Background
After his father died, 14-year-old Lancelot Rolleston was taken under
the wing of the Musters family until he was old enough to inherit Watnall Hall.
Lancelot’s mentors were John Chaworth Musters (1838-1887), who himself was orphaned at a young age, and his wife Lina, née Sherbrooke (1842-1912). Lancelot became close to John’s sons especially his eldest son John Patricius, known as 'Patrick,' and they’d ride, fish and hunt together around Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire and also in Norway at the family’s fishing lodge on the Laerdal river.
At the time of his father’s death in 1887 Patrick was living in Norway with Mary Anne Sharpe ('Polly'), a former housemaid to the Musters family, and their three children, all of whom were born in Norway. Patrick and Mary Anne subsequently married in 1888, and the following year returned to Annesley to take charge of the estates. They also changed the family name by using the dual surname and arms of “Chaworth-Musters” by Royal Licence.There is a family memorial in All Saints Church, Annesley
Woodhouse:
‘To the glorious memory of Patricius George
Chaworth-Musters , Philip Mundy Chaworth-Musters MC and Robert Chaworth-Musters MC, eldest, fourth
and fifth sons of John Patricius Chaworth-Musters Esq of Annesley Park, Notts,
and their cousin, Roger Michael Chaworth-Musters, Lieutenant 50th Squadron
Royal Flying Corps, second son of Lancelot George BM Chaworth-Musters Esq, of
Field Dalling, Norfolk, He fell in aerial combat in France May 7th 1917 aged
19. In the morning of their lives.’
These are their stories:
Patricius ('Pat') George Chaworth-Musters (1888-1915), MC
John ('Jack') Neville Chaworth-Musters (1890-1970)
Jack was educated at Rugby School and the Royal Naval College, Osborne. When the First World War broke out, Jack got a commission into the South Nottinghamshire Hussars. The regiment was based in Norfolk for the first few months of the war, but was sent to Egypt in March 1915. He took part in the Gallipoli campaign at Suvla Bay in late 1915 and returned to Egypt and Palestine for most of the rest of the war. He received the Distinguished Service Award in 1916. By 1918 he was with the Warwick and South Notts Hussars Machine Gun Battalion in France.Anthony ('Tony') Chaworth-Musters (1892-1987)
Philip ('Phil') Mundy Chaworth-Musters (1895-1917), MC
Phil was educated at Rugby School. He joined the British Forces soon after war was declared, and was commissioned to 28 Brigade Royal Field Artillery in October 1914. Phil was posted to France in November 1914 and served continuously in France and Belgium for the next 33 months. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1916 and promoted to Captain. He was hit by a British shell near Hooge, Flanders, on 17 July 1917 and died instantly, aged 22. He was buried at Poperinghe, Belgium.Robert ('Bob') Chaworth-Musters (1896-1918), MC
Bob was educated at Rugby School. He joined the British Forces at the age of 18 in 1914 and was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps, serving with the 12th Service Battalion. Bob saw action at the battles of Neuve Chapelle and Aubers Ridge in 1915 and was recommended for the Military Cross. The decoration was awarded to him following the battle of Loos, near Ypres, the following year. He suffered from various illnesses during his time in the trenches, including trench fever, laryngitis, diphtheria and pleurisy, and by July 1917 had been taken away from the front line to serve as an instructor in the 3rd Army Musketry Camp. His health was assessed in February 1918 at Cap St Martin, and soon afterwards he was posted to the Hythe School of Musketry in England. However, by May he was staying in a convalescent home, Langstone House in South Hayling. There, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which it was said he had had for five years. In August he was moved to Cosham Military Hospital. His health appeared to be improving, but in October he caught Spanish flu, and then pneumonia. He died on 10 October 1918, aged 22.Douglas Chaworth-Musters (1898-1957), MC
James Lawrence ('Jim') Chaworth-Musters (1901-1948)
In 1939 Jim was working as British vice-consul in Norway. As we’ve already seen, he was fluent in Norwegian, as his parents had owned a house at Aarnes in Norway and the family took regular holidays there. Jim lived at Vaulen near Surnadal in Norway in the 1920s. He was recruited to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) when the Germans invaded Norway in 1940 and, after escaping to Scotland by fishing boat, was employed by the Norwegian Government in exile to interrogate escapees from Norway.
