Posted on Sep 21, 2025
Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield The extraordinary action packed life of this brave man, although only 53 years long, was nearing its end. It was a life which encompassed most of the events of British naval history during the latter half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. His Will, written with beautiful calligraphy using a feather quill pen, was prepared by the long established legal firm of James Selby in West Malling, Kent. It describes how he wished his worldly goods to be distributed. Born in 1760 on the 15th November and christened on the 13th December, Charles John Moore Mansfield was the son of a dockyard officer at Stoke Damerel, Devonport. Childhood was a very brief affair in those days. At the age of eleven in 1772 he joined the Navy as Captain’s Servant to Captain Fielding aboard HMS Kent. The American Revolution Following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1776, he transferred to HMS Foudroyant, and having been rapidly promoted to Midshipman he transferred again to the frigate Diamond, and saw action in North America. At the age of eighteen, in 1778, when he was two years younger than the usual age, he was promoted to Lieutenant, joining HMS Albion. He transferred to HMS Sultan in 1779 and was in action at the Battle of Grenada, and later the Battle of Martinique. In 1780 he was made First Lieutenant of the frigate HMS Fortune, and in January 1782 he was in action against the French attack at the Battle of Frigate Bay in St Kitts. He then successfully sailed through enemy lines at night to gain information from the besieged British fort at Brimstone Hill, leading to the recapture of the fort and the island. Return to England In 1782 Mansfield returned to England. He served for a short time at the start of 1783 as First Lieutenant on the frigate HMS Monsieur before joining HMS Irresistible. Five years of peace followed and he returned to shore in 1788. Marriage, Setting Up home in West Malling and Children. Still only 28 and with all that action behind him, Charles married Anna Spong on 21st August 1788 at St Edmond’s Church Lombard Street London. The Spong family owned extensive riverside properties on the Medway including those at Mill Hall, East Malling and Aylesford. The family’s business interests included paper-making and milling. Charles and Anne set up home in West Malling. Their first child Seymour Herbert Mansfield born on 5th December 1789 in Rochester died aged twelve. Mary Mansfield was born in January 1792 and their third child James Hawkins Hughes Mansfield was born on 5th April 1794. After two years ashore war threatened again and he joined HMS Lion in 1790 as First Lieutenant, followed by service on HMS Assistance and HMS Stately. French Revolutionary Wars On the 17th July 1793 he was promoted to Commander of HMS Megaera being elevated in 1794...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
GENERAL SIR GEORGE LUCK was born in 1840 at Blackheath. During the second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 – 1880) he commanded the 15th Hussars. He was later posted to India where he became the Inspector-General of Cavalry. He then took on this post in the UK before returning to India in 1898, to become the C-in-C of the Bengal Command. He retired to Salisbury in 1903. Between 1905 and 1907 he was appointed Keeper of the Tower – a position in the British Royal Household and the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. He died in 1916. He and his wife Ellen Georgina (Adams) are entombed in the family vault in St Mary’s Church, West Malling at the top of the High Street. Ellen’s father was Major General Frederick Adam, GCB, GCMG, a hero of Waterloo whose troops made a brilliant and decisive manoeuvre at the peak of the battle. He was later ADC to the Prince Regent and Governor of Madras. Together with the Nevill family, the Lucks let property in the High Street and Swan Street, and financed four local schools. The Luck family home was in West Malling at The Hermitage, Lucks Lane, where three other members of the family are...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
There were three successive generations of the Luck Family who served in the British Army and rose to the rank of Colonel. They have memorials in St Mary’s church, West Malling, at the top of the High Street. The Luck estate (including The Hermitage – the family home) was large and included the land on which now stands this school and the Roman Catholic church to the East. The Luck coat of arms is shown in a window of a building on the old Luck estate, and in stone above a door. The three colonels are: Colonel Everard Thomas Luck JP, 1844 – 1916. Colonel Brian John Michael Luck, CMG, DSO, JP, 1874 – 1948. Colonel Richard Frederick Luck, OBE, 1907 – 1963. Within the Luck family as well was General Sir George Luck, GCB a very significant figure in the Army. He has his own entry in this website. The family has pedigree from the time of Henry 11 and the Coat of Arms was proved by the Herald in 1634 at Rotherfield Sussex where they appear to have been inter-alia ironmasters. Brian John Michael Luck was born at Dane Court, Hartlip, the 11th child of 16 children born to Frederick Luck and his wife Harriet Elizabeth (Nee Goord). Frederrick, who for some unknown reason changed his name to Locke in 1877., was the grandson of Thomas Luck who came to West Malling living at Went House in 1824 where he died in 1857. Thomas was born at Ditton in 1765 where both his father George and grandfather William were owners of Ditton Court. Thomas’s son Edward Thomas was responsible for building the present Hermitage early in the 19th century on the site of a former moated house in an area where Saxon artefacts have been found. Edward Thomas Luck is recorded as paying rates on the building in 1827 and before that he was probably living with his father, Thomas, at Went House. Edward Thomas Luck was born in Middlesex in 1798 and lived at the Hermitage until he died in 1877. The property then passed to his son Everard Thomas Luck upon whose death in 1916 the property passed jointly to his widow and Brian Michael William Luck the son of Colonel Brian John Michael Luck (first cousin once removed of Everard Thomas), but upon his sons death in India in 1924 he became joint trustee with Everard Thomas’s widow Gertrude and upon her death in 1926 became the sole owner. Brian John Michael Luck is recorded at the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich in 1891 and by 1911 was serving in the Royal Garrison Artillery at Gibraltar. When he resigned his commission in 1924 he was a Lieutenant Colonel. He married Marie Haig and as far as we can ascertain had two children, Brian Michael William and Frederick. Colonel Brian Luck was a Justice of the Peace and...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
