Photo: Bacon and Co
Medal Index Card
Illustrated London News 17/12/1910
Gorsedd Gardens in Cathays Park
Unfinished Chapel at Falkland Fife
Ninian Edward Crichton-Stuart was born on the 15th May 1883 at Dumfries House, Ayr, Scotland, the second son of four children to John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquis of Bute, K.T., and his wife the Honourable Gwendolen Mary Ann Fitzalan-Howard, [St John's Lodge, Regent's Park, London N.W., she was the eldest daughter of Lord Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop]. The other children were Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart born the 24th December 1875, died 6th Jun 1964, John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of the County of Bute born 20th Jun 1881, died 25th Apr 1947 and Lord Colum Edmund Crichton-Stuart born 3rd April 1886, died 18th August 1957.
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart was born on the 12th September 1847 at Mount Stuart, Bute, Scotland, G.1 He was the son of John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of the County of Bute and Lady Sophia Frederica Christina Rawdon-Hastings. He married Hon. Gwendolen Mary Anne Fitzalan-Howard, daughter of Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop and Augusta Talbot, on the 16th April 1872. He died on the 9th October 1900 at age 53 at Dumfries House, Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland G, from paralysis. [He suffered from Bright's Disease and had a few strokes, his son was away in Russia when he died]. He was buried on the 13th October 1900. His will was proven (by probate) on the 10th May 1901. Ninian was left the Falkland estate in Fife, Scotland.
Ninian did spend as mush time as possible on his estates including the improvement of his Hungarian partridges which he placed 50 brace every year, also he was improving his flock of sheep and rams. As he attended, or was represented at the Annual agricultural shows purchasing suitable farming stock.
Ninian was educated at several homes, London, Cardiff Castle and learnt the Welsh language. He was educated at Harrow, and showed promise in Mathematics and Foreign languages and was expected to enter the Diplomatic Service. He also went to Kiev, Russia to learn the language.
Ninian was forced to return home, after about 6 months, having contracting a fever. Following his recovery, in October 1901 he went to Christ Church at Oxford, Matriculated 1901, describing the city as "dull as ditchwater." It was here that he joined the Reserve Army. Part of his family's estate included numerous properties and considerable land in Cardiff, such as Cardiff Castle, and Crichton-Stuart frequently visited the city, including accompanying his father on visits to Bute docks.
Ninian was commissioned in 1903 and was in the 3rd Battalion of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and then served for two years from 1904, in the 1st Battalion, the Scots Guards as a 2nd lieutenant from the 20th May 1905. He passed into the Reserve of Officers in 1907, in the Reserve of Officers list] after resigning his commission. Promoted to Lieutenant on the 15th January 1908.
In 1905, Crichton-Stuart met the Honourable Ismay Lucretia Mary Preston, born 29th October 1882, died 16th February 1975, [then residing at 43 Bryanston Square, London. W.] the only daughter of Jenico William Joseph Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston and Georgina Jane Connelan, at the wedding of his brother John Crichton-Stuart and Augusta Bellingham where he was the best man and Ismay was a bridesmaid. The couple announced their engagement in January 1906 and were married six months later, on the 16th June, at her family estate at Gormanston Castle. Following their marriage, Crichton-Stuart transferred into the Army Reserve and decided to enter politics in order to be closer to his wife and manage his family's estate in Falkland, Fife.
Crichton-Stuart and his wife Ismay had four children, Ninian Patrick Crichton-Stuart 'Ringan', (born 31st October 1907 died 4th February 1910), Ismay Catherine Crichton-Stuart (born 23rd December 1909 died 1989, she married, firstly, John Anthony Hardinge Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury on the 1st October 1930, but they were divorced in 1936, having produced one son together. She married, secondly, Donald Walter Munro Ross on the 30th August 1937), Claudia Miriam Joanna Crichton-Stuart (born 24th June 1913 died 19th June 1985) and Major Michael Duncan David Crichton-Stuart MC (born 14th March 1915 died 11th January 1981, he married Barbara Symes, daughter of Sir George Stewart Symes, on the 1st March 1941. His son, Ninian Crichton Stuart is the Hereditary Keeper of Falkland Palace, has one son and one daughter by his late wife.
