WILLIAM GAMMELL was the eldest son of Lt. General Andrew Gammell and Martha Stageldoir. He was born in London in September 1789, and was baptised in St. Georges Church Bloomsbury on September 30th of that year (St. Georges Parish Register). The next we hear of him is his appointment on January 14th 1808 at the age of 18, as an ensign in the 25th Foot. (Public Record Office WO 25/759 Folio 49), so we know nothing of his earlier education. He was gazetted Lieutenant in 1809, and was slightly wounded while serving with the 85th Foot in the Peninsula War in June 1811 (see Gentleman's Magazine). He became a Captain in 1816, and served in several different regiments before retiring on half pay on August 26th 1826, having on that day been gazetted Major by purchase. He is referred to on his wife's death certificate as 'late Major in The Rifle Brigade'.

On his father's death in 1815, he received equal shares with his three brothers and three of his sisters in his father's estate, while on the death of his grandfather, James Gammell, the Banker in 1825 he inherited £20,000 in trust for him and his children. It was on the strength of this legacy, obviously, that he decided to give up active soldiering, and retire. Exactly why his grandfather left him cash instead of property - his younger brothers were all provided with at least one estate - is not known, but the fact that he was left such a handsome sum of money, seems to discount the possibility of a rift between him and his grandfather, and it may have been that he expressed a preference for a cash legacy, but this is speculation.

He was married on June 7th 1824 at St. Georges Church, Hanover Square in London to MARIA DU VERNET, daughter of Francis du Vernet of Old Chorlton, Kent (St. Georges Parish Register), and after his retirement from the Army in 1826, he and his wife settled at Braddons Hill, Torquay, where on August 13th 1828, their only son ANDREW GAMMELL was born (see below). In the following year their only other child, a daughter, MIRIAM SOPHIA ADELAIDE GAMMELL was born. This daughter Miriam was married in St. Andrews Church Plymouth on November 10th 1849 to Colonel JOHN MESSITER (1798-1872?) an elderly widower, who was at that time serving in the 28th Foot. As far as we know there were no children of this marriage, and after Colonel Messiter's death, probably about 1872, Miriam married in 1883, JULIUS ALFRED BERTRAM another widower, whose first wife had been Martha Janet Gammell her first cousin.

Returning now to William, he and his wife appear to have moved from Torquay to Plymouth, sometime before their daughter's first marriage and resided at 1 Victoria Place, Stonehouse, and it was there that William died on February 21st 1853. His will in Somerset House, leaves everything to his wife, and no mention is made of his children, but this is understandable in as much as they were provided for by the terms of the legacy left to William by his grandfather, mentioned above. William's wife Maria, survived her husband by 30 years, and died on December 1883 in Hampstead aged 88.

ANDREW GAMMELL (1828-1870) was, as stated above, the only son of Major William Gammell and his wife Maria du Vernet. Born in Torquay on August 13th 1828, he chose, like his father and grandfather before him, the Army as a career, and was gazetted as a Cornet in the 76th Foot on April 16th 1846 at the age of 16 years and 8 months (Public Records Office WO 76/301). He was gazetted Lieutenant in 1851 and Captain a few years later, both by purchase, but he gained both his Majority in 1864 and his Lieut Colonelcy in 1868 by Brevet, that is by merit. He was obviously a dedicated soldier, and served most of his time overseas, in India 1854/5, Crimea 1855/6, India 1857/8, North China 1860/6, India 1866/7, Abyssinia 1867/8 and finally India again in 1869 until he died of cholera in Calcutta on April 15th 1870 at the age of 41. He is buried in the Alipore cemetery near Calcutta. Among the various regiments in which he served were 12th Lancers, 31st and 46th Foot, and at the time of his death he was attached to the 5th Foot.

