Charlie Speedy
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Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy (1836 - 1910)

Capt. Tristram Charles Sawyer (Charlie) Speedy
Born in Meerut, Indiamap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 15 Dec 1868 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Englandmap
Died at age 73 in Church Stretton, Shropshire, England, United Kingdommap
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Profile last modified | Created 10 Jan 2017
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Biography

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Charlie Speedy is Notable.

Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy was born in 1836 in India while his father, Major Speedy was in service there. He was the son of James Speedy and Sarah Squire. He was baptised on 17 Jan 1837 in Meerut, Bengal, India.[1]

In November of 1836 my eldest son was born. We had a dear friend named Sawyer, and we named our boy after my dear father and this young friend. 'Tristram Charles Sawyer'. We called him Charlie.[2]

When Alfred was a year old we left England for Bombay in the ship “John Heming,” and arrived at our destination in due time. I had a soldiers’ wife of the name of Browne to take care of the children. Charlie we left in Cheltenham at Dr. Bayley’s, who had promised to educate him as his own for €80 a year. Charlie was not quite nine years old, and we had every confidence in Dr. Bayley who was a cousin of my mother’s and principal of Oriel College, Cheltenham[3]

Charlie had got a commission in the 81st, and left Chatham for India in 1854. [4]

Speedy was educated in England, but returned to India as an army officer (he had served in Canada prior as a lad of 17). He served in India until 1860. From there he travelled to Africa and was employed by the Ethiopian Emperor. After a falling out he fled the country and served in a diplomatic capacity in Massawa.

When Speedy's parents emigrated to New Zealand, he followed and participated in the New Zealand Wars as a member of the Waikato Militia from 1864. He was a Captain and awarded a medal for his service. He was given a land grant in the Waikato of confiscated lands which he sold to Bill Cowan.

A poem written by Tristram Speedy, Inventory of a Captain's Room, alludes to his single life, where he had many "flings" and "flames" — 30 in New Zealand alone.[1]

Speedy returned to Africa where his knowledge of languages and Ethiopia proved valuable. He received the Abyssinian War Medal while under the command of Sir Robert Napier.

Received by Queen Victoria, Speedy was appointed guardian of the young Ethiopian prince whose father had committed suicide rather than surrender to the British.

In a book of photographs by international photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Captain Tristram Speedy, who was one of Cameron's subjects, is said to have married "Tiny" Cotton, daughter of Benjamin Tennyson Cotton, a wealthy Isle of Wight landowner, of Afton House.[2] Julia Margaret Cameron owned two cottages at Freshwater, Isle of Wight. She had many famous friends who owned cottages or visited each other there, including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Darwin, and numerous other poets, authors, actors and artists. Renowned explorer and adventurer Charlie Speedy and his fiancée Cornelia, staying with her parents at Afton House, were among the friends.[3]

Julia Margaret Cameron photographed Captain Speedy and his ward, Déjatch Alámayou (Son of King Theodore of Abyssinia), at Freshwater in July 1868, pp. 454-6 : Captain Speedy. There is a wonderful closeup on pg. 41 of Captain Speedy & the Prince. On pg. 434 of the book it is recorded that Emma Darwin wrote to her son George in 1868 saying Capt. Speedy and the prince were to be photographed in Abyssinian costume and she and Charles were going over to see them.

Tristram Speedy married Cornelia Cotton in England in December 1868, then returned to India with his wife and the Abyssinian prince. He was District Superintendent of the Oudh Police from 1869 to 1871.

At the end of 1871 Speedy escorted the prince to England where he was sent to Cheltenham College in the care of its headmaster, Dr. Jex-Blake. In 1874 Jex-Blake became headmaster of Rugby School and took Alamayu with him. At Rugby Alamayu's friend and mentor was one of the masters by the name of Ransome. In 1878 Ransome became a professor at Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds). Alamayu was by then "a fine well proportioned youth about six feet in height." He left Rugby at the same time as Ransome and spent a year at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. In October 1879 Alamayu went to Leeds to study under Ransome. He contracted pleurisy and died on November 14th. He was buried a week later just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel, Windsor.[4]

In 1871 Speedy had gone to Malaya taking up a superintendant position there. Cornelia remained in Penang when Speedy resigned from the police in 1874, but she joined him at Larut before the middle of 1874. Speedy's younger brother, James Havelock Speedy, spent about 18 months with him in Larut. He is mentioned in Cornelia's will as settled in New Zealand.[4]

