TORQUAY MEN OF THE 1st BATTALION THE DEVONSHIRE REGIMENT IN 1895

Since we first published this photograph, we have learned more about it. Although it was taken in India in 1895, it was not published until 28 February 1900 when it appeared in the Torquay Directory.

Then, as research began into the letters written home from the front by men of the Devons, we came across a letter from Fred Leonard to his father in which he mentions another man in this photo - Bill (William) Satterford. Both men stand in the back row - Bill on the left-hand end and Fred towards the centre, easily recognisable by the signalling flags he holds.

As we are now able to positively identify these two men, we include information about them at the foot of this page.

The men in this photograph are named as follows:

Back row (8 men): Left to right - Private Satterford; Private Flood; Private Blackmore; Private Abrams; Signaller Leonard; Private Legge; Private Milford; Private Wreford;

Middle row (6 men): Left to right - Private Burnett; Private Fradd; Private Neels; Private Crocker; Private Bowden; Private Brinsey;

Front row (standing left): Drummer Frank Tucker;

Front row (8 men seated); Left to right - Private Pidgeon; Drummer Furneaux; Private Tucker; Sergeant Holwill; Lance Corporal Stanbury; Private Lock; Drummer Henley; Regimental Policeman Paul;

Front row (standing right): Lance Corporal Hole;

The board (centre front) states that these are "Torquay Men - 1st Devon Reg.- India - 95".

Men from the 1st Battalion were sent out to India early in 1895 to assist in the relief of Chitral (see Devonshire Regiment Index page) but it is quite unusual at this period to find a military photograph of men photographed because they come from one particular place.

Five years later,  it was published in the Torquay Gazette on 28 February 1900 during the Boer War, the implication being that some, at least, of these local men were serving with the rest of the Devonshire Regiment  in or around Ladysmith at that time.

Is it possible there was a connection between Martin Fradd ( who became the first editor of the London Evening News in 1881 and who had previously edited the Torquay Evening News ) and the Private Fradd who stands second from the left in the middle row? And might Martin Fradd have sent an early war correspondent to India in 1895 to take photographs for the London Evening News? And a final conjecture - might the photographer have known that his editor would have had a special interest in seeing a relative with other local members of the regiment?

If you have any further information about this or can supply the first  names of  any of the men in the photo, please contact us at

devons@devonheritage.org

FREDERICK ("Fred") LEONARD was the son of Hugh and Harriet Leonard who lived in Plainmoor Terrace, St. Marychurch where his father had a grocery and drapery shop. Frederick William Leonard was born in St. Marychurch in the September Quarter of 1873. He was 22 when the photograph was taken. He died of enteric fever in a military hospital on 13 February 1900 aged 27.

WILLIAM ("Bill") SATTERFORD was the son of William and Martha Satterford. His father had been a regular soldier and was a Greenwich Pensioner turned Insurance Agent. He was also a non-conformist Lay Preacher which may be how the Satterford and Leonard families came to know one another. The Satterfords lived at one time in Paignton where Bill was born but then moved first to Torquay then to Newton Abbot. Bill was born in the June Quarter of 1870 and was 25 when this photograph was taken.