An original head and shoulders portrait photograph in uniform of Colonel The Honourable John Pleydell-Bouverie, 17th Lancers, taken in India in 1884, who as a Captain, commanding "A" Troop, led the charge at the Battle of Ulundi where he narrowly missed severe injury when a Zulu asagai pierced his cloak, then in the ensuing action despatched five Zulus with his sword. Sold together with two of his 17th Lancers sabretache badges.
Head and shoulders portrait photograph in uniform of Colonel The Honourable John Pleydell-Bouverie, 17th Lancers, taken in India in 1884 by Fry and Rahn artists & photographers of Lucknow, By Special Appointment to his Excellency The Viceroy and Governor-General of India, His Honour The Lieutenant-Governor of the N.W.P. and Chief Commissioner of Oudh, The Lord Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India; the reverse additionally ink written ‘Lucknow 1884’.
Sold together with with two 1870s/1880s17th Lancers Skull and Crossbones sabretache badges; the first, and likely the older, pressed out of sheet silver and reinforced in places to the reverse, the fitting having been neatly removed; the second cast on silver with the base of once screw fitting remaining to the reverse..
Condition: As described and in generally sound condition. The badges rare.
The Honourable John Pleydell-Bouverie was born in 1846 at Longford Castle in Wiltshire, the fourth son of the Earl of Radnor. He was commissioned Lieutenant into the 17th Lancers in 1869 and was promoted Captrain in 1877. He commanded "A" Troop of the 17th Lancers in South Africa during 1879 and was a member of the court that examined the conduct of Lieutenant Jahel Carey, whose seven-man patrol was ambushed with loss of Napoléon, Prince Imperial on 1 June 1879. Public opinion on both sides of the English Channel demanded that someone be held accountable for the prince's death, and Lieutenant Carey became the scapegoat. He was found guilty of fleeing in the face of the enemy rather than aiding the prince, and was condemned to be expelled from the army. However, the judgment was subsequently overturned by the Duke of Cambridge. Pleydell-Bouverie was present at the funeral of the Prince Imperial and a photograph of the funeral procession is contained in his photograph album.
He was afterwards present at the action of Zuinguin Mountain and at the final defeat of the Zulu army at the Battle of and Ulundi on 3 July 1879 where he led his Troop in the charge and wrote of the action in his diary where he states: "I killed 5 myself, one ran his assegai into my cloak, nearly did for me, I ran him right through the body and he fell dead. Poor Edgell was shot dead through the head in the charge. 9 horses were killed 5 men wounded, one I am afraid mortally, Farrier Sergeant Taylor killed ...".
Pleydell-Bouverie accompanied his regiment to India where he married in 1882 Grace Harriet, daughter of Lieutenant General Robert Mallaby, late Bombay Staff Corps. After retirement the Pleydell-Bouveries purchased Blackmore Hall at Sidmouth, Devon a large house with splendid gardens. Colonel Pleydell-Bouverie died at Blackmore Hall in 1925. His widow sold the house and gardens to Sidmouth council in 1952. Blackmore Hall was demolished in 1953 to make way for a municipal car park. The only part of the house surviving is the tiled floor of the veranda, which now serves as the plinth for the row of benches just inside the public gardens.
It is interesting to note that Pleydell-Bouverie’s sabretaches are known to survive and are noted as missing these regimental devices.
