VC - The Crimea

Robert Loyd Lindsay, Baron Wantage (1832-1901)

Robert Loyd Lindsay was born in London in 1832. He purchased a commission in the Scots Fusilier Guards on leaving Eton, and won the Victoria Cross during the Crimean War, when he carried the Queen's Colour and rallied the regiment. Lindsay served as aide-de-camp to General Sir James Simpson, a friend of his father, from March until August 1855, when he became adjutant of his regiment, while on his return from the Crimea in July 1856 he was promoted to the rank of brevet major.

His citation records that, at the Battle of Alma on 20th September 1854, ‘when the form of the line of the Regiment was disordered, Captain Lindsay, Adjutant Drummond and a group of other officers stood firm with the Colours and, having rallied a party of non-commissioned officers and men around them they held their ground against overwhelming odds until the enemy retired on seeing the battalion coming up the hill’.

A few weeks later, on 5th November 1854, Captain Lindsay displayed further gallantry at the Battle of Inkerman when, at a most critical moment, he led a charge against superior numbers of Russians, causing them to retreat.

In 1858, he married Harriet Sarah Loyd and thereby become the owner of the extensive Lockinge estate, near Wantage – this vast property being given to the happy couple as a wedding present by the bride’s millionaire father. Loyd Lindsay was, in many ways, an archetypal Victorian ‘improving landlord’ with an unshakable belief in material progress. He was determined that the Lockinge estate (then in Berkshire) would be developed as a ‘model’ estate employing the most advanced methods of cultivation and management, and in this context he had a particular interest in the provision of improved transport facilities.

There was, in the 1860s and 1870s much concern in official circles about the problems of poverty and depopulation in rural areas, and there were, as a result, suggestions that railways might be extended as ‘tram-roads along the public roads of the country’. Colonel Loyd Lindsay was well aware that conventional railways were extremely expensive, and although the Light Railway Acts had not yet been passed, he envisaged the construction of a lightly-constructed, low-cost line of the simplest kind – the result of his efforts being the Wantage Tramway, which was opened between Wantage and Wantage Road station in 1875.

In 1870 Loyd Lindsay became one of the founders of the National Society for Aid to the Sick & Wounded (later the British Red Cross Society), and in later years he served as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. His other great interest was the Volunteer movement, a Rifle Volunteer Corps being raised in Wantage largely through Lieutenant-Colonel Loyd Lindsay’s efforts. From 1872 to 1895 he served as Colonel of the Berkshire Volunteers. Lord Wantage died on 10th June 1901 at his residence, Lockinge House, Berkshire, and was buried on 13th June at Ardington churchyard, Berkshire.

This part of Berkshire became Oxfordshire in 1974.

General Sir Hugh Rowlands (1828-1909)

Hugh Rowlands was born at Llanrug, in North Wales on 6th May 1828 and, as a captain in the 41st Foot (The Welch Regiment), he won the VC at the Battle of Inkerman on 5th November 1854, when he rescued Colonel Hayly of the 47th Regiment, who was lying on the ground wounded and surrounded by Russians. Acting with great gallantry, Captain Rowlands held off the enemy at the commencement of the Battle.

In later years, he succeeded Colonel F.A.Smith VC as Colonel of the 43rd Light Infantry, and subsequently became a Knight Commander of the Bath. He was also awarded the French Legion d'Honneur.

Promoted Quartermaster General in 1880, and General Officer Commanding the 1st Bangalore Division. from 1884 until 1889, Sir Hugh Rowlands also served as Lieutenant of The Tower of London for a short time in 1893, while from 1894 until 1896 he was General Officer Commanding the Scottish District. He was also the Deputy Lieutenant of the Welsh County of Caernarvon. General Sir Hugh Rowlands died on 1st August 1909 at Llanrug in Caernarvonshire, and his grave can be seen in St Michael's churchyard.