Captain George Cleghorn

Born on 16 October 1831 at Weens House near Hawick in Roxburghshire, he entered the Army by purchase at the age of 23 as a Cornet in the 17th Lancers on 4 May 1855. According to a note on his service record, he had ‘served in the East India Company service upwards of four years before his appointment to the 17th Lancers.’

In 1857 he rose to the rank of Lieutenant and on 17 November 1857 he transferred to the 2nd Dragoons, commonly called the Scots Greys. He retired with the rank of Captain on 20 March 1866.

On 10 June 1862 he married Mary Anne Hay Lumsden, daughter of Colonel Thomas Lumsden, CB, of Belhelvie Lodge, Aberdeenshire. The marriage produced at least seven children.

On 8 September 1885 George Cleghorn changed his name by Royal License and was henceforth known as George Tancred. He served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of his county.

In 1907 he published a book entitled Rulewater and Its People: An Account of the Valley of the Rule and Its Inhabitants. His family home, Weens House, is located on the banks of the River Rule. Today it is an old people’s home.

George Tancred died at Weens House on 20 October 1914. He was buried in Jedburgh Episcopal Churchyard.

Photographed by John Henderson of Perth in Scotland. Dated April 1865 verso in a period hand.