Happy it-would-have-been-your-139th-birthday, Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache.
You can find out more on his Wikipedia page, but also on the Imperial War Museum’s website. He was one of the many, many people who didn’t come home from WWI. Whoever had the job of writing the commemorative scrolls for fallen men must have given their writing hand a good stretch after doing Leone.
It was, of course, the fault of his father, “eccentric clergyman” Ralph Tollemache-Tollemache, who had at least 15 children. The first was merely called Sir Lyonel Felix Carteret Eugene Tollemache, but during his second marriage things got out of hand.
There was Mabel Helmingham Ethel Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evangeline Vise de Lou de Orellana Plantagenet Toedmag Saxon, for example.
And Lyonesse Matilda Dora Ida Agnes Ernestine Curson Paulet Wilbraham Joyce Eugénie Bentley Saxonia Dysart Plantagenet.
And — of course — Lyona Decima Veroica Esyth Undine Cyssa Hylda Rowena Adela Thyra Ursuala Ysabel Blanche Lelias Dysart Plantagenet.
And the relatively restrained Leo Quintus Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet.
The most spectacular, though, was surely Ralph’s fourth child with his second wife: Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet — whose initials spell out LYONEL THE SECOND.
Perhaps the second best detail on Leone’s Wikipedia page, though, is the fact the names were so silly, James Joyce took the piss:
The best bit is where it tells you that each barrel of the name ‘Tollemache-Tollemache’ is pronounced differently. The first should be ‘tool-mayk’, the second ‘tol-mak’. OBVIOUSLY.
