| The History of Coagh booklet lists Major William A Lenox-Conyngham as having served with the 10th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment in the war.
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| William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham was the eldest son of Sir William F Lenox-Conyngham and Lady Laura Calvert Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham.
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| Family
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| William A Lenox-Conyngham was born on 8th September 1857. He was the eldest of 13 children and heir.
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Sir William Lenox-Conyngham
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Lady Laura Calvert Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham
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William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham (born on 8th September 1857, died 20th April 1938)
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Rev George Hugh Lenox-Conyngham (born 1st April 1859, died 15th March 1938)
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Elizabeth Mary Lenox-Conyngham (became Clark), MBE (born 30th June 1860, died 15th April 1954)
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John Staples Molesworth Lenox-Conyngham (born 23rd November 1861)
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Charlotte Melosina Lenox-Conyngham (born 17th March 1863, died 26th February 1955, age 92)
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Arthur Beresford Lenox-Conyngham (born 31 August 1864, died 2nd October 1905)
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Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox-Conyngham (born 21 August 1866, died 27th October 1956)
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Ernest Lenox-Conyngham (TWIN - born 17th December 1867)
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Edward Fraser Lenox-Conyngham (TWIN - born 17th December 1867, died 24th December 1952)
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Hubert Maxwell Lenox-Conyngham DSO (TWIN - born 18th October 1869, died 15th March 1918)
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Alwyn Lenox-Conyngham (TWIN - born 18th October 1869, died 1869)
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Laura Eleanor Lenox-Conyngham (became Duff), (born 24th February 1871, died 22nd January 1956)
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Harriet Alice Katherine Lenox-Conyngham (born 5 January 1873. died 1956, survived the Titanic)
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| Pre-War
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| The family lived at Springhill House, Moneymore
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| William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham entered Carrington House, Fettes College, Edinburgh in 1872, just two years after it opened.
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| He joined the army in 1878.
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| Sir William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham was highly involved in military matters and was knighted (KCB) by Queen Victoria in 1880.
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| William A Lenox-Conyngham and Mina Ethel Lowry were married on 9th August 1899. Mina Lowry was the younger daughter and co-heir of Colonel James Corry Jones Lowry, D.L. of Rockdale, Dungannon. They went on to have three children.
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| Family: William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham, Mina Ethel Lenox-Conyngham, Wilhelmina Diana Lenox-Conyngham (born 10th May 1902, died 1984), William Lowry Lenox-Conyngham (born 20th November 1903. Died 1957), James Desmond Lenox-Conyngham (born 20th May 1905, died 1971).
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| William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham saw service with the Bikaneer Field force in India,
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| He served afterwards in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900-1901. For which he held the Queen’s Medal with three clasps.
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| His father, Sir William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham, died in 1906.
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| William A Lenox-Conyngham returned to Britain about 1909.
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| The 1911 census lists William A as age 53, living with his family at house 21 in Ballindrum, Springhill. He is described as being a retired major and a JP for Londonderry and Tyrone.
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| When the Ulster Volunteers where formed, he took and an active part in organising the Force in South Derry, and was elected Officer Commanding the South Derry Regiment. In so doing he was following the traditions of his family, which, since the Plantation, has always rallied the loyalists of the district. Quite recently a commission was discovered at Springhill, signed by William III, appointing William Conyngham to the command of a company of dragoons in 1688. Another ancestor, Sir Albert, raised a troop and was killed at Collooney, Sligo in 1691. In 1782, George Conyngham raised a regiment of Volunteers, the colours of which are treasured at Springhill.
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| He was Deputy Lieutenant and a former High Sheriff of the County of Londonderry.
