18th Hussars c.1904

[Batchelorm]

Hi Everyone - So glad to see this postcard.. SQCM G Batchelor was my Great Great Uncle. I have a fair bit of information on him as he was a subject of a small book written by a historian with the same name but not part of the tree. She investigated George alongside my Aunt who has traced the tree quite a bit.
Can i ask if the original poster has this postcard ?. Ive been looking for this for ages when i miraculously came across a copy being sold on eBay.

George, the youngest of four sons of Beerhouse Keeper William and Charlotte, was born in 1869 at Apsley End, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. He joined the 12th Royal Lancers at an early age and, after several years service in the UK, went to India in September 1889, aged 20, to join the 18th Hussars who were stationed at Umballa, Haryana. It was in Umballa, on 30 March 1896, that George, aged 26, married his childhood sweetheart Emma Louisa Redding also from Apsley End. They already had one child, Thomas Philip Redding who was born on 17 March 1889 in Hemel Hempstead. George and Emma had been unable to marry at that time because he was a serving soldier and Army regulations forbade marriage before the age of 26. Their second child, William, was born in Lucknow on 1 November 1897. The 18th Hussars saw service in Umballa (1890), Lucknow (1896) and the Chitral Campaign (1896). When the regiment proceeded to South Africa in 1899, Emma and the children returned to Apsley End where May Batchelor was born on 2 March 1900. In South Africa George fought with great distinction during the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902). 

He and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘good leading in action and for covering the retirement of a wounded soldier under heavy fire’ when the Hussars were engaged in a skirmish at Dulstroom, Lyndenburg, on 16 April 1901. He was three times mentioned in despatches by Lord Kitchener and Lord Roberts. George became Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant in 1902. In 1903 the 18th Hussars became the 18th (Princess of Wales’s Own) Hussars, named for the future Queen Mary. The Batchelor family moved from Hemel Hempstead to Hartoft Street, York in late November 1905 where George died on 10 February 1906. York Cemetery Records give the cause of death as ‘Gangrene’ however, his Death Certificate states ‘Hepatitis Enteritis Exhaustion’ which the Army medical Officer of the time attributed to his war service. He left £71 4s to his widow. George was ‘one of the most popular noncommissioned officers in the regiment, showing good example to young soldiers’ and was given a full military funeral with a guard of honour from several regiments and practically the whole of the 18th Hussars on parade. George and Emma’s fourth child, George, was born on 9 September 1906 some 7 months after George Senior’s death. The family emigrated to America in 1913 to start a new life in California where descendants still live.

If anyone wants some more info on the career of SQCM Batchelor, please let me know - i can scan some pages of the book for you.



hope this helps
Matt Batchelor

[Christopher Eaborn]

Hi, yes, I do have the original PPC, it has been handed down through generations of my family from my mother`s side HALSALL whom I understand had relatives from York.