Llansadwrn Boer War Memorial

Llansadwrn is in a rural location on the Island of Anglesey in North Wales. In the grounds outside Llansadwrn Church is an enormous Celtic Cross, erected to the memory of Lieutenant Hugh Stewart McCorquodale of the Thornycroft’s Mounted Infantry Regiment, and paid for by subscriptions from the local people.

Hugh, of Gadlys on Anglesey, was killed at Spion Kop in South Africa on the 24th of January 1900, in what is known as the 2nd Boer War. He had been a school friend of Winston Churchill at Harrow, who was also at Spion Kop that day as a correspondent for the ‘Morning Post’ – in fact it was Mr Churchill who identified Hugh’s body.

Hugh had left his sizeable estate to his siblings, and in 1927 one of his nephews married Barbara Cartland – the author. The marriage broke up after about seven years, then Barbara Cartland married another of Hugh’s nephews – Hugh Stewart McCorquodale.