Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointe ...

Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, (17 April 1832 – 10 June 1901) was a British soldier, politician, philanthropist, benefactor to

Wantage Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...

, and first chairman and co-founder of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (later the

British Red Cross Society The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with mor ...

), for which he crucially obtained the patronage of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

Background

Loyd-Lindsay was born in 1832, the second son of Lieutenant General Sir James Lindsay and Anne, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet. His elder brother

Coutts Lindsay Sir Coutts Lindsay, 2nd Baronet (2 February 1824 – 7 May 1913 Kingston upon Thames), was a British artist and watercolourist. Life Lindsay was the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Sir James Lindsay, son of the Hon. Robert Lindsay, second ...

succeeded his maternal grandfather as second Baronet in 1837 (see

Lindsay Baronets There have been three baronetcies held by people with the surname Lindsay, one in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. One creation is extant. The Lindsay Baronetcy, of Evelick in the County of Perth, wa ...

). In 1858, he married The Honorable Harriet Sarah Jones-Loyd, the only surviving child and heiress of Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st and last Baron Overstone,thepeerage.com Lt.-Col. Robert James Lindsay-Loyd, 1st and last Baron Wantage of Lockinge
/ref> one of the richest men in the country, who endowed the couple with a considerable fortune and the

Lockinge Estate The Lockinge Estate is a agricultural and housing estate near Wantage that today includes most of the land and property encompassing the villages of West Lockinge, East Lockinge and Ardington. The current manager of the Lockinge Estate is Thoma ...

near Wantage as a wedding present.

Military service

Robert Loyd-Lindsay Vanity Fair 4 November 1876

Lindsay fought as a captain in the Scots (Fusilier) Guards during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. He was awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previousl ...

for his actions on 20 September 1854 at the

Battle of the Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septemb ...

and 5 November at the

Battle of Inkerman The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, an ...

. The ''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

'' described his actions as follows: On 9 November 1858 Lindsay was appointed as

Equerry An equerry (; from French 'stable', and related to 'squire') is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon ...

HRH The Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

and served as such before resigning on 7 February 1859. The brief period as Equerry was due to his engagement and impending marriage to The Honorable Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd. The couple were then known as Loyd-Lindsay. Loyd-Lindsay was later involved in the volunteer movement, serving as Colonel of the Royal Berkshire Volunteers, and subsequently Brigadier-General of the Home Counties Brigade. He was one of the first recipients of the Volunteer Officers' Decoration. He was also Lieutenant Colonel of the Honourable Artillery Company from 13 November 1866 to 17 August 1881.

Political career

Loyd-Lindsay sat as

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

from 1865 until 1885 and served under

Lord Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a centr ...

Financial Secretary to the War Office The Financial Secretary to the War Office and for certain periods known as the Finance Member of the Army Council, was a junior ministerial office of the British government established in 1870. In May 1947 the office was unified with that of the ...

between 1877 and 1880. He was appointed a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(KCB) in 1881. In 1885, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Wantage, of Lockinge in the County of Berkshire. He then served as

Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. Since 1689, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Berkshire. Lord-Lieutenants of Berkshire *Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk 1545–22 August 1545 * ...

from 1886 until his death. Having been initiated as a freemason, passed and raised in Malta en route to the Crimea in 1854, he became Provincial Grand Master of Berkshire from 1898 until his death in 1901. He was appointed the first Chairman of the Council of the

National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while cont ...

on 25 November 1890.

British Red Cross

On 15 July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. With the outbreak of the war serving as the immediate catalyst, John Furley met with Loyd-Lindsay to ask him if he would help set up a

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with mor ...

society in the United Kingdom. Furley had already been in touch with the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

over the desirability of founding a British national Red Cross society, and he knew that Lindsay also supported the goals of the new Red Cross movement. A letter from Loyd-Lindsay was published in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' on 22 July calling for a national society in the United Kingdom, and pledging £1000 of his own money to the new initiative. On 4 August, he chaired a public meeting at

Willis's Rooms Almack's was the name of a number of establishments and social clubs in London between the 18th and 20th centuries. Two of the social clubs would go on to fame as Brooks's and Boodle's. Almack's most famous establishment was based in assembly ro ...

in London which resolved that "a National Society be formed in this country for aiding sick and wounded soldiers in time of war, and that the said Society be formed upon the Rules laid down by the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conv ...

". Loyd-Lindsay continued to serve as chairman of the newly founded National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (renamed the British Red Cross in 1905) until his death.

Benefactions to Wantage

Loyd-Lindsay became a notable local and national benefactor, with a number of donations made to the town of

(the nearest town to Loyd-Lindsay's home). In 1877 he paid for a marble statue of King Alfred by Count Gleichen to be erected in Wantage market place, where it still stands today. He also donated the

Gallery to the town. This contained paintings by Louis William Desanges depicting deeds which led to the award of a number of VCs, including his own gained during the

Abingdon School

He had a close relationship with

Abingdon School Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...

where he was on the governing body until his death in 1901. He donated money to the school in addition to regularly presenting prizes at events. After his death Lady Wantage continued the connection and Lord Wantage still has a room named after him at the school today.

Personal life

Lord and Lady Wantage lived at Lockinge House at East Lockinge in

(now

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

).1901 Census. He died on 10 June 1901, aged 69. On his death,

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

, a close personal friend since the Crimea, wrote: Lady Wantage erected a monument to Lord Wantage on

the Ridgeway The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...

. There are various inscriptions on the faces of the monument with the one on the North East side, being in Latin and is similar to that inscribed on the Iona Cross on Gibbet Hill, Hindhead, Surrey, namely: :IN OBITU PAX :POST OBITUM SALUS : POST TENEBRAS LUX :IN LUCE SPES Which translates as: "Peace in passing away. Salvation after death. Light after darkness. Hope in light." As he had no children the title died with him. In 1908 Lady Wantage officially opened

Wantage Hall Wantage Hall, built 1908, is the oldest hall of residence at the University of Reading, in Reading, England. The hall is one of 13 belonging to the University and is close to Whiteknights Campus. It is designated a grade II listed building, a sta ...

, the first Hall of Residence in the University of Reading, in honour of Lord Wantage. She died in August 1920.

References

External links

*
Location of grave and VC medal
''(Oxfordshire)''

* ttp://www.wantage.com/museum/Local_History/Robert%20Loyd-Lindsay.pdf Profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Wantage, Robert Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron 1832 births 1901 deaths People educated at Eton College Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom British Army brigadiers Scots Guards officers Royal Berkshire Regiment officers British Army personnel of the Crimean War Crimean War recipients of the Victoria Cross Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Lord-Lieutenants of Berkshire Loyd-Lindsay, Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Robert Loyd-Lindsay, Robert UK MPs who were granted peerages Equerries Younger sons of baronets People from Vale of White Horse (district) British philanthropists Honourable Artillery Company officers

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross Governors of Abingdon School Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Berkshire Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria People of the National Rifle Association Burials in Berkshire Military personnel from London