Horace Sewell

Brigadier-General Horace Somerville Sewell CMG DSO & Bar (1881–1953) was an officer in the British Army during World War I, notable for his mixed-race ancestry.

Biography

Horace Sewell was born in Wales on 10 February 1881; he was the third son of Henry Sewell, who was in turn the eldest son of the prominent Jamaica planter William Sewell and the mulatto former slave Mary McCrea. Henry Sewell returned to England, where he married and eventually settled at Steephill Castle near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, but he inherited his father's Jamaica plantation "empire" in 1872, and subsequently divided his time between England and Jamaica, eventually relocating permanently back to the island.[1]

Horace Sewell was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards in 1900.[2] His regimental nickname was "Sambo", apparently a reference to his Jamaican roots.[3]

Sewell was seconded to the West African Frontier Force for three years from 1907, with a promotion to Captain following soon after the start of the assignment. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, his regiment was serving in the British Expeditionary Force; he was quickly promoted to major, and took command the regiment as a temporary lieutenant-colonel in March 1915. In April 1918, he was promoted to command the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the British Army, which he led until the end of the Great War. General Sewell was a highly decorated soldier, earning the DSO in 1915, the French Légion d'honneur in 1916, a bar to his DSO for service at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, and the CMG in 1919, as well as being twice wounded and five times mentioned in dispatches. He also found time in 1916 to marry the daughter of the New York gypsum magnate Jerome Berre King.[4]

After the war he commanded the 7th Queen's Own Hussars until 1923, subsequently the Midland Cavalry Brigade of the Territorial Army until 1928.[5] During World War II, Brigadier-General Sewell was attached to the British Information Service in New York .[6] He matriculated his coat of arms in 1940 and settled at the medieval Tysoe Manor in Warwickshire,[7] but latterly spent much of his time on Jamaica, where he served as a Justice of the Peace.[8]

Brigadier-General Sewell apparently passed for white, and evidence of his mixed-race heritage surprised modern researchers, but his nickname suggests that his ancestry was known to his comrades and subordinates, and he was recognized as "black" by Americans who he came in contact with during his World War II posting.[9]

References
  1. Jean Besson, Martha Brae's Two Histories: European Expansion and Caribbean Culture-Building in Jamaica (2002), p. 66. Mountague Charles Owen, The Sewels of the Isle of Wight (1906), p. 80. Dan. L. Ogilvie, History of the Parish of Trelawny (1954), Chapter 13 (online edition Archived 26 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine). William Sewell is described as a self-made man who was originally a plantation accountant for Mary McCrea's owner: see also the Jamaican newspaper articles here (login required).
  2. Alumni Cantabrigenses ed. John Venn and Archibald Venn (10 vols., 1922-53) part 2 vol. 5., p. 486. Burke's Landed Gentry (1937 ed.), vol. 3, p. 2031.
  3. Centre for First World War Studies: No91: Horace Sewell ('Sambo') (Archived 14 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine)
  4. Alumni Cantabrigenses ed. John Venn and Archibald Venn (10 vols., 1922-53) part 2 vol. 5., p. 486. Burke's Landed Gentry (1937 ed.), vol. 3, p. 2031. London Gazette for 2 July 1907 , 22 June 1915 , 29 July 1915, , 7 January 1916 , 18 January 1918 . George Paget, 7th Marquess of Anglesey, A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919, vol. 8 (1997), p. 120.
  5. Alumni Cantabrigenses ed. John Venn and Archibald Venn (10 vols., 1922-53) part 2 vol. 5., p. 486. Burke's Landed Gentry (1937 ed.), vol. 3, p. 2031.
  6. Who Was Who 1951-60
  7. Report prepared by Richmond Herald for Stephen L. Sewell, 31 Aug 2000, summarized by the recipient here
  8. The Laws of Jamaica (1951), p. 20.
  9. Centre for First World War Studies: No91: Horace Sewell ('Sambo') (Archived 14 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine)
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