From the time of its foundation in 1211, Clayton Hall estate remained in the possession of the same family until it was auctioned off in 1925.   Throughout its history, the estate formed an important part of the heritage of Accrington and Clayton Le Moors.

The last generation to live at the hall included Major Richard Trappes-Lomax, who later went on to live at All Springs House in Great Harwood.  Richard, and his contribution to the life of the town, is still remembered by some of our older people. He was a pillar of the community during his lifetime and was a prominent

Catholic figure who regularly attended mass and the sacraments at the church of Our Lady and Saint Hubert.  He was a member of the Catholic Records Society and was well known for his for his short biographies of catholic families.  He was also a keen student of local history, was a member of the Chetham Society and was always ready to discuss genealogical matters relating to local families.

Richard participated as fully in the life of the town as time would allow and was a County Magistrate, Chairman of the Great Harwood Conservative Association, President of the Agricultural Society and a member of the Pendle Hunt.

In an obituary to him written by a close friend it was said that,

“Some will remember him as an English country gentleman tending his estates in close and friendly acquaintance with his tenants and delighting in their shrewd and direct talk, yet equally at ease amongst the learned.  His patriotism (it was typical of him that on the day before he died he wore a red rose to honour the King’s birthday) was based upon a love of the pursuits and interests of the English countryside and took him, as a volunteer, to South Africa with the Royal Lancashire Militia, and would have taken him, had his health permitted to the Great War with the Lancashire Hussars.  All of is friends will think with gratitude of his cheery companionship, of the  deep roll of his voice and the Lancashire stories which he loved to tell in all of their native vigour”.

Richard died less than a fortnight after his younger brother Robert.  He had been in good health for most of his life but had suffered an attack of appendicitis which necessitated an operation. Although the effects of the operation had at first seemed to be a cause for concern, he manifested all the signs of improvement which led his doctors to believe that he was on the way to a full recovery.  The news of his brother’s sudden death was hard for Richard to bear and on Wednesday, June the 24th, 1936 he had an unexpected relapse which led to his death.

It is fitting that Richard, or “Dick” as he was known to his closest friends, should be remembered as a soldier and a defender of his country and that he should still be referred to in the cultural memory of the community as “Major Richard”.

Richard was a captain with the 3rd Militia and proudly wore the uniform of the King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment. He was embodied for service in South Africa on the 23rd January 1900 and spent the majority of his time during the Boer War guarding lines of communication and prisoners of war.

The Regiment sailed from  Southampton  in  February  1900 and within one month of Richard arriving in South Africa  saw service in Cape  Colony, later going on to serve in the Orange Free State.

During the Boer War many troops were tied down guarding lines of communication in the “blockhouse” line and in guarding important bridges and junctions.  This means that while he may have seen many minor skirmishes, there is no evidence to suggest that he participated in any of the major battles of the war.  On his arrival back in Lancashire he was welcomed by a large crowd of well-wishers from the townships of Great Harwood and Clayton Le Moors.

When the Great War broke out in 1914, Richard volunteered for service immediately and joined the Lancashire Hussars with the rank of Major.  By this time however, he was too old to take part in any active service and served in an administrative capacity.

Although Richard’s military career can not really be described as distinguished, those of his sons figure prominently in the military history of their respective regiments.

Richard’s marriage to Alice Mary Fitzherbert, sister to the 12th and 13th Lords Stafford, resulted in the establishment of the Trappes-Lomax lineage as their eight sons were the first generation to bear the name from birth. The eldest of Richard’s sons, Thomas Byrnand, who was named after his grandfather, T.B. Trappes, spent the

majority of his life as a soldier and his military career was both distinguished and valiant.

Thomas was born on the 7th of September 1895. He was an accomplished sportsman and while at school was the captain of both the Cricket and Football teams.  He was good at most games and in 1930 won the Household Brigade golf championship.

Throughout his school days, he manifested an interest in military life and when the Great War broke out he enlisted in his father’s old regiment, the “King’s Own”, on the 14th of August 1914 and was commissioned to the rank of Lieutenant.

He embarked for France on the 13th January 1915.

The Great War was of course a traumatic event in the lives of all who endured the hardships and rigours of active service.  The horrors of the battlefields have been described by many social historians, poets and novelists.  Suffice it to say that the dead often lay rotting and unburied, the sea of mud which was once the green countryside of France and Belgium was a living nightmare and that sudden death was only a moment away.  As the poet Isaac Rosenberg, who also served in the “King’s Own” so eloquently put it,

“Death could pass among us, choosing who to take, and who to leave for another day.”

