Single British War medal to a rogue

[dante]

Single British War Medal to;

 

Captain W.R. Cartwright 13^th Battalion King’s Royal Rifles. Walter Roland Cartwright was from one of the most prominent early families in Ontario. His family had extensive land holdings in in the Kingston area including a historic mansion located in Kingston. His family was very politically active and his grandfather was a personal friend and mentor to our first Prime Minister John A. MacDonald. His Bio is included at the bottom of the listing.

Walter Roland Cartwright was born in Kingston in 1887. In 1899 he was attending school at Highbury House, England. In 1900 he enrolled at Upper Canada College, listed as a ward of A.B. Cameron of 88 Crescent Road, Toronto.

In 1904 he was commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant, 6^th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. In June 1914 he retired from the military with the rank of Captain. In August 1914 he was in Austria when the war broke out. He became a civil prisoner, but for some reason the Austrians did not permanently intern him.

On the 17th of May 1915 he was back in England and enlisted as an officer in the B.E.F. He was appointed Captain in the 12^th Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifles Corps and served in France and Belgium including Zillebeke and Sanctuary Wood on June 2^nd, 1916 where the Canadian Corps suffered huge losses.

 

On the 17th of July 1919 he was serving in Russia at Battalion Staff Officer returning to the UK in October 26, 1919. He retired from the military in 1919. He died in 1925

 

In 1915 The British Police and Security Services had a watch on him and concerns were raised as to him wearing uniform prior to being re-commissioned as well as his connection to Princess Colloredo-Mansfield (formally Lucy Sophie Yvonne (Maiden name, Jonquet) born in Peckham, Surrey (24.1.1878) and formally widow of John Graham, died in Rome April 1940) , Married in Paris 1903 (divorced 10.3.1925) wife of Prince Joseph Hieronymus Rudolf Ferdinand Franz Maria Furst von Colloredo-Mannsfeld.

 

In 1904 the Prince was in the procession of arranging an annulment of his recent marriage,  Last year, he married Lucy Sophie Jonquet,  a widow, believed to be an "Englishwoman by birth.  They married at Paris last April, and spent the "remainder of the spring in the Riviera," and then travelled to Prague, where the prince has a palace.  He and his wife gave many parties and were often also "entertained a great deal."

A problem arose when it became time to present his wife at court.  Questions were raised about her lineage.  Wives of Austrian and Hungarian nobles must "prove to the satisfaction of the grand chamberlain in Vienna" that they are of "aristocratic parentage," on both sides, and be free of "bourgeois and plebeian strains" in order to be accepted at court.

The new Princess of Colloredo-Mansfield was unable to satisfy the court's requirements. She could not even prove that her parents were noble.   According to the Colloredo-Mansfeld family statutes, no male member of the house can marry a woman who does not belong to a "sovereign house or a mediatized family" without the consent of the adult male members of the house.

The marriage was approved because the Prince gave the impression that his bride was of "noble English birth.    This has proven to be false, and now the union will be viewed as "invalid," and the prince has begun proceedings to have the marriage annulled, due to the marriage having been "contracted in defiance of the laws of the house."

In Austria, the family statutes of the mediatized families "carry much weight" and are "acknowledged by national tribunals."   The marriage is expected to be annulled on the grounds that the princess did not "possess the necessary qualifications of birth and lineage," as required by the house of Colloredo-Mansfield.

The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1925  

 

Captain Cartwright was clearly involved with the Princess and this is also confirmed in the police report, he was also brought before the magistrates for un-paid bills while a serving officer and declared bankrupt in 1916

 

Yet to find out what he did in Russia

[Chris Boonzaier]

Haha... thats a bit of history!! Can have more fun with a medal like that than an unattributed MC!

[dante]

And relatively cheap, most officers in the day had stories and the research potential from your lap top is huge....I have been looking at the newspapers for the time and the Princess and the Captain are all over the world....US, Europe etc

Then it all comes down to this......

 

[NickW]

Very interested in any further info that dante can provide on Lucy Jonquet who is a distant relative by marriage of mine.  There is quite a lot about the Colloredo-Mannsfield connection I have found, but I'm always interested in more, and if you have any more background on her relationships with Roland Cartwright and John Graham I'd be keen to hear from you.

The description of her in the Met Police report of 1915 is superb.  What a chancer she must have been.  Peckham remains a pretty poor area south of the Thames but near to inner London.  Looks like she transitioned to the high life quite convincingly.

What's the story behind the gravestones - I cannot read the inscriptions.

[peter monahan]

A bit of a rogue marries a bit of a chancer!  There's a TV mini-series in there somewhere!  And one wonders whether his death at age 38 was related to his war service, the general standards of health at the time or something less palatable.  Well, every family has one!   

Fascinating.  Thanks for sharing.

