact the bride had chosen this name, in place of her actual name,
which was Caroline Horsfall, to hide her modest
origins. Why she chose the very unusual
name of Labalmondiere, and whether there was any relationship
between the true Labalmondieres and the Horsfalls is not clear.
Roberto Bontine was in fact Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham, who travelled in America and
Morocco, gaining notoriety as an author of travel adventure novels.
His marriage
In October 1856
Douglas married Margaret Paget at her family’s seat
at East Cranmore, near Shepton
Mallet in Somerset. After a prolonged
honeymoon on the Continent the married couple moved to his apartment in 20,
Duke Street St James. In 1858 they moved
to 13 South Audley Street, and remained there until
1879. While living in South Audley Street Margaret
gave birth to a daughter in 1859, and one son, baptised Julian Arthur. Douglas and Margaret moved to 66 South Eaton
Place, and from there to 29 Eaton Place, where Douglas died in 1893. In his will he left £17180, with a life
interest to his widow, and thereafter two thirds to his son and one third to
his daughter.
Margaret lived on as
a widow, to the age of 94, dying at The Lodge , Tipton St John, in Devon, in
1931.
His daughter
In 1895 their
daughter Margaret married Francis John Hext of Tredethy, Cornwall at St Georges Hanover Square. Francis’
father had been a Lieutenant in the 83rd of Foot as a
contemporary of Douglas Labalmondiere. Their Victorian
mansion, near Bodmin, was finally sold to Prince Bira of Siam, who raced ERA cars with success in the
1930’s. Hext
family graves are in the parish church of St Mabyn. Francis and Margaret had one son, also named
Francis John, a contemporary of Richard Labalmondiere,
and went on to Sandhurst, then much decorated for
valour in France before he died of
wounds in 1918. Margaret Hext outlived her husband, and lived on at The Lodge,
Tipton St John, near Ottery St Mary, and died there
in 1945, aged 86.
His sisters
Charlotte married Henry Farrant
and had three children. Their son Henry Binstead married Mary Roma, his first cousin and daughter
of Cecilia and Robert Ferguson.
His brother
Throughout Douglas’
life, the shadow of his elder brother was ever present. George was educated at Rugby, and shortly
after school went to the West Indies to learn the sugar growing business. From the beginning he made reckless
judgements which contributed to an ever increasing debt, which his relations
were obliged to underwrite. George made
a series of visits to the estates in Jamaica, Demerera
( Guyana ), Grenada and Saint Lucia
during his life, which ended up with a petition for bankruptcy being filed
against George in London in 1879. The
petitioner was Fernand de Ressins
of Paris. The outcome of the petition is
not known. Meanwhile George who died
unmarried, had a post as Secretary of
the Metropolis ( North of the Thames ) Road Office, at 22 Whitehall Place, just
8 doors down from the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.
George died in 1886.