Marsham-Townshend

Robert Marsham was the second son of Charles Marsham, 2nd Earl of Romney. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, worked in the Diplomatic Service from 1855 to 1859, and served as Lieutenant in the Kent Militia Artillery from 1859 to 1869. He married Clara Catherine Paley in 1877.

Yale University Library has a collection of letters and diaries containing descriptions of his travels.
Many of the letters are written to him, although there is a group of 22 letters written by him to a relative identified only as Harriet, dated 1856-1864. Correspondents include Henry Alabaster, interpreter to the King in Siam; scientists W. S. Atkinson and Robert Stirling; George Ferguson Bowen, first governor of Queensland, Australia. Stirling writes at length from the Sandwich Islands describing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, a particular interest of Robert Marsham. There are also fifteen letters from Youhannah El Karey, a missionary at Nablous, near Jaffa, Palestine.
The diaries span the years 1853-1876, and carry descriptions of travels to Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, the Philippines, China, Japan, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, California, Australia, Indonesia, Siam (Thailand), India, Persia (Iran), the Middle east, South Africa, Russia, and Europe. There is a great deal of geographic and volcanic observation, as well as descriptions of cities, cultures, and peoples he encountered. The papers are accompanied by a bound notebook with notes on volcanoes throughout the world, two passports for him to use in Persia, and three contracts and receipts for hiring mules and drivers in Persia.

Robert Marsham had two sons, Hugh and Ferdinand.
Ferdinand (b.1880), joined the Scots Guards, Special Reserve, as a Second Lieutenant on 3 Feb 1915, went to France on 18 March and was killed in action in Rue du Bois, near Festubert on 16 May.
Hugh Sydney Marsham-Townshend (b.1878, d.1967) married twice. Firstly to Cecilia Bunbury (d.1912), and after her death to Laura Bunbury (d.1950). Hugh had two sons, John (b.1905) and Thomas (b.1915). Thomas died in 1944 at the age of 28, from wounds received in action in Italy.

After the death of Robert Marsham-Townshend in 1914, the family moved from Frognal to the former steward’s house near the site of the moated Manor House at Scadbury. Frognal was purchased by the Government and a large hutted hospital was built in the grounds. It opened as the Queen’s Hospital in 1917 for wounded servicemen and became a general hospital in 1930 when it was renamed Queen Mary's Hospital.