Edited June 1, 2016 by peter monahan

[dante]

The grave just has his name...here is a picture of the Princess 

[NickW]

Thanks for this.  Scrubs up OK doesn't she?  I have been unable to trace anything connecting Lucy to Rome where she died in 1940.  Any info?  The Ancestry.com site has quite a bit on Roland Cartwright - looks like he was born in Kingston, Surrey, but maybe 2 years earlier than the date you give?  Certainly at his death he was aged 40.

[Tony]

A Princess from Peckham Nick, I wonder if she's a distant relative of the Trotters too.

Tony

[NickW]

Sadly I don't think the portrait is of Lucy.  I have searched online and it's a Portrait of Countess Ferdinand Colloredo-Mannsfeld 1913) by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), an English painter, Oil on canvas.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laszlo_-_Countess_Ferdinand_Colloredo-Mannsfeld.jpg

Her maiden name was Eleonore Iselin (New York 27 Dec 1881-New York 25 Feb 1939) and she married Ferdinand Johannes Hieronymus Maria Colloredo-Mannsfeld (Sierndorf 5 Jun 1878-Vienna 18 Dec 1967) in New York on 10 May 1909.  Ferdinand was from another branch of the noble Austrian Family to Lucy's fella, Joseph II, who married again but had no children.  The Colloredo-Mannsfeld family had a tough time of it with the Nazi annexation of Austria, followed by the Soviets nationalising the family's properties in Czechoslovakia, so maybe Lucy was better off with Rupert after all, even though he was a bit of a cad...

I am conscious that I am probably misusing GMIC as I am searching for information on Lucy Jonquet, but if anyone (dante?) can put me on the right track, I'd be interested to hear...

Thanks, it's been fun.

[hamily]

Walter Roland was my great grandfathers younger brother and was born in Surrey not Canada. But his maternal relations were wealthy Canadians. His brother Captain John Cameron Cartwright (my great grandfather) had a similarly unconventional lifestyle. Thank you so much  for posting this research and for filling in the missing gaps regarding his bankruptcy, the newspaper report makes great reading.

Lynn

[dante]

Thanks for confirming his birth place, Canadian archives and UK differ on this, if you can add to the research or have any further photos it would be great...

[hamily]

Walter Roland Cartwright was born on 19th August 1885 in Twickenham Middlesex. His father John Walter Cartwright's family had run a successful chain of gentleman's outfitters and I think supplied army uniforms. His mother Katherine Medora Cameron was from a wealthy Canadian family. His brother John Cameron Cartwright was also in the Royal Fusiliers and they seem to have risen through the ranks together.

"Captain John C. Cartwright resigns his commission on account of ill-health, and is granted the honorary rank of Major, with permission to retain his rank and wear the prescribed uniform. Dated 13th January, 1915".

He went on to live on an ex navy Motor Launch named Pathfinder, was a member of the Authors Club and died in South Africa in 1945. Like Walter Roland he also had an eye for the ladies; his wife who was previously described in the census as his "housekeeper" divorced him and he had 4 children with the next housekeeper before running off to South Africa with another, neither of whom he married.

A previous post says every family has one - our seems to have had two at the same time!

The family grave is in Twickenham Cemetry and is a memorial to both brothers and their parents.

I don't have any photos of Walter Roland but here is a photo of his brother Major John Cameron Cartwright.

All the research I have is on the Ancestry website if you want to take a look

 

 

 

 

[dante]

Here is an update on his death

[dante]

http://gotha2.blogspot.com/2017/07/qui-etaient-ces-maries.html I hope this time a correct photo of Lucy 

[Vintage Encounters]

Hello!

I am interested in historical ceramics and have come to your erudite forum and this thread via that, probably seemingly arcane, route!

This is because a ceramic item believed to have the provenance of the couple (or at least Lucy) is currently up for auction and has a small family-derived history included in the sale catalogue (more available on request, apparently).

https://auctions.roseberys.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/556/lot/172369?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F556%3Fpage%3D9

My interest was piqued by this snippet and so a quick Google later, I find above with great thanks to Dante, the amazing tale of these two infamous folks! I am definitely inspired to write a historical account for publication, based on Lucy and her incredible life, also including the tale and background of her paramour, the roguish Cartwright.

Courtesy of Google Translate, of interest perhaps, here's the French account accompanying the lovely image above of the happy couple at their wedding, again thanks to Dante's diligent detective skills.