It is believed that his Brevet to Lt. Colonel was for his part in the Magdala campaign at Zulla in Abyssinia. He was D.A.Q.M.G. under Brigadier General Stewart, and is, it is understood, mentioned in Lord Napier's despatches on that campaign. During his career he received the Crimea Medal (with clasp for Sebastopol), Turkish Medal (1859), China Medal (with clasp for Taku Forts and Pekin) and the Abyssinia Medal. On December 7th 1854, Andrew married at Holy Trinity Church, Bangalore, MARY RYBOT (1835-?), daughter of Lieut. Colonel Francis Thomas Rybot of the 2nd Bombay Cavalry. Mary Rybot/Gammell was a great letter writer, and also something of an author. She wrote under the name of 'Arc-en-ciel', and there is a very fine description of a journey by bullock cart she made with her husband and baby daughter in 1867 across part of India: This is in the possession of the de Vine family.

Andrew and his wife Mary had a family of six as follows:

1. ANDREW FRANCIS MORLEY GAMMELL (1855- ?) was born in England on September 20th 1855, and baptised at Stoke Chard near Devonport. We do not know how or where he was educated, but in his teens when his mother had joined her husband in India, we do know that he lived with his Rybot grandparents in Bath, and it is reasonable to suppose that he went to school in that town. He was only fifteen when his father died, and about the time that his mother remarried in 1872, he evidently decided to strike out on his own, and joined the Army as a private. All we know of his army career is that he was serving, possibly as a sergeant in Bagalore in India in 1882, from where he wrote a letter to his stepfather (in the possession of the de Vine family). In 1883 he, like his brothers and sisters, was left £5000 by his great uncle Andrew Gammell of Drumtochty, and by inference used part of this sum to buy himself out of the army, as the next we hear of him is in London, where he was evidently living, but short of money. In a note to his step-father, who, it appears, had rebuked him for getting into debt, he wrote "if Uncle James (James Gammell of Ardiffery) or Cousin John (John H.H. Gammell of Lethendy) do anything for me, I shall immediately put everything right". Neither of these two relatives evidently came to the rescue, and Andrew disappears from the scene some say to America, some to The Philippines: the only possible clue to what happened to him is a note in his sister's handwriting "Andrew Gammell died Unmarried" but this could refer to her great uncle Andrew Gammell of Drumtochty. James G.S. Gammell on a trip to Singapore in the early 1970s did meet a person of anglo chinese descent, who carried the surname of Gammell - could this person be a descendant of this Andrew?; we just do not know.

2. WILLIAM GAMMELL (1857-1897) See below.

3. MARIA GAMMELL (1858-1867) was born in England in the summer of 1858, went out to India with her mother in 1866, and died at Lucknow in the spring of 1867 at the age of nine. Her death is recorded in correspondence between her mother and her parents (in the hands of the de Vine family.)

4. ERNEST GAMMELL (1859-1889?) was born in England on September 29th 1859, and baptised at York Town Chapel, Sandhurst, He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, quite probably on a grant provided for dependants of Army officers who had died on active service. He was in the Hardinge Dormitory at Wellington from 1871 to 1878, but does not appear to have distinguished himself in any particular way. Sometime in the 1880s he went to Australia where he joined his elder brother William, and family tradition is that he left Adelaide to seek his fortune in the 'Bush', and was never heard of again. Wellington College records confirm that he died in Australia, but no date is given.

5. PHOEBE CONSTANCE GAMMELL (1867-1945) Born in India February 19th 1867, and baptised at All Saints Church in Lucknow. It is noticeable that there is a seven year gap in age between Phoebe and her elder brother Ernest. This can be explained by the fact that their father was absent on active service in China from 1860 to 1866. On June lst 1889 she married JAMES ARTHUR FOREST DE VINE (1865-1916) a Captain in the Merchant Navy, at the Parish Church of Camberwell in Surrey. They had two sons, the elder JOHN OLIVER ERNEST DE VINE, born May 14th 1890 died as a child of about five years of age. The younger son JAMES CHANCELLOR DE VINE was born on August 9th 1898 (see below). James A.F. de Vine, Phoebe's husband was killed at sea, aboard s.s. Duckbridge in the first World War on February 16th 1916, and Phoebe herself died on February lst 1945.

6. FLORENCE OLIVE GAMMELL (1869-1956) was born in England on April 14th 1869, and baptised at St. James Church, Bath. She never married, and died on February 21st 1956.

