Lieut Col Stanley de Vere Alexander JULIUS [811]

  General Notes:

de Vere joined the Royal Sussex Regiment from Sandhurst in 1896, was in command of the 2nd Battalion. The greater part of his military career was spent in India. During the Great War, he served on General Townshends' Staff; and after the fall of Kut was prisoner of war. In 1919, he was appointed to the British Military Mission to Russia, and served with General Denikins' force.
He retired in 1927, as Lieutenant Colonel. Lived rest of his life in Fleet. Hants. He was one of the few who survived the terrible March to Kut. While imprisoned by the Turks he wrote some charming poems in spite of hardship and misery.

Bengal Headquarters, Naini Tal, Dec 7th 1895.
Julius 2nd Lieut St. de V. A. 2nd Batt. Royal Sussex Regiment, has qualified for promotion to rank of Lieut.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East February 3, 1896

THE FRONTIER RISINGS.
China Bazar Valley.
Dec., 31st 1897.
Tirah - The following are the names and regimental numbers of men killed & wounded, Bazar Valley Dec 26th.
. . . . . "Second Brigade arrived Jamrud 30th. Enemy followed rearguard of this brigade in its retirement via China.
Lieut Stanley de V A Julius was slightly wounded, one man of the 2nd Batt of the Royal Sussex Regt. killed and five wounded during the day.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East January 3, 1898

SOLDIER AND POET NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENT OF COLONEL S. De V. JULIUS:
It is rare for one man to gain a reputation as a soldier and a poet, despite the examples of David and Sir Philip Sydney, yet such is the achievement of Lieutenant-Colonel S. de V. Julius, a member of the old Richmond family of that name, who has just retired from the Army, and has already embarked on a most promising career as a poet.
His first poems was published in the spring, and in his review published in the "Richmond and Twickenham Times" of 9th June Mr Aiden Clarke described him as a true poet. "His book added considerably to the pleasure of my holiday" he wrote. Since then many favourable notices of the book have been published, and in the August number of "The Poetry Review", the leading periodical of its kind published in the English language the writer says ; We find a poet serious and thoughtful, Mr Julius has a gift for writing rhythmical poetry, and expresses himself in a language that is full of beautiful images. After quoting a few verses, the writer concludes, "Often majestic, always dignified, and seriously contemplative, Mr Julius should be read for his matter and his manner."

SUFFERING AT KUT :
Colonel Julius is a son of Mr Stanley Julius of the Cottage, Sudbrook Lane, Petersham, and brother of Miss M.A. Julius. He had a distinguished military career, commanding a battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. He was the first officer to pass out of the Indian Staff College, established by the late Lord Kitchener at Quetta, and during the war served on General Nixon's staff in Mesopotamia. He was with General Townshend in the latter's ill-fated. march up the Tigris, and was the only staff officer to remain with the chief throughout the five months' siege of Kut. He was given command of the fortifications, and he and his men had to stand in trenches flooded from the Tigris, often they would wake up with frogs sitting on their faces.
But worse was to follow when, after the surrender the prisoners were forced to march for hundreds of miles over the waterless desert to their quarters in Anatolia ; a march vividly described in one of his poems. The officers were given camels to ride for part of the journey, but the rank and file had to march the whole distance. As many of the men dropped out exhausted Arab boys came along and stoned them.