WILLIAM LOCKER (1731-1800) Locker lived in Went House, West Malling between 1783 and 1786. By the end of the Napoleonic wars it was said that “[The British] are lords of the sea, and neither in this dominion nor in world trade have they any rivals left to fear”, and for the first and last time in history a single navy possessed half the world’s warships. Many factors contributed to this, including money, the provisioning of ships, seasoned timber and coppering. Alongside these, a hugely important factor was the professionalization of ship’s crews – William Locker’s career epitomised this professionalization. Coming from an academic and cultured family, he entered the Navy at the age of 15, serving on various ships during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48), then with the East India Company after post-war decommissioning (sailing to India and China). He rejoined the Navy just before the Seven Years’ War (1757-63), and he was on board HMS Sapphire at the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759). By 1777 he rose to command HMS Lowestoffe, sailing her to the West Indies. For a fifteen month period during this command Horatio Nelson was one of his lieutenants, and this proved to be the start of a lifelong friendship. Locker lived in Went House, West Malling between 1781 and 1786. He ended his career as Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital and suggested the creation there of a national gallery of maritime art, subsequently realised by his son, Edward Hawke Locker. Nelson corresponded with Locker until the latter’s death, describing his naval actions, and famously wrote in 1799 (the Battle of the Nile took place in 1798): ‘I have been your scholar; it is you who taught me to board a Frenchman…’. Importantly, Locker also passed on his hydrography skills. Also, at his expense, Locker arranged for Nelson to sit for a portrait by JF Rigaud. In 1770 Locker married Lucy Parry (daughter of Admiral William Parry) at St Margaret, Addington and they lived at the Parry home of St Vincent’s, Addington. They moved to the parsonage house at East malling in 1776. After Lucy’s death giving birth to their seventh child in 1780, Locker moved to West Malling and it is likely that Nelson visited him here. He moved to Kensington in 1787 and when he died in 1800 he was buried in the Parry family vault in Addington churchyard. Confirming the high regard in which Locker was held in naval circles and years after his death, William IV (‘Sailor Bill’) who had served under him, described him as ‘the best man I ever knew’ Further reading: *Nelson’s Hero. The Story of his ‘Sea-Daddy’ Captain William Locker by Victor T Sharman *The Command of the Ocean. A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815 by NAM Rodger *Nelson – Love and Fame by Edgar Vincent *The Pursuit of Victory: the life and achievement of Horatio Nelson by Roger...
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Posted on Sep 21, 2025
GUNDULF was born in Normandy, now part of France. Four years after the conquest of England in 1066, while he was a monk of Caen, Gundulf was called to England to assist Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the administration of that diocese. Gundulf was appointed Bishop of Rochester in 1077. As a skilled architect he rebuilt the almost ruined Cathedral in the Norman style and founded a community of Benedictine monks to serve there. In 1078 King William I appointed Gundulf to oversee the building of the White Tower of London. He was responsible for the building of St Leonard’s Tower, here in West Malling, and many churches in the Medway Towns. In about 1090 Gundulf founded this Abbey (St. Mary’s) for Benedictine nuns, one of the first post-conquest monasteries for women; it is the home of Benedictine nuns today. Gundulf was famous for his care of the poor and his devotion to prayer. He died on 8th March 1108 aged 85, and is still honoured as the patron of the Royal Engineers. St Leonard of Noblac was a very popular saint in England and Europe in the11th century. He died c.559 AD and was the Patron Saint of Justice and all those suffering confinement such as prisoners, the mentally ill and pregnant women. French legends state St Leonard, who lived as a hermit in the forest of Limousin in France, was going to the Yule (Ewell) celebrations, and met a beggar who asked for wine. St Leonard had wine and gave him some, but then had no gift. The beggar told him to fill his flask from the spring and the water was turned to wine. St Leonard also saved the life of the French King’s wife in childbirth and the King gave him woodland where he built an oratory and lived with two monks. Water in the French story was 1000 yards away at an Abbey dedicated to St Mary. The legend states St Leonard dug a great pit and filled it with his tears. He divided the King’s woodland and supported the needy. St Leonard’s Day was a compulsory public holiday in Worcestershire in the 13th century. Now look at West Malling. The Ewell Spring here in West Malling rises below St Leonards Tower. The Abbey here is also dedicated to St Mary and is 1000 yards away from the tower. The lake is clearly excavated. Perhaps the whole complex in West Malling was modelled on the Norman French Legend? The story match is remarkable. Further...
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