The
Bedfordshire Regiment in the Great War
(Site
built by and © Steven Fuller, 2003 to 2010)
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Officers who died serving in the 6th Battalion
[Please note that although the list itself is complete,
I have yet to include all the information I have gathered on each
individual.]
By using the volumes of "Soldiers Died in the Great
War" (SDGW) as a foundation and amending the roll according to information
found in the battalion War Diary, regimental history, newspaper
clippings I have come across, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
(CWGC) database details and the officers' service records (where
available), this roll is as accurate as I can achieve. Any additions
or amendments will be added as I come across them but please contact
me if you are aware of a discrepancy in the details shown.
This roll of honour is in chronological order of
the date the Officer in question died.
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Lieutenant Aubrey Crawshaw DENHAM
Died 1st April 1915, aged 34 Aubrey enlisted
into the army at the outbreak of war and served in the 6th
battalion from their formation. Unfortunately, Lieutenant
Denham died in his parents home whilst the New Army was still
in training. He was the only son of John William and Annie
Denham of 3 Woodland Mount, Trinity Street in Huddersfield
and is buried in the Huddersfield Cemetery.
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Second Lieutenant George Arthur SMITH-MASTERS
Killed in action 19th August 1915, aged 20.
 George
left England with the battalion, arriving in France late July
1915. The battalion's first taste of the trenches was mid
August and, whilst digging early in the morning of the 19th
August 1915, 2/Lt Smith-Masters ventured out of the trenches
and was shot dead by a sniper.
Second Lieutenant Smith-Masters was 20 years
old and became the battalions first death in combat. George
was the son of John Ernest and Eliza Margaret Smith-Masters,
of Camer, Meopham in Kent and lived in Kidmore End, Oxfordshire
himself.
He is buried in Dranoutre Military Cemetery,
12km south of Ypres.
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Second Lieutenant Ernest DANN
Died of wounds 22nd November 1915, aged 25.
Ernest was a native of Queensland in Australia
and educated at a school for missionaries in Blackheath before
gained his M.A. from Oxford in 1911. He enlisted into the
army early in the war and arrived in France with the battalion
on 30th July 1915. On the 21st November 1915 he was on a working
party when he was hit by 2 bullets in the abdomen and severely
wounded. Sadly he died the following day at the C.C.S. in
Henu. Ernest was the youngest son of the Rev. George James
and Hannah Dann of Bankipore in India and was buried in Henu
Churchyard, off of the Arras-Doullens road 1km east of Pas-en-Artois.
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The battalion were engaged during the Battles
of the Somme 1916 and during the Battle of Pozieres on the 15th
July 1916, the battalion attacked across a 2,000 yard stretch of
open ground towards Pozieres as a part of a larger assault. In the
assault twelve Officers and over 200 men became casualties with
3 of the Officers being killed. The following three are from that
attack.
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The Thiepval Memorial
to the Missing
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Captain Gurth (Garth) BIGNELL
Killed in action 15th July 1916.
 He
was educated at Rugby and R.M. College in Sandhurst and was
commissioned a 2/Lt in October 1910. Garth joined the 6th
battalion when it was raised in August 1914 and went to France
with them in August 1915.
After a spell on Staff service he rejoined
the battalion in July and was killed within days whilst leading
his Company in the attack. He was about to marry Lucy Helen
of Bournemouth, daughter of the late Major John Jervois, R.E.
Garth was the only child of the late Colonel E.J.T. (also
spelt E.D.F.) Bignell of the Indian Staff Corps and is buried
in the Pozieres British Cemetery at Ovillers-la-Boiselle.
His mother Mary Sybella died in London on the
14th August 1916, leaving no one from their family alive.
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Second Lieutenant John Norman HUNSTON
Died of wounds 15th July 1916, aged 20.
 John
was born at Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and arrived with
the battalion on the 5th April 1916. He was the son of Robert
George Laskey and Helen Hunston of 32 Hallewell Road in Edgbaston,
Birmingham.
