Richard Montague Raynsford

Col. Humphreys

/ Matthew K Barrett / Leave a comment

Colonel E. Thomas Humphreys
1st Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Humphreys

The officers of the First Battalion, Leinster regiment, known from their historical connection with the Dominion as the Royal Canadians, which regiment has just disbanded after presenting their colors to the King at Windsor Castle, are giving their regimental plate and trophies in trust to the Canadian Government “until the regiment is again raised, as a token of their regards for the Great Dominion, which gave birth to the battalion.”

(The Expositor, 29 Jun 1922, 1)

Born in London in Dover, Kent on 5 November 1878, Edward Thomas Humphreys graduated from Sandhurst in 1898 and was  commissioned with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He served in the Boer War and in France, Salonika and the Middle East during the Great War. In May 1918, he was promoted to command the 179th Brigade in the 60th Division, Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In September 1919 he transferred from the Lancashires to take command of the 1st Battalion, Leinster Regiment.

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Lt-Col. Raynsford

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Lieutenant-Colonel R.M. Raynsford
1st Bn., Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
Raynsford

As you are no doubt aware we, the “Royal Canadians” together with other Irish regiments are being disbanded. I am hoping you may see your way to use your powerful influence to assist us in our efforts to be retained in the British army as the Prince of Wales’s Royal Canadian Regiment, our original title.

While all ranks desire the honor of still representing Canada, I have a personal interest as my wife is the grand daughter of Sandfield Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Ontario.

(R. M. Raynsford to the prime minister, Ottawa Journal, 14 Mar 1922, 6)

Born in London on 19 May 1877, Richard Montague Raynsford married twenty-three-year-old Daphne Mildred Pemberton in England in April 1911. The daughter of an Indian Army colonel, she was the granddaughter of John Sandfield Macdonald (1812–1872), Ontario’s first premier after Canadian Confederation in 1867. The son of a Madras Army colonel, Raynsford was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Leinster Regiment in 1897, served in the Boer War and was adjutant in the 4th Battalion until 1908.

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