Like Rosenberg, Thomas also came close to death on many occasions and on the night of the 4th of April 1915, Easter Sunday, at 6.30 a German rifle grenade was fired into the trench which Thomas shared with his command. The effects of grenades and shells could be truly devastating and they were feared by all who encountered them for if one landed in a trench there was little chance of escaping the lethal fragments which exploded from them.

Nine men were struck by the flying fragments of the grenade and three men were killed instantly and six wounded.  Thomas was struck in the head and arm but, fortunately, escaped a mortal wound.  After being hospitalised at Bolougne, he convalesced to make a full and rapid recovery.

Despite having narrowly escaped death at the young age of nineteen, Thomas was determined to see active service again and was commissioned in the Scots Guards, a Regiment which he loved and served loyally throughout his military career.

After recovering from his wounds he returned to France on the 23rd of July 1917 and was promoted to the rank of acting Captain.  Returning to the terrors and dangers of the Western Front he was again wounded on the 23rd of August 1918, only a matter of three months before the armistice.

After the war, on the 23rd of March 1920, he was promoted to the full rank of Captain and eventual to the full rank of Major on the 21st of October 1931.  After holding the temporary rank of Lieutenant on any occasions he was eventually made up to full Lieutenant Colonel on 21st of September 1942.

During the 1939-45 war Thomas again exhibited his customary bravery under fire and upheld the valiant honour of the regiment he loved.  In 1940, he led a distinguished fighting retreat along the coast of Norway with B Company, of the second battalion of the Scots Guards and kept the advancing Germans at bay while under heavy fire and greatly outnumbered.

He was promoted to the rank of Colonel on the 31st of December 1944 and to the rank of Brigadier on the 4th of June 1944.

During his distinguished military career, Thomas was Chief Instructor RMC at Sandhurst, B.G.S of the Southern Army in India and Brigadier-in-charge of Administration (London District).

Even after his retirement from the army on the 9th of December 1948 he maintained a keen interest in military life and was a keen member of the Norfolk Civil Defence.

He died on the 1st of February 1962 leaving a widow, his devoted wife Dorothy Evelyn who Thomas referred to as “Dodo”, but no children.

Basil, the second son of Major Richard Trappes-Lomax, also had a distinguished military career which spanned both of the global conflicts.

Born on the 14th of August 1896 at Stone, Staffordshire, Basil Charles Trappes-Lomax originally intended to pursue a career in then navy but was considered to have a sight deficiency which prevented him from doing so.  It is therefore ironic that he was eventually appointed chief instructor of gunnery at the School of Artillery, Woolwich.

After attending Wimbledon College where he was a member of the “Army Class” Basil passed into the Royal Military Academy and subsequently was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery on the 12th of February 1915 and was posted to the reserve Brigade on the 26th of March.

In May 1915 Basil embarked for Egypt; his destination was the Gallipoli peninsula.

The very name of Gallipoli still evokes images of horror and death within the cultural memory of those Lancashire regiments which fought so heroically, and so futilely, alongside the Anzacs and Colonial troops.  The beach landing under heavy artillery and rifle fire by the Lancashire Fusiliers on W Beach will live forever in the minds of all who knew what happened at Gallipoli.  Suffice it to say that when the “Manchesters” relieved the New Zealand troops, who were being replaced because of their incredible losses, many of them wept to see the condition of their Anzac comrades.

In the horror of the Gallipoli campaign the nineteen year old Basil Trappes-Lomax saw his first active service.

Like his brother Thomas, Basil was determined to do his duty for his King   and country and while on Gallipoli he saw action with “Y” battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and the 92nd battery of the Royal Field Artillery.

Although he was eventually invalided back to England on the 24th of September 1915 because of a serious attack of dysentery he served with great gallantry and in recognition of his heroism he was mentioned in despatches and awarded a Military Cross on the 2nd of February 1916.  Basil almost died from the dysentery which caused his return to England and was always fond of recounting how the doctor on board the ship which transported him home gave him a large glass of whiskey and told him that it would either kill or cure him.

The efficacy of the whiskey proved adequate, for Basil went on to see action in some of the bloodiest and horrific battles of the Great War.  He was present at the battles of the Somme, Beaumont Hamel – where he was wounded -, the Hindenburg line, the Ypres Salient, Amiens and the San Quentin canal.

In June of 1929, Basil married his beloved wife Diana.