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| 1914
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| Although retired, Major Lenox-Conyngham volunteered his services on the outbreak of the war and was appointed to the 10th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. He went to camp at Salisbury Plain.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 10th October 1914:
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| Major Lenox-Conyngham, D.L., Springhill, Moneymore, who has been appointed to the 10th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment of the new army, has gone to the camp at Salisbury plain. He joined the army in 1878, and saw service with the Bikaneer Field force in India, and afterwards in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900-1901, returning to this country about seven years ago. When the Ulster Volunteers where formed he took and an active part in organising the Force in South Derry, and was elected Officer Commanding the South Derry Regiment. In so doing he was following the traditions of his family, which, since the Plantation, has always rallied the loyalists of the district. Quite recently a commission was discovered at Springhill, signed by William III, appointing William Conyngham to the command of a company of dragoons in 1688. Another ancestor, Sir Albert, raised a troop and was killed at Collooney, Sligo in 1691. In 1782, George Conyngham raised a regiment of Volunteers, the colours of which are treasured at Springhill.
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| 1915
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| A report from July 1915 records Major Lenox-Conyngham had gone to the front with the Worcesters.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 31st July 1915:
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| Major Lenox-Conyngham, though not on the reserve, when the war broke out, volunteered again for active service, and has been at Salisbury Plain with his regiment for some months. He has now, however, gone to the front with the Worcesters.
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| 1916
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| A report from June 1916 records that he was with the 13th (Reserve) Battalion and had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 3rd June 1916: Major William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham
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| Major William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham, 13th (Reserve) Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, whose promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel was announced in Tuesday’s London Gazette, is the eldest son of the late Colonel Sir William Lenox-Conyngham, K.C.B., of Spring Hill, Moneymore, County Londonderry, and a brother of Colonel G P Lenox-Conyngham, Royal Engineers; of Lieutenant J S M Lenox-Conyngham, commanding the 6th (Service) Battalion Connaught Rangers; and of Major H M Lenox-Conyngham, F.R.C.V.S., Assistant Director of Veterinary Services, who was mentioned in despatches last year by Field Marshall Viscount French. Lieutenant W A Lenox-Conyngham served in the South African war, for which he holds the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. He is Deputy Lieutenant and former High Sheriff of the County of Londonderry. He married in 1899, Mina Ethel, younger daughter of the late Colonel James Corry Jones Lowry, of Rockdale, Tullyhogue, Vice-Lieutenant of the County of Tyrone. One of his nephews, Lieutenant Commander James Lenox-Conyngham Clark, R.N., was recently awarded the D.S.O. for his services with a destroyer flotilla at the Dardanelles. Lieutenant colonel Lenox-Conyngham was in the firing line in France with the 10th Worcesters.
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| By September 1916 Lieutenant Colonel Lenox-Conyngham was temporarily commanding a Carnarvon and Anglesey Territorial Battalion of the Welsh Fusiliers.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 16th September 1916: Lieutenant Colonel John Staples Molesworth Lenox-Conyngham
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| Lieutenant Colonel John Staples Molesworth Lenox-Conyngham, Connaught Rangers who was killed in action on 3rd September, was a member of the well-known County Derry family which has settled at Springhill, Moneymore, since the beginning of the 17th century, and who has in every generation since, one or more of their number in military life. William Conyngham of Springhill, who was born about 1650, commanded a company of dragoons in the war between King William III and King James II, and he was granted in 1688 a commission by the first named monarch. Another distinguished member of the family was Colonel Albert Conyngham, ‘an illustrious knight of the Royal Army grieved for the cause of liberty’, who raised at his own expense, the Inniskilling Dragoons, and fought at the Boyne. He fell for his country in 1691. Colonel George Conyngham, who succeeded to Springhill in 1721, commanded a corps. His son, William Conyngham, born in 1723, fought with distinction in the wars against Germany in the middle of the eighteenth century, and commanded the fourth regiment of horse. His journal, written during that campaign, is preserved at Springhill. George Lenox Conyngham of Springhill, born in 1752 (with Mr Connolly of Cliff), raised the County Derry Regiment of Volunteers in 1782.
