StMichaelandStGeorgeInsignia

Life History

29th Jan 1858	Born in 15 Chesham St., Knightsbridge, Middlesex, London
between 1871 and 1876	Educated Eton College, Eton, Buckinghamshire / Berkshire
between 1876 and 1878	Military in Sandhurst Military College
between 1878 and 1886	Military in Rifle Brigade in Afghanistan
11th Feb 1882	Married Melloney Catherine SCOBELL in London, Middlesex England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1915 Name: Mellony Catherine Scobell to Charles A'court Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1882 Registration district: St George Hanover Square Inferred County: London Volume Number: 1a Page Number: 555
between 1887 and 1889	Military in Camberley Staff College
22nd Jan 1888	Birth of daughter Charles Edward Geoffrey À COURT REPINGTON
8th Aug 1889	Death of daughter Charles Edward Geoffrey À COURT REPINGTON
23rd Feb 1891	Birth of daughter Melloney Catherine Isobel À COURT REPINGTON
1892	Birth of daughter Elizabeth Frances À COURT REPINGTON in St. George's, Hanover Square, Westminster, London
1895	Birth of daughter Violet Emily À COURT REPINGTON
1898	Death of daughter Violet Emily À COURT REPINGTON
1899	Military in Boer War
1899	Military in CMG
1899	Military in Lieutenant-Colonel
1900	Military in Posted to Egypt
1902	Met
between 1902 and 1904	Occupation Military correspondent of the Morning Post
1904	Occupation Joined The Times
1905	Military in Awarded the Légion d'honneur
between 1910 and 1919	Resident in Maryon Hall, 19 Frognal Lane, Hampstead, London, Middlesex
18th Jan 1911	Birth of daughter Lætitia Frances Mary À COURT REPINGTON in Hampstead, London, Middlesex
Nov 1914	Occupation visited the Western Front during WWI
1918	Occupation worked for the Daily Telegraph
Jan 1918	Occupation resigned from The Times and joined the Morning Post
1920	Misc in wrote 'The First World War'
1920	Resident in 6 East Chapel St., Mayfair, Westminster, Middlesex, London
1920	Resident in Lyford House, Dyke Road, Preston Village, Brighton, Sussex
1922	Misc in wrote 'After the War'
25th May 1925	Died in Pembroke Lodge, Hove, Sussex
29th May 1925	Buried in St. Barnabas' Church, Hove, Sussex

Other facts

Married Mary Isabella NORTH

Notes

• Charles à Court Repington was Lieutenant-Colonel Rifle Bde, Mil Attaché Brussels and The , Commander Order Leopold, Officer Legion Hon, Afghan War 1878 (medal with clasp), Burma 1889, Nile Expdn 1898 (despatches twice) and Boer War 1899–1900 (despatches twice) Hague 1900.
  Hampstead. He lived Amington and Maryon Hall. He was invested as a Companion, Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.) in 1900.
• Lieutenant Colonel Charles à Court Repington (1858 to 1925) had a distinguished military career, during which he ran a wing of the British Secret Service.  When his affair with a married woman was exposed by Henry Wilson, Repington reluctantly resigned his commission and became a military correspondent, principally for The Times, though he remained close to senior level military leaders and to both wartime Prime Ministers.  His role in the Maud Allan court case has long been a matter of speculation, and it is significant that in his copious and notorious diaries he, uncharacteristically, avoided mention of Maud and her sensational trial.
  Maud Allan (1873 to 1956) was born Beulah Maud Durrant in Toronto, she was brought up in San Francisco and moved to Europe in her late teens, both to further her musical education and to get away from her domineering mother. Her erotic dance performance, The Vision of Salome, was notorious, and images of her could be bought in forms ranging from cheap postcards to porcelain figurines.  Her popularity was such that her appearance at the 1908 London Olympic Games helped save it from failure but she is best known for her part in the 'trial of the century' which, in its day, ran beside the First World War on the front pages of the newspapers.
• Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he joined the Rifle Brigade in 1878.
  After active service in Afghanistan, he entered the Staff College at Camberley.
  After acting as a military attaché in Brussels and the Hague, Repington served in the Boer War.
  In 1900 Repington was posted to Egypt where he became involved with the wife of a British official.
  The military authorities warned Repington about his behaviour and he promised to stop seeing the woman.
  However, the relationship continued and when the husband named Repington in divorce proceedings, he was forced to resign from the army.
  Repington now turned to writing and became military correspondent of the Morning Post (1902-1904) and The Times (1904-1918).
  On the outbreak of the First World War Repington remained in London and relied on his contacts in the British Army and the War Office for his information.
  Through his friendship with the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, Sir John French, Repington was invited to visit the Western Front in November 1914, whereas most war correspondents were banned from France.
  On a visit to the Western Front during the offensive at Artois, Repington was shown confidential information about the British Army being short of artillery shells.
  When his article about the shell shortage appeared in The Daily Mail, its owner, Lord Northcliffe, called for Lord Kitchener, the War Minister, to be sacked.
  Repington now had growing influence over military policy and one politician described him as "the twenty-third member of the Cabinet".
  The discussion that followed Repington's article resulted in David Lloyd George being appointed Minister of Munitions.
  However, Lord Kitchener got his revenge on Repington by getting him banned from the Western Front and he was not allowed to return until March, 1916.
  In 1918 Repington and Lord Northcliffe, the owner of The Times, had a dispute over the war and this led to him rejoining the Morning Post.
  Soon afterwards, Repington was charged with contriving the Defence of the Realm regulations when he disclosed secret information in an article he wrote for the newspaper.
  Repington was found guilty and fined.
  After the war Repington worked for the Daily Telegraph.
  He also wrote several books on the war including The First World War (1920) and After the War (1922).
  In these books Repington divulged private conversations and correspondence.
  Although the books sold well, Repington was shunned by former friends who felt he had betrayed them.
• One of the earliest uses of the phrase "First World War" was coined by Charles à Court Repington in 1919 and became the title of his war diary published in 1920.
• Name: Charles A C Repington
  Death Registration Month/Year: 1925
  Age at death (estimated): 67
  Registration district: Steyning
  Inferred County: Sussex
  Volume: 2b
  Page: 333
• Influential Military Correspondent of The Times, 1903-1918, Lieutenant- Colonel Charles à Court Repington CMG was a brilliant staff officer and it was expected that he would reach the highest military rank.
  But in January 1902 Repington was obliged to retire from the Army - he was alleged to have broked the code of behaviour appropriate for an officer and a gentleman.
  To supplement his income he became a journalist and in an amazingly short time he was established as Britiain's leading military correspondent.
  His reputation was deserved. He not only made the most of his Army experience and knowledge and his unrivalled access to influential sources of information, but he also had the ability to write about complex subjects in an interesting, clear and simple manner.
  Repington was an assiduous correspondent. Historians today may debate just how influential Repington was but his contemporaries never doubted that his was an important and significant contribution to the shaping of Britain's military response to Germany in August 1914.
  Throughout the First World War, until his resignation from Printing House Square in January 1918, Repington employed his pen in a series of hard fought battles, generally on the side of the General Staff against what he saw as the follies of politicians.
  By publicizing the shortage of shells in May 1915, Repington played a not insignificant part in bringing down the last Liberal government.
  Repington has been unfairly characterised as a too-clever-by-half, intriguing, unpatriotic scoundrel.
  His letters reveal something of his true qualities and character while also serving to illuminate that fascinating boundary where publicity and politics merge or, more often, collide.