During the Second World War, Basil again saw active service and was appointed to serve with the Canadian Artillery at Okehampton and was appointed to serve as C.C.R.A. with the Persia and Iraq force where he won the award of the order of Polonia Restituta, class three, for his work with the free Polish troops.

Like his brother Thomas, Basil also saw service in India and was stationed at Bangalore and Jubulpoor.

In 1946, he was appointed the Colonel in charge of Administration at Larkhill School of Artillery and volunteered fro retirement in February of 1948.  It was typical of Basil’s quiet unassuming character that despite his many military achievements, his gallantry in action and his award of the Polonia Restituta that he considered his greatest battle to have been won on the playing fields of Stoneyhurst College.

In 1922, the present pupil’s rugby tram had been soundly defeated by the “present” team by 41 to 3 --- a disaster in the eyes of the old boys. When Basil captained the team the following year the “past” held the “present” to a creditable draw.

Despite his poor eyesight, Basil was renowned for his marksmanship and enjoyed shooting throughout his life. After his retirement he lived at Wortham, close to Great Hockham and spent his final years engrossed in his hobbies. He collected bookplates and was a keen genealogist.

After a long period of poor health, Basil received the last rights of the Catholic Church and died at his home, in the company of his wife and beloved children.

The military tradition of the Trappes-Lomax family continued throughout the sums of Major Richard and, apart form Joscelyn who was a schoolteacher and Ralph who was a journalist, all of  Trappes-Lomax boys saw active service.

The profession of school teaching was of course considered a restricted occupation and Joscelyn was never allowed to enlist. He fulfilled a excellent career and was an educationalist and is still fondly thought of by all who remember him.

Ralph also had an active life and at one time was attached to the BBC.

Richards’s third eldest son, Michael, was also a Major in the Scots Guards.   Throughout his life, Michael was a poet, soldier, novelist, historian and herald.

Like his brothers’ Michael saw action in the Second World War: he served in Egypt and was at one time Aide De Camp to General Sir James Marshal Cornwall.

Michael always pursued active interest in heraldic matters and was eventually appointed Somerset Herald to the College of Arms.  In his official capacity as herald, he took part in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd.

Perhaps Michael’s greatest talent lay inn his literary endeavours and during his lifetime  he published works of both a factual and fictional nurture.

Michael died unmarried on the 24th of November 1972 after a long and active life.  It was said of him that he undertook everything he did with enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Stephen Trappes-Lomax was born in March 1913  and was commissioned into the London Rifle Brigade, Lord Lucan was of course Honorary Colonel.

AT the outbreak of war, Stephen was a Lieutenant in D Company and was rapidly promoted to second-in-command.  In 1940 after John Baker White, the C.O. , moved to the war office Stephen took over command. He held the [post with great distinction and honour fro three years.

Like his elder brothers, Stephen was a gallant soldier and superb commander. Thos of his men who are still alive today remember him as being a quiet man who took  personal interest I all of his  troops, and in their families, and that he could recall te4h Christian names of every member of the company, even down to the humblest private.

During the battle of EL Alamein in 1942,, Stephen was given the immediate award of the Military Cross.

On the night of the 2nd / 3rd November the admirable attack of D Company tested eht enemy’s strength to the limit. Although the attack was abortive, the enemy was clearly shaken by the tenacity of D Company and Stephen and his men were given permission to withdraw after a job well done.  It is significant that following the withdrawal of D Company the enemy also withdrew. The action was of course instrumental in the famous victory  at EL Alamein.

Stephen left the battalion in 1943 to take up a staff post in Cairo and was demobilised in 1945.

Upon his retirement from army life Stephen lived with his brother Thomas for a number of years at Great Hockham where they farmed together.

After the death of his younger brother, Joscelyn, Stephen also became a teacher and headmaster, retiring to Norfolk with his family where he continued to lead an active life.

After a period of illness which began in 1980, Stephen eventually died in 1982.

Throughout his life, Stephen was a naturally shy man, who despite heroism and achievements was always reluctant to be photographed.  It is a fitting tribute to him that that he is remembered by all who knew him for his good humour, charm and Christian faith.

The remaining two sons of Major Richard Trappes-Lomax also saw military service.

After a period of civil service, specialising in forestry in Africa, Anthony Francis married inn 1960, at he age of forty-five.  He died without leaving children.

Nicholas Hugh was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers, eventually serving in Hong Kong with the Pay Corps.
 
The eight sons of Major Richard all had interesting and fulfilled lives and were proud of their Lancashire heritage.

Kind thanks to Patrick Collister for the submission of this article.