After her husband Andrew's death in 1870, Mary Rybot/Gammell married for the second time in 1872, a man called Henry Montague Bates, and had two sons by him, one of whom Brigadier Francis Stewart Montague Bates CB.CMG.DSO. had a distinguished military career, and died a batchelor on June 21st 1954. When Mary Rybot/Gammell/Bates died has not been established, but she was still alive in the summer of 1908.

WILLIAM GAMMELL was as noted above the 2nd son of Andrew Gammell and his wife Mary Rybot, and as far as we know the only one to marry. He was born on April 13th 1857 and baptised at York Town Chapel at Sandhurst. We know nothing of his education although the chances are that he went to school in or near Bath, where he lived in the late 1860s with his Rybot grandparents, while his mother was abroad with her husband. After his father's death and his mother's remarriage, he was reunited with his mother, and appears to have been devoted to his small step-brothers.

In January 1877, just before his 20th birthday, he set sail for Australia on the barque "Corfu". There he joined the Customs but returned temporarily to England in 1883 after inheriting £5000 from his great uncle Andrew Gammell of Drumtochty. While in England he married on January 30th 1884, at All Saints Church, Kensington, ANNIE HAY CAMPBELL (1861-1949), daughter of General Thomas Hay Campbell. The marriage service was taken by The Revd. James Stewart Gammell the bridegroom's 2nd cousin. William and his wife returned to Australia almost immediately after the wedding, and settled near Adelaide, where William resumed his employment with the Customs, eventually becoming Harbour Master at the port of Walleroo, South Australia.

In 1892, Annie and her children left Australia for England, and went to live with her parents in Tavistock Road, Bayswater. The reason for this move has not been established, but the time was one of acute depression in Australia, and they may have thought prospects for education etc. to be more advantageous in England than in the poor economic state of Australia. William was thus left alone in Walleroo where he continued to work until his death from consumption about 1897 (exact date unknown.) William and Annie had a family of five, all born in Australia as follows:

1. ERNEST GAMMELL (1884-1900) Born in South Australia, he returned to England with his mother at the age of eight. He presumably then started his education in London, but unfortunately he contracted meningitis at the age of sixteen, and died in St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington in the summer of 1900. He is buried in the Campbell grave in Kensal Rise Cemetery.

2. VICTORIA HAY GAMMELL (1886-1973) (Queenie). Like her brothers and sisters, she was born in Australia, on January 15th 1886, and returned to England in 1892. She remained unmarried and died at Storrington in Sussex on February 26th 1973.

3. PHOEBE GAMMELL (1887-1973) Like her sister Queenie, she was also unmarried. She lived for a considerable time with her nephew, Captain A. D. de Vine in Cottenham Park Road in Wimbledon, and she died in Wimbledon Hospital on May 22nd 1973.

4. HELEN MARY GAMMELL (1890-1970) Born in South Australia she returned to England at the age of two. She married (date unknown) but sometime in the autumn of 1914 in London, M.H. WAKEHAM. (? -1968). They had two children, a son, Ernest Wakeham who was killed in the 1939/45 war, while serving in the Royal Air Force, and a daughter Margaret Wakeham.

5. ELIZABETH ROSE GAMMELL (1891- ) The youngest child of William and his wife Annie Campbell returned from Australia with her mother while still an infant. On September 27th 1919 she married at the British Consulate General in Paris, JAMES CHANCELLOR DE VINE (1898- ) younger son of James Arthur Forest de Vine, and his wife Phoebe Constance Gammell, and thus her first cousin (see above). James C. de Vine served in The Royal Berkshire Regiment in the 1914/18 war, and after service in the Indian Army (90th Punjabis), was for many years in the Imperial Police in Burma. He served in the Intelligence Service in the 1939/45 war and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

James de Vine and his wife Rose Gammell had a large family as follows:

Rose and her husband were divorced in 1949, and James de Vine subsequently married Bessie Winifred Gaunt. As will be seen above, this, the most senior branch of the Gammells, founded by William Gammell (1789-1853) died out in the male line with the death of Ernest Gammell in 1900. The de Vine family however continue the branch through the female line. James de Vine being descended through Phoebe Gammell, grandaughter of the original William Gammell, and his wife, likewise, through Phoebe's brother William. There are no other descendants of the original William, other than this de Vine Family.