Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A 1914-15 Star awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. Locke, Inland Water Transport, Royal Engineers, late Army Service Corps, who was admitted in July 1917 to the ex-Officer’s Hospital at St Omer, suffering from an ulcer of an amputation stump, and was Mentioned in Despatches

The War having significantly changed his outlook on life, Locke was caught ‘in flagrante’ with his French maid, but was - somewhat remarkably - forgiven by his wife, and ordered to resume his ‘conjugal rights’ by the Divorce Court

1914-15 Star (Lieut. R. Locke. A.S.C.) good very fine £60-£80

M.I.D. London Gazette 17 December 1918:
‘For distinguished and gallant services and devotion to duty.’

Roderick Luck Locke was born at Hartlip, Kent, on 12 September 1875. Educated locally at Borden School, Locke travelled to South Africa where he married Eleonore Meyer Polson at Bloemfontein on 15 February 1906. Appointed to a commission with the Army Service Corps, he served as a Lieutenant in the Balkans from May 1915. According to The Globe Newspaper on 31 January 1921, Locke’s marriage began to crumble following cessation of the Great War:

‘The “Wanderlust”…

Husband who preferred to remain in Cologne.

Roderick Locke, said to have been a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps and now living in Cologne, was respondent in the Divorce Court this afternoon, when Mrs. Eleanor Myer [sic] Locke of St. Charles’ Square, Notting Hill, secured a decree for restitution of conjugal rights. Petitioner said she married respondent at Bloemfontein in February, 1906, and lived with him afterwards in South Kensington, and later in Africa and Canada. On return from Canada her husband joined the Army Service Corps.

In August, 1919, she joined him at Cologne, and there saw him familiar with his French maid. She forgave him, however, and lived with him, but afterwards returned to London. She wrote asking him to give up the idea of living as a civilian in Germany. He replied that he could not leave his business in Cologne, and that if she did not like living there they must live apart. “In any case,” the letter continued, “I prefer to be free, as my affairs tend to hold me as a man without a home. The war has increased in me the wanderlust, which has held me for the last 30 years, and I see no chance in it abating as I grow older.”

“Choose your own life.”

“The idea of a settled humdrum existence is still abhorrent to me. Choose your own life now, and my efforts will be directed towards helping you in every way, bar sharing it with you. I am very, very sorry, and I have suffered accordingly, but I cannot help it. Best of luck and happiness that you can screw out of this rotten old world – Yours, Rod.”

Having listened to the full particulars of the case, His Lordship Sir Henry Duke granted a decree, to be complied with within 14 days. This was clarified in the Daily Mail: ‘A decree for the restitution of conjugal rights to be obeyed by her husband, Roderick Locke, within 14 days.’

Locke died at his home, 154 Woodlands Road, Hillary, Durban, on 26 August 1946. Remaining married to Eleonore, she later made a claim for a widow’s pension.