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 7th 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
articles 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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Second Lieutenant Donald Gurney WHATMOOR
Killed in action 17th January 1916, aged 23
 Donald
was gazetted as an Officer on the 8th February 1915 and arrived
to join the battalion in France on the 1st August 1915.
He spent his entire period of service
on the front around Fricourt and Carnoy at the southern end
of the British line and was killed during a lively day of
exchanges with the opposing Germans in their trenches.
His death was announced in the London
Times on the 26th January 1916. Donald was the son of Herbert
Wade and E. Mary Whatmoor of "Briarfield", The Drive in Northwood,
Middx. He is buried in the Meaulte military cemetery.
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Second Lieutenant Reginald BADEN
Killed in action 26th June 1916, aged 23.
 Reginald
was born on the 5th June 1893, the son of Herbert Edwin and
Blanche Ada Baden of 5 Grange Road in Ealing, London. He was
schooled at Ealing Grammar and went on to work as a clerk
in Burroughs, Wellcome & Co.
Reginald enlisted into the British Territorial
Army on the 9th February 1912, joining the 9th County of London
Regiment as private 1415. His younger brother, Bertram, enlisted
with him, becoming Private 1414. At the time, he was 18 years
and 8 months old and lived with his parents at 5 Grange Road
in Ealing. Rifleman Baden stood 5 feet, 4 inches tall and
attended the Territorial Army's summer camps in 1912 and 1913.
When war broke out on the 5th August
1914 Rifleman Baden was embodied for service and was amongst
those Territorial soldiers who were posted to France very
early in the war, landing on 4th November 1914. On the 8th
December he was discharged from the ranks and sent back to
England, having been granted a commission as an officer. His
brother Bertram Baden (born 12th January 1895) had served
alongside him in the Territorials and also applied to become
an officer at the same time. They were separated despite a
request to remain in the same unit, with Bertram being posted
into the Worcestershire regiment and later rising to the rank
of Captain.
Reginald was trained as an officer in
C Company of the 7th battalion of the Bedfordshire regiment
and went to France with them in July 1915. Between the 25th
October and 2nd November 1915 he went home on a spell of leave
but otherwise served with the battalion in the Carnoy area,
east of Albert on the Somme.
On the 26th June Reginald and his fellow
Company Officers were settled into their mess to the rear
of the front lines. The week long bombardment on enemy positions
before the Battle of the Somme was still going on and German
artillery retaliated, with one shell smashing through the
roof of their Company mess. Reginald was one of two Officers
killed outright by the shell, the second being Gordon Haslar
(listed below). Reginald is buried in the Carnoy military
cemetery, alongside 2/Lt Haslar (below).
His Officers service number was 52215
and his record is held by the National Archives, under reference
WO339/29843.
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Second Lieutenant Gordon Beverley HASLER
Killed in action 26th June 1916, aged 19
 Gordon
was born on the 10th March 1897 at 9 Arbuthnot Road, St. Catherine's
Park in Hatcham, Deptford South, Greenwich, Kent (now London
SE14), the second son of John Hasler (a school teacher, who
was known as Jack Hasler) and Jessie Hasler (nee Jones).
On the 8th October 1914, he was accepted
as a Cadet in the University of London OTC and applied for
a commission on the 18th November 1914, citing the 8th Bedfords
as his preferred unit, presumably in an attempt to follow
a friend into that unit. His age appears to have delayed his
acceptance, which was considered further in January 1915.
He stood 5 feet, 10 inches tall and had a five inch chest
expansion (almost twice the 'normal' expansion seen on such
records).
Gordon was finally gazetted as a Temporary
Second Lieutenant on the 15th February 1915 and trained in
the 9th battalion of the Bedfordshire regiment. Second Lieutenant
Hasler was examined by a medical board and classed as medically
unfit for service on the 21st March 1916, the curious disability
being classed as dermatitis capitis (a form of cradle cap),
complicated by swollen glands and repeated headaches.
