ABSTRACT
Walter Yeldham (1837–1916), the son of London surgeon and homeopath Stephen Yeldham, was originally intended for a career in the law: he studied at the University of Cambridge, taking a degree in 1860, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1857, but never called to the bar. Instead, he purchased a commission in the army, becoming cornet in the 18th Hussars in 1861, and in the same year marrying Elizabeth Dunn. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1862, and captain in 1868. He retired from the army in 1877, and two years later became a captain in the Irish Militia (The Times, 17 April 1879). Little is known of his career thereafter. In 1889 he was appointed chief organizing agent to the Liberal Unionist Association, an organization formed in opposition to the British government’s policy of favouring Home Rule for Ireland. Two years later, he became editor of the Admiralty and Horse Guards Gazette, a military periodical. The newspapers of 1898 and 1899 carried notices of a petition for bankruptcy being presented against Major Walter Yeldham, of London (The Times, 1 April 1899).
