Francis Whitmore

Colonel Sir Francis Henry Douglas Charlton Whitmore, 1st Baronet, KCB, CMG, DSO, TD, JP (20 April 1872 – 12 June 1962) was a British military officer and landowner, the son of Thomas Whitmore, an officer in the Royal Horse Guards. Thomas had inherited Orsett Hall (in Orsett, Essex) as a result of a gambling debt incurred by the previous owner, Digby Wingfield.^[1] The estate passed to Francis on the death of his father in 1907.

Whitmore was educated at Eton and in 1892 he was commissioned into the 1st Essex Artillery Volunteers. He later transferred to the Essex Yeomanry and served in the Boer War with the Imperial Yeomanry. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1915 and served in the First World War, eventually commanding the 10th Royal Hussars. He was mentioned in despatches four times, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917. After the war he wrote The 10th (P.W.O.) Royal Hussars and the Essex Yeomanry during the European War, 1914-1918 which was published in 1920.

Sir Francis became a Justice of the Peace in 1898 and was High Sheriff of Essex in 1922. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Essex from 1936 to 1958 and was created a Baronet, of Orsett, in the County of Essex in 1954.

He was married twice, first to Violet Houldsworth (d. 1927) and subsequently to Ellis Johnsen (d. 2001). He had a son and a daughter by his second wife.

Orsett church contains hatchments to his father and his first wife — the latter was painted by Sir Francis himself. The other hatchments in the church were restored at the expense of Sir Francis following a fire.^[2]

Sir Francis died in 1962 and was buried with full military honours at Orsett parish church.^[3] The baronetcy and estate were inherited by his son, Sir John Whitmore. He is commemorated in the name of a local pub, The Whitmore Arms. His portrait from W.W.1 hangs in the headquarters of the 70th (Essex Yeomanry) Signal Squadron. A later portrait in Lord Lieutenant's uniform hangs in the Shire Hall in Chelmsford.

Notes

1. ^ EJT Collins, A History of the Orsett Estate
2. ^ Orsett Hatchments
3. ^ George Newark, writing in Panorama - the Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society number 40