By the 22nd April the problem was solved
and he was classed as fit for general service, joining the
7th battalion in France on the 27th May 1916. Sadly, he was
the second man killed during the shelling on 26th June as
he rested in the Company Mess, having been on the front lines
for around a month. Curiously, his service record, the War
Diary, his London Times obituary and the Regimental Medal
Rolls record his death in June yet the CWGC and SDGW records
list it as happening in July, although this error is in the
process of being corrected.
At the time of his death, his family
lived at 68 Lonsdale Road in Barnes. Two of his brothers were
also officers in the army, with Harold John Hasler serving
as a Lieutenant in the 121st Pioneers in India and Stanley
Ronald Hasler as a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. A photograph
of Gordon's grave is shown opposite, from the Carnoy Military
cemetery where he lies.
His Officers service number was 61101
and his record is held by the National Archives, under reference
WO339/32361.
John Morrison, a distant relative of
Gordon's, adds this interesting piece of family information.
Gordon's father John was born John Hasler Hitchcock, but his
wife Jessie did now want to be known as Mrs Hitchcock (for
decency reasons apparently) and she made him change his name.
He became John Hasler Hasler and their eldest son was born
Harold Hitchcock but the others (Gordon, Stanley and Douglas)
were all called Hasler.
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The opening day of the Battle of the Somme
- 1st July 1916 - was to become the bloodiest day in British military
history. The 7th battalion was in the front waves of the assault
that would see little gains made and 57,000 British casualties that
day alone. However, the Bedfords were one of the few to not only
make it into the German lines but to take their second line positions
as well as storming and holding the formidable Pommiers Redoubt.
That day would see them in a large scale offensive action for the
first time and by the end of their assault 2 Officers were killed
and 13 more wounded with around 320 men killed, wounded or missing.
The next two Officers are those who lost their lives that fateful
day.
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Lieutenant Joscelyn Hugh Russell RAWES
Killed in action 1st July 1916, aged 20
 Joscelyn
was born on 4th August 1895, the youngest son of the Reverend
and Mrs F. Russell Rawes from 140 Cherry Hinton Road in Cambridge.
He was educated at the Grammar School in Bury St. Edmunds
and Perso School of Cambridge, where he was Captain of the
Rugby Team, the Head Boy between 1913 and 1914 as well as
being the Colour Sergeant in the O.T.C. He also won an exhibition
at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge and had just left school
when war was declared.
Joscelyn Rawes enlisted in September
1914, at which time his father was the vicar of Sandy in Bedfordshire
and lived at Hatley St. George Rectory in Sandy. After training,
he became a Second Lieutenant and went to France with the
7th battalion in July 1915. The 19 year old stood at 5 feet
7 inches tall and spent his first year in the trenches around
Carnoy, east of Albert on the Somme.
Lieutenant Rawes was in the very front
wave of the assault on the 1st July 1916, leading B Company
out into no-man's land. He left the trench at 7.28am and immediately
came under machine gun fire but made it all the way across
no man's land at the head of his men. He fell as he arrived
at the first line of German trenches, just before 8am. Lieutenant
Rawes' runner, Private 13944 N. Faulkner wrote from hospital
a few days later that he was just behind Lieutenant Rawes
as they tried to get through the German barbed wire, around
10 yards from the German front lines, when a bomb exploded
next to him and the Lieutenant doubled up and fell to the
ground.
In a curious twist, his batman (officer's
servant) at the time relayed the story to his father that
Joscelyn had been 'blown to pieces', presumably to allay any
fears that his family had of him suffering, although, sadly,
it seems to have caused more dismay than comfort. The issue
was resolved after several letters between his father and
the War Office, although his batman's report of a wooden box
with his items inside it going missing was not. One of the
War Office's replies even goes so far as to remark "the
late officer's servant would scarcely appear to be a 'reliable
man'", referring to the servant's statement that
the box existed in the first place. This would seem a little
unfair, given that his batman returned Lieutenant Rawes' personal
effects gathered from his body to his family, which included
a silver cigarette case.
