Lt. Colonel Barton Scobell’s presentation silver to the Royal Artillery, 1886

Lt. Colonel Barton Scobell’s presentation silver to the Royal Artillery, 1886. This substantial and impressive gift is in the form of a footed cup with square-shouldered handles. The cup has a key pattern border and is incised ‘Presented to the Officers of 3rd Bde. Cinque Ports Divn. R.A. by Barton Scobell Major & Lt. Colonel after 28 years in service with the Regiment, May 1886’ on one side and ‘3RD Bde. Cinque Ports Divn. Royal Artillery’ around a crowned armorial on the other. The cup is set on a black plinth applied with silver regimental crests and field cannon. It has a gilded interior. There is an inscription around the foot and a matching label inside the stand saying ‘J.D. Harris, Goldsmith, Jewellers & Silversmith, 5, Queen Square, Bath’, assayed for London, 1884. 

Provenance: Private collection by descent.

Barton Laud John Scobell (1836-1913) was descended from a long line of Sussex gentry, who were also doctors, clergymen and soldiers, many of them later serving with honour in the First World War. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford and the Inner Temple. The Scobells were major landowners, having estates not only in Sussex and Somerset but also in Devon and Dorset. On the death of his uncle, Captain G. T. Scobell (see previous pages), in 1869, Barton inherited Kingwell Hall in Somerset and it became his primary residence, but he maintained a property near the coast in Bournemouth called Littleton Lodge. His major interest was cricket with his private pitch at Kingswell often hosting visiting teams of professional and amateur status alike. 

According to his obituary, Scobell was a ‘magistrate for over forty years, chairman of the Temple Cloud Bench and a member of the Keynsham Bench.’ His sense of civic duty and belief in the rule of law made him a perfect Militia man and he appears to have served with distinction in his regiment and been popular with his men. An article in the Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser, 26th November 1874, reported on Scobell’s marriage and the eminent guests who attended. Interestingly Scobell received an ‘epergne with silver pedestal and base’, presented to him by ‘his brother officers and men of the regiment’ and it is likely that the present piece was presented to the Regiment, at least in part, in gratitude for this previous token of esteem.