Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Lord Ian Basil Gawaine Temple (Basil)
Lieutenant
2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Killed in action on Wednesday 4 July 1917 (aged 46)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium (Panel 9 and 11)
Bangor and District War Memorial
Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum
Clandeboye Chapel
Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s)
Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church
Royal Belfast Golf Club, Holywood
Royal Ulster Yacht Club, Bangor
BIOGRAPHY
Lord Basil Blackwood was born at Clandeboye on 4 November 1870 and he was the third son of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, First Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, Clandeboye Estate, Clandeboye. The First Marquess and his wife, Hariot Georgina Rowan-Hamilton, were married in 1862 and they had seven children:
Helen Hermione (born 1863)
Archibald James Leofric (born 1863; Earl of Ava; died 6 January 1900)
Terence John Temple (born 16 March 1866; 2nd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava; died 7 February 1918)
Hermione Catherine Helen (born 24 August 1869 in Killyleagh Castle)
Ian Basil Gawaine Temple (born 4 November 1870 at Clandeboye)
Victoria Alexandrina (born 1873)
Frederick Temple (born 26 February 1875 in Ottawa, Ontario; 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava; died 21 July 1930)
During the South African War Lord Basil’s eldest brother Archibald Earl of Ava was killed in action on 6 January 1900 at Ladysmith and he is commemorated in Clandeboye Chapel and in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s). The First Marquess died on 12 February 1902 and so Lord Basil became the heir presumptive to the title when it was assumed by his elder brother Terence.
Lord Basil was educated at Harrow and Balliol College Oxford and he was called to the English Bar in 1896. After being appointed Deputy Judge-Advocate in South Africa in 1900 he held a succession of offices in South Africa and Barbados. A versatile artist and writer, he illustrated a number of publications under the initials BTB. On the outbreak of war he went to France as a Staff-Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps and was wounded in the shoulder in November 1914. Lord Basil’s younger brother, Lord Frederick Blackwood, who had been awarded the DSO during the South African War was also wounded in action in November 1914.
In 1915 Lord Basil became private secretary to Lord Wimborne when the latter was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (Viceroy) and he held that position until Lord Wimborne resigned soon after the Easter Rising in 1916. Subsequently Lord Basil was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and in 1916 one of Lord Basil’s sisters, Lady Hermione Blackwood, went to serve as a nurse in the Ulster Hospital at Lyons.
In July 1917 Lord Basil was officially reported as missing in action since 3/4 July 1917. That night he had been out with a reconnaissance party in front of the British lines and the party failed to return. There remained some hope that Lord Basil had been captured rather than killed by the Germans but this was not the case and in September 1917 it was officially reported that Lord Basil must be presumed to have been killed in action.
Lord Basil was 46 when he died and he has no known grave.
Lord Basil is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium; on Bangor and District War Memorial; on the Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque; in the Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum (Page 25) and on the Memorial Plaques in Clandeboye Chapel, Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s) and Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church.
In November 1917, a memorial service was held in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. The front page of the Order of Service bore these lines:
‘The brightest gems of valour in the Army’s diadem
Are the V.C and the D.S.O., M.C. and D.C.M.
But those who live to wear them will tell you they are dross
Beside the Final Honour of a simple Wooden Cross.’
Lord Terence the Second Marquis of Dufferin and Ava died of double pneumonia on 7 February 1918 and so it was his youngest brother Lord Frederick Blackwood DSO who succeeded to the title as the Third Marquess. He was killed in a flying accident on 21 July 1930.
Basil Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, the Fourth Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, was killed in action in Burma on 25 March 1945 during the Second World War. Born on 6 April 1909, Basil was the eldest child and only son of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Third Marquess of Dufferin and Ava.