Lieutenant Rawes' body was recovered
from the battlefield and is buried in the Carnoy Military
Cemetery some weeks later by another regiment once the fighting
had moved further north-east.
His brother served in the South African
Wars of 1899-1902 and also flew in the R.F.C. during the Great
War. Around September 1916, he went to try to locate his brother's
final resting place at Carnoy but was unable to find the cemetery.
In a further confusing addition to his service record, a letter
to Joscelyn's father dated to January 1920 states that his
grave was moved to the Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, yet
today it remains in the Carnoy cemetery where he was originally
interred.
His Officers service number was 28744
and his record is held by the National Archives, under reference
WO339/13205
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Second Lieutenant James CUNNINGHAM
Killed in action 1st July 1916, aged 35.
James was in the 9th battalion, attached to
the 7th when he was killed and arrived in the battalion on
the 25th May 1916. He had been on the line for 6 weeks and
fell during the opening day of the Somme offensives of 1916
as the battalion went into action for the first time. He was
formerly a Lieutenant with Transport and Remount Department
of the West African Forces and was the son of James Cunningham
of Ashfield in Craigmore, Rothesay. James has no grave but
is remembered on the Thiepval memorial to the missing.
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Second Lieutenant Evelyn Walter James JOHNSON.
Died of wounds 20th July 1916, aged 19
Evelyn Johnson received his commission as an
Officer on the 21st January 1915, and arrived with the battalion
early in 1916. He was wounded on the 26th June when a shell
fell through the roof of C Company's Officers Mess, having
only been with the battalion a few months. After struggling
against his wounds for several weeks he finally died whilst
in the General Hospital in Rouen. He was the son of Anthony
Charles and Helen Johnson of 79 Huron Road in Balham, London.
He is buried in the St. Sever cemetery, Rouen. His record
is held by the National Archives, under reference WO339/33223.
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Second Lieutenant David Arnold ROEBER
Killed in action 14th August 1916, aged 18
David was commissioned with his brother Oscar
Dunsford Roeber as a 2/Lt on the 7th May 1915 and David arrived
in C Company on the 15th/16th July 1916, where he served until
his death a month later. On the night of the 14th/15th August
1916 the battalion launched a dummy raid on the German trenches
to keep them on edge. The German artillery barrage sent in
response was "feeble" but still killed David and 3 of the
men who were manning the British trenches. He was serving
in the 3rd Reserve battalion but attached to the 7th battalion
when he died. David was the son of A.O. and M.I. Roeber of
21 Honor Oak Road in Forest Hill, London and is buried in
the Ration Farm Military cemetery, La Chappelle D'Armentieres,
near Armentieres. His record is held by the National Archives,
under reference WO339/4136.
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On the 28th September 1916, the
battalion assaulted the impregnable Schwaben Redoubt, on the Thiepval
Ridge that had stood against several attempts to take it since the
opening day of the battle of the Somme. The 54th Brigade had taken
half the village of Thiepval on the 26th, leaving the Bedfords the
northern half, which they took the following day. The 28th saw them
storm and successfully take over half of the redoubt, with the final
sections being taken on the 14th October by the 1st/1st Cambridgeshires.
Fifteen Officers were killed or wounded in the assault as well as
over 100 men during the single battalion action. 7 Officers were
recommended for gallantry medals including Thomas ADLAM who would
become the battalions first Victoria Cross winner and 8 DCM's and
21 Military Medals would be awarded between the "Other Ranks" after
their assault. Below are those five Officers who lost their lives
fighting for the Schwaben Redoubt.
The Thiepval Memorial to the missing
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Second Lieutenant Ian Henry Munro ROSS-TAYLOR
Killed in action 27th September 1916 (SDGW
incorrectly records it as June)
Ian was commissioned as a trainee Officer on
the 23rd February 1915 and arrived with A Company of the 7th
battalion in France early in 1916. His death was recorded
in the London Times on October 4th. Ian was the only son of
Mr and Mrs Ross-Taylor of Daws Hall, Lamarsh in Essex. He
has no known grave but is remembered on the Thiepval memorial
to the missing.
