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General Templeman was born in Uplyme in November 1832 to George and Mary Templeman and christened in St. Marylebone, London in June 1853 (1).  At the time of the 1841 census he was at school at Providence Cottage in Charmouth, Dorset, and in 1851 was living with his widowed mother and two sisters in Portsea, Portsmouth.  In March 1852 he purchased a commission in the 21st Regiment of Foot and entered as a Second Lieutenant; he then purchased a further commission as First Lieutenant in March 1853 (2).  

Templeman served with his Regiment throughout the Crimea War 1854-5 and was present at the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman (where he was wounded).  He was involved in the siege and fall of Sebastopol and the attack on the Great Redan on the 15th June 1855 (3).  Another Budleigh resident and near contemporary of Templeman’s, General Goodwyn, was also at these actions (4).  

Templeman then went with the British and French naval expedition to attack and destroy the forts on the Kinburn Peninsula in the Ukraine.  He received the Crimea Medal with four clasps, Knight of the French Legion of Honour, and the Turkish Medal for his uninterrupted service throughout the Crimea War and the arduous trench work during the Siege (5).  He had been promoted to Captain in February 1855 (2).  

On returning to Britain he was appointed Instructor of Musketry at the Regimental Depot Battalion in November 1857.  In 1868 he became a Major by purchase, and was made a brevet Lieutenant Colonel in March 1877, receiving the substantive rank in January 1878 (2).  In 1881 he was promoted Colonel in, what had by then been renamed, the Royal 1st Scots Fusiliers.  He retired from the command of the Regiment in 1882 on completion of the regulation five years and was appointed to command the 91st Regimental District at Stirling Castle, and was still there in 1885 (3).  He received the honorary rank of Major General in November 1887. 

His first place of retirement appears to have been Northam in North Devon (1901 census) where he was living alone, but by 1911 he had moved to Budleigh Salterton.  The reason for his move to the town is unclear but it is possibly of interest, or perhaps just coincidence, that John Marsh Templeman, a solicitor, had lived in Salterton and, although John died in 1896, his wife Mary continued to live at 3 The Lawn until her death in 1919 (6,7).  

In 1911 Alfred was living in a lodging house in Station Road owned by Emily Norrish and this was just round the corner from The Lawn.  He died at the age of 82 in the autumn of 1914 (8) and was buried in East Budleigh Churchyard.  He had never married. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010 

(1)FamilySearch.org

(2)London Gazette and Hart’s Army Lists

(3)Historical Record and Regimental Memoir of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. J.J.Clark. 

(4)See Goodwyn, General Julius OVApedia entry

(5)Crimea Medal Roll Royal Scots Fusiliers

(6)Kelly’s Directories

(7)FreeBMD.org

(8)FreeBMD.com

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