A MOTHERS ACT :-
Colonel Julius life at the prisoners' camp was anything but happy, until, after a somewhat daring move by his mother, he was moved to more comfortable quarters. Before the war Mrs. Julius had met at a party in London Izzet Bey, brother-in-law of the then Khedive of Egypt, who during the war took the side of Germany, and was forced to abdicate as a result. Izzet was in charge of the Turkish department dealing with prisoners of war, and Mrs. Julius wrote him, asking, as a favour, that her son might be moved elsewhere. She never received a reply, but within a month Colonel Julius had been moved.
It was while he was a prisoner that he took to writing poetry to while away the long, dreary hours, as he explains in the preface to his book, and without the slightest intention of them ever being published. His days of captivity, by the way, are beautifully described in some of the poems.
About two years ago, when he was stationed at Singapore, a lady journalist met him, and was so impressed by his poems that she advised him to have them published. She gave him a letter of introduction to Mr J. C. Squire, editor of the "London Mercury." and when he arrived home last year he submitted his work to him. Mr. Squires helped him choose the verses to be published, and the result has been what might be described as the birth of a new poet, for, encouraged by his success, Colonel Julius intends to write more.

Military and Naval.
Captain Julius, Royal Sussex Regiment, is appointed Staff captain, Rawul Pindi Division.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East February 15, 1908

Northern Army.
Captain S. de V. Julius, Staff captain, Second Division, 8 months combined leave out of India.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East February 6, 1909

Northern Army.
Capt M.H.E. Gale, 8th Cavalry, is appointed to officiate as brigade major, Sirhind Brigade, vice Capt Julius, granted leave.
Ref Homeward Mail from India, China and the East May 8, 1909

Northern Army.
Capt. S de V. A. Julius, Brigade Major, Sirhind Brigade, will officiate as deputy assistant adjutant general, during the absence on six months leave of Major Cobham.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East October 16, 1909

Marriages.
A marriage has been arranged, and will take place at Dalhousie at the end of September, between Captain Stanley de Vere Julius, the Royal Sussex Regiment, son of the late Stanley Alexander Julius, Esq, of Hastings, Sussex, and of Mrs Stanley Julius, Richmond, Surrey, and Maude Ethel, younger daughter of Mr and Mrs H.H. Lake, of Gwalior, Central India.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East - August 12, 1912.

Julius, Capt, S. de V. A., 1st Batt., Royal Sussex Regt., is granted leave out of India, on private affairs, for 5 days, in ext.
Ref: Homeward Mail from India, China and the East October 25, 1913

The War.
Major de Vere Julius.
Many will be glad to know that Major de Vere Julius, Royal Sussex Regiment, only son of the late Dr Stanley Julius, so well known in Hastings and St Leonards, has safely reached England after his long captivity in Turkey in Asia, having been taken prisoner when on General Townsend's staff at Kut in 1916.
Ref: Hastings and St Leonards Observer 1 February 1919

Julius Lt Col S de V Ridgeway Rossmore Velmead rd Fleet 199yl
Ancestry: Essex Oxford Guildford etc Phone Book 1928

Julius Lt Col S de V Ridgeway Gough rd Fleet 454
Ancestry: Essex Oxford Guildford etc Phone Book 1929/30

The Times 18 September 1930 pg 17 col C.
Obituary.
Lieutenant Colonel Stanley deVere Julius, who died last week at Millbank Military Hospital, at the age of 54, he was educated at St Lawrence College, joined the Royal Sussex Regiment from Sandhurst in 1896, and served throughout the Tirah campaign. He passed through the Staff College Quetta, and a pamphlet of his, "Notes on Striking Natives" attracted the favourable notice of Lord Kitchener. During hostilities in Mesopotamia, he served on General Townshend's staff, and, after the fall of Kut, was a prisoner of war at Yuzgat, Affiam Kara Hissar, and Broussa. In 1919 he was appointed to the British Military Mission to Russia as G.S.O.1. and served with General Denikin's forces. He was wont to say that fate had decreed him an expert on retreats. Later, serve us with his regiment took him to Channak. There, and enthusiastic in the sport of pig sticking in India, he was the first to enjoy it on the plains of Troy, where, with the still hostile Tqrks acting as beaters, he duly stuck his pig. Command of his battalion at Singapore and Rawal Pindi was followed by a retirement in 1927.
Many years of service in India, and subsequently in the Malay States, gave Julius the opportunity, which he eagerly took, to study the eastern mind, of which, both by personal and sympathetic contact with Orientals and by wide reading in their literature and philosophies, he attained a remarkable understanding. While a prisoner of war he discovered a talent for poetry in which, supported by much past study of the great poets, he found comfort and a mental outlook. A selection of his verse from among much that, written on minute pieces of paper and secreted in the buttons of his uniform he was able to bring home with him, was published in 1929. He leaves a widow, Maud, daughter of the late Mr H. H. Lake M.Inst.C.E., chief engineer to the state ofGwajior, C.I., and one daughter.