His record is held by the National Archives,
under reference WO339/35930.
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Second Lieutenant Cedric Stewart HOWARD
Killed in action 28th September 1916, aged
22.
 He
was the son of Albert and Helen Alice Howard of 10 Cutcliff
Place in Bedford and is buried in the Mill Road Cemetery in
Thiepval.
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Second Lieutenant Robert Donald HUNSTON
Killed in action 28th September 1916, aged
21.
 Robert
and his younger brother (John
Norman Hunston) were gazetted together as trainee
Officers on the 13th June 1915 and both served in the Bedfordshire
Regiment. John was a 2/Lt who fell in the 6th battalion 15th
July 1916, aged 20 and Robert served in the 7th battalion,
arriving with them on the 20th July 1916, five days after
his brother had died.
On his arrival, Robert was posted to A
Company where he served until his death in combat two months
later.
Both men were the sons of Robert George
Laskey and Helen Hunston of 32 Hallewell Road in Edgbaston,
Birmingham. Robert is buried in the Mill Road Cemetery in
Thiepval.
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Second Lieutenant Thomas Percy WILSON
Killed in action 28th September 1916
 Thomas
was gazetted a trainee Officer on the 30th April 1915 but
did not arrived in B Company of the 7th battalion until the
15th/16th July 1916.
He is buried in the Mill
Road Cemetery in Thiepval.
His record is held by the
National Archives, under reference WO339/41180
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Second Lieutenant Herbert George MERCHANT
Killed in action 28th September 1916, aged
22.
Herbert was gazetted as a 2/Lt on the 5th August
1916 and had only been with the battalion in the field a matter
of days before his death. He arrived on the 17th September
in a draft of three new Officers, only one of which survived.
Herbert fell eleven days later during the assault and was
in the 9th battalion nut attached to the 7th upon his death.
He was the son of James H. and Maude Merchant
of 134 Castle Street in Luton. Herbert has no known grave
but is remembered on the Thiepval memorial.
His record is held by the National Archives,
under reference WO339/43484
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Second Lieutenant Henry POTTS
Died of wounds 1st October 1916, aged 23
 Henry
was born in Hyde, Cheshire and was educated at the Radcliffe
University College, Oxford. Second Lieutenant Potts served
in France with the 7th battalion from August 1915 and was
mortally wounded during the assault on the Schwaben Redoubt.
Although he was moved to the medical facilities on the coast,
he died from his wounds a few days later.
He was the son of Jabez and Hilda Alice Potts,
of 1A, Cato Rd., Clapham, London and lies in the Boulogne
Eastern cemetery.
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On the 3rd May
1917 the battalion attacked German lines south of Cherisy during
the Third Battle of the Scarpe, during the Battle of Arras. They
had experienced no Officer deaths since Schwaben last September
despite being in the Ancre operations that February and March when
Christopher Cox had won a Victoria
Cross. However, uncut German wire trapped the battalion in no-man's
land in front of Fontaine Wood and 13 of the 22 Officers who went
into action were killed or wounded, as well as almost 250 men that
day. The following six Officers were killed and died of their wounds
received at Cherisy that day.
The Arras Memorial to the Missing
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Captain Wilfred Herbert BULL
Killed in action 3rd May 1917, aged 31.
