Page 31 - Life in Langham 1914-1919

Major-General Lord Ranksborough CB CVO

Having retired from the army in 1908, following a distinguished
career with the Royal Horse Guards, the Blues, Major-General

John Fielden Brocklehurst, Lord Lieutenant of Rutland,

Hon. Colonel of the 5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment and

President of the Rutland Territorial Forces Association, was

concerned that the Government was unprepared for war.

He was keen to provide military training in Rutland and helped

to set up miniature rifle ranges in Oakham and Uppingham

and village rifle clubs throughout the county, including one on

his land at Langham.

He had served as equerry to Queen Victoria, and Queen Alexandra before

becoming Lord-in-Waiting to King George V. He was made a peer in 1914,

thus becoming Lord Ranksborough.

At the outbreak of war, he began a recruiting campaign and assisted in

the many local fund-raising efforts. Care for his men and their families

had always been a priority and one of his first tasks was to re-instate the

Rutland Soldiers and Sailors Families Association of which
Lady Ranksborough was a vice-president.

He was president of the County Committee for War Savings, and pupils of

Langham School at the time recalled ‘The General’ offering a first issue

War Savings Certificate to any child who could learn, and recite to the

headmaster, the thirteenth chapter of St Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians

[“Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels”]. In their nineties, these

former pupils remembered Lord Ranksborough as a very tall, kindly,

God-fearing gentleman with a large, drooping cavalry moustache.

Lord Ranksborough was present, in uniform, at the funeral of

Private Ernest James Munday, who was buried with military honours at

Langham Church in September 1915. Lord Ranksborough made the

arrangements for the firing party and entertained them at his own

expense. [Pte Munday had been severely wounded in the trenches and

died in hospital in London.]”

In ‘Rutland and the Great War’,

George Phillips states. “The traditions of

this county have been upheld in the highest

degree, and Lord Ranksborough’s name will

stand on its records as one who had the

vision to see that sacrifice became a duty,

and not only preached this but strenuously

practised it himself in the sphere to which

he had been called.”

Major-General Lord Ranksborough
taking the salute at the Victory
Parade in Oakham High Street.