Colonel Robert James Leslie Ogilby, DSO, DL (1880–1964), was a senior British Army officer who commanded a battalion of the London Scottish Regiment in the First World War and was later the regiment's Honorary Colonel. He founded and first endowed the British Army Museums Ogilby Trust in 1954.
Birth and early life Robert Ogilby was born at 15 Victoria Road, Kensington Gardens, London, on 27 November 1880, and was the only son among the seven children of Robert and Helen Ogilby. His father was an officer in the King's Own Royal Regiment, 1870–82, and served in the Anglo-Zulu War. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. George Bomford Wheeler, classicist and translator, who edited The Irish Times between 1859 and 1877.Annotated pedigree "Ogilby of Ardnargle, Limavady, and of Pellipar, Dungiven, both in Co. Londonderry", Visitation of Ireland, Vol. 6, ed. Frederick Arthur Crisp, London, 1918, pp. 57-59.
Ogilby was educated at Eton College. On leaving, in 1898, he was commissioned into the 4th (Cambridge Militia) Battalion, Suffolk RegimentCambridge Chronicle and Journal, 11 March 1898, p. 6. and in 1900 he transferred to regular service with the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, proceeding to India shortly afterwards.Evening Mail, London, 10 January 1900, p. 7. While in India he became accomplished at polo and he played the sport for his regiment both there and, after joining the 2nd Life Guards in 1903, at the Ranelagh and Roehampton Clubs.The Bystander, 1 June 1904, p. 48; The Sportsman, 22 May 1905, p. 3; The Field, 3 June 1905, p. 30. He sold his ponies on retiring from the Life Guards in 1905, but resumed playing as captain of The Parthians in the following year.The Field, 8 July 1905, p. 88, 9 September 1905, p. 52, and 12 May 1996, p. 29.
On the death of his father in 1902 he inherited lands in County Londonderry and at Woolwich. His Woolwich estate, based on Powis Street, included commercial properties that had been redeveloped under his father's initiative at the turn of the century and generated an important revenue stream. His Irish holdings comprised the 300-acre Pellipar and the smaller Ardnargle and Dungiven Castle estates.James Stevens Curl, The Londonderry Plantation 1609–1914, Phillimore & Co., Chichester, 1986, pp. 294-299; Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, Shaw Publishing Co. Ltd, London, 1937, pp. 2654-2655.
In the years prior to 1907 he enlarged Pellipar House to become one of the most architecturally distinctive mansions in the county,Curl, p. 302-303. and it provided the base for his farming and public service activities. He established a prize-winning herd of shorthorn cattleDerry Journal, 14 March 1913, p. 3; The Scotsman, 16 April 1913, p. 13; Northern Whig, 11 March 1915, p. 3. and sat on the Council of the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society.Northern Whig, 17 February 1912, p. 9. He was appointed a magistrate in 1907 and a Deputy Lieutenant of County Londonderry in 1908, and served as the county's High Sheriff in 1911.Londonderry Sentinel, 18 July 1907, p. 3; Irish Times, 2 September 1908, p. 4; Derry Journal, 9 January 1911, p. 7.
Military service 1914–1919 Having joined the General Reserve of Officers immediately following Britain's declaration of war against Germany, he was appointed a temporary Captain in his old regiment, the Irish Dragoons, in February 1915.Dublin Daily Express, 6 March 1915, p. 2. By May 1916 he had been promoted Major and was second-in-command of the 7th Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment when engaged in heavy fighting during the Battle of the Somme.Supplement to the London Gazette, 24 July 1916 (issue 29678, p. 7326). He was advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in the same year and in September was given command of the 2nd/14th London Regiment, the London Scottish.Supplement to the London Gazette, 10 January 1917 (issue 29897, p. 450); 31 July 1917 (issue 30212, p. 7876). In November he led this Territorial battalion, part of the 60th Division, to reinforce the allied army on the Salonica front.War Diary of 2nd/14th London Regiment (London Scottish), July 1917-May 1918, The National Archives, WO 95/4668.
The battalion saw action during the Second Battle of Doiran, and Ogilby was mentioned for gallantry in General Milne's half-yearly despatches of March and October 1917.Supplement to the London Gazette, 21 July 1917 (issue 30196, p. 7454), and 27 November 1917 (issue 30404, p. 12486). By the latter date he had already spent three months with his unit in Egypt and Palestine; he was mentioned for his service in the latter theatre in General Allenby's despatches of January 1918.Supplement to the London Gazette, 16 January 1918 (issue 30480, p. 934). He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the same month.Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January 1918 (issue 30450, p. 24).
As part of 60th Division, Ogilby's battalion saw considerable action in Palestine (where its soldiers accounted for two of the three Victoria Crosses won by men of the London Scottish) and made an important contribution to carrying the British line forward from Beersheba to Jerusalem.The Scotsman, 22 January 1923, p. 10. After the Battle of Jerusalem the battalion, headed by its pipes, was the first to enter the city as a formed body.Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 11 December 1922, p. 3. General Chetwode later recalled it was the first unit of XX Corps to regain parade smartness after shaking off the mud through which it had to fight during the final stage of the battle.The Scotsman, 8 December 1924, p. 12.
