William Loring papers

Testimonials, 1903-1905; correspondence, 1909-1916; photographs, legal papers, 1915, printed material; newspaper cuttings

Chonological within series

The National Archives:

WO 374/42910 War Office, service record, Captain William Loring, 2nd Scottish Horse 1915-1919

ED24/26 Dept. of Education and Science, note by William Loring

Cambridge University, King’s College Archives: OB/1/989/A letters to Oscar Browning, 1894-1910

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William Loring, MA, DCM, MiD, was born in Cobham, Surrey on 2 July 1865, the 4th son of Edmund Henry Loring (1823-1879) and his wife Charlotte Loring, nee Watson (1832-1895). He was educated at Fauconberge School, Beccles and at Eton where he was a Kings Scholar, before moving on to King?s College, Cambridge, where he held the Newcastle and Craven Scholarships and became a Fellow of the College. After this, he spent 4 years in archaeological work at the British School in Athens, before returning to Britain, where he was employed with the Board of Education in Whitehall.

During the 2nd Anglo-Boer War he served as a trooper in the Imperial Yeomanry [1900-1901] and took part in operations in the Transvaal. At the end of December 1900, by which time he had been promoted to corporal, he obtained his discharge and set off for home. Arriving in Madeira he learned that hostilities had broken out again and immediately returned to South Africa and re-joined his unit. In the Summer of 1901 he was commissioned into the Scottish Horse and became a Lieutenant and became a Captain 30 March 1903.On 30 September 1901 a Boer force under General Koos De la Rey attacked a British camp at Moedwill which held elements of the Scottish Horse. The regiment was understrength as many of the men were on detached duty elsewhere but put up a robust defence, driving off the Boers. Loring was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (London Gazette of 27 September 1901), commissioned into the Scottish Horse and twice Mentioned in Dispatches (London Gazette of 10 September and 1 December 1901) and awarded the Queen's medal with 3 clasps.Returning to civilian life, he spent 3 years (1902-1905) as Director of Education in the West Riding of Yorkshire, before being appointed first Warden of Goldsmiths College in early 1905. On 25 April 1905, he married Mary Theodosia Thackeray (1871-1948), daughter of Francis St John Thackeray (1832-1917) and Louisa Thackeray (b. 1832). The couple had one son, John Henry Loring.At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he re-joined his regiment, the Scottish Horse, which were first employed on coastal defence duties in Britain but then sent in September 1915 to the Gallipoli Peninsula, where they landed at Suvla Bay and were employed as infantry. Loring was shot in the leg by a sniper and taken on board the hospital ship HMS Devanha; his leg was amputated, but he died of gas gangrene on 24 October 1915. Two of his brothers, Charles Buxton Loring and Walter Latham Loring, were also killed in action, both in 1914.