Crichton-Stuart first served on Fife County Council in his native Scotland and took a keen interest in local agriculture, becoming president of Fife Agricultural Society, [which then introduced a novel schedule of the chemical value of manures, adopted by the whole of Scotland], and of the Glamorgan Territorial Force Association. When the local football club were seeking guarantors for [£90], the construction of their ground, Lord Ninian was a principal supporter and to express their appreciation of his generosity, the Cardiff City Football Club named their ground Ninian Park. The club chose to name the ground Ninian Park in his honour. Their first match was a 2–1 defeat to Aston Villa.
He was later named as a member of a committee appointed by the president of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to study the rights of tenant farmers when their land was sold or their landlords died. Crichton-Stuart also held the office of Justice of the Peace (JP) for Fife. He also was a member of the North East Mining and Mechanical Engineers Institute at the Wood Memorial Hall, Neville Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he owned several mines.
With his family having a history of serving in parliament for the Cardiff area, his great uncle Lord Patrick Crichton-Stuart had held the post on two occasions, in August 1907, at a meeting of the Cardiff Conservative Association, he was invited by Herbert Cory and his supporting panel to be the Unionist candidate for the United Boroughs of Cardiff, Cowbridge and Llantrisant. Soon after his appointment, Crichton-Stuart and his wife had their first child, named Ninian Patrick Crichton-Stuart, on the 31st October 1907. Lord Ninian's campaign for election was based on reform of the poor law and extending the age range of the old age pension. He also stated of his desire of preserving and strengthening the military forces of Britain. He lost the election to Liberal candidate David Alfred Thomas in January 1910 but did manage to reduce the majority by half from the previous election in 1906. Despite his defeat, his popularity among voters was increasing and at the end of the election campaign a crowd of thousands of people came to see Crichton-Stuart and his wife travel to the train station. The crowd gathered outside the Angel Hotel where the couple were staying and, when they left, their carriage was pulled by around 60 volunteers. The procession stopped briefly outside Cardiff Conservative Club where Crichton-Stuart shook hands with numerous people and gave a short speech before continuing to the station. The Evening Express remarked on the procession, stating 'never before has a parliamentary candidate, victorious or defeated, been so honoured by the people of Cardiff'. On the polling day, Lord Ninian's son caught a chill being driven around Cardiff and later died. He was buried near Falkland Palace in Fife. Crichton-Stuart and his family did not permanently reside in Cardiff until he and his wife moved there in April 1910, moving into Fenylan Court which had previously been the residence of William Tatem, 1st Baron Glanely. A second election was held at the end of the year following a hung parliament, on the 7th December 1910 in which Crichton-Stuart was successful, taking the seat from the Liberal candidate Clarendon Hyde, winning with a majority of 299 votes, a turnaround of 1,800 votes in the space of ten months. With a history in the military, the majority of the issues he raised before parliament were concerning the armed forces, including the high costs officers were faced with during manoeuvres and in April 1913 he was also petitioning for improved weapons for the British Cavalry and "whether a new three-edged sword has been issued" and "whether the steel is of British manufacture?"
On the 9th March 1911, he became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 6th (Glamorgan) Battalion Welsh Regiment, {T.F} whose motto was "Better death, than shame", and in 1912 took command. In May 1911, Ninian contracted pleurisy. On the outbreak of the European War he volunteered with the entire battalion for foreign service. In an address to his men before leaving for the front, he said, 'I am prepared, as I am sure you are, to lay down my life for my country if required.' They served with the Expeditionary Force in France from the 29th October 1914.
This battalion had the HQ in Richardson Street, Swansea, next to the football ground, 'B' 'C' and 'D' companies were based in Swansea. They were used as a Line of Communication unit. The 1/6th (Glamorgan) Battalion landed at Le Havre as part of the South Wales Brigade, which was unallocated to a division, on the 29th October 1914 for service on the Western Front.
On their arrival on the Western Front, the 6th were initially used to support lines of communication for guard and fatigue duties, first in the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer before moving to Saint-Omer. The posting greatly frustrated Crichton-Stuart who was eager to join the fighting. In July 1915, they were transferred to the front and took part in operations at Heuvelland where they were labelled "the lucky 6th" by other units due to their relatively low number of wounded and Crichton-Stuart gained a reputation as a leader who was "always concerned with the welfare of his men".