 Wilfred
joined the battalion when war broke out and trained with the
newly formed unit until they landed in France on the 26th
July 1915. The 11th October 1915 saw him take over command
of B Company and between the 1st and 9th November 1915 he
enjoyed a spell of leave to England. Captain Bull sat with
Captain Keep in a Field General Court Marshall on the 2nd
May 1916 and led the right side of the assault on the opening
day of the Somme offensives of 1916. He was severely wounded
by shrapnel at around 8.30am on the 1st July 1916 as he led
his Company to the outskirts of the Pommiers Redoubt and wrote
the subsequent report on the battle which can be seen here
in the 1916 Appendices. After nine months convalescing, Wilfred
rejoined the battalion on the 3rd April 1917, exactly a month
before he fell at Cherisy. He was described as "One of the
finest officers we ever had" by his men and fell amongst the
front ranks as they tried in vain to force a way through the
wire that was swept by machine gun fire that day. He was the
only son of C.H. Bull from The Homestead in Elstree and partner
in the firm Hibberd, Bull & Co. at 6a Devonshire Square in
London. His death was recorded in the Times on the 15th May
1917 and he is buried in the Cerisy-Gailly French National
Cemetery, 10km south-west of Albert on the Somme. Captain
Bull and Lieutenant Sherwell can be seen opposite before a
football match in 1915. His record is held by the National
Archives, under reference WO339/121331
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Second Lieutenant Edward St. Hilary LINGWOOD
Killed in action 3rd May 1917, aged 24
Edward had not been with the battalion long
before his death, which was announced in the London Times
of the 18th May 1917. He was the eldest son of Alice Mary
Lingwood of Westleton, Saxmundham in Suffolk, and the late
Edward Thomas Lingwood. Edward had no known grave but is remembered
on the Arras Memorial to the missing.
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Second Lieutenant Cridland John LUSCOMBE
Killed in action 3rd May 1917, aged 19.
Cridland arrived with the battalion on the 25th
May 1916 and came through both the opening day of the Somme
offensives as well as the Schwaben Redoubt assault in September.
On the 10th December 1916, he was appointed as battalion Sniping
Officer but was killed opposite Fontaine Wood along with many
of his men. He was the son of J. and I.E. Luscombe of Marridge,
Ugborough in Devon and is remembered on the Arras Memorial.
His record is held by the National Archives,
under reference WO339/42076
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Second Lieutenant Lionel George ANGAS
Killed in action 3rd May 1917, aged 27 Before
the war Lionel earned a B.A. (Lond.) and worked as a Civil
Servant. The London Gazette records Lionel was moved to the
battalion whilst training on the 14th January 1915 and was
gazetted as a 2/Lt on the 25th October 1916. However, he did
not arrive in the battalion until the 12th November 1916 and
was killed several months later, during the Arras Offensives.
He was the son of George Sample Angas and Charlotte Gertrude
Angas of 11 Winchester Road, Highgate in London and is remembered
on the Arras Memorial. His record is held
by the National Archives, under reference WO339/31289
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Second Lieutenant Chester Bishop KYDD
Killed in action 3rd May 1917, aged 19
 Chester
Bishop Kydd was born on 31st May 1897, the only son of Dr.
John G A Kydd and his wife Jessie de Mott Bishop. The family
lived at Shantallagh in Coleraine, Co Londonderry. He was
gazetted a 2/Lt on the 18th June 1915 and arrived in the 7th
battalion on the 15th/16th July 1916, along with several other
Officers who formed replacements for the losses sustained
on the 1st July. He was killed in action leading B Company
in the attack. The Company was trapped around Fontaine trench
in a deep belt of uncut wire and were being badly mauled by
MG & sniper fire. Of the company officers who started out
that day, only two came out of the action unwounded. His batman,
Private H.H. Gladwish, was with him when he was shot in the
chest and tried to carry his wounded charge to the British
line, but he was forced to shelter in a shell-hole. It was
there that 2/Lt Kydd died. Private Gladwish, isolated and
trapped by the constant shelling, spent almost seventy-two
hours in no-man's land trying to make it back to British lines
by night and hiding in shell holes during the day, without
food, water or contact with anyone alive. When he ultimately
got back to his own lines "looking like a hunted creature",
he was too exhausted with hunger and grief to tell a coherent
story but was to be awarded the D.C.M. for his gallantry.
Chester Kydd had no known grave but is remembered on the Arras
Memorial to the Missing. His record is
held by the National Archives, under reference WO339/4106
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Second Lieutenant Sidney Charles TREMEER
Died of wounds 17th May 1917, aged 28 Cadet
Sidney Tremeer was promoted to a 2/Lt on the 5th August 1916
and arrived with the battalion on the 17th September 1916,
along with his fellow Officer cadet Herbert Merchant who was
killed just ten days later (see above). Sidney was wounded
at Cherisy on the 3rd May and died from his wounds two whole
weeks later whilst in Le Treport general hospital on the coast.