He is buried in the Becourt Military Cemetery,
Becordel-Becourt, 2km east of Albert.
Johns elder brother, Robert
Donald Hunston, was killed aged 21 in the 7th battalion
on the 28th September 1916 and is buried in the Mill Road
cemetery, Thiepval.
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Second Lieutenant William Hugh Byam SHERVINGTON
Killed in action 15th July 1916, aged 26.
William arrived with the 6th battalion on the
27th March 1916 from the 9th battalion and fell during the
assault on Pozieres. He was the son of Laura Shervinton from
"Claremont", King Edward Avenue in Broadstairs and the late
Col. St. Leger Shervinton. William has no known grave but
is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
He can be seen here
in the 3rd battalion officers' group photograph from 1915.
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Second Lieutenant Wallace Bernard HAMILTON
Killed in action 9th August 1916.
Wallace was from the 10th battalion but had
recently been attached to the 6th, probably arriving in the
11 strong draft on the 1st August. He was killed when the
battalion attacked the German intermediate line north of Bazentin-le-Petit
Wood, midway between Pozieres and High Wood. Wallace has no
known grave but is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
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Second Lieutenant Maurice Stanley Charles COOPER
Died of wounds 10th August 1916, aged 19.
2/Lt Cooper was probably wounded in the assault
on the 9th when 2/Lt Hamilton (above) fell and died in the
C.C.S. at Millencourt the following day. Maurice had recently
arrived in the battalion from the 9th, probably with the 11
strong Officer draft on the 1st August and was the son of
Jonathan and Emma Emily Cooper, of 8 Market Street in Cambridge.
He is buried in the Millencourt Communal Cemetery,
2km west of Albert.
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On the 15th November 1916 4 Officers were killed
during the Battle of the Ancre when the battalion assaulted Munich
Trench east of Beaumont Hamel. The following day saw them heavily
shelled whilst they held positions in Waggon Road waiting for orders
to move forward or retire again. The 4 below are those who fell
during the Ancre battle.
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Second Lieutenant George Edward McEWAN
Killed in action 15th November 1916. George
was commissioned into the 9th Reserve battalion and was attached
to the 6th, probably arriving in the large Officer draft 1st
August 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on the
Thiepval Memorial.
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Second Lieutenant John James Wahal GRIFFIN
Killed in action 15th November 1916, aged 22.
 John
was the only son of Robert Anderson and Alice Griffin of St.
Catherines Park, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.
He is buried in the Frankfurt Trench Cemetery,
Beaumont Hamel.
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Second Lieutenant Cecil Cooper LE MESSURIER
Killed in action 15th November 1916, aged 32
Cecil was initially a Sergeant in the 15th London Regiment
and was gazetted as a 2/Lt in the Bedfords on the 29th October
1915 and arrived with the battalion around August 1916, possible
also with the large draft from the 1st August. He was the
son of Alfred Noel and Louisa Arabella Le Messurier and the
husband of Winifred Lucy Le Messurier of 16 Hungerford Road,
Camden Rd., Holloway, London.
Cecil is buried in the New Munich Trench British
Cemetery, Beaumont Hamel.
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Second Lieutenant Arthur JESSON
Killed in action 16th November 1916, aged 28
Private 1975 15th Londons, serving on the Western Front from
the 17th March 1915. 2/Lt Jesson ws commissioned into the
Regiment 4th December 1915 and joined the battalion on the
11th. He survived the Somme battles of 1916 only to be caught
in the heavy shelling as the battalion sheltered on Waggon
Road, Beaumont Hamel on the 16th November. Arthur was initially
posted as missing on the 16th and later confirmed as having
been killed that day. He was the son of the late Charles and
Mrs. Jesson of Gumley, Market Harborough in Leicestershire.
He has no known grave and is remembered on
the Thiepval Memorial.
