Veldt hat worn by Colonel Francis Garden Poole (1870-1950) during the Siege of Peking in 1900

Francis Garden Poole (1870-1950) was born at St Paul's Cray in Kent on 24 June, 1870. He was educated at Cambridge and after attending the Royal Military College he was gazetted as a 2nd lieutenant to the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1892. Poole served in Africa in the 1890s, rising to the rank of captain.

In 1900 the foreign legations in Peking (Beijing) were besieged by Chinese nationalist rebels of the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (or 'Boxers' as the Europeans came to call them), aided and abetted by Chinese Imperialist forces. Captain Poole was in Peking at the behest of the War Office learning Chinese. During the siege Poole served alongside the Royal Marine guards and civilian volunteers defending the diplomatic quarter. Of the various legation guards, Poole noted: 'Ours were naturally the smartest', the Americans 'a serviceable looking lot', but the Russians and Italians he considered 'very dirty'.

After the relief of the legations by a multinational force Poole served with the China Field Force, as a transport officer. Poole was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Mentioned in Despatches for his actions and was one of around only 135 recipients of the 'Defence of Legations' clasp for the 3rd China War Medal awarded for the campaign.

Curiously, having qualified as a Chinese interpreter, Poole was deployed to Egyptto serve with the Egyptian Army from 1903 to 1910. As an an intelligence officer, Poole travelled widely in North Africa, South America, Asia Minor and South East Asia. Poole served in the Army throughout World War One (1914-1918).