What are the wild Pigs saying? (part 1)

Celia Congreve

It's not overly difficult, should you be inclined to do so, to find out some basic information about Celia Congreve - a quick Google search will yield results in seconds. However, a lot of the information that you will be shown will be centred around her position as a wife and mother to recipients of the Victoria Cross (apparently only 3 father and son pairs have ever been awarded the VC). Receiving the VC is definitely not something to be sniffed at, but Celia is more than that. She deserves recognition in her own right. This post will attempt to shine a light on Celia’s life and achievements, as a poet, as a nurse and as many other things too.

Cecilia Henrietta Delores La Touche was born on 24 April 1867 in Rajkot, Gujarat. Her parents, Charles William Blunt La Touche and Rose Wilhelmina (née Muller), had married nine months earlier on 26^th July 1866 at St James’ Church in Middlesex. Charles, an Anglo-Indian born in Ajmeer in 1835, was serving as a Captain in the Bombay Staff Corps and began his career as a Cadet for the East India Company in 1850. Rose, originally from Valparaiso, Chile, was the daughter of William Muller, who was a partner in the firm Messrs A. Hemenway and Co.

It is unlikely that Celia had any memory of her father. He was killed in a skirmish on 29^th December 1867; Celia and her mother returned the UK and can be seen in the household of William and Maria Muller (Celia’s maternal grandparents) in Shenley, Hertfordshire on the 1871 census. Later that year, Rose remarried to Rev James William Rynd. At the time of the marriage, Rev. Rynd was the Incumbent of the Laura Chapel in Bath (where Jane Austin had worshipped 60 years earlier), but shortly afterwards he received a new posting to Brasted, Kent. James and Rose were married for 42 years and had 9 children.

From a later newspaper report (Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 15^th November 1929) we know that Celia attended Hamilton House School, in Tunbridge Wells, but as yet I have not yet found out any further information.

Celia married Walter Norris Congreve, a Lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade, on 3^rd June 1890 at St Jude’s Church, Kensington. On the 1891 census, Celia is at her mother in law’s residence of Burton Hall, Cheshire. Also on the census is a 3 week old infant, Celia’s first son William La Touche Congreve. Celia and Walter had two further sons: Geoffrey born in 1897, and Arthur born in 1903. Walter was serving as Private Secretary to Lord Kitchener in the Transvaal in 1901, which is likely why Celia is shown with her mother and step-father at the rectory in Brasted on the 1901 census.

Shortly after this, Walter’s father died and he travelled home to dispose of the estate at Burton Hall. He then was given a position with the Duke of Connaught and the whole family decamped to Dublin where youngest son Arthur was born.

Around this time, Walter and Celia seem to have two homes in England associated with them: West Felton Grange near Oswestry, and Chartley Castle in Stowe-by-Chartley. West Felton is where Walter’s parents lived, whilst Chartley Castle was purchased by Walter and Celia in 1904.

By 1911, Walter and Cecilia were living in Commandant House, next to Hythe Barracks. Eldest son William (Billy) was with them, on leave from his army brigade, and 7 year old Christopher/Arthur is at school. Geoffrey is not shown in the household, and was at the Naval College on the Isle of Wight as a 13 year old cadet. Visiting the household was Margaret Murphy. Margaret signed the Guest book on 19^th May 1911 with Celia signing on 21^st May 1911 – perhaps they travelled to the Lovett’s house together shortly after the census was undertaken?

Celia was surrounded by military information, so perhaps she was more aware than most of the looming threat of war. Newspaper articles from October 1910 record Mrs Congreve convening a meeting “to consider the formation of a voluntary aid detachment” of the Red Cross Society. At the end of the meeting, the motion was unanimously agreed, and it was decided that this would be undertaken as soon as the “Home Nursing” series of lectures were complete and there was a suitable number of qualified members available. By April 1911, plans were firmly in place (Hythe Reporter 08 April 1911):

 The support for the British Red Cross extended further, with Celia determining to create a Stone branch, under the auspices of the Staffordshire Red Cross branch (as reported in the Staffordshire Sentinel on 13^th March 1913). Celia seems to have been so determined to be as useful and as dedicated as possible, that she spent a month in the hospital in Stafford working as a nurse (Staffordshire Sentinel, 17^th April 1913).

This nursing training would be put to good use. In September 1914, Celia was one of the trained nurses who went out to Antwerp to set up the British Field Hospital for Belgium. Further information about the BFHB in Antwerp can be found here https://www.jstor.org/stable/25312302.

Celia returned to Chartley Castle in October 1914, but remained involved in nursing. The Staffordshire Advertiser (22 May 1915) reports on the opening of two wards at the Stafford Infirmary to treat wounded Canadian soldiers. Celia is identified as being involved in this work, using her experiences of nursing on the front line.

Surviving medal rolls indicate that Celia completed three stints of nursing at the front. The first, September to October 1914 was at the BFHB as noted above. The second, and longest period was between August 1915 and February 1917. From a report in The Queen (12 August 1916) during this period, Celia was nursing French soldiers firstly at the Johnstone-Reckitt hospital at Ris-Orangis. A book detailing the work of this hospital, and mentioning Celia, is available here https://archive.org/stream/vr76frenchmilita00reckrich/vr76frenchmilita00reckrich_djvu.txt. In that book, Celia is not the only Congreve mentioned. Walter and Celia’s youngest son, Christopher visited the hospital in August 1915 during his school’s summer break.

Whilst Celia was nursing at Ris, her husband and eldest son were fighting on the front line near Longueval. William Congreve married in June 1916, and the family were reunited for a short period of time. Tragically, just seven weeks after his marriage, William was killed in action. Posthumously, he was awarded the VC.

Not long after this, Celia went to work at the Urgent Cases hospital at Revigny, where she stayed until February 1917. Celia returned to Staffordshire, where she was soon joined by Walter who was recuperating after sustaining an injury to his left hand in a shell blast at Vimy Ridge. This injury was so severe that his hand needed to be amputated. Whilst he was at home, Walter was awarded the KCB and was promoted to Lieutenant-General. Despite not being in the best of health, Walter returned to the front at the start of 1918, and remained in France until the end of the war.

Around the same time, Celia also returned to France, and nursed at a hospital in Nancy. The Bolton Evening News (26^th August 1918) reported that she was to receive the Croix de Guerre for courage in nursing whilst her hospital was being bombed, and The Sketch (4^th September 1918) adds further detail. In this second report, it identified that Celia had become a “militarisee” – a civilian nurse who had become formally incorporated into army structures, with the rank of ‘Infirmiere Principale’.

In 1919, Walter accepted a posting as Commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Celia accompanied him on this posting, continuing to write verses (Country Life, 12^th June 1920). We know that she also acted as Chief Commissioner for Girl Guides whilst she was in Egypt (Kent and Sussex Courier, 15th November 1929). Walter and Celia remained in Egypt until 1924, when Walter was appointed Governor of Malta. Walter died in Malta in February 1927, whereupon Celia returned to England.

For many years she lived at 20 Tedworth Square, London, where she kept two Chinese robins (one called Peter Pekin) in a large cage in her bedroom (The Queen, 4th February 1931), until she was forced to leave London for the sake of her health, and made her home with her youngest son, Arthur, at Aiskew House, Bedale (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 13th December 1937). After the war, Celia returned to London and lived HIllingdon Court, at least until 1948. She died in a nursing home on the 4th September 1952.