At the end of May 1876 Speedy applied for six months leave in the United Kingdom. Cornelia's father had died and the settlement of his estate was complicated. The Speedys were now financially well off. They returned to Larut in early December 1876 and then to Penang where they stayed until January 1878. Cornelia persuaded Speedy to travel the Sudan. (Her letters home were published as a book in 1884.) They returned to England in the autumn of 1878 by way of Alexandria, Sicily, Naples, north Italy, Switzerland and the International Exhibition in Paris. Afterward, Speedy tried his hand at some kind of business investment. He had never had any fortune of his own but Cornelia had inherited nearly £20,000 and a house at Southampton. Sadly, her fortune was lost except for £5,000 her father had placed in a trust fund. Presumably they lived on the income of the trust fund, possibly £200 a year, for the rest of their lives. When he died in 1910, Speedy's estate was valued at £227.3.4. Cornelia left £2,000, including a house, and her life interest in the £5,000 trust fund.[4]

Tristram Speedy is mentioned in several works, was considered a somewhat exotic hero, and his adventures were popularised in plays. Some regarded Speedy as "an eccentric who paraded in a turban and leopard skin playing the bagpipes."[4]

Cornelia had bought a house in the picturesque village of Chatsworth, Church Stretton, in Shropshire, where Charlie died in August 1910 at the age of 73.[4][5]

Cornelia Speedy died in 1917, aged 75, at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire.[6]

Sources

  1. Inventory of a Captain's Room - poem by Captain Tristram Charles S Speedy Speedy.co.nz
  2. Cox, Julian. Ford, Colin. Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs Getty Publications. Los Angeles, CA. 2003. pg. 519
  3. Ruskin Lodge History of the Victorian Houses and Historic value of Freshwater Bay : accessed 15 Sep 2018
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Gullick, John M. Captain Speedy of Larut. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 26, no. 3 (163), 1953, pp. 3–103. JSTOR. Captain Speedy of Larut
  5. "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2J7L-54K : 31 December 2014), Tristram C S Speedy, 1910; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Church Stretton, Shropshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
  6. Findmypast.co.uk : England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007 Cornelia M Speedy : accessed 15 Sep 2018; subscription required
  • Marriage GRO 4th quarter 1868 at Isle of Wight 2b. 936
  • Death GRO 3rd quarter 1910 bat church Stretton 6a. 305
  • Wikipedia Article on Tristram Speedy[5]
  • India, Select Births & Baptisms - Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: India, Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. Name: Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy; Gender: Male; Birth Date: 26 Nov 1836; Baptism Date: 17 Jan 1837; Baptism Age: 0; Baptism Place: Meerut, Bengal, India; Birth record:India Office Ecclesiastical Returns-Bengal Presidency, , Misc, India; Father: James Speedy; Mother: Sarah; Reference ID: v 47 p 51; FHL Film Number: 498974
  • Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900 - The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Class Number: WO 25; Class Title: 81 Foot; Piece Number: 487; Piece Title: 81 Foot; Source Information: Ancestry.com. Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Name: T C S Speedy; Age: 17; Birth Date: abt 1837; Military Date: 6 Jun 1854; Unit: 81st Foot Soldiers
  • Autobiography of Sarah Speedy, Captain Speedy's mother [6]
  • UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949 - Source Citation: WO 100; Piece: 108; Source Information: Ancestry.com. UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: War Office: Campaign Medal and Award Rolls 1793-1949 (General Series). The National Archives microfilm publication WO 100, 241 rolls. The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England. Name: S C T Speedy; Campaign or Service: Medals Returned - Campaigns Prior to 1880; Regiment or Unit Name: 81st Regiment
  • Belfast Newsletter Marriage Notice - Ancestry.com. Belfast, Northern Ireland, The Belfast Newsletter (Birth, Marriage and Death Notices), 1738-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: The Belfast Newsletter. Belfast, Northern Ireland. Periodicals & Newspapers, Irish & Reference. Linen Hall Library, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Name: T C S Speedy; Gender: Male; Notice Type: Marriage; Marriage Date: 15 Dec 1868; Marriage Place: Freshwater; Spouse: Cornelia Mary Cotton; Publication Date: 19 Dec 1868
  • Abyssinia & The Soudan - The Sydney Morning Herald - Newspapers.com - The Sydney Morning Herald - 18 Jan 1886 - Page 8 - Description of lecture by Tristram Speedy to Prince Alfred Hospital staff.
  • England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index - FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. Name: Tristram Charles S Speedy; Registration Year: 1868; Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec; Registration district: Isle of Wight. Volume 2B page 1936. Records on Page: Name: Cornella Mary Cotton;Tristram Charles S Speedy[7]
  • Probate - Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England. Name: Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy; Death Date: 9 Aug 1910; Death Place: Shropshire, England; Probate Date: 10 Sep 1910; Registry: London, England
  • England and Wales Census, 1901 database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9HH-J6Z : 20 May 2019), Tristram C S Speedy, Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing Chelsea South subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

See also:

  • The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography - image and biography of Tristram Speedy Captain Tristam Speedy




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