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In April 1917 the battalion was heavily engaged in the Battle
of Arras, which saw the highest daily casualty rate of any of the
battles the British army were engaged at in the war. Between the
9th and 28th April they saw eight days of front line battle and
came out of the battle with just 58 men left. The next five Officers
fell during the Battle of Arras. None of them were recovered so
all are listed on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
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The Arras Memorial to
the Missing
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Lieutenant Giles Havergal SHAW
Killed in action 11th April 1917. 5th Battalion,
attached to the 6th Battalion. Giles was killed when the 6th
Battalion attacked La Folie Ferme and Le Bergere on the 10th
April, in conjunction with the 111th Brigade's attack on Monchy-Le-Preux.
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Lieutenant Frederic George THOMPSON
Killed in action 11th April 1917, aged 28.
Frederic seems to have served in the 7th battalion
at some stage but was in the 6th at the time of his death.
He fell as the battalion held their newly won positions around
La Bergere, south of Monchy le Preux along the Arras-Cambrai
road. Frederic was the son of Louisa S. Thompson of 79 Castle
Road in Bedford and the late Frederic Thompson.
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Second Lieutenant Bernard Valentine COLCHESTER
Killed in action 25th April 1917, aged 27.
Vernard was initially Private 77929 in the 16th
Canadian infantry, having served in france from the 26th April
1915. Bernard arrived with the battalion on the 12th December
1915 and survived the Somme battles of 1916 as well as two
further assaults during the Arras battles in April 1917. On
the 24th or 25th April Bernard was amongst the large Officer
casualty list suffered as the battalion attacked the wide
open Greenland Hill and were badly mauled by a nest of machine
guns to their south.
He was the son of Marguerite Branford Colchester
from Great Shelford in Cambridge, and the late Edward Cromwell
Colchester.
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Second Lieutenant Herbert Edward FOSKETT
Killed in action 28th April 1917, aged 24.
Herbert trained with the 5th Battalion but
was attached to the 6th Battalion when he fell. He arrived
with the 6th in France on 16th April 1917 with 3 other Lieutenants;
3 of them were killed on the 28th April and the other 1 was
wounded on the 24th April, hence survived the carnage of the
28th. On the 28th April, the Battalion attacked Greenland
Hill for the second time in a few days but only 58 men survived
the carnage of their attack.
Herbert was the son of Mary Foskett of Western
Road in Tring, Herts, and the late Herbert Foskett.
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Lieutenant Ronald Henry Evan ROSE
Killed in action 28th April 1917.
Ronald arrived in France with the battalion
in July 1915
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Captain Geoffrey PEEL
Killed in action 17th July 1917, aged 22.
 Geoffrey
was a native of Bedford, educated at Bedford School before
becoming a Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford in 1913, where
he lived for a while afterwards. When war broke out Geoffrey
enlisted into the Public Schools Brigade and was commissioned
into the Bedfordshire regiment in 1915. He arrived with the
battalion as a 2/Lt on the 23rd April 1916 and survived the
Somme battles of that year as well as Arras in 1917. On the
night of the 17th/18th July 1917 he was out in no-man's land
on a recon patrol when he was killed.
He was the fifth son of the late Edward
Lennox Peel and of Amy Peel of 15 Mount Avenue in Ealing,
London. He is buried in the Pond Farm Cemetery in Wulvergem,
8km south of Ypres.
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Second Lieutenant Charles Edmund KIRK
Killed in action 6th August 1917, aged 36.
Charles was from Bedford originally and served
initially in the 7th Dragoon Guards. Charles was killed whilst
on a working party in no-man's land but his body was recovered
and he is buried in Kemnel Chateau Military Cemetery, 8km
south-west of Ypres.
He was the son of Ann and the late John Kirk
and husband of Hilda May Kirk of 3 Cossington Road in Canterbury.
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Captain Frederic Gerald Bazalgette LUCAS MC
Died of wounds 10th August 1917, aged 23
Frederic was gazetted as a 2/Lt 31st August
1914 and landed in France 30th July 1915. His Military Cross
citation appeared in the London Times 22nd September 1916
and was for commanding his company for three hours, after
his O.C. was killed despite being wounded himself. This would
have been during the assault in August around Bazentin-le-Petit.
