Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Percy Wyndham (19 January 1865 – 17 April 1941) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldier.

Background and family

Wyndham was born on 19 January 1865 as the son of Hon. Percy Wyndham and Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell. He was the brother of

George Wyndham George Wyndham, PC (29 August 1863 – 8 June 1913) was a British Conservative politician, statesman, man of letters, and one of The Souls. Background and education Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable Percy Wyndham, third son of Ge ...

and

Mary Constance Wyndham Mary Constance Charteris, Countess of Wemyss and March (''née'' Wyndham; 3 August 1862 – 29 April 1937), styled Lady Elcho from 1883 to 1914, was an English society hostess and an original member of The Souls, an exclusive social and intell ...

. He was married twice, first in 1892 to Edwina Johanna Fitzpatrick (who died in 1919), then in 1923 to Violet Leverson, daughter and biographer of writer

Ada Leverson Ada Esther Leverson ( née Beddington; 10 October 1862 – 30 August 1933) was a British writer who is known for her friendship with Oscar Wilde and for her work as a witty novelist of the fin-de-siècle. Family Leverson was born into a Jewis ...

. His son with Violet Leverson was the writer and editor Francis Wyndham.

Military career

Wyndham was commissioned into the 16th (the Queen's) Lancers in August 1884. He was promoted

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 10 September 1890, and

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 1 April 1900. On the outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

in late 1899, Wyndham went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

where he served on the Staff, and was present at the

Relief of Ladysmith When the Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the Boers had a numeric superiority within Southern Africa. They quickly invaded the British territory and laid siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. Britain meanwhile transported th ...

. During the later parts of the war he was in command of a Column. For his services he was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

(including the final despatch by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902), and received the

brevet Brevet may refer to: Military * Brevet (military), higher rank that rewards merit or gallantry, but without higher pay * Brevet d'état-major, a military distinction in France and Belgium awarded to officers passing military staff college * Aircre ...

rank of

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

on 29 November 1900. He returned to the United Kingdom on the steamer ''Dunvegan Castle'' in April 1902, and the residents of his home village of

Upwey, Dorset Upwey is a suburb of Weymouth in south Dorset, England. The suburb is situated on the B3159 road in the Wey valley. The area was formerly a village until it was absorbed into the Weymouth built-up area. It is located four miles north of the ...

had decorated the village on his arrival there. Two months later, he was received in audience by King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

, who personally presented him with the

King's South Africa Medal The King's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to all British and Colonial military personnel who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, and who were in the theatre on or after 1 January 1902 and who had completed 18 m ...

. As British military attaché in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia, in 1909 he first warned his Austrian counterpart that an Austrian

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

officer was supplying top secret information to the Russians. This information, however, ended up on the desk of

Alfred Redl Alfred Redl (14 March 1864 – 25 May 1913) was an Austrian military officer who rose to head the '' Evidenzbureau'', the counterintelligence wing of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army. Redl was one of the leading figures of pre-Wor ...

, head of counter-intelligence at the ''

Evidenzbureau The k.u.k. Evidenzbureau (modernized spelling ''Evidenzbüro'') was the directorate of military intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. Foundation Founded in 1850 as the first permanent military intell ...

'' in Vienna, who unfortunately was the very

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

being sought. Guy Percy Wyndham was a member of

The Souls The Souls was a small loosely-knit but distinctive elite social and intellectual group in the United Kingdom from 1885 to the turn of the century. Many of the most distinguished British politicians and intellectuals of the time were members. Th ...

Works

* ''Life and letters of

''. Guy Percy Wyndham,

John William Mackail John William Mackail (26 August 1859 – 13 December 1945) was a Scottish academic of Oxford University and reformer of the British education system. He is most often remembered as a scholar of Virgil and as the official biographer of the so ...

. London: Hutchinson, 1925. Two volumes.

References

Sources

* 16th The Queen's Lancers officers British diplomats Members of the Royal Victorian Order Companions of the Order of the Bath 1865 births 1941 deaths Guy {{UK-army-bio-stub