In June 1915 the Battalion went to Wizernes for a month's training. In July it joined the 84th Brigade in the 28th Division, based at Locre and was in trenches at Lindenhoek, east of Kemmel, not far from Ieper.
In August 1915 Ninian came home on leave to the UK before returning to the front. On the 21st September 1915 the battalion left Locre and by 30th September was at Sailly Labourse in the Reserves for the Battle of Loos.
On the day before his death, there is a story about Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart by Dom Antony Barnett before he was killed, 'At half past six in the morning while he was standing outside the Roman Catholic church a French soldier came up to him and asked : "Do you want to go to Communion this morning sir?" Then as the Colonel did not reply he continued "I am just going to say Mass if you care to serve me I should be greatly obliged" Then as the priest says there followed a scene which "gives one to think-an English colonel and the scion of a noble house serving a French Tommy." This happened on the day before the death of the late member for Cardiff.
Source : Sunderland Echo 02/03/1916
After sixteen hours on the road and two days without sleep, the 6th Welsh took part in a night attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt near La Bassee. On the night of Saturday, 1st October 1915, during the Battle of Loos, the 1/6th battalion was part of a force that successfully charged and captured 'Little Willy' a set of enemy trenches at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near La Bassée, despite suffering heavy losses.
A Sergeant Russell stated 'that by a brilliant bayonet charge the British had taken a section of [the] sic enemy trenches, from which they were ultimately driven out by the Germans using aerial torpedoes and bombs. Major R. C. Browning* was in the captured trench when the Germans attacked, and our men had to retire, exposed to machine-gun and rife fire. It was then found that the Major was not with them, and proceeded: "When our Colonel, Lord Ninian Stuart, was told that Major Browning was left in the trench he nearly went frantic, as they were bosom friends. By leading us to another attack to try and save Major Browning, our Colonel lost his own life. He was shot in the head. Major Browning has since been reported 'missing'."
*Major R. G. S. Browning was the son of a Mr R. A. Browning of Neath. Major Browning was heavily involved in the citizen army and had undertook a special course at Aldershot. Lord Ninian considered Major Browning as his right hand man. In his civil life he was involved in the Gas Engineering trade.
Ninian was shot in the forehead whilst standing up to lead his men into another attack and died instantaneously.
An officer in his regiment reported that Crichton-Stuart was to be found wherever danger threatened" and that his death had "cast a gloom" over the battalion. Crichton-Stuart had served for eleven months of the front line before his death.
Another account reads: The following morning, the German troops launched a counter-attack to retake the trenches and the two Welsh battalions that were holding them were split from each other. Crichton-Stuart ordered the digging of a sap trench in order to reach the other units but prolonged attacks from three sides left the unit short of ammunition and other supplies and the order was given to abandon the trench and retreat. During the start of the evacuation of the trench, he was shot in the head by a German sniper after firing his revolver over the trench parapet and died at the age of 32, the only serving Welsh MP to be killed during the conflict.
Several reports state that he may have been attempting to rally his troops in order to mount a search party to locate his close friend Major Reginald G. S. Browning, who was last seen in a trench that had been overrun by German troops.
The Reverend H. A. Barnett, Q.S.B., Roman Catholic chaplain at the front, gives the following details regarding Lord Ninian's death. He says "It was at the end of a trench-Germans round one side of a traverse, and the 6th Welsh aroud the other. They were trying to drive back the Germans with bombs, but the Germans began to press badly, and Lord Ninian rushed up to help his men. He took hold of a bomb, got up to throw it, but immediately his head appeared over the traverse, a bullet struck him in the forehead. His death was instantaneous. His body was carried back down the communication trench (it took six hours to get it down), and out on to a wagon and brought to a little village abut two miles back and placed on a stretcher in a vault by the side of the church to await a coffin. The Church has been used by one of the Guards' ambulance as a place for the slightly wounded and the sick.
On Friday, I had lunch with Lord Ninian, and when orders were suddenly issued that evening for the Brigade to move up behind the trenches in the supports. I marched by the side of Lord Ninian at the head of the 6th Welsh. We got up behind the trenches and had to wait. Then other battalions were sent on, and the rest held in support. That meant I must move. So after saying good-bye to Lord Ninian. I went up ton the dressing stain to attend the wounded.