Julius Stanley de Vere Alexander of Ridgeway Fleet Hampshire died 12 Sept 1930 at Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital Millbank Middlesex Administration (with Will) Winchester 14 Jan to Maude Ethel Julius widow and Muriel Ada Julius spinster.
Effects L1071 17s 2d
Ref: Ancestry National Probate calendar.

  Research Notes:

West Sussex Record Office:
RECORDS OF THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT
Catalogue Ref. RSR
Creator(s):
35th Regiment of Foot, 1701-1881
107th Regiment of Foot, 1862-1881
Royal Sussex Regiment, 1881-1966
The Queen's Regiment, 1966-1992

[Access Conditions]
The documents described in this catalogue may be consulted in the West Sussex Record Office during normal office hours
Records less than 30 years old may be consulted only by application to the County Archivist; certain other documents, such as personal diaries of officers serving in the Second World War, are also subject to restrictions regarding access, in view of the possibly sensitive nature of the information they contain
Documents

RECORDS OF THE 2nd BATTALION, THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT - ref. RSR/MSS/2/1-165

FILE - Programme. A Military Musical Chronicle - ref. RSR/MSS/2/117 - date: November 1932
[from Scope and Content] Performed in India. A programme of music and drama arranged in 1925 by Lieutenant-Colonel S. de V. A. Julius, Commanding, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment, to commemorate the First World War, and performed in aid of the Poppy Fund, Ex-Service Men and Indian Benevolent Fund

Photographs

PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIEUTENANT-COLONELS COMMANDING THE 1st AND 2nd BATTALIONS, THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT - ref. RSR/PH/10/1-17

2nd Battalion (107th Regiment of Foot)

FILE - Photograph of Lieutenant-Colonel S. de V. A. Julius, Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment, 1923-1927 - ref. RSR/PH/10/16 - date: 1923-1927

Printed Works

CATALOGUE OF PRINTED WORKS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT MUSEUM - ref. RSR/Library

Military Histories and Biographies

FILE - Julius, S. de V. A. Poems - ref. RSR/Library/5/27 [n.d.]
[from Scope and Content] A collection of verse, written in part during the First World War, compiled by Lieutenant-Colonel S. de V. A. Julius, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment

Indian Army Quarterly List 1912
Ancestry.co.uk
2007
Surname: Julius
Given Name: S. de V. A.
Birth Date: --
FIRST COMM: --
DATE RANK: --
RANK: Capt.
COMPANY: Staff of the Northern Army
REMARKS: Bde.-Maj. - 3rd (Lahore) Division
Page #: 16
Surname: Julius
Given Name: S. de V. A.
Birth Date: --
FIRST COMM: 17 Mar 08
DATE RANK: --
RANK: Capt.
COMPANY: Brigade Major
REMARKS: Jullundur
Page #: 10
Surname: Julius
Given Name: S. deV. A.
Birth Date: --
FIRST COMM: --
DATE RANK: --
RANK: Captain
COMPANY: Officers Now Serving Who Are Staff College Graduates
REMARKS: Bde.-Maj., Julundur
Page #: 52
Surname: Julius
Given Name: S.De.V,A,
FIRST COMM: 16 Oct. 94
DATE RANK: 15 Oct. 02
RANK: Captains
COMPANY: The Royal Sussex Regiment
REMARKS: Bde.- Maj., Jullundeur Bde.
Page #: 229-231.

