The
Merry
Widow
and her
Young
Hussar
At war's end the family took a holiday on the Italian Riviera at Bordighera, where the
British used to outnumber the locals.
Chum was photographed regally playing a charade with his step-daughters on either side.
Ethel may have correctly suspected Chum of trying to seduce at least one of them.
In any case she somehow disposed of Chum, although the notice of his death in 1942
indicated that Ethel was still married to him.
Three years later The Times announced that she had reverted to the name
Mrs. George McLaughlin.
Major George Hall McLaughlin, my grandfather, died of heart disease on 14 December 1914.
His widow and daughters deeply mourned the loss of this kind man who gave voice to only one regret
─
that he had to give up riding and walk with a cane after being thrown by one of his beloved steeds.
But life must go on, and an officer in a crack regiment was ready to offer consolation.
Second Lieutenant John William Tait of the 15th (King's) Hussars was so consoling a companion that he was nicknamed Chum.
He was charming and had a dapper appearance, what with his waxed moustache, his elegant tie pin, and his spats.
Within months Chum raised the widow's spirits from misery to merriment.
So
it happened that on April 1916, Mr. John Tait, aged 26, a solictor's son from Inveresk, near Edinburgh,
married 40-year-old Mrs George McLaughlin at St. Margaret's, Westminster,
the church of the House of Commons.
Among those married in this venue for political and society weddings were John Milton, Samuel Pepys, and Sir Winston Churchill.
Due to the demise of her father, the bride was given away by her dearly departed husband's cousin, "Freddie" Somerset Gough-Calthorpe,
Eighth Baron Calthorpe, a Cambridge Blue who captained England on the first ever cricket Test tour of the West Indies.
There was a war on, men in the prime of life were being killed by their thousands at the front,
Lord Kitchener wanted every able man for the slaughter,
and ladies were sending white feathers to those who did not volunteer.
But Mr. Tait, who since 1910 had been in the Special Reserve of Officers (originally with the Field Artillery), managed to
continue as a reservist until he was promoted to full Lieutenant in September 1916.
Soon afterwards he was put on the half pay list because of ill-health, on which grounds he resigned his commission
in July 1918 and was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant.
© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
Reproduction or transmission, in whole or in part, for other than personal use
is prohibited without advance permission from
Dr. G. H. McLaughlin.