That was the last I saw of him. He was killed next morning. After a lot of worry and trouble, which I was only too willing to go through for him, I managed to get him a leaden shell-coffin, and now it rests in a kind of vault in a small house specially built, just inside the cemetery gate-for such cases."
Source : Western Mail Friday 22/10/1915.
The Western Weekly Mail reported: Lord Ninian was a brave, heroic officer, with courage which bordered on recklessness. All along he had been encouraging his men.
His granddaughter Marietta Crichton-Stuart has researched his life and visited where he fought and died in the second phase of the Battle of Loos. One story about his death is that the he was leading his troops to save a soldier left behind during a retreat; another version is more mundane. The battalion were marooned in this section of trench and had run out of ammunition and were under attack from the Germans on three sides, says Marietta. My grandfather died on the fire step of the trench directing the machine gun to pick out a line of fire. "This was in the days before steel helmets and he was shot in the head and died instantly."
"He had a very good sense of humour, and the letters of condolence the family received range from Mrs Lloyd George to a Cardiff organ grinder."
"We've copies of letters, telegrams received after his death which came from people from all walks of life and show someone who had made an impact on a lot of people. He was a very thorough constituency MP and was a people-person.
Church services and masses were held for him across South Wales and a statue to commemorate him was unveiled in 1919, paid for by public subscription. Fifty years later veterans of the Old Comrades Association of the 6th Welsh still made an annual pilgrimage to lay wreaths below his statue in Gorsedd Gardens, Cardiff.
His body was returned to battalion headquarters and placed in a zinc lined coffin in a church in the town of Sailly-Labourse. The coffin was held in the church vault until spring 1918 with the intention of returning it to Britain at the end of the war but a German artillery bombardment damaged the vaults and his body was buried in the grounds of the Bethune Town Cemetery in a Catholic ceremony.
After his death, his widow Ismay married on the 30th April 1917 Captain Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay (born 4th May 1894 died 11th March 1955), later a Scottish Unionist MP for Peebles and South Midlothian 1931–1945. Ramsay and his wife had four sons. She died on the 16th February 1975 aged 92, and was survived by six of her eight children.
The will of Lord Crichton Stuart had left an unsettled personal property in England and Scotland of the value of £49.744 10s 2d. The bequests include the following:- £1,000 to King Edward VII Hospital, Cardiff, to endow a bed in the children's ward, in memory of his son Ninian Patrick. A picture of himself in Khaki uniform, done in the best way that can be done from a photograph, to his constituents at Cardiff, to be in trust by the Mayor of Cardiff for the time being.
Acknowledgements : Reg. Hornsby
Sources: Marietta Crichton Stuart
Lord Ninian Edward Crichton-Stuart is remembered at Newcastle on NUT009
Also remembered on Panel 8 of the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall, one of 22 MPs and officers of the House of Commons that died during the First World War to be named on that memorial. Crichton-Stuart is one of 19 MPs who fell in the war who are commemorated by heraldic shields in the Commons Chamber. A further act of commemoration came with the unveiling in 1932 of a manuscript-style illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons, which includes a short biographical account of his life and death. A statute of Crichton-Stuart was commissioned soon after his death. Sculpted by Sir William Goscombe John, the statue was placed in Gorsedd Gardens in Cathays Park and depicts Crichton-Stuart in military uniform with binoculars in his right hand and papers in his left in a design intended to show him surveying the battlefield. Ninian Road in Roath Park, one of the Bute estate developments from the early twentieth century, continues to bear his name. Ninian Park maintained its name until it was closed and demolished in 2009 following the construction of the Cardiff City's new ground, the Cardiff City Stadium, although one side of the new ground was named the Ninian Stand. A housing estate was built on the site of the former ground and retained the name Ninian Park. The nearby Ninian Park railway station and Ninian Park primary school also bear his name. A chapel commissioned to be built on the family estate in Falkland as a memorial to Crichton-Stuart's son who died at the age of two still stands partially built after work was abandoned following Crichton-Stuart's death.
You Tube Documentary
Wales History Month
History of Parliament
The CWGC entry for Lieutenant Colonel Crichton-Stuart
