Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: BAGNALL, Charles Edward (Capt.)

image of individual

Nee: son of C. Bagnall of Sneaton Castle, Whitby

Birth Date: 30.9.1861 Shenstone, Staffordshire

Death Date: 1.4.1923 Hammersmith, London

Nationality: British

First Date: 1896

Last Date: 1902

Profession: Collector

Area: Baringo

Married: 1. In Wharfedale 19 Mar 1889 Caroline Edith Darwin b. 1861 Funchal, Madeira, d. 20 July 1891 Jamaica; 2. In Westminster 23.4.1903 Sylvia Joan Robinson b.3 May 1883 Cranford, d. 1973 Hove (she later m. Archibald Donald Mackinnon 1864-1937)

Children: Charles Frederick Rex (11 Feb 1904 Eastbourne-1993)

Book Reference: Moyse, White Man, North, UJ, Web DNW, Hobley, Tucker

War Service: Yorkshire Regt., Essex Regt.

School: Uppingham

General Information:

Moyse - The affair at Ribo Post 1900-01 - message to Capt. C.E. Bagnall at Eldama Ravine - "Dear Bagnall, I am having a bad time, fever bad, and having to fight all the time. The natives are one too many for us, bad rifles and too few men. Hope to hold out. Yours urgently, H. Hyde Baker." scribbled on a piece of paper. Ribo was 140 miles north of Eldama Ravine. .... Hyde Baker had been appointed to command Ribo post. ..... May 1900 Capt. C.E. Bagnall, the Acting Collector, Baringo District marched from Eldama to punish Cheptulel people. ....... In Jan 1901 a military expedition left Ravine under the command of Capt. E.H. Gorges for Ribo ..... soon after the post at Ribo was abandoned!
North - Appt. 2nd Class Asst. UP 7-7-1896; dep. Mombasa for Uganda 26-10-1896; arr. Port Alice (to be posted to Nandi) 12-12-1896; At Ravine escorting CMS missionaries to Uganda 26-1-1897; Commander of Nandi garrison at start of Sudanese mutiny Sept. 1897, arr. Luba's with reinforcements 7/12/97; 4 months home leave Oct. 1898 - Mar. 1899; Acting Collector Baringo Apr. 1900; resigned having been passed over twice for promotion 7-3-1902. 'His lack of education and the narrow scope of his ideas entirely unfit him for any position higher than the one he now holds' (Ternan FO 2). ' … little or no idea of responsibility' (F.J. Jackson, FO 2)
Uganda Journal Vol. 16 No. 1 - An Early Cash Book From Nandi Station - There is a break in the cash book from 1 August 1897. For this the mutinous Sudanese troops were doubtless responsible. In the last days of September 1897 they made the civil commandant, Captain Bagnall, a prisoner and looted the fort, before passing on westwards towards Kavirondo and Busoga. The next entry in the cash book is dated 11 February 1898 with a record of the value of goods found buried in Nandi Station.
North - Appt. Asst. to the Head of the Agricultural Dept. & Protector of Immigrants ZP by A.S. Rogers 'out of friendship not on ability' (Cave, FO2) June 1902; Transferred to the British army reserves with honorary rank of Major Sept 1902;
1904 EA Handbook, Masai-Land District resident, Waweru, Kikuyu; 'Post due to be abolished ……… not to return after next leave (Cave, FO2) Dec 1905
Uganda Journal Vol 1 No 2 - Cook - The Journey to Uganda in 1896 - ……. At the Eldama Ravine we found Dr Macpherson, Vialle and Captain Bagnall. The latter provided us with an escort through the treacherous Kamasia country.
Moyse - 1900 - Acting Collector, Baringo District.
White Man - relieved Hyde-Baker at Baringo in 1899?
DNW - Charles Edward Bagnall was born in September 1861, the son of C. Bagnall of Sneaton Castle, Whitby. Educated at Uppingham, where he was a member of the rugby football XV, he was commissioned into the 4th (Militia) Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment in 1891.
In July 1896, Bagnall found employment as a Collector, 2nd Class in the Uganda Protectorate, and, in the following year, having retained his Militia appointment, participated in the expedition into Teita district and, later, in the action against the Sudanese mutineers at Lubwa's, services that resulted in a "mention". He was similarly employed in the Uganda operations of 1900, when the Nandi fought courageously and very nearly overran the British camp under Colonel T. J. Evatt, DSO - the Army's and auxiliaries' casualties amounted to 103 killed, 4 died of wounds and 111 wounded, many of the latter by poisoned arrows: in spite of the fact treatment tended to comprise an injection of strychnine into the wound, all such cases are believed to have survived.
Bagnall was advanced to Major - Militia rank - on the Reserve of Officers in February 1902, and added the Order of El Aliyeh to his honours in 1906, in recognition of services rendered to the Sultan of Zanzibar (London Gazette 13 July 1906); during the Great War, among other appointments, he commanded the 2nd Garrison Battalion, Essex Regiment.
Hobley - 1898 - Captain Bagnall was DC at Nandi
Tucker - At Nandi the rebels seized the large store of ammunition and subjected the officer in charge (Capt. Bagnall) to a series of indignities..…..
 Hobley - (Sudanese Mutiny) Bagnall had been warned by runner of the events at the Ravine, and a few days later the mutineers marched into the stockade, welcomed by his garrison. He was placed under arrest and sat all day on his verandah, with an armed Sudanese standing on his right and left, watching the mutineers loot the Government store of ammunition, rifles and trade goods, while every now and then small boys would collect and jeer at him, signifying by their actions that he would have his throat cut - a galling ordeal for any officer! Nightfall, however, came, and at dawn the next day the column, augmented by the Nandi garrison, struck camp for Mumias.  
Matson - was probably a militia officer without campaign experience; appointed 7/7/1896 as 2nd Class assistant; arrived Kampala Dec. 1896.
 Matson - 1897 - 2nd Class at Kipture
Permanent Way Capt Begnall (sic) at Nandi 1897

Back to search results