Who am I?
Researched by E3161 Victoria Edwards (RMC 2003)
- I was born Dec 18, 1873 in Quebec, PQ.
- I was Battalion Sargeant Major at RMC from 1892-3. I served in the Corps of Royal Engineers. While living in Aldershot, I was promoted Second Lieutenant on 27th June 1893.
- I wrote the words to the Royal Military College of Canada song, “Can You Tell Me the Reason Why?” (published 1894).
- I served with the Royal Air Force (R.E.). I married Dorothy Maud.
- As a member of the industrial commission, I co-authored a ‘Report of the industrial commission’ in 1904, which promoted the establishment of several industries in Orange River Colony, California.
- At the outbreak of WWI, I served as Staff-Captain, Director of the Fortification and Works Office at the War Office in London.
- Promoted to Major, Royal Engineers Directorate of Fortification and Works (DFW), I produced a complete set of drawings for typical battallion buildings in 1914. The plans for typical batallion hutment, officers & sergeants’ messes, recreation hut, central cookhouse and dining hall served as a model for the construction program. The sleeping huts, 60 feet long by 20 feet wide and 10 feet high with a gangway down the centre for tables and benches, slept 30 men. I lated designed plans to house hospitals, artillery, engineer, Army Service Corps units, and remount depots containing 1000 houses each. The designs were copied and built in large numbers. The hospital huts of 600 beds and accessory buildings, for example, accounted for 320,000 military hospital beds in Great Britain by 1917.
- I was promoted from a Deputy Assistant Director to Assistant Director on 23rd June1917.
- As Wing Commander (actg. Group Captain), I was appointed Companion to the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, in recognition of distinguished services rendered during the War on 22nd December, 1919.
- Promoted to Lt Col (A/Colonel), I was appointed Companion to the Most Honourable Order of Michael and Saint George (C.M.G.), in recognition of distinguished services rendered during the War on 1 January 1919.
- Promoted to Colonel, I served as a colonial administrator. I wrote the ‘Military Handbook Of Natal’
- Dorothy and my son, 2nd Lieutenant Richard George De Ligny of the Hampshire Regiment died at 21 years of age on December 20, 1941 during WWII. He was buried in the Taiping War Cemetery, Malaya, Malaysia.
- I died on Feb 24, 1950
Who am I?
a) W.C. Dumble
b) B.H.O. Armstrong
c) F.C. Henecker
d) G.S. Wilkes
Preston “A History of the Royal Military College”
- www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshistory/rem_corps_part14.htm
- http://www.canoemail.com/web.asp?bhjs=1&bhsw=1440&bhsh=900&bhswi=1181&bhshi=744&bhflver=5&bhdir=0&bhje=1&bhcold=32&bhrl=-1&bhqt=-1&bhmp=-1&bhab=-1&bhmpex=&bhflex=&bhdirex=&bhcont=modem
- http://books.google.ca/books?id=zSxOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA112&lpg=RA2-PA112&dq=%22B.+H.+O.+Armstrong%22&source=bl&ots=vM2NjXOZuZ&sig=gHShzNErPGG_skB5w4ytCucBkIE&hl=en&ei=PQc3Sou-MZ6vtwfh9KnmDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8
- http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/31703/supplements/15839/page.pdf.
b) Colonel Bertie Harold Olivier (B.H.O.) Armstrong C.M.G.