Charles à Court Repington
Charles à Court
29 January 1858
Heytesbury, Wiltshire, England
25 May 1925 (aged 67)
Hove, Sussex, England
British Army
1878–1902
War correspondent and author
Early life[edit]
Charles à Court was born at Heytesbury, in the county of Wiltshire on 29 January 1858, the son of Charles Henry Wyndham A'Court Repington, M.P. His family name at birth was à Court. In his memoir, he later wrote: "The à Courts are Wiltshire folk, and in old days represented Heytesbury in Parliament... The name of Repington, under the terms of an old will, was assumed by all the à Courts in turn as they succeeded to the Amington Hall Estate, and I followed the rule when my father died in 1903."[4][5] He received his early formal education at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Military career[edit]
He commenced his military career as a commissioned infantry officer in 1878 with the British Army's Rifle Brigade.[6] After serving in Afghanistan, Burma, and Sudan, he entered the Staff College at Camberley, where he was a brilliant student,[5] and where his peers included the future senior generals Herbert Plumer and Horace Smith-Dorrien. On graduation from Staff College he served as a military attaché in Brussels and The Hague, following which he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He served as a staff officer during the Second Boer War in South Africa 1899–1901, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) during the conflict.[7]
After returning from the war, what had appeared to be a promising military career was cut short during a posting to Egypt in 1902 where Repington re-engaged a romantic affair dating back to the late 1890s with Lady Garstin, the wife of a British official, William Garstin, which became public. He was reprimanded by senior military authorities, as he had given a written promise "upon his honour as a soldier and gentleman" previously to have no further dealings with her. He had given this "parole" to Henry Wilson (a friend of Mary Garstin's late father, who had been asked by her family to get involved) on 9 October 1899. Repington told Wilson – at Chieveley, near Colenso in South Africa, during the 2nd Boer War campaign in February 1901 – that he regarded himself as absolved from his promise to give Mary Garstin up after learning that her husband had been spreading rumours of his other infidelities. During the divorce proceedings, it was revealed that Repington had ignored warnings about his behaviour (i.e. had "broken his parole") and had continued with the affair. Wilson was unable or unwilling to confirm Repington's claim that he had released him from his parole in South Africa. Repington believed that Wilson had betrayed a fellow soldier in this, but was forced to resign his commission and retire from the British Army in social disgrace with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 15 January 1902.[8][9] In a subsequent career as a journalist, specializing in military matters, he was a strong critic of Wilson whenever the opportunity presented itself.[5][10]
Later life[edit]
After the end of the war Repington joined the staff of The Daily Telegraph, and subsequently published several books. These works included The First World War (1920), and After the War (1922), which were bestsellers, but cost Repington friendships for his apparent willingness to report what others considered to have been private conversations.
Death[edit]
He died on 25 May 1925 at Pembroke Lodge in Hove, East Sussex. He was 67 years old. His body was buried at Hove Cemetery, Old Shoreham Road.
Personal life[edit]
On 11 February 1882, Repington married Melloney Catherine (died 1934), daughter of Colonel Henry Sales Scobell, of Abbey House, Pershore, High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1872; she was a sister of Major-General Henry Jenner Scobell. The marriage produced four children: Charles Edward Geoffrey (1888-1889), (Melloney) Catherine ("Kitty") Isabel (1891–1965), Elizabeth Frances (1892-1950), and Violet Emily (1895-1898); they were judicially separated in 1902.[17][18] Repington subsequently married Mary North (formerly Lady Garstin), and had a daughter, Laetitia Frances Mary, born in 1911.[19]