So a couple of months ago I was contacted by a good mate, Andy Smerdon, he was having a clear out of some of his old kit as he had down sized and as he is now living on a boat. He had come across a Royal Engineers Riding Crop that he had forgotten about and thought that I would be the ideal person to have it.
We’ll as much as I already have a RE riding crop, I’m not one to turn down such a great offer, so I said yes and Andy said he would post it onto my home address.
I was expecting the whip to be very similar to the one that I already have, a long thin whip as carried by Sappers and Drivers and often used in place of a walking out cane that Sappers of non mounted units were fond of. What actually arrived was some what different and real surprise.
What actually turned up was a horn handled hunting whip, in very good condition, with 2 silver collars on it. I use a similar type of whip when I do Living History as an RE Officer as it fits the image and is quite common in photos of the time.
I had a good look at the whip to find out what made it a RE related item?
It was one of the first prizes at the Mounted Sports event held at the Engineer Training Centre (ETC) at Newark in 1916 and it was the 1st prize for the Officers Jumping Event. The event was won by DC Lovick RE.
I decide that I would try and find out who DC Lovick RE was and perhaps to see if I could find out what happened to him. So a quick search of the National Archives allowed me to find this chap’s Medal Card. And it seems that he was a 2Lt in 1916, and was promoted Captain.
I now know his name is Donald Currie Lovick, and he deployed to France in November 1916, he is awarded the British war medal and I can make out some writing in the Victory Medal box.
I decided to just do a check to see if he survived the war, since I still had my ancestry account, as I use it to research my family tree, I went looking for any information that might suggest if he survived. The initial search throw up around 113 records for the name Lovick, but the Donald Currie really narrowed it down.
The first thing found was a birth registry for 1885/1886, born in Aylsham Norfolk – was he 40 years old when he enlisted and became and Officer, while it isn’t unheard of, it is unusual? time to dig a bit more.
I find his death is registered in January 1962, aged 86, in Maldon Essex, so it initially appears that he is still in and around the East Anglia area.
The next thing that appeared was our Donald Lovick appears on the list of members of a Freemason Lodge. This isn’t unusual for the period where freemasonry was a popular activity across Britain and the Empire. What surprised me was the Lodge that he was a member of Lodge 1331 Aldershot Camp Lodge, having been listed as joining in 1903. That is mainly a Military Lodge and also what is an East Anglian man doing in Aldershot in 1903? Has he been in the Army before? Time to continue digging.
Checking the census for 1911 starts to throw more light on things. Donald Currie Lovick has served before and is listed as a Quartermaster Sergeant Royal Engineers at the School of Military Engineering, Brompton Barracks, Chatham. On the census it lists his trade as Storekeeper.
This suggests that Donald has now been commissioned from the ranks sometime between 1911 and 1916 and I now start to wonder if he has been commissioned as a Quartermaster or as a unit officer, considering at the time both would have been given the rank of 2Lt. This now explains why we have a 40 year old man at a Training Depot in 1916. Also ETC Newark was a training Depot for Soldiers, not for officers, so that suggests that Donald was there as part of the Staff.
The next thing to go looking for just to see what Donald’s earlier service was and the 1901 census start to give more detail for me. In 1901 Donald is in Aldershot and is a Corporal in B Troop of the Bridging Battalion Royal Engineers, we have a Mounted Sapper! The census states that all those listed in the census book are part of the Royal Engineers Mounted and Imperial Yeomanry in Aldershot.
This would now explain why a 40 year old crusty 2Lt has won first prize in the Officer Sports Event at Newark in 1916, probably beating some of the younger bloods. This old boy has been knocking around military horses for a bit of time!
I can’t find any entries for Donald in the 1891 census when he would have been 15 or 16. It may be that he was already enlisted and serving as a boy soldier but I can’t see any information on that. Also I don’t have access to his Service Records.
The last bit of information that I have from 1939 about our Donald is that he was living in Maldon, Essex and was listed on councils register as “Captain RE Retired” and that he is listed as a School of Military Engineering Instructor. Does this suggest that Donald went back to the SME at Chatham after the war? This is something that I’d like to try and dig a bit deeper into and may be a project for later this year.
Either way this has been an interesting research job, to now know that I have a very nice riding whip won and carried by a Late Entry Mounted Sapper. I’d like to know a bit more about Captain Donald Currie Lovick RE, but for the moment what I have found it isn’t a bad bit of history from being gifted a riding crop that my mate was clearing out.