Major F. M. E. Vibart

Major F. M. E. Vibart served inthe Zulu war of 1879 (Medal with Clasp). Served in the Boer war of 1881.Served witti the Burmese Expedition in 1886-87 (mentioned in despatches. Medal with Clasp).

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Homeward Mail from India, China and the East 10 December 1898

"MEREDITH JAMES’ BROTHER FRANCIS ELLIOT VIBART

Birth of Francis Elliot Vibart and of his son Francis Meredith Edmund: familysearch.

India Office file: IOR/L/MIL/10/47/413 says only that he was in the 5th Cavalry. I saw an index for a burial record in the India Office family history section: Bengal 1848.

Francis Elliot’s widow Frances went to live with her mother, Frances Abbott: they are on the census in 1861 and 1871 together, in Blandford Square Marylebone. Frances Abbott died in 1880.

Divorce proceedings between Francis Meredith Edmund Vibart and wife Evelyn Fanny:

Times Tues 25 May 1886 p4 Law Notices, cases being heard today include: Vibart v Vibart.

Evelyn Fanny Vibart married Swainson Howden Akroyd only a few weeks after the divorce had been granted. Francis Meredith Vibart’s daughter Violet Vibart lived with her mother and her mother’s second husband until her marriage. In 1904 she married Bernard Cunliffe Foster of Duncote Hall Towcester, who died very shortly after the day of the 1911 census.Meredith Edmund Vibart had died, in Manchester, in 1898"

More detail on Vibart's service in the AZW . Capt F.M.E.Vibart served during the second phase of the zulu war . Horsed and equipped the two guns which took the place of those lost at Isandlwana . Commanded the RA at Forts Marshall and Evelyn on the line of communications. Commanded the R.A. of Baker - Russell's Column in the North of Zululand .
90th

"Francis Meredith Edmund Vibart was commissioned Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in July 1867, and advanced to Captain in February 1869. He served with N Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Artillery during the second phase of Zulu War. The Battery had lost one officer and 61 non-commissioned officers and men killed, two guns, 24 horses, 30 mules and 534 rounds of ammunition at Isandhlwana:

‘The battery re-crossed the Buffalo River with the remains of the Column on the 23rd Jan., remained at Rorke’s Drift post until the 25th, and then proceeded to Helpmakaar, where it remained until the 17th April; during this time much sickness prevailed.

Proceeding to Dundee on the 17th April, the battery formed part of Newdigate’s Division, and reinforced by two guns under Capt. Vibart, took part in the advance of that force into the enemy’s country. At Fort Newdigate two guns under Capt. Vibart, with Lieut. Curling, were detailed to form part of the garrison, and, subsequently, two guns under Lieut. Fowler were detailed to remain at Fort Evelyn.’ (The South African Campaign of 1879, by J. P. Mackinnon & S. H. Shadbolt refers)

Vibart commanded the Royal Artillery at Forts Marshall and Evelyn on the line of communications, he also commanded the Royal Artillery of Colonel Baker Russell’s Column in the north of Zululand. Vibart served during the First Boer War of 1881, and advanced to Major November 1884. He commanded the 5/1 Battery, Southern Division during the Burmese Expedition of 1886-87 (M.I.D. London Gazette 2 September 1887). Vibart advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in November 1891, and retired the following year."

Source: NDW