29th Generation

1341. Sir John William FORTESCUE K.C.V.O, LL.D, D Litt¹¹⁷ was born in December 1859 in Madeira. He appeared in the census in 1911 in 59a Brook St, St George, London. RG14PN424 RG78PN14 RD5 SD1 ED10 SN9 59a Brook St, St George, London
FORTESCUE, John Head 1860 51  M Single Librarian to the King Maderia
He died on 22 October 1933 in South France.¹⁴² Death recorded in "The Last Post" by the John published by Blackwood in 1934. 22nd October 1933 was a Sunday. It says " The army has lost a true friend and mourns an historian whose works inspire future generations as they informed and encouraged
the present" War Office Telegram October 22 1933

Librarian to the King at Windsor. Married late in life. Major work was as Historian to the Army
Lt Royal North Devon Yeomanry Cavalry

For a brilliant web site on John and Winifred see perfumefromprovence.com/Sirjohnfortescue.htm

November 1976. The Military Historical Society. Article on JOHN FORTESCUE

McMillan's who first commissioned John Fortescue to write a history of the British Army in one volume. Warming to the task, he had reached only the year 1802 at the end of the fourth volume with the Peninsular and Waterloo unfought and the Crimea and the Great Mutiny of the Bengal Army still fifty years ahead. Fortescue was not a soldier, nor ever had been but spent 21 years as at Windsor Castle. His admiration for the British soldier was boundless and 30 years of his life were devoted to his History of Army extending to 1870, the final volume being completed until 1930.It was not his only work but the one for which he is best remembered. To the serious British military enthusiast "Fortescue" means only one thing. The early volumes have for years been hard to find and a whole generation has grown up with no chance of securing a set. As a result of a praiseworthy initiative by an American firm, AMS 56 East 13th Street, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A., the complete set has been reprinted-13 volumes of text and six volumes of maps at a total cost of a full set is $510 but the volumes can be separately. In the volumes all the maps are reproduced in white but purchasers of the complete set receive a reel of 35mm film with all the original colour work as well as the black lustrations. Statistically, the work contains 7,777 pages of text and index and almost two million words of narrative. The reprint lis by agreement with MacMillan's and the price, although considerable, is less than you would have to pay for an original set-even if you were able to assemble a full set by diligent searching.

Fortescue's last page in his last volume carries an oddly prescient comment for the 1930s "Empires decay and fall and the British cannot escape the common lot. Already the Dominions are vitually independent. They will forget, as the Americans have already forgotten what they owe to the British soldier; but none the less will his work for them remain. In India the rule of the British will fade in due time to a legend of stolid white men, very terrible in fight, who swept the land from end to end, enforcing for a brief space strange maxims of equity and government. The age may be hereafter mournfully recalled by the Indian peasant as that wherein his forefathers reaped what they had sown under the protection of the British soldier. When the Empire massed away, it is the British soldier's figure that will loom above all, the calm upholder of the King's peace." I should like to feel that the reprinting of Fortescue in America in Bicentinial Year was no coincidence.
J.W. F. G.

Sir John William FORTESCUE K.C.V.O, LL.D, D Litt and Lady Winifred BEECH were married on 30 April 1914 in Holy Trinity, Sloane St, Kensington, London. Lady Winifred BEECH was born on 7 February 1888. She died on 9 April 1951 in Opio, France. She was buried after 9 April 1951 in Opio, France.¹⁸³ "Maman Noel" inscribed on headstone as a tribute from the people of
Provence. See www.perfumefromprovince.co.uk for biography on Wininfred and Sir John