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, 19 Cornwallis Gdns Hastings. Stanley is recorded as a son aged 7 a scholar born Hastings

2. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, South Eastern College St Lawrence Ramsgate Kent. Stanley is described as a boarder aged 17 a scholar born Hastings SSX

3. Stanley de Vere Alexander Julius: Images including his medal record cards.

4. Stanley de Vere Alexander Julius: Letter from Panjab, 1901.
Julius Jottings: June 1901 No. 5.
LETTER FROM THE PANJAB :
Vast in their great extent of flat monotony, vast alike in their millions of cultivators, their hewers of wood and drawers of water, and in their potential energy to sustain their embosomed multitudes, as are the plains of the Panjab, yet are they small ; in that a single village may illustrate the life of the whole, as one specimen beneath our land shows us the nature of the mass of microbes of which it is the single type.
Stand where you will amongst the crops of some well-watered district of this land of the five rivers, and, if your view is not shut in by the too great height of the sugar cane, or wheat, or cotton, that surround you, you will acre villages, wells, and trees ; trees, wells, and villages, naught or little else, and if you go ten miles further, the same, and ten miles ten, the same.
But there is much to interest in these uninteresting appearances, much of romance in this unromantic aspect much of history beneath this monotonous exterior.
They resemble the ocean in sphinx-like uncommunicativeness of the world history that enacted on their surface, leaves no trace, save, here and there, some larger monument, some time-resisting memorial too strong for the closing waters, or in their case the burying power of the soil.
All roads lead to Delhi, and the one through Punjab has been, indeed, a bloody one; a highway slaughter ; a thoroughfare of violence based on greed. The Conquerors of the World have turned their thoughts, if not their steps, towards the fabulous wealth of this city.
Through the Khyber came Alexander the Great to the conquest of India, over the mighty Attok and the five rivers to the banks of Sutlej, then back again through those desolate places of Central Asia to the sea.
I have seen brick and mortar remains of this extraordinary march at Landi Khana in Afghanistan, where the Khyber Pass debouches into the valley of the Kabul River. And after him with ruffians, brigands (or great conquerors call them), have since descended into these plains from the Central Asian plateau.
Khalifa Walid Subakhtagin Mahmud of Ghazni, a noble freebooter who invaded and plundered the Panjab twelve times, and the account of whose death was aptly described by the poet of "The Falcon of Heaven," and others too numerous to mention, right down to Akhbar.
And before them all, even before Alexander, Darab, son of Bahman, King of the Medes and Persians.
Last of all we are told that Napoleon himself dreamt of an Eastern Empire, based on the conquest of Egypt and Syria, and so on to India.
Thus, through a period of 2,000 years, was this land of the five silver streaks made the battle-ground where greedy Greek or Mohammedan or Tartar invasion was met by the ancient but effete sovereignty of Ind. Each conquering race, in turn, to assimilate the characteristics of the conquered and gradually losing the harder character of the North to be blended with the Hindustani type.
Until there came a time when the possession of the Panjab passed away to a conqueror from the East, from Bengal; a possession not sought for, even undesired ; but forced upon us in our own self defence by the very folly of the Sikh rulers of the province.
There is no precedent now for our decay, like all the other invaders from the West. No wanton destruction, no desecrations, proclaimed our advent, no wholesale butcheries marked our assumption of authority, nothing but the abiding principles of a Christian race - a trust to be held as long as our national reliance on the Divine Power shall remain.
There is no more glorious page of British history than this same conquest of the Panjab by that noble band which owned Henry Lawrence as its master and its inspiration. Edwardes, Abbott, McLeod, Nicholson, James, Montgomery, there were the conquerors of the Panjab; not in the literal sense; not of the Sikh armies which held it ; though some took a distinguished part in that sanguinary and protracted war ; but, who, after the defeat of the Khalsa army, went forth at the word of Henry Lawrence and so conquered the affections of the people, rough and savage as some of them were, that when the death-struggle of the Indian Mutiny threatened the total overthrow of the British Power in India, the Panjab became, in their own language, the anchor which enabled us to weather the storm. The province which was the last acquisition to the territories of the H.E.I.C., provided, at the call and through the peculiar influence of such men as Edwardes, Abbott, and John Nicholson, the raw levies, wild frontiersmen, trans-Indus outlaws and scamps, chieftains from the Derajat, Multanis [horse and foot], which, collected and despatched to the siege of Delhi, eventually saved us.