St Andrew's Church, Jerusalem was later built as a tribute to Scottish soldiers who fell in the Palestine campaign, and Ogilby was present when the memorial for the London Scottish casualties was unveiled there in 1934.The Scotsman, 13 December 1934, p. 13.
Leaving Palestine and returning to France in June 1918, Ogilby's battalion was in action during the Advance in Flanders as part of the 30th Division, contributing to the capture of the Dranoutre Ridge in August.R. Flenley, A Brief History of the 30th Division from its Reconstitution in July 1918 to the Armistice 11th November 1918, Naval and Military Press, 2009, pp. 21-23. For his "very fine work" in the latter operation Ogilby was mentioned in Field Marshal Haig's despatches and awarded a bar to his DSO.Supplement to the London Gazette, 30 December 1918 (issue 31088, p. 15199). The award citation referred to the "particularly fine example of energy and fearlessness he set to his men at a critical time" and to the value of his personal reconnaissance which led to adjustment of his dispositions and enhanced ability to withstand counter-attack.Supplement to the London Gazette, 7 November 1918 (issue 30997, p. 13132).
Ogilby's battalion was attempting to bridge the River Scheldt when the November Armistice was announced. He relinquished his command in January 1919 and was awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre in March.Mark Lloyd, The London Scottish in the Great War, Leo Cooper, 2001, p. 249; The National Archives, War Diary of 2nd/14th, London Regiment (London Scottish) for the month of March 1919, entry for 31 March, WO 95/2349/2; Supplement to the London Gazette, 27 October 1919 (issue 13520, p. 3482). He retired from Territorial service in July, retaining his rank of lieutenant-colonel.Supplement to the London Gazette, 29 August 1919 (issue 31531, p. 10996).
Interwar period In September 1920, against the background of the deteriorating political situation in Ireland, he purchased the 400-acre Moreton Hall estate in Warwickshire. He moved the Pellipar shorthorn herd to that property but sold the animals in the following year.Northern Whig, 10 September 1921, p. 5. He advertised his Ardnargle and Dungiven Castle holdings for sale in the early 1920s and found a purchaser for the latter.Northern Whig, 26 March 1923, p. 4, and 9 September 1926, p. 6; Ballymoney Free Press and Northern Counties Advertiser, 3 January 1924, p. 2. Pellipar House was on the market in 1927.Northern Whig, 8 September 1927, p. 1.
In November 1936 he married Isabel, the widow of the Rev. Charles Brocklebank of Westwood Park, West Bergholt.Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 21 November 1936, p. 5. She died in October 1940, and he sold Moreton Hall and its contents in 1947.England and Wales Probate Calendar (probatesearch.service.gov.uk) 1941; Leamington Spa Courier, 8 August 1947, p. 6; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 24 October 1947, p. 2.
Honorary colonelcy In September 1942 he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the London Scottish, holding the position jointly with the then Queen, who had been the regiment's Royal Honorary Colonel (otherwise styled Colonel-in-Chief) since 1935. To facilitate the appointment he was made an Honorary Colonel of both the Gordon Highlanders (of which the 1st and 2nd London Scottish had become part) and the Royal Artillery (of which the newly formed 3rd Battalion London Scottish constituted a regiment).Supplement to the London Gazette, 18 November 1941 (issue 35348, p. 6629).
In the following year he established a benevolent fund to help men of the London Scottish who found themselves in difficulty after the war ended.Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 7 October 1943, p. 2. In all areas of his life he was resolute in supporting those in genuine adversity or distress. General Carton de Wiart observed "He wastes no sympathy on you when you have no need of it but stands like the Rock of Gibraltar when you do".The Poacher, The Journal of the 2nd East Anglian Regiment, Vol. 4, No. 15 (March 1964), p. 4, quoting from Happy Odyssey: The Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Jonathan Cape, 1950.
Ogilby continued as Honorary Colonel of the London Scottish until 1955Supplement to the London Gazette, 4 November 1955 (issue 40622, p. 6206). and declined to be made a CBE in the Birthday Honours of that year."The refuseniks and the honours they turned down", The Sunday Times, 21 December 2003.
Heritage and museums Ogilby's experience of military life convinced him that the fighting spirit of the British soldier was rooted in the Army's regimental system and that it was this "esprit de corps alone which held men together in tight corners".Belfast News-Letter, 21 February 1955, p. 5. He believed regimental and corps museums were key to preserving the heritage and promoting the traditions that enriched the system and, having joined the Society for Army Historical Research in 1929, he was instrumental in establishing its Museum Committee in 1936. He had been elected to the Society's Council in 1932 and was its chairman from 1951 until 1960, when he became a vice-president.Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 42, No. 169 (March 1964), p. 51.
In 1954 he gave £100,000 to endow a trust which had as its objectives the encouragement, equipment and maintenance of existing regimental and army museums, as well as the fostering of interest in regimental and military tradition. His gift was announced by the War Office and, with the approval of the Army Council, the trust was named the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.Belfast News-Letter, 21 February 1955, p. 5. He "steered the trust through its early days of official, if benign, War Office scepticism" and it came to play a significant part in the establishment and development of 136 regimental and corps museums in Britain.Allan Mallinson, "Regimental identities and fighting spirit", The Times, 9 January 2010.