Despite surviving the Somme and Arras battles, Captain Lucas
was killed during heavy shelling on the 9th August 1917 whilst
the battalion were in the line.
He was the son of Gerald Bazalgette Lucas and
Emma Grace Lucas of "Meadowside" in Pembury, Kent and is buried
in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery, midway between St. Omer
and Lille.
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Captain John HISLOP, MC
Killed in action 22nd September 1917
 Although
recorded as having been killed in the 8th battalion, Captain
Hislop actually fell in the 6th battalion.
John Hislop was born at Grave de Leq Barracks,
Jersey in 1872, when the 1st Battalion of the 16th Foot was
stationed there. He was the eldest son of Honorary Major &
Quarter Master Archibald Hislop, who served in the Regiment
from 1861 to 1896 and 1900 to 1902.
John attested for service with the 1st Battalion
in June 1888, aged 15 years, 11 months, and was posted to
the Depot (by then a Lance Corporal) from Malta in December
1890. He was promoted to Corporal in August 1891 and posted
to the 2nd Battalion in May 1892. He returned to the 1st Battalion,
by then a Sergeant, in February 1896, proceeding to the East
Indies. He was promoted Colour Sergeant in April 1900 and
posted home to the 2nd Battalion in January 1906. He reverted
to Sergeant, "at his own request", in August 1906. He was
again promoted to Colour Sergeant in July 1907, embarking
for Gibraltar in August. In January 1908 he again reverted
to Sergeant "at his own request" and was discharged to a pension,
after 19 years, 265 days service, in February 1908. He lived
in Ealing and gained employment with the Prison Service.
When war broke out in 1914 John attested for
the Bedfordshire Regiment as a Private, was posted to the
Depot and resumed the rank of Sergeant - all on 21st September
1914. He was posted to the newly established 8th Battalion
on 24th September and promoted CSM on 13th October. He proceeded
to France in August 1915 and was appointed Acting RSM "in
the field" in October that year. In December 1915 he was appointed
to a Commission as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant, still with
the 8th Battalion.
Promotion to Temporary Lieutenant a few weeks
later in January 1916, was followed by the award of the Military
Cross "for distinguished service in the field" in June 1916.
His citation reads "During a heavy
gas attack, carrying ammunition up to the front line and digging
out two machine gunners who had been buried by a shell, all
under heavy gun-fire."
He was invalided home due to illness contracted
through exposure in the trenches and, after two months sick
leave, joined the 27th Training Reserve Battalion, Bedfordshire
Regiment at Dovercourt.
John was transferred into the 6th battalion
once he had recovered and was killed instantaneously by a
shell while proceeding up the line with supports. His last
words written to his wife were "Duty
must be done. Cheerio." Captain Hislop's Commanding
Officer wrote to his wife as follows: "He
was killed at the head of his company, whilst leading it to
the firing line, on the night of Sept. 22. Fighting was very
heavy, and, unfortunately, it was necessary to pass through
a heavily shelled area. It was when doing this that your husband
and several others lost their lives. We shall all miss him
very much indeed. He died grandly, nobly doing his duty to
the last as a British soldier, and is now resting from his
labours with the many others who have made the supreme sacrifice
for their country."
Captain John Hislop, M.C. was aged 45 years
and left a widow and six children, the eldest of whom, Leslie,
was serving with the Middlesex Regiment at the time - he later
served with the Bedfordshire Regiment TF. John has no known
grave, but he is commemorated on panel 48 at the Tyne Cot
Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium. One of his grandsons, Roger,
must have inherited his soldier genes, serving for many years
in the King's, Liverpool Regiment. He reached the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel and his last posting was Officer Commanding
the 5th (Territorial) Battalion. In addition to the Military
Cross, Captain Hislop qualified for the 1914 - 15 Star, British
War Medal and Victory Medal.