And what a fine race are the Panjabis, the peasant millions of the Panjab. See some countryman taking his way to a neighbouring village, or, better still, bringing his produce or his cattle to one of the great fairs, such as those held fortnightly at Tarn Taran, near Amritsar. With what an air he stalks along! How the grey Kummal or blanket thrown over his shoulders becomes him! How erect he holds himself ! How natural his walk ! He is 6 feet if an inch perhaps more, and 38 or 40 round the chest. His face is expressionless as he passes us and salaams, but further on he meets some friends, and his ready laugh and hearty repartee ring back from the distance. He will most likely be run after by one of the recruiting parties always at work on the day of the fair.
What distances these men can walk! How frugally they live! ;What acres of land they can plough with their oxen! What splendid regiments do their young men form for us out of the warrior races of the Sikh and the Panjabi Mahomedan ! Too splendid for the families they leave behind and the soil waiting for the strength of the sons to yield its fruit in season for the fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and children of the villages.
With no little stealth and difficulty have they arranged to enlist for the Sirkar's army, with that bearded stalwart havildar of Sikh Infantry, that eagle-eyed Mussalman of the Salt Range. What tears and backward entreaties have seen them depart.
But when the first furlough, generously given, and paid for by the most generous government in the world, comes round, how proudly then does the whilom recruit and hobble-de-hoy display his military manners, his acquaintance while the great world from Delhi to Peshawar, the railways, the Sahibs, all that lies far beyond the ken even of those keen eyes of the villagers gather round, and then the pay saved. Ah! that surely is the crucial point, Hear what one more turn of the wheel may bring. How often, when halting at some wayside spot, have I seem approaching some military figure, rising like the embodiment of one of Ranjit Singh's soldiers [The Lion of the Panjab] though the mists of the cold weather twilight. He comes to a dead halt at 10 yards and salutes with the stiffness of unaccustomedness and of a bye-gone time. He has heard of the arrival of a Sahib, a soldier like himself, and has come to have a buck to recall the names of Sahibs of his own regiment, and likely enough to taste some whiskey from Sahib's store.
Quel Drole! An enormous white puggri making him look 7 feet, a lean, tightly-buttoned, white or sober-coloured frock-coat, a pair o white pyjamas close-fitting from knee to ankle, a pair of good native shoes, make up his costume. But always there, on the left breast, the row of medals. These are the pride and glory of the old warrior, next to the jagir or grant of land received, with, perhaps, a title of Bahadar, from a grateful state.
The history of each is gone over; this one was Ambeyla, that Afghanistan, and then the bronze star for Roberts' march. He delights to tell all he has seen and done, he was Subadar in the . . . . .tieth Pultan, and sits on my spare chair for half-an-hour in the full gory and enjoyment of reminiscences. The interview comes to an end and he departs for home. Long may he continue to enjoy his jagir, and to be the presiding genius of that spot, to extol the influence and power for good of the British Raj.
Such is a single impression taken at random when out with gun or rifle, marching on relief, journeying hither and thither during 3^1/2 years at Amritsar.
Few who come out here from home late in life but are dissatisfied, few there are who can then enjoy or even put up with the ways of this country. But for those who come young and impressionable, able to drink in the subtle interests of the scene, able to adjust their young eyes to the true perspective of this land and its peoples, for those is woven a chain of recollections and impressions, an attachment which will last all life.
To look over those burning plains from some huge outpost of the Hills, when the fierce June sun make earth and sky meet in a glaring cloud of dust and heat, then turning, view the snow encrusted pinnacles rising tier on tier out of the depths of some dark valley, heights and depths unknown to Europe; to have seen the heat of the hot weather turn to the heat of the rains, like passing from the bars of the furnace to the sweat and steam of the engine room, where rest is not, till the eyes return to the hills and the gleaming snows so far above, so unattainable; to have seen the cold creep over the land, and the mists come up, and the duck go rushing overhead on tireless wings, with their message from the mountains and lakes of Central Asia and Thibet, that the cold weather has come at last; to live the best years of your life in the Panjab, till the breath of it is in your lungs, the expression of it is in your mind, and the very smell of it is in your nostrils; that, and all that is to "Hear the calling of the East."
De Vere Julius.

