‘He was something special,’ said Peter Burkhardt, St Saviour’s resident and the colonel’s grandson. ‘He was a soldier from 1902 to 1946 and he was an expert in Mandarin Chinese, butterflies and stamps. He was also a superb painter.’
Valentine Burkhardt was born in Eccles, Lancashire on 21 December 1884.
‘His father, Louis Burkhardt, was one of the last Burkhardts in Geneva – we’re Swiss – and he married a lady from Charleston, South Carolina. He was a silk merchant working between the Far East and the UK.
‘Grandpa went to school in Clifton, Bristol and then went to Woolwich – which was the Sandhurst of the day – for officer training in 1902. He retired in 1942 but they wanted him back within six months.’
In 1913 Valentine was sent as a language student to Peking (now Beijing).
‘He qualified as a first-class interpreter of Mandarin,’ said Peter.
In 1915 he was sent as deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general of the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. In December of that year he was sent to Gallipoli, in the rank of acting major, to assist in the evacuation of British, French and Anzac forces.
In 1916 he went to Egypt and took part in the Suez and Sinai campaigns and in 1917 he was part of an advance staff party heading for France and reached the front in April. He was awarded the DSO and took the rank of major.
While in France and Belgium the 42nd Division was involved in the Third Battle of Ypres – Passchendaele.
‘Because he spoke French he worked as a liaison officer between Marshall Fosch and Field Marshall Haig,’ said Peter. ‘He kept a diary from January until December 1918. It seems he’d deal with a bit of aggro and then go out a do a couple of sketches.’
From 1918 to 1920, Valentine painted 21 watercolours during the occupation of the Rhine Provinces.
In December 1918, Valentine was awarded the Legion d’Honneur 5th Class and the Croix de Guerre.
His first important role in China began in 1923 where he was the brigade major in the North China Command. He travelled extensively around China and returned to the UK in 1928. He was awarded the OBE.
For the next four years he commanded the 13th Light Battery of the 5th Light Brigade of the Royal Artillery at Aldershot and then on the Salisbury Plain.
‘He was put in charge of military transport, which seemed to involve a lot of telegraph poles and mules pulling them,’ said Peter.
‘His friend and second-in-command, Captain “Ack-Ack” Middleton, and his wife, had two daughters, Merrie and Bright, nicknames given to them after a musical hall song. These two girls, who were seven and nine, were allowed to have Sunday lunch in the officers’ mess and allowed to visit the stables where the mules were kept. They particularly liked a dun-coloured mule called Custard.
‘One week one of the daughters was ill and couldn’t see Custard, so she wrote him a note. My grandpa then corresponded to her as Custard.
‘Years later, after her mother had died, Merrie, who was by then Marian McKenzie, found all the letters. She knew Leo Cooper, a publisher and Jilly Cooper’s husband, and he published the letters in a book called Confessions Of Custard: A Military Mule – Letters To Merrie And Bright 1929-1932.’
In 1932 Major Burkhardt was posted to Peking as military attache to the British Legation as a lieutenant-colonel.
He returned to the UK in 1939 and retired from the army for the first time. In 1940 he was recalled to the position of military attache in Nanking (now Nanjing).
Retiring for the second time he returned to the UK in 1941, but worked for the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1946.
It was during this time where he was most active in his love for lepidoptery.
‘There’s a picture of me on the back of grandpa’s bicycle with a butterfly net in Newmarket,’ said Peter. ‘I was three at the time.’
In 1949, aged 65, now a civilian, Burkhardt sailed to Hong Kong.
‘He had no faith in the embryonic National Health Service, he thought it would bankrupt the country. So he went to the Far East and he never came back.
‘During the 1950s, Hong Kong was a sleepy British colony. He and his friends, “The Tripe Hounds” had lunch every Thursday.’
He published three volumes of Chinese Creeds And Customs with the South China Morning Post in 1953, 1955 and 1958. He also wrote for the Sunday Post-Herald under the nom-de-plume Pioneer.
‘I had a fantastic childhood correspondence with my grandpa,’ said Peter. ‘I was at boarding school at Harrow from 1955 to 1965. I would write to him and post the letter – one of those blue Air Mail envelopes – on a Monday and I’d get a answer from him all the way from Hong Kong on the Saturday.’
VR Burkhardt died in Hong Kong on 5 February 1967.
Peter’s parents moved to Guernsey in 1982 and Peter came in 2012.
‘My brother was a soldier and then he had a gallery in London that sold watercolours.
‘At my mother and father’s house I found a wooden case with all my grandpa’s stuff. It included two books with 24 paintings in each.
‘I persuaded my brother to frame the paintings and they were first exhibited in St Peter’s Church. They now hang on the pillars of the church every November.’
They have also graced the walls of Government House.
‘Marco Ciotti, the former aide-de-camp, asked if I’d like to show my grandpa’s paintings. He made quite a fuss over them, as did the lieutenant-governor.’
Now the paintings can be seen by the general public as part of Armed Forces Week.
‘For the last five or six years, Bob Place, his wife Marlene and I have shared the same pew for the 8am Sunday service at St Peter’s Church.
‘I speak to Peter a lot,’ said Bob, who is on the Armed Forces Committee. ‘We have a pint at the Longfrie and chat about The Times crossword and his family.
‘I asked if I could borrow his father’s paintings and medals and he said “Yes, but don’t lose the medals”. We have a special cabinet for them.
‘The exhibition will take place in the Inner Street of the Market Buildings – there will be signs and committee members there.’
Armed Forces Week runs from Monday 22 to Sunday 28 June. The base is at the Inner Street in the Market Buildings, St Peter Port from 9am to 4pm. Col. Burkhardt’s paintings and medals will be on display from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 June. For further information on events, visit www.armedforcesday.org.uk/event/guernsey-armed-forces-week.
https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/natasha-du-breuil-and-valentine.html
