William Bain Richardson Sandys

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: ‘William Bain Richardson Sandys, Photographed Aug. 29th /68, aged 3 months 9 days.'

Born in 1868, William Bain Richardson Sandys was the son of Edwin William Sandys and his wife Frances.

The family appear on the 1871 census living at Fulford House at Gate Fulford in Yorkshire. Edwin Sanyds gave ‘Capt. R.A. Active List / Landowner’ as his profession. William was the second of four children (a fifth child was born the following year).

On 18 June 1901 at Kirkee in India William married Joan Prowdfoot.

In 1937 he was appointed one of the Deputy-Lieutenants for the West Riding of Yorkshire. ‘Prominently identified with the Royal Artillery, Brig.-Gen. Sandys has seen active service on the Indian Frontier and in the European war. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1887. He held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery early in the war and was gazetted Brevet-Colonel in 1917. From 1915-1919 he was Temporary Brigadier-General, and for two years from 1920 he commanded the Royal Artillery 5th Division in Ireland, retiring with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General in 1922. An officer of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, he was been the County Controller for the West Riding V.A.D.s [Voluntary Aid Detachment] since 1927, and has been a member of the V.A.D. Council since 1929’ (Halifax Evening Courier, 23 March 1937).

When the 1939 Register was compiled he and his wife Joan were living at Fulford House in Fulford on the outskirts of York. His date of birth was recorded as 20 June 1868, which doesn’t quite jibe with the information on the back of the carte.

William Bain Richardson Sandys CB, CMG, DL, JP, of Fulford House, Fulford, Yorkshire, died on 18 December 1946, leaving an estate valued at £20,351.

‘The death occurred yesterday at Fulford House, York, of Brigadier William Bain Richardson Sandys, aged 78, a well-known member of an East Riding family. Brigadier Sandys had been associated for many years with the West Riding Territorial Association as County Director of the V.A.D. for the West Riding’ (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 19 December 1946).

His mother was born Frances Anne Sandys Bain in London on 21 July 1844. On 25 June 1865 at St Ninian’s in Sterling she married Edwin William Sandys. She died at Montrose in Scotland on 2 June 1874.

Photographed by Frederick Fisher of Grantham in Lincolnshire.