5. Stanley de V Julius: Gift book of his verse for his family, 1924.
A SAMPLE OF de VERE'S VERSE:
From copy No 3 of a private publication of his verse endorsed to his sister "Mule" 10 Sept 1924. In the possession of Edward L Fenn 2003, see under Books button on this website.

THE POEM OF A PRISIONERS WAR, 1917.
I have been one of the fortunate ones of the Earth,
Having gazed upon Beauty and Truth all my days,
And I had no need to think or to write concerning them,
But when Beauty and Truth were withdrawn from me
I found I could no longer live without them,
But I was obliged to keep them ever by my side,
I therefore wrote of them, and to write I thought of them,
And by thinking kept them with me and they stayed.

THE PRISONERS' ROAD - Foreword
Twenty-six hundred Englishmen
Who started out from Shamran bend
To march five hundred miles.
All starving, then, after the siege of KUT.
That was the end.
Two thousand fell and died, of thirst,
Starvation, disease, lingering many days.
Untended, without food or water; flogged
Along the road by Kurdish horsemen;
Feet bare, monstrously blistered, in rags.
The chill of dawn and awful scorch of day!
A score lay down at every march and died;
Side by side the living and the dead, for days,
Till all was ended.
So Melliss found them.
The survivors reached the Amanus range,
And their appearance drew from an Austrian officer,
That, " Dante's Inferno had come to Earth."

YOZGAD XXIV - War that begins in Man in nations ends
War that begins in Man in nations ends
To an appointed purpose. It is this:
That image of the evil in themselves
May grow to such proportionate extreme
As to affront with horror of their sin
The souls of unimaginative men.
Thus forced they see the purpose of a law
In which they act the whole in several parts,
Accused, accuser, witnesses and judge;
Plead the offence that they have suffered from;
Accuse themselves of what themselves have done;
Bear witness both to punishment and crime;
And from the judgment seat of their own deeds
Give sentence against witness, judge, and all.

SONNET.
0! say not love is least when most professed,
Or that 'tis deepest when it babbles least,
And quote me not, ' thou dost too much protest'
As liars swear the hardest in the East.
Though Earth stand still to-night the Sun will shine,
The Winds will blow though Ocean's waves lie still,
Deflect the Sun himself from his true line
He will return obedient to Love's will;
The pine up-torn leaves roots upon the rock,
Raze from the Earth her covering of green
Their seed remains, and will renew their stock,
So all that is, repeats that it has been;
And why should Love be silent among these
Protestant lovers that do never cease?

The complete anthology can be found under the Books button on this website.

Stanley married Maud Ethel LAKE [812] [MRIN: 262], daughter of Harry Herbert LAKE [1503] and Martha Elizabeth THOMSON [27645], on 28 Sep 1912 in Dalhousie Himachai Pradesh India. (Maud Ethel LAKE [812] was born on 7 Sep 1892, baptised on 6 Oct 1892 in Bengal India and died on 3 Apr 1978 in Cheltenham GLS.)