Yet again the odd way life works out amazes me. Coming back from holiday I had two emails about Inskips waiting for me. One was from a lady in Canada who was enquiring about some information I’d sent her. The other was from ebay alerting me to the sale of a sword belonging to Sydney Hope Inskip and given to him in 1917 by his father.
A little bit of digging proved this to be Sydney Hope Inskip who had died aged 22 at the Raid on Zeebrugge on the 23rd April 1918. He was a Lieutenant in the marines and had been given the sword by this father, Herbert Inskip, harbour master at Ramsgate, the year before. Sadly Herbert had died later in 1917 as well.
How nice, I thought if the sword and its sad story could be returned to the family. Herbert and his wife Gertrude, an Australian, had only had Sydney (who was born in Sydney, Australia) and he had not married – so there were no direct descendents. But I soon found that my Canadian lady correspondent was actually a first cousin once removed !!
I have no idea if she does want the sword, but I do hope it finds a home with its poignant provenance attached.
NB – The family are descendents of Harry Inskip born around 1809 in Old Warden, Bedfordshire and his wife Jane Albin from Spalding. Harry was a seed oil merchant and one time Mayor of Hertford.
hi, have just come across your references to hope inskip. i have lots of information about him please let me know if you would like to communicate………..regards…….david
David
We are always keen to know more about the Inskips. Do please comment here so that the information can be shared with all who are interested.
More Information on Sydney Hope Inskip from David.
Hope died on the raid whilst serving on HMS Iris, a requisitioned Mersey ferry boat, chosen for her shallow draught. I am a military historian and medal collector and have done a lot of research on my Hopey. There are several books that mention him, the most recent being ” The Zeebrugge Raid 1918 – The Finest Feat of Arms by Paul Kendall; it has a resume of his military career and a few photos of him. There are several really good ones kept at the Royal Marines museum including a cracking one with the King. He wrote a lovely letter from the trenches at Gallipoli. When he died his servant found him on his knees, he had gone to the wardroom to get some cigarrettes for his men. In one of the books I have it states from one of his sergeants how caring he was and was quite obviously a brilliant good officer and they loved him. which really endears my to him. I would suggest the book I mentioned and it is current at Waterstones. I have had a lot of communication with the author with reference Hope ( thats the name he was called by and not Sydney ). He is buried at Ilford london with his father.