Lyn & Exmoor Museum

Medal Detectors

The Story of Major-General John Hume

by Nicolas Lovell

A number of people have been kind enough to say they enjoyed my previous articles – thank you! In a previous article, I made a brief reference to some interesting Victorian medals we’ve been researching of late. Well, we’ve now found out who won them and in fact you’ll find there was quite a history trail of clues around Lynton to help us discover the identity of this old soldier.

At times, being a historian is a bit like being a detective and there’s a eureka moment when you find the solution to your mystery. We had one with these medals!

The medals I’m referring to are situated in a cabinet in one of our upstairs rooms. There are three of them on a metal bar. I’m afraid they look rather dirty and uncared for but one has to be immensely careful if attempting restoration. All that is written beside them is ‘Sebastopol and Lucknow clasps’; there is currently no information on display about who won them. A quick look on the internet showed us that the three medals are the British Crimean War medal 1854-56, the Turkish Crimean Medal (awarded by the Sultan of Turkey) and the Indian Mutiny (now called the Indian Revolt) medal 1857-8. Presuming the recipient was living in this area in the middle of the 19th century, one can only speculate on the amazing and terrifying things he must have experienced.

The other and, frankly, rather frustrating thing about the medals is that they’re not the full-sized versions, they’re what are known as ‘miniatures’. When people are awarded medals, they receive the normal full-sized ones and sometimes a set of miniatures which are roughly half the size and are worn at informal military occasions or at formal dinners. Full-sized medals from this period have the name of the recipient on the rim, which can make it easier to trace the person who won them. Miniatures do not and thus some clever historical detective work is needed to find out who won them.

In fact his name might be somewhat forgotten in Lynton today but in his time he was well known. Evidence of his life around here is still very apparent if you know where to look; for example everyone knows his house. Look up as you walk along Lee Road in the direction of the Valley of Rocks and it sits directly above the town. Yes, Rock Lodge! Walk up Longmead and pass through the archway into the old cemetery; walk up the path and on the right you will see two coffin shaped tombs dedicated to two Victorian soldiers: Major-General John Hume and his younger brother who as an officer in the 38th Regiment of Foot fought in both the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny! It is this gentleman, Captain Walter Hume, who owned the medals now displayed in our museum.

In fact both brothers fought in the Crimean War and both died in Lynton, in 1906 and 1907. Go a little further along Longmead and on the left you can see a road named after their family, Hume Avenue. Go back down the road and enter Lynton Church and there on the left, as you go into the nave, you will see a magnificent set of four stained-glass windows, dedicated to Captain Walter Hume, paid for by the people of Lynton for a truly Christian man of great kindness and decency. So, not only a brave man but a good one.

Two of our medals have silver ‘clasps’ on them which tell us the battles where the soldier in question fought. There were four clasps awarded for the Crimean War: Alma, Balaclava (which included the famous Charge of the Light Brigade), Inkerman and Sebastopol. This particular soldier had been awarded the Sebastopol clasp, showing he was present at the greatest battle of the Crimean War: the siege and attack on the Russian naval base of Sebastopol. Secondly, it was mainly officers who received the Turkish Sultan’s Crimean medal, so we knew he had probably been quite well off. Lastly, the Lucknow clasp on the Indian Mutiny medal was awarded for the third and final battle fought in that city, in 1858.

We therefore had to find an officer whose regiment had fought in the Crimean War and immediately afterwards in the Indian Revolt, who had also lived at some time in the mid to late nineteenth century around here. Not easy. Whoever had won these medals had obviously been through some extraordinary experiences in strange and exotic lands where roughly as many soldiers died of disease as died in battle.The siege of Sebastopol lasted over a year and was fought in terrible conditions. So who was this brave man?

There were in fact four Hume brothers who fought in Queen Victoria’s army, known and admired by her. All of them fought in the Crimean War, where three were badly wounded. Two eventually became generals, two were knighted and one became a member of Queen Victoria’s ceremonial bodyguard. Major-General John Hume lived for many years in Lynton with his brother, Walter, and his family. He wrote a book about his experiences in the Crimean War which you can still buy – Reminiscences of the Crimean Campaign. It was written in the 1890s when people wrote about war in a rather understated way but there is enough detail for one to appreciate the terrible nature of the battles and trench warfare around Sebastopol. In his regiment alone, half of the men were casualties, with horrific losses and wounds among the officers.

Of the four ‘valiant brothers’, Walter was the youngest. He left the army in 1868, married an heiress in Bristol and came here in the 1870s to raise a family. He was an active and jolly man who died unexpectedly one night whilst playing the accordion to his friends at Rock Lodge. He was greatly mourned by all, hence the memorial window in the church.
Captain Hume’s oldest son is also a name some of you will recognise: look on the War Memorial in front of the town hall and the gateway into the Longmead cemetery. He was Lieutenant Colonel R.O.C. Hume, who died gallantly leading the 1st battalion of the Border Regiment in the first days of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. He left behind a young widow and family who continued to live at Rock Lodge for another 40 years! There must still be people in Lynton who remember them.

There is a great deal more I could tell you about the brothers Hume but perhaps this story will whet your appetite to visit our museum, where every shelf contains objects with stories to tell, some of which we know and some of which we are yet to discover. My thanks to one of our museum volunteers, Margaret Atherton, who is the principal history detective behind this story! It was she who researched the Hume brothers and is a mine of information on many aspects of local history.

If you’re interested in the history of this area, visit the Lyn & Exmoor Museum to find out more.

Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas Lovell has been visiting Exmoor since 1967 and retired to Lynton a few years ago. He is the Vice Chairman of the Committee responsible for the Lyn & Exmoor Museum.