Mike’s grandfather on his Mum’s side was called Robert Tinley Wimmer.  His brother was called Frederick Tinley Wimmer.  It was clear that the name Tinley was a family name, but where did it come from?

After a bit of online searching, I found the answer.  Tinley was the surname of Robert’s grandmother – Letitia Newport Tinley.  It turned out that the Tinleys were a military family with a rather distinguished military history.  Letitia’s father was a Gervase Tinley. He was born around 1780 and served under the Duke Wellington and Sir John Moore in the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal.  He had married a Mary Anne Newport but the early years of his marriage seem to have been interrupted by his military career.

Mary Anne was born in Hertfordshire but appears to have moved down to Devon at some point where she met Gervase whilst he was stationed in Plymouth. They married in September 1803before being deployed to Ireland. They married in 1803 in St Sidwells Church, Exeter shortly before Gervase was deployed to Ireland.

They had a son, Benjamin, who was born in 1806 and who died when he was only a few months old.  Two more sons – Robert Newport Tinley, and William Newport Tinley – were born shortly some years later: Robert in 1814 towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars in Gibraltar and William in 1819 in Ireland.  It would appear that the Tinleys stayed some time in Ireland as their two daughters, Henrietta and Letitia, were born there in around 1828 and 1835 respectively.  All of the sons went into the army, serving in the Crimea.  

William died in Ireland without ever having married, and left part of his estate to his sister, Letitia.  Robert went on to join the Cape Mounted Riflemen in the Cape Colony but retired to Jersey where he died in 1877 having reached the rank of Major General and was a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).

Both William and Robert received medals for their services: including the Legion D’Honneur for Robert and a silver medal from the Royal Humane Society for William. In William’s case, the silver RHS medal was awarded for rescuing a drowning fellow soldier on the 9 August 1853 in Cork Harbour, Ireland. The picture of Robert (below) shows him in later years with his medals on display.  

Robert’s son, Gervase Francis Newport continued the military tradition serving in India and Burma and was also a CB.  He died in Hampshire in 1918.

From left to right: Robert in the Crimea, Robert in the uniform of the Cape Mounted Riflemen; and Gervase in later years.

Gervaise Sr. died in 1838 in London, leaving his wife with their two young daughters to look after. As for the sisters, Henrietta ended up in the Cape Colony and Letitia died impoverished in a London hospital. The sister’s tale is told in another post.