He was the son of Charles George and Eleanor Agnes Tremeer
of Chiswick in London and is buried in the Mont Huon Military
Cemetery, Le Treport.
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Lieutenant Ferdinand Nigel SHERWELL
Killed in action 13th June 1917, aged 21 years
11 months
The
former O.T.C. Cadet was commissioned as a 2/Lt on the 14th
September 1914 and spent the entire training period in England
with the 7th Battalion. He landed in France with them on the
26th July 1915 and survived the Somme battles of 1916 as well
as the Ancre operations of February and March 1917 and the
Cherisy assault, only to be killed by a shell whilst holding
the lines. His death was announced in the Times on 20th June
1917. Fredinand was the ninth son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Yeo Sherwell
of 174 Willesden Lane in London and is buried in the Rookery
British Cemetery, Heninel, 10km south-east of Arras. He is
shown on the right in the photograph opposite with Captain
Bull in 1915 before a football match. His
record is held by the National Archives, under reference
WO339/12090
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Captain Douglas Scrivener Howard KEEP, MC
Killed in action 14th July 1917, aged 24
 Humane
Society's Medal for life-saving. He joined the battalion at
the outbreak of war and was gazetted a 2/Lt 16th September
1914. Douglas' brother was Leslie Howard Keep, a Captain in
the 1916 battles who won the D.S.O. for his part in the 28th
September 1916 assault on the Schwaben Redoubt, the same battle
that Douglas won his Military Cross in. Douglas' MC citation
(issue 29837 of the London Gazette, dated 24th November 1916)
reads:
"For conspicuous
gallantry in action. He organised and led repeated bombing
attacks on the enemy strong points. On one occasion, with
only three men and no bombs, he remained in close proximity
to the enemy for one and a half hours."
Douglas became the acting Captain of A Company
on the 4th November 1916 and was later confirmed as full Captain
from 28th October. Having survived the 1st July 1916 and the
Schwaben Redoubt assaults as well as the Ancre operations
and the Arras battles Captain Keep was killed by a shell whilst
his party of men buried cables on the West edge of Zillebeke
Lake near Ypres. His body was recovered and he was buried
on the 16th July with full military honours, which is even
recorded in the war diary.
Douglas was the son of the late John Howard
Keep and Mrs. Keep, of Abbots Langley in Herts. He is buried
in the Reninghelst New Military cemetery, 10k south-west of
Ypres centre. His service record is held at the National Archives,
reference WO339/19432.
His brother Leslie Howard KEEP's service record
held at the National Archives, reference WO339/19433
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On the 10th August 1917 the battalion assaulted
fortified German positions in Glencourse Wood near Inverness Copse
in the Ypres sector. The war diary records; "The battalion famous
for its fighting spirit in the past eclipsed all former deeds of
gallantry, when heavy wire held up the foremost men, those behind
stood on lumps of earth and rubbish and fired over the heads of
those cutting the wire, seldom have any troops shown such brilliant
dash and utter contempt for the Bosch". Nevertheless, seen Officers
and around 260 of the battalion became casualties fighting for what
remained of the wood, including the following two Officers who lost
their lives that day.
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The Ypres (Menin Gate)
Memorial to the Missing
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Second Lieutenant Frederick HALSEY
Killed in action 10th August 1917, aged 37
 Frederick
Halsey arrived with the battalion sometime in 1917 and was
in B Company on the left during the assault on Glencourse
Wood where he fell. He was posted missing 10th August but
later found and buried in the Hooge Crater Cemetery, 4km east
of Ypres centre; a picture of the cemetery from the war can
be seen below. Frederick was the son of David Daniel and Mary
Ann Halsey of 3 Frithesden, near Hemel Hempstead in Herts.,
and the husband of Esther Halsey of 7 Wellington Street in
Bedford.