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| The deceased was the third son of Sir William F Lenox Conyngham, K.C.B., who held a commission in the Connaught Rangers, and on retiring from the army was given the command of the Londonderry Militia, which he held for 36 years. He had also been High Sherriff of the County of Londonderry. The late Lieutenant Colonel Lenox-Conyngham, who was in his 55th year, entered the army in January 1881, and obtained his step six months later, and was promoted to the rank of captain in December 1889. He attained field rank in July 1900, and was appointed second in command of his battalion – the second Connaught Rangers - in February 1906. He retired on half-pay in January 1912, but promptly volunteered for service on the opening of the present war, being gazetted commanding officer of the 6th Service Battalion of his old regiment, and was exceeding popular amongst the troops under him. On two occasions, at Fermoy in the early part of 1915 and at Blacktown later in the same year, He personally received and welcomed Mr Joseph Devlin, M.P., who visited the men of the Brigade. He was one of four brothers serving, the others being:-
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Lieutenant Colonel W A Lenox-Conyngham of Springhill, Moneymore, who, at the beginning of the present war, was at the front with the Worcester Regiment, and is now temporarily commanding a Carnarvon and Anglesey Territorial Battalion, Welsh Fusiliers, and who also served in the South African War
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Colonel G P Lenox Conyngham, Royal Engineers
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Lieutenant Colonel H M Lenox Conyngham, F.R.C.V.S., Army Veterinary Corps, who was mentioned in despatches last year by Field Marshall Viscount French.
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| One of the deceased nephews, Lieutenant Commander J Lenox Conyngham Clark, R.N., was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in recognition of his services with a destroyer flotilla during the memorable operations of the Dardanelles.
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| Lieutenant Colonel J S M Lenox Conyngham married in 1891 Violet, second daughter of the late Mr Henry Beveridge Donaldson, of Melbourne. The Lenox Conyngham family is descended from William Cunningham, a Scottish Protestant, who settled in the townland of Ballindrum, in which Springhill is situated, in 1609, and from James Lenox, M.P. for Derry, who won distinction at the siege of that city.
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| The Belfast Newsletter reported in November 1916 that Lieutenant Colonel W A Lenox-Conyngham had been appointed to a command in the Territorial Force Reserve.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 7th November 1916: Lieutenant Colonel W A Lenox-Conyngham
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| Lieutenant Colonel W A Lenox-Conyngham, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, of Spring Hill, Moneymore, is appointed to a command in the Territorial Force Reserve.
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| 1918
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| In March 1918 Major W A Lenox-Conyngham became a major, for duty at a record office and retained his seniority. He was with the Royal Defence Corps.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 18th March 1918: Territorial Force
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| General List – Major W A Lenox-Conyngham, from R.D.C., to be major, for duty at a record office, and retains his seniority, 6th February 1918.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 23rd March 1918: Lieutenant Colonel Lenox-Conyngham (brother of William A Lenox-Conyngham)
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| Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Maxwell Lenox-Conyngham, D.S.O., of the Army Veterinary Corps, youngest son of the late Sir William Lenox-Conyngham, K.C.B., Springhill, Moneymore, died at Chester on Friday. The deceased was the second of the family who had passed away during the present war, his third brother, Lieutenant Colonel J S M Lenox-Conyngham, having died at the head of the Connaught Rangers at the taking of Guillemont in September 1916. Entering the Army Veterinary Corps in 1897, the deceased served in the in the East Africa campaign 1902-1903, including the Somaliland operations, being mentioned in despatches and awarded the medal with clasp. In the present war he had a splendid record, having gained a brevit lieutenant Colonelcy in June 1917, and the Distinguished Service Order. Two of his brothers are serving at the present time, Major W A Lenox-Conyngham (late Worcestershire Regiment), who is in the Royal Defence Corps; and Colonel G P Lenox-Conyngham, who is in the Royal Engineers. One of the deceased’s sisters is married to Colonel J Jackson Clark, D.L., Largantogher, Maghera. His wife, who survives him, is a daughter of Mr Edwin Sanders Darley, Fern Hill, Dublin.
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| Post-War
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| William Arbuthnot Lenox-Conyngham O.B.E, D.L., J.P. died on 20th April 1938. He was 80 years old.
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| Mina Ethel Lenox-Conyngham died in 1961.
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