Name
Claude Houston Stuart-French
6 March 1867
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/12/1916
48
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Major
NA
5th (Princess Charlotte of (Wales's) Dragoon Guards
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BISHOP'S STORTFORD OLD CEMETERY
F. 10. 14A.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials*1, Sherborne School Roll of Honour, Dorset
Pre War
Claude Houston Stuart-French was born 6 March 1867 in Woolwich, Greenwich, London the third son of William James Stuart and Eleanor Dorcas French and baptised on 7 June 1867 at St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich where he lived with his family at 25 Woolwich Common. Both his parents were born in Ireland and his father was a Captain in the Royal Engineers (later becoming Major-General). By 1881 he was a boarder at Cheap Street School in Sherborne, Dorset and later at Sherborne School, the King's School, Rochester, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, February 1887; promoted Lieutenant, January 1889; appointed Aide-de-Camp to the Governor and C in C of Western Australia, 1891; transferred as Captain, 5th Dragoon Guards, 1896; served during Second Boer War, Relief of Ladysmith and other operations during 1900. Was twice Mentioned in Despatches, and promoted Brevet Major, 29.11.1900,
He married Elizabeth Sutherland in 1899 in Kensington, London and by 1911 Census they were living at 63a South Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, Middlesex
He changed his name by Royal Licence from Stuart to Stuart-French in 1911 in order to inherit, from his elder brother Thomas (who died aged 47), the estate of their uncle Thomas French.
Wartime Service
He came out of retirement in WWI and served with the 5th Dragoon Guards as Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General and later Acting Lieutenant Colonel.
A police report states that he died of heart failure in a field near Warish Hall, Takeley, Essex. Much of his education and military history is taken from the information supplied by www.saleroom.com when two of his medals were auctioned in April 2016 at Spinks of London.
Additional Information
Also held the Boer War Queen's South Africa Medal +4 bars Boer War King's South Africa Medal + 2 bars
Executor of his estate was his widow, Mrs Elizabeth Sutherland Stuart-French, who was awarded £140 7s 9d pay owing. She was also granted probate of his estate on 28 March, with effects of £7840 8s 5d.
Claude is also commemorated on a monument headstone in Bishop's Stortford Old Cemetery and the inscription reads:
"In Loving Memory of MY DEAR HUSBAND CLAUDE HOUSTON STUART-FRENCH MAJOR LATE 5TH DRAGOON GUARDS OF MARINO CO CORK DIED 23RD. DEM. 1916 AGED 49 YEARS.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Brenda Palmer
Brenda Palmer
