Common Ancestor Tales

Edmund Reginald Templer was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka on the 7th July 1848.

His father Henry Templer was working as a magistrate there. Henry was born and bred in Devon, England as the illegitimate son of George Templer a large landowner. He had come to Sri Lanka aged 16 to work in the Ceylon Civil Service.

His mother was Cornelia Bagenall who was half Irish and half Spanish (Basque heritage). She came to Sri Lanka with her parents aged 8 her father was in the Ceylon Rifles (although he lost an arm aged 18).
Cornelia was orphaned aged 13. She was probably brought up by older siblings until she married Henry aged 19.

Edmund had 3 siblings. Gertrude Templer, George William Templer and Emily Charlotte Templer. He was the third child.

Sadly his father died when he was just 2 years old and his mother took her young family to live near Dunquerque, France where she had lived as a child herself. Later the family moved to England.

Edmund returned to Sri Lanka as a young adult. His brother George William Templer, 3 years his senior, was working there as a Civil Servant and was working as a district Judge in Mullativoe.

He is registered in the Ceylon Directory in 1968 year as a creeper in Dickbedde, Badulla. He may have been working for his second cousins as I know Francis Buller Templer did have some coffee estates and Robert is also shown as a Planter.

In 1869 he had a child with Maria de Witte who was the adopted daughter of Proctor George Orloff of Badulla. The below record was gathered by another Edmund Reginald (son of John Robert Templer).
Another researcher Kyle Joustra of the Celylon database tells me that Maria’s mother was Singhalese a Miss Jayasinghe.

Alice stated that he was persuaded to marry Mercia Maria Emelia de Witte in about 1870 at home the Batticaloa area. Edmund was aged about 20 at the time. The couple were married by Father Cingolani.

He joined the Ceylon Civil Service on October 8th 1870. And by 1877 he was working in the Public Works department alongside another of my relatives Arthur Fisher.

Mary Ellen Templer (later to be the second wife of James Bernard Colomb) was born in 1972.

Edmund and Maria de Witte then had twins born in 1874 (although the DBU records state he was born in 1875 Kyle Joustra assures me that the church records record in as 1874). One died in child birth and the other was John Robert Templer.

The twins were born at Labukelle, near the Ramboda Pass. John Robert Templer was baptisted at the old industrial school in Kandy. Robert Schrader was a god parent. He was later baptised a catholic at st Sebastians church, Hultsdorf on the 9th January 1903.

A fifth child Evelyn Susan Templer was born in 1880.

I suspect that Maria de Witt died at some point after Evelyn was born. Possibly even in child birth. Given the age of his second wife who was born in 1868 it seems unlikely that she was the mother of his first five children.

In 1883 Edmund was the Assistant Superintendent of the Colombo convict Establishments.

We do know that in 1884 Edmund left the Civil Service and seems to have spent some time in Europe. He must have married his second wife at around this point.

There is a family tale that Edmund was hit on the head with a machete. Perhaps this was at the time he worked in the prisons? That is not clear.

Edmund remarried to another Maria which has caused some confusion in a number of trees online. She was Maria Theresia Van Kalmthout as a number of documents from Belgium and their son’s birth certificate mention their names.

Maria Theresia van Kalmthout was born on the 15 October 1858 in Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands. She was the daughter of Gerardus Cornelis van Kalmthout and Marie Josephine Alberts.

Although I have not managed to find a date for their marriage. However Edmund and Maria Theresia’s son Edmund Edmund Reginald was born in Blean, Whitstable, England in 1888.

All the children appear to be with Edmund in Europe as the whole family then travelled out to Sri Lanka in 1892. This document is interesting as it is the only record I have that confirms that Mary Ellen Templer was part of this family. It record three children older than 12 – two girls and a boy. And two children younger than 12. This fits with the dates I have for Alice Emilia, Mary Ellen, John Robert, Evelyn Susan and Edmund Reginald II.

However it seems that at least Edmund, Maria Theresia and the youngest child Edmund then went to live in Belgium. At the time of these documents in 1898 they were in Antwerp.

In 1906 Edmund was representing Indian Tea in Europe for the tea committee. He supported J.E. M Harrington to advertise Indian Tea in Europe including at the Antwerp Exhibition.

Edmund and Maria Theresia settled in Ostend.

Their youngest son became the British Consul to Belgium. Edmund II (b: 8 MAR 1888, Whitstable, Kent, England d: 5 Oct 1947,  Bournemouth, Hampshire, England) married Suzanne Verraert (b: 24 April 1899, Ostende, West Vloandern, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium d: 30 January 1983 Norwich, Norfolk, England) who was from Ostend.

