REGINALD Schomberg, DSO, was a soldier, explorer, photographer, spy, diplomat and priest who lived in Ross at various times in his life.

His name is the fifth to be put forward for recognition by Ross-on-Wye Town Council with a blue plaque that could be displayed on his former home, Chasewood Lodge, on the Walford Road,

Reginald attended Oratory School where he shone academically. He later studied at Oxford University’s New College, graduating in 1901 before being commissioned in the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and served in India from 1902-1911.

In 1911 he returned to the family home in Ross before taking up a post with the Malay States guides - an elite regiment formed out of soldiers and police.

In 1915 he returned to his old battalion in Mesopotamia, but in 1916 he was severely wounded during an attack on Turkish positions at Sunnaiyat, an action for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

After a period of recuperation, he returned to Mesopotamia. But during an attack on Tekrit in 1917, he was again wounded, however, his actions were rewarded with a Bar to his DSO.

After the war he returned to Malaya and became Commandant of the Singapore Volunteer Corps and from 1920 inspector of Prisons, Straits Settlements.

The following year he was appointed to the 2nd Battalion and rose to the position of Lieutenant-Colonel.

He retired from the army in 1928 after which, for the next three years in Central Asia he became an explorer. He combined intelligence gathering with the recording of geographical, ethnographical and botanical information as he explored.

He wrote numerous accounts of his travels which were subsequently published. He also wrote many articles and reviews for scientific and nature journals. Some of these works are now used as standard textbooks for students of Central Asia.

Mr Schomberg’s reports and photographs are now held at the National Archives, the British Library and at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

Mr Schomberg then served in a number of diplomatic posts and was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1937 before being promoted to be Colonel of Force 136, a spy network, which was part of the Special Operations executive in China to combat Japanese-occupied countries during the Second World War.

His army life was what a friend called the spirit of a ‘born traveller’, going where the spirit moved him while several people in Ross described Reginald Schomberg as ‘mysterious’.

It made Mr Schomberg unsuitable for a settled life. He never married but remained devoted to his parents and his sister Mary and his aunts.

In the Catholic Church of St Frances of Rome in Ross-on-Wye there is a memorial erected by Reginald and his sister to their parents.

Mr Schomberg was a deeply religious man and in 1947 he decided to devote the remainder of his life to his Church.

Shortly after retiring, aged 77, he had a fall at his home in Ross and later died in hospital in Hereford on March 1, 1958. He was buried at Belmont Abbey, next to his parents.