THE name Whitmore resonates around Orsett and much of Thurrock – and next month Thurrock Council, the Great War committee and Orsett Hall will be celebrating his life and achievements, unveiling the latest Thurrock Heritage Plaque.
The plaque will be unveiled at Orsett Hall a hundred years to the day after Colonel FHDC Whitmore received the full command of the Essex Yeomanry.
The Colonel was lord of the manor, land estate owner and a Justice of the Peace; he was based at Orsett Hall where he developed the farming estate; was president of the Orsett Show committee; and gave land and grants to help the wider Thurrock community including Hangman’s Wood and North Stifford Community Hall.
In Orsett itself, he rescued the old cell and pound and had it relocated – and in a one-man campaign planted acorns on pieces of waste land and wide hedges with a view for a time beyond his own.
In his military duties during the Great War Col Whitmore was shot twice and survived to return to duty. Following receiving the full command of the Essex Yeomanry he fought in the front-line trenches alongside many men who had been recruited from his own estate workers.
After the war he set up the Orsett Basket Works partly employing local servicemen disabled with war injuries and in later life he became Lord Lieutenant of Essex. He died in 1962 and was buried with military honours at Orsett Church.
The celebrations start at 10.30am on Thursday, 10 September, at Orsett Hall in the presence of Lord Petre, Lord Lieutenant of Essex, and Cllr. Sue Gray, Mayor of Thurrock.
The Thurrock Heritage Plaque commemorates Colonel FHDC Whitmore, 1st baronet, KCB, CMG, DSO, TD, JP.
