John Fraser Loddington Baddeley
Lieut-Colonel John Fraser Loddington Baddeley (c1826-1862)
1863 Obituary [1]
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN FRASER LODDINGTON BADDELEY, Royal Artillery, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and of the Order of Medjidie, &C., was the sixth child of the late Major John Baddeley, Superintendent-General of the Barracks in Ireland, formerly of the 7th Hussars and 22nd Light Dragoons.
At fifteen years of age young Baddeley joined the Military Academy, Woolwich, and at seventeen he obtained his commission in the Royal Artillery.
His earliest services were in Ireland and in the West Indies, and on his return he was appointed to the Horse Artillery. On his promotion he was made Adjutant to the Tenth Battalion, but this appointment he resigned, and volunteered for the Crimea, where he was appointed Acting-Adjutant to Colonel Lake, R.A., and was attached to the Light Division under Sir George Brown.
He was present at the actions at Boulganak, the Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman, where he was dangerously wounded. He received the Crimean Medal with four clasps, the Legion of Honour, the Order of the Medjidie, and the Turkish Medal, and was appointed shortly afterwards second officer of the Royal Powder Works, Waltham Abbey, where he remained five years.
He was subsequently made Assistant-Superintendent at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield Lock, where he died, after one week's illness, aged thirty-six, leaving a widow and six children to deplore his early and untimely death.
The service thus lost an excellent officer, and the department to which he was attached, a most able and valuable assistant.
The great mechanical abilities and untiring devotion to his duties which he exhibited during the period of his service at the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey, as well as at the Royal Small Arms Factory, justly entitle his loss to be regarded in the light of a public one. The funeral of this much-lamented officer took place at Enfield on the 1st of March, 1862, and was conducted with more than the usual military honours due to his rank, being attended by a considerable body of troops, both regulars and volunteers.
A spontaneous and most gratifying exhibition of feeling was shown by the workmen of the factories at Enfield and Waltham Abbey, who in a body of upwards of twelve hundred men accompanied the remains of the deceased officer to their last resting place.
The universal feeling of regret at the loss they have sustained, as well as the deep estimation in which he was held, have been shown by the publication of most creditable compositions in verse by workmen of the factory, and also by a subscription raised amongst themselves for the purpose of erecting a marble tablet in the church of the factory to the memory of their departed and acknowledged friend.
Lieutenant-Colonel Baddeley possessed all the qualifications for eventually attaining a very distinguished position. He had clear intuitive perception, good judgment, indefatigable industry, and had studied hard to extend his scientific and mechanical knowledge. To him may be ascribed the merit of the introduction to the service of the foreign mode of purifying saltpetre; and he published a tract, 'On the Manufacture of Gunpowder, as carried on at the Government Factory, Waltham Abbey (1857.)'
On becoming attached to the Royal Small Arms Factory, at Enfield, he immediately took a marked position ; and if his life had been spared, he would have taken a very active and useful part in theWar Office Manufacturing Department.
He was a general favourite in the branch of the service to which he belonged, and his decease was deeply and deservedly regretted by a large circle of friends.