Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

Lt-Col. John Dymoke

Discussion in 'Roll of Honor & Memories - All Other Conflicts' started by GRW, Apr 2, 2015.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2003
    Messages:
    20,815
    Likes Received:
    3,042
    Location:
    Stirling, Scotland
    "Lieutenant-Colonel John Dymoke, who has died aged 88, was a farmer, a landowner and a soldier who was on operational service in three campaigns and the Queen’s Champion.
    In 1953, at the Queen’s Coronation, Dymoke entered Westminster Hall bearing the Union Standard. Behind him marched the Earl of Derby, Viscount de Lisle VC, the Earl of Dundee and Baron Harlech carrying respectively the Standards of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
    In his diary, Dymoke wrote afterwards: “Never again shall I see such regalia and a wondrous collection of fine jewellery. The banks must have been empty on the day. We walked slowly down the aisle, thickly blue carpeted, to the strains of Handel and handed the Standards over to the Baron of the Cinque Ports and proceeded towards the altar.”
    Sir John Dymoke established his right to be King’s Champion at the coronation of Richard II in 1377 and his son, Sir Thomas Dymoke, acted as Champion at the coronations of Henry IV and Henry V. For some 450 years the Champion, clad in glittering steel armour and plumed helmet and mounted on a richly caparisoned horse, would ride into Westminster Hall during the Coronation banquet.
    He would throw his gauntlet to the ground as a herald cried out that whoever challenged the King’s right to the crown must engage the Champion in mortal combat. If no one picked up the gauntlet, the monarch would drink wine from a gold cup in the Champion’s honour.
    The title of King’s Champion and the Manor of Scrivelsby went together. William the Conqueror offered Robert Marmion the Manor if he would rebut any challenge to his right to rule. In 1350, a granddaughter married Sir John Dymoke and brought the Scrivelsby estate with her.
    At the coronation of George III in 1761, John Dymoke rode the horse ridden by George II at the Battle of Dettingen. While he was in London, a fire destroyed Scrivelsby Court. At the coronation of George IV, the Champion rode a horse from Astley’s Circus.
    John Lindley Marmion Dymoke, the son of Lionel Marmion Dymoke, was born in Norwich on September 1 1926 and educated at Christ’s Hospital in Sussex. He was commissioned into the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment in 1946 and served in Sumatra during the Indonesian nationalist uprising and in Malaya during the “Emergency”. A first-rate soldier whose prime concern was always the welfare of his men, he commanded 3rd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in Aden during the exacting final stages of the British administration."
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11512352/Lieutenant-Colonel-John-Dymoke-Queens-Champion-obituary.html
     

Share This Page