"Posted by 'Unknown' October 5, 2017 at 11:28 PM

"Lucy Jonquet was born in Peckham, a modest suburb in south-east London, in 1878. Her family, like many French people of Protestant worship, fled their country during the time of Huguenot religious persecution in the 18th century, and moved to London. The last Jonquet of the line was named Frédéric de Jonquet, and he died in the 1950s without issue. After his first marriage failed he married my maternal grandfather's sister, Mary Laceby, who survived him by 3 years. Freddie was the son of Adolphe, Lucy's older brother. After Mary's death, my mother received from her father, as a memento of her aunt, two opals that were said to have belonged to an Austrian count. My sister has them now, and I myself received a pair of gold cufflinks from Freddie, which I still wear. It wasn't until fairly recently that I started researching Lucy's story. We know she's married twice. The date of the first marriage is unknown, but her husband John Graham is known to have died in Newcastle in the north-east of England in 1898 (when Lucy was only 20 years old). Between 1900 and 1905 little information remains on Lucy's fate before her marriage in Paris to Joseph Hieronyme Rudolph Ferdinand Franz Maria prince Colloredo-Mannsfeld, of Austrian nationality, born in Prague in 1866. How is it that she was in Paris? Where did they meet? We know she was quite tall, from a newspaper article about her then-girlfriend's 1915 trial in London (worth a read). And it is true that the marriage was annulled in 1925 as Cecil informs us above, because Austrian-blood princes can only marry someone of the nobility. My favorite hypothesis is that Lucy, after the death of her first husband, has become, thanks to her size, a dancer - perhaps in London, or perhaps in Paris; then Joseph had a big crush on her and… it didn't last long! Joseph remarried in the 1920s but without having children (he had 60 brooms already, it's not always easy at that age!) And of Lucy we know very little, except that she died in Rome in 1940. Apart from that the only information I have is that my maternal grandfather loved to eat at the restaurant Chez Francis, Place de l'Alma, and that Prince Joseph lived a stone's throw away at 55 avenue de l'Alma . So maybe Freddie had lunch with Lucy there when he was young, and my grandparents went back there with Freddie and Mary after WWII."

[dante]

On 11/03/2021 at 09:02, Vintage Encounters said:

Hello!

I am interested in historical ceramics and have come to your erudite forum and this thread via that, probably seemingly arcane, route!

This is because a ceramic item believed to have the provenance of the couple (or at least Lucy) is currently up for auction and has a small family-derived history included in the sale catalogue (more available on request, apparently).

https://auctions.roseberys.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/556/lot/172369?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F556%3Fpage%3D9

My interest was piqued by this snippet and so a quick Google later, I find above with great thanks to Dante, the amazing tale of these two infamous folks! I am definitely inspired to write a historical account for publication, based on Lucy and her incredible life, also including the tale and background of her paramour, the roguish Cartwright.

Courtesy of Google Translate, of interest perhaps, here's the French account accompanying the lovely image above of the happy couple at their wedding, again thanks to Dante's diligent detective skills.

"Posted by 'Unknown' October 5, 2017 at 11:28 PM

"Lucy Jonquet was born in Peckham, a modest suburb in south-east London, in 1878. Her family, like many French people of Protestant worship, fled their country during the time of Huguenot religious persecution in the 18th century, and moved to London. The last Jonquet of the line was named Frédéric de Jonquet, and he died in the 1950s without issue. After his first marriage failed he married my maternal grandfather's sister, Mary Laceby, who survived him by 3 years. Freddie was the son of Adolphe, Lucy's older brother. After Mary's death, my mother received from her father, as a memento of her aunt, two opals that were said to have belonged to an Austrian count. My sister has them now, and I myself received a pair of gold cufflinks from Freddie, which I still wear. It wasn't until fairly recently that I started researching Lucy's story. We know she's married twice. The date of the first marriage is unknown, but her husband John Graham is known to have died in Newcastle in the north-east of England in 1898 (when Lucy was only 20 years old). Between 1900 and 1905 little information remains on Lucy's fate before her marriage in Paris to Joseph Hieronyme Rudolph Ferdinand Franz Maria prince Colloredo-Mannsfeld, of Austrian nationality, born in Prague in 1866. How is it that she was in Paris? Where did they meet? We know she was quite tall, from a newspaper article about her then-girlfriend's 1915 trial in London (worth a read). And it is true that the marriage was annulled in 1925 as Cecil informs us above, because Austrian-blood princes can only marry someone of the nobility. My favorite hypothesis is that Lucy, after the death of her first husband, has become, thanks to her size, a dancer - perhaps in London, or perhaps in Paris; then Joseph had a big crush on her and… it didn't last long! Joseph remarried in the 1920s but without having children (he had 60 brooms already, it's not always easy at that age!) And of Lucy we know very little, except that she died in Rome in 1940. Apart from that the only information I have is that my maternal grandfather loved to eat at the restaurant Chez Francis, Place de l'Alma, and that Prince Joseph lived a stone's throw away at 55 avenue de l'Alma . So maybe Freddie had lunch with Lucy there when he was young, and my grandparents went back there with Freddie and Mary after WWII."

Welcome to GMIC, happy to help with your research, please feel free to PM me...

[Ricky Pound]

Hi there. I have bought several of these ceramics and have found original documentation on line regarding their restitution and paperwork as documented by the Nazi regime. 

[dante]

Excellent research from everyone ?