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Second Lieutenant George Edward INCH
Killed in action 22nd September 1917, aged
27
George was in the 1st battalion but was attached
to the 6th when he fell. The battalion were on the way up
to the trenches to relieve the 6th Cheshires when the relief
was spotted by enemy observers and the area was swamped with
shells. George was killed along with Captain Hislop (above),
along with another 30 casualties. He was the son of George
Edward and Alice Inch of 2 Charlotte Street in Bolton, Lancs
and the husband of Mary Inch.
He has no known grave but is remembered on
the Tyne Cot Memorial.
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Second Lieutenant Nelson Wynne RYCROFT
Killed in action 25th September 1917
Nelson was killed during heavy shelling as
the battalion held the front lines. He has no known grave
so he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing.
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Captain and Adjutant Harold John CUNNINGHAM, MC
Died of wounds 4th October 1917, aged 25.
 Harold
was the only son of the late John William Cunningham of Harrow
and Mrs Cunningham of Spencer House St Albans. He entered
Tonbridge School (going into Judde House) in 1905 becoming
Captain of the school for 1910/11. He joined the OTC in September
1910 and was promoted to sergeant. He was also a violinist
and won the school music prize. On leaving school he trained
at Willam Deacon's Bank and afterwards joined the Chartered
Bank of India. On outbreak of war he applied for a commission
and was gazetted a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion
on the 16th November arriving in France in July 1915. He became
Adjutant in February 1916 and was promoted temporary Lieutenant
on April 15th 1916 and Temporary Captain on August 11th 1917.
He was awarded the Military Cross in the gazette of June 3rd
1917 for his actions at the Battle of Arras in April which
left the battalion a mere skeleton.
On October the 4th 1917 the battalion was moving
up to the front line SE of Ypres under heavy shell fire to
take part in the Battle of Broodseinde. They had been sheltering
for some hours in some extensive dugouts known as Canada Tunnels
and when the time came to move again Cunningham was outside
with Lt Clifford Battalion Intelligence Officer, directing
the companies as they filed into the open. A shell burst quite
near them and he was so severely wounded that he became unconscious
almost immediately and died ten minutes later at an adjacent
dressing station to which he had been carried by Lt Clifford
who was also wounded. The only words he spoke before he died
was to enquire about Lt Clifford's wounds and to encourage
him to go to the dressing station. Captain Cunningham was
just 25 years old and a much loved and admired Officer as
the letters after his death show. Harold can be seen opposite,
the photograph being taken in 1911.
He was the son of Ellen C. Cunningham, of Spencer
House, St. Albans, and the late John William Cunningham and
lies in the Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) cemetery, 4km south
of Ypres centre.
(My thanks to John Hamblin for the Roll of
Honour information)
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Second Lieutenant Simon VANDER-LINDE
Died of wounds 18th October 1917.
A German airplane bombed the battalion as they
trained in camp north-east of Ypres, killing 2/Lt Van der
Linde and wounding 4 others. Simon is buried in the Lijssenthoek
Military Cemetery, 1km south or Poperinghe west of Ypres.
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Second Lieutenant George Alfred BINNS
Killed in action 8th April 1918, aged 22
 George
joined the battalion on the 6th February 1918 from the H.A.C.
and served just two months before losing his life. After the
opening phase of the German Spring offensives had died down,
the battalion was on the front line on the Somme during which
activities George was killed on the 8th April. He was the
son of Nugent and Alice Binns of 2 Park Villas, Park Road
in Radlett, Herts. George is buried in the Gommecourt British
Cemetery No.2, Hebuterne, 15km due north of Albert, just north
of Beaumont Hamel.
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Second Lieutenant William AMBRIDGE
Killed in action 7th/8th April 1918.
 William
had only recently moved from the disbanded 8th battalion to
the 6th, arriving with them on the 27th February 1918. 2/Lt
Ambridge was killed along with George Binns (above) on the
8th April whilst the battalion held the lines on the Somme.
William is buried in the Gommecourt British Cemetery No.2,
Hebuterne, 15km due north of Albert, just north of Beaumont
Hamel.
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6th Battalion links
Below are links to the other pages with information
on the 6th battalion during the Great War:
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