Kompani Linge tribute Glenmore, Cairngorms, Scotland. |
He was also responsible for spotting Norwegian refugees who would be suitable for sabotage missions in Norway. He later co-founded Kompani Linge, or Norwegian Independent Company 1, that celebrated group of Norwegian commandos who amongst other exploits sabotaged the heavy-water plants that could have been used by Germany in the development of nuclear weapons. They went down in history as the "Heroes of Telemark". All of the things he did must have been helped by the fact that he spoke the Surnadal dialect ‘like a native’. He died unexpectedly in 1948 aged 46. He was apparently in good health and in the best of spirits and just about to publish his natural history manuscripts which had been delayed due to his appallingly indecipherable handwriting!
The fate of the Hall
Annesley Hall, the ancestral home of the Chaworth-Musters family, was sold in 1973 when the family moved permanently to nearby Felley Priory. An auction was held and the contents and family possessions picked over and sold. The grand staircase was removed and stored in an outhouse, the wooden panelling stripped from the walls leaving a bare shell of a building. A series of arson attacks destroyed much of the roof and years of vandalism and break-ins by ghost hunters and pagan worshippers have left the old hall in a sorry state. However, after 50 years of neglect, there are once again lights glowing through the hall's dusty windows as builders start re-roofing and repairing the infrastructure.
Notes:
1 - The diary is written in pencil, in a consistent style, and was probably written up during Chaworth-Musters' convalescence; it covers the period from his departure from Farnborough via Southampton to begin active service with the King's Royal Rifles Corps on 12 August, until he was wounded in action and brought back to a military hospital in England. Records his arrival at Givry, Belgium, on 23 August and his first experience of German aircraft fire; the battalion's retreat through various villages over the next few days; giving support to the Berkshire Regiment on 26 August near Mervilles; supporting the 4th Guards Brigade at a battle near Villers Cotierets on 1 September, during which Chaworth-Musters was wounded, and taken by waggon to a temporary hospital at Betz where he was bandaged; and his journey back to Britain by waggon, tram and train in the days after 2 September, which he was asked to make on his own as he was able to walk. https://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=ChM%2fF%2f13
2 - Jim Chaworth Musters in Norway and WW2 special ops
https://www.tk.no/speilet/overveldet-over-musters-markering/s/1-113-1238000
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lawrence_Chaworth-Musters
https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/mouse-chaworth-musters-gentleman.html
Obituary https://www.jstor.org/stable/1375206?read-now=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Ray Mears "Real Heroes of Telemark" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUfiMoY30ac&list=PL9pMBAGDqeF1NvdiD4FsTaayfPs7UvJ6I&ab_channel=Leonardo
SOE/Kompani Linge training school Aviemore https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170111-the-surprising-place-where-wwii-agents-learnt-to-fight-nazis
Books - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Alliances-Operations-Intelligence-Perspective/dp/1785904779
Love, Duty and Sacrifice: One hundred years of a Victorian Nottinghamshire family Paperback – 1 May 2023 - A true love story that defied convention and class. At the height of the Victorian era, John Patricius (Patrick) Chaworth-Musters is born, heir to a wealthy landowning and mining dynasty. Worlds away, Mary Anne Sharpe is born into a family of Bedfordshire straw plaiters. Mary Anne joins the Chaworth-Musters as a junior maid in 1881. Less than two years later, Patrick (aged 23), gets 20-year-old Mary Anne pregnant. His parents fail to part them but send them to live in Norway, unwed, but away from ‘polite society’. Four years and four children later, Patrick unexpectedly inherits the family’s estate and returns to England. Contrary to convention, he marries Mary Anne, legitimising their children. She reluctantly takes on the daunting role as ‘lady of the manor’, having to manage the servants she had so recently reported to. This is a Victorian story of love, duty, and sacrifice, which within 100 years, leaves the dynasty shattered and the family’s wealth drained.
by Nicola Webb (Author)https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Duty-Sacrifice-Victorian-Nottinghamshire/dp/1914002342/ref=sr_1_1?crid=294672F5D7IU3&keywords=Love%2C+Duty+%26+Sacrifice&qid=1687343935&sprefix=love+duty+%26+sacrifice%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1
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