On this day in Wembury — 23 March 1880
The Western Times published an election address from Lieutenant-Colonel John Sterling of the South Devon Militia, writing from his home at Wembury House — the fine Georgian mansion that still stands above the fields between the church and the sea. In 1880 it was a place of influence and confidence, its lawns sweeping down toward the Yealm and the bay, and Sterling was every inch the country gentleman of his time.
In his letter to the electors of East Devon, he urged loyalty to Crown and Empire, praising Lord Beaconsfield and warning that the Liberals had wasted men and money in South Africa and Afghanistan. He called upon “honest men of Devon” to defend the Constitution and to stand fast against those who would, as he put it, “break down the pillars of the State.” He even promised support for agricultural rights and better schooling, though only within the safe bounds of tradition.
From his high windows at Wembury House, Sterling looked out over the same bay we know today, a view he must have thought eternal. Yet within weeks, the tide of politics turned, Beaconsfield’s government fell, and Gladstone’s Liberals swept to power. The colonel’s speech, proud and old-fashioned, became the echo of a fading age — the last voice of Wembury’s landed Tory class before modern politics came rolling in from the cities.
(Western Times, 23 March 1880)