Edmund died in Ostend on the 22nd July 1938. Maria Theresia moved to England and died 29 Mar 1946  in Isleworth, Middlesex.

Edmund II moved back to England and has descendents living there. Some of whom helped me with my research for this post.

Edmund’s older four living children settled in Sri Lanka and married other members of the Dutch Burgher community there. Most of his descendents no longer live there. Many are in Australia, others are in the USA and the UK.

I have been in touch with some of the extended family of John Robert Templer. He had a five children with Cecilia Herft (known as “Lila”). The eldest was known as “Ruby”. Ruby did some of the research above in relation to Edmund I’s first wife. Ruby and Edna moved to the USA.

The second was a daughter Constance Templer who married Quincy Chapman of the Ceylon Forestry department. The third was a son Noel Templer and he married Gwendoline Woolf (known as “Premmie”). Lastly there were two daughters Olivia Gwendoline (known as “Dolly”) and Faith Hyacinth (known as “Bubbie”). These two married two brothers George and James Plunkett (known as Bunchie).

I also know a bit more about Jack and Ruby because Ruby was very interested in genealogy and shared a folder of notes with Cecil Templer a very distant relative. These notes have been passed on Andrew Templer of the Templer family website. And hence were passed on to me.

When I reflect on Edmund I’s life and compare him to others I have found in my tree I am rather proud of him. He is not the first I have found who had relations with someone out of his “acceptable” social circle which resulted in a child. Most of them did educate these children in special boarding schools set up for just this purpose across India and Sri Lanka. The children known as “Eurasians” then often worked in service – many from my family went to New Zealand as “staff”. In other words they were not treated as “family members”.

However Edmund did seem to do right by Maria de Witt and his children. They had a long marriage with many more children. It possibly was not easy for them. I have only found one other example of a similar marriage at that period – it was a Singhalese/American marriage and man in question was a vicar in Kandy.

Of course Edmund was a quarter Spanish and quarter Irish himself, and he spent his childhood in France. This background may have helped him ditch convention somewhat – he was not particularly “English” in the first place and possibly never felt very comfortable in England. He also chose to marry a non english wife and live in Belgium in later life which seems to back this up.

Edmund was in his late 30’s when he chose to retire to Europe (possibly triggered by the death of Maria de Witt). Records show he did take all his children with him to England at the time. It is very likely that they may have faced some stigma in parochial Kent in the 1880’s. Apparently in later life in Belgium he was a quiet fairly staid person – I wonder if he missed his life in Sri Lanka and his children and grandchildren there. I would guess he did.

I often wonder why all my family members did choose to retire to back to Europe – were they worried about healthcare in Sri Lanka? Or did they just yearn to be with their wider families once they retired. Maybe the climate started to suit them less as they aged. Certainly it was more risky for them to live there – so many of them died young of tropical illnesses. Perhaps it was just seen as a dangerous place to be old for a European. I am sure that they yearned to be back in Sri Lanka once they had left – as any of us who spent part of our life in a different culture often do.

I also wonder what contact my great grandfather George Dawson Templer who lived most of his life in Sri Lanka had with his cousins John Robert, Alice Emilia, Evelyn Susan and Mary Ellen?

I don’t think my grandfather Simon ever talked of his Sri Lankan second cousins. He left Sri Lanka when his father died at the age of 10 and never went back. But Ruby clearly did remember them and mentioned these second cousins who were “taken away by Kind Edward on the suicide of G.D” in his correspondance with Cecil Templer (via Gerald Templer):

As an aside it is interesting that Cecil mentions Jack Templer (my grandfathers older brother) as I have a massive family tree drawn out by hand by this Jack in his retirement on a very very long peice of wallpaper which links us to Gerald Templer. I now realise he must have got his information from Cecil. It was very kind of Cecil to buy Jack out of his position as Private. He was a very distant relative! So I imagine Jack felt some gratitude to him and perhaps hence the family tree.

There is also a family story in the Gerald Templer family about a “Sri Lankan” Templer approaching Gerald Templer when he visited Sri Lanka and saying that they were related. It seems from this letter that this was perhaps actually by correspondance and the letter referred to here is what happened rather than a physical meeting. Hard to tell when stories have been handed down by word of mouth!

It has been a great pleasure learning about my extended family with deep roots in Sri Lanka and I would welcome any further contact with any of the descendents of Edmund or his father Henry.

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