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Laurence Drummond

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Laurence Drummond
Drummond in 1919
Birth nameLaurence George Drummond
Born(1861-03-13)13 March 1861
Died20 May 1946(1946-05-20) (aged 85)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1879–1920
RankMajor-general
UnitColdstream Guards
Commands
Battles / wars
Awards
Relations
Other workJustice of the Peace, Kent

Major-General Laurence George Drummond CB CBE MVO DL JP (13 March 1861 – 20 May 1946) was a British Army general officer.

Drummond saw active service in the Bechuanaland Expedition (1884–1885), the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War (1895–1896), the Soudan Expedition, the Second Boer War, and the Great War of 1914–1918, and retired to Kent in 1920 to become a magistrate and a keen gardener.

Life

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The only son of Admiral Sir James Robert Drummond, a younger son of Viscount Strathallan, by his marriage to Catherine Frances Elliot,[1] Drummond was educated at Eton College and from 1874 to 1877 was second Page of Honour to Queen Victoria.[2][3]

After training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[2] he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards on 13 August 1879, but in September transferred to the Scots Guards.[4] He saw active service on the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884–1885 in command of a troop of Methuen's Horse,[2] and on 3 May 1886, on his return from Bechuanaland, the Duke of Connaught presented him to his brother the Prince of Wales at a Levée at St James's Palace.[5] The next day, 5 May 1886, Drummond married Katherine Mary Antrobus, the daughter of Hugh Lindsay Antrobus and Mary Adam and a granddaughter of Admiral Sir Charles Adam.[1]

He was promoted Captain in 1888. From 1892 to 1897 he served as aide-de-camp to the Major-General commanding the Home District, during which period he commanded a Guards Company in the Special Service Corps and saw active service again on the Ashantee Expedition of 1895–1896, gaining the Ashanti Star, and in 1897 was promoted Major. In 1898 he joined the Soudan Expedition, when he was mentioned in despatches and decorated with the Queen's Medal and the Egyptian Medal. From 1898 to 1900 he was posted to Ottawa as Military Secretary to the Governor-General of Canada, the Earl of Minto,[2][6] but he interrupted this posting in 1899 to return to South Africa, accompanying a Canadian contingent joining the war.[7] One historian has said of Drummond's interlude in Canada –

Minto's military secretary, Laurence Drummond, a close friend and sporting companion, might have proven invaluable had he remained in Ottawa and put his mind to the task. But he, too, lacked previous administrative and political experience.[8]

Drummond commanded the Kimberley Mounted Infantry from 1899 to 1900, being again mentioned in despatches and serving as a Staff officer with the 1st Division. After the Boer War he was appointed Assistant Staff Officer to the Inspector General of the Forces, then in 1904 was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel (later the same year Brevet-Colonel) commanding the third Battalion the Scots Guards. From 1908 to 1912 he commanded the 7th Infantry Brigade and in 1913 was promoted Major-General, serving throughout the Great War of 1914–1918, when he was again mentioned in despatches but held no divisional commands. He retired the service in 1920.[2]

With his wife Katherine Mary (née Antrobus), Drummond had four children: Lindsay Drummond (1891–1951), Stella Katherine Drummond (1895–1982), Esme Drummond (died 1899), and James Arthur Lawrence Drummond (1905–1995).[1] Their daughter Stella married the Conservative politician Lord Eustace Percy, who became Baron Percy of Newcastle.[9]

Retirement

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In retirement Drummond lived at Sissinghurst Place, Cranbrook, Kent, and he was appointed a Justice of the Peace[10] and Deputy Lieutenant for the county. He was a member of the Turf and Bath Clubs[6] and maintained extensive gardens at Sissinghurst. F. A. Mercer's Gardens and Gardening 1936, published in New York City, deals with the art of ornamental gardens around the world and includes many photographs of those of Sir Philip Sassoon at Port Lympne and Trent Park and of Drummond at Sissinghurst Place.[11]

Drummond died on 20 May 1946 at the age of 85.[1][2] His funeral took place four days later at Sissinghurst parish church, when his coffin was carried by sergeants of the Scots Guards, the regiment's pipers played a lament, and the Last Post was sounded.[12]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d Charles Mosley, ed., Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, volume 1 (Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003), p. 117
  2. ^ a b c d e f 'Major-Gen. L. G. Drummond' (obituary) in The Times (London), issue 50457 dated 21 May 1946, p. 6
  3. ^ London Gazette, issue number 24506 dated 25 September 1877, p. 5367
  4. ^ Sir John Foster George Ross of Bladensburg, A history of the Coldstream guards, from 1815 to 1895 (1896), p. 476: "Lawrence George Drummond, 2nd Lieut. 13 Aug. 1879."
  5. ^ The Times (London), issue 31750 dated 4 May 1886, p. 10
  6. ^ a b 'Drummond, Maj.-Gen. Laurence (George)' in Who Was Who 1941–1950 (London: A. & C. Black, 1980 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-2131-1)
  7. ^ Bernd Horn, Roch Legault, J. H. P. M. Caron, Loyal Service: Perspectives on French-Canadian Military Leaders (Dundurn: 2007), p. 180
  8. ^ Carman Miller, The Canadian Career of the Fourth Earl of Minto: the Education of a Viceroy (1979), p. 57
  9. ^ L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages, with Genealogies and Arms (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), p. 216
  10. ^ Justice of the peace and local government review, vol. 93 (1929), p. 424: "Major-General Laurence George Drummond, c. Sissinghurst Place, Cranbrook"
  11. ^ Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist (Haymarket Publishing, 1936), p. 162: "The art of ornamental gardening as practised in various countries is demonstrated in the 1936 edition of Gardens and Gardening... with views of Sir Philip Sassoon's gardens at Trent Park and Port Lympne, and concluding with scenes from the gardens of Sissinghurst Place, Kent, the residence of Maj.-Gen. Laurence George Drummond."
  12. ^ The Times (London), issue 50461 dated 25 May 1946, p. 7
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