Walter Long (lieutenant) explained

Honorific Prefix:Lieutenant
Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long
Birth Date:20 October 1858
Birth Place:London, United Kingdom
Rank:Second lieutenant
Branch: British Army
Death Place:London, United Kingdom
Unit:6th Dragoons
94th Foot
Battles:First Boer War

Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long (20 October 1858 – 18 February 1892) was a British Army officer who fought in the First Boer War.[1]

He was first commissioned into the 2nd Somerset Militia as a sub-lieutenant in March 1877, but in October of that year he was ranked as lieutenant, backdated to March. In October 1878 he was transferred to the 6th Dragoons with the rank of second lieutenant, and in March 1880 he was transferred again to the 94th Regiment of Foot. As part of the 94th Regiment, at the age of 24 he played a crucial part in the defence of Lydenburg during a three month siege in 1881.[2] [3] [4]

He was the son of the landowner and politician Walter Long.[5] After he was court-martialled and criticised for his conduct of the defence of Lydenburg, in February 1892 he took his life at the Grosvenor Hotel, Buckingham Palace Road, Westminster;[6] [7] he was described as "formerly of Paris".

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: First Anglo-Boer War 1880-1881. 15 December 2013. After 5 December 1880 less than a hundred soldiers under 24 year-old Lieutenant Walter Long were left in Lydenburg..
  2. Web site: The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War, 1880-1881. 15 December 2013. M. Gough Palmer. ...and on receipt of instructions from Pretoria immediately set to work to strengthen the defences..
  3. Web site: The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War, 1880-1881. 15 December 2013. M. Gough Palmer. Lieutenant Walter Long, a 24-year old junior officer of the 94th, was placed in command....
  4. Book: With the Boers in the Transvaal and the Orange free state in 1880-1. 1884. 248. Charles Norris-Newman. 17 December 2013. Charles Norris-Newman. ...application was made to Lieutenant Long, commanding the detachment left in the fort, to join the town in a system of general defence..
  5. News: Inquests . 11 . The Times . 23 February 1892 .
  6. "LONG Walter Hillyar Colquhoun of the Grosvenor Hotel, Buckingham Palace Road Middlesex" in Wills and Administrations 1892 (England and Wales) (1893), p. T 145
  7. News: 23 February 1892 . Inquests . The Times . 11.