His service record is held at the National
Archives, reference WO339/122616.
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Second Lieutenant Samuel Maurice CONNOR
Killed in action 10th August 1917, aged 19.
Samuel arrived in the battalion during 1917
and fell whilst in D Company, who were initially the Reserve
Company of the assault. He was the son of Emily C. Connor,
of Ockbrook, Derby, and the late Rev. James Connor and is
remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial which can be
seen above.
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Second Lieutenant Robert Cyril Starling RANSOM
Died of wounds 19th October 1917
 Robert
was gazetted as an Officer on the 27th June 1917 and arrived
with the battalion 28th September 1917, on the evening the
battalion celebrated the Schwaben Redoubt victory from a year
before. Within three weeks he was mortally wounded and is
buried in the Minty Farm cemetery, Langemarck.
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Second Lieutenant Graham Sydney GILBERTSON
Killed in action 28th November 1917, aged 19
Graham was educated at Hitchin Grammar School
and was the champion swimmer on the H.M.S. Worcester before
the war. Although he passed his RNR exams in 1915 he was found
to be colour blind so was subsequently rejected and pursued
a position in the Infantry instead. He joined the Inns Court
OTC and was commissioned into the Bedfordshire regiment in
April 1917, joining the 7th battalion in August 1917. Three
months later he was killed whilst the battalion held the lines
near Boezinghe, possibly during a relief.
Graham was the second son of Dr. James H. and
Beatrice M. Gilbertson of Hitchin in Herts. He has no known
grave but is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing.
His service record is held at the National
Archives, reference WO339/126305
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Second Lieutenant Arthur PRATT
Died of wounds 11th February 1918, aged 21
 Arthur
joined the 8th Battalion on the 3rd February 1918, only to
find the battalion about to be disbanded in line with the
major reorganizations of the time. He was transferred into
the 7th on the 9th February 1918, only to be mortally wounded
when a German airplane bombed one of C Companies Billets that
day, demolishing it and killing 12 and wounding another 6
men. Although Arthur was moved back to the larger casualty
stations, he died later that day from his wounds, having been
in the field for eight days and never having fired a shot.
Arthur was the son of Joseph Robert and Sophia
Lydia Pratt and is buried in the Noyon New British Cemetery.
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Between the 21st March and mid April 1918 (see
here for a more detailed story)
the battalion were involved in the desperate defence against a series
of overwhelming German Offensives that almost broke the British
Fifth Army and saw Haig's famous order telling the army to stand
to the last. In what would be their final series of major engagements
before they were disbanded, the battalion lost their last six Officer
fatalities, as listed below.
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The Pozieres Memorial
to the Missing
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Second Lieutenant Westropp Orbell Peyton WINMILL
Killed in action 22nd or 23rd March 1918, aged
23.
Westropp was educated at Bedford Grammar school
before the war and later joined the Sandhurst Royal Military
College. He was commissioned into the regiment 12th May 1915,
having completed his training as a Gentleman Cadet at Sandhurst,
and landed in France with the battalion on the 26th July 1915.
He seems to disappear from the battalion sometime in 1915
or 1916 but is back with them in time for the massive Spring
Offensives in March 1918. Remarkably he was the only Officer
killed during the battalions determined defence along the
Crozat Canal on the 22nd and 23rd March 1918 when 4 Officers
and around 250 of the battalion became casualties. His death
was announced in the Times on the 26th April 1918 and commented
that he had been attached to the RFC for 20 months, which
may explain his absence from the battalions diaries and activities.
Westropp was the eldest son of Frances Ada Macnab (formerly
Winmill, Nee Peyton), and the late George Winmill. He was
married to Myfaneny Winmill (nee Clarke) of Reading. He, along
with all who fell along the canal over those two days, has
no known grave but is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial
to the missing which can be seen above.
His service record is held at the National Archives,
reference WO339/49724
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Lieutenant Marten Cave DUPLOCK
Killed in action 2nd April 1918 Marten was
born in Leicester, around June 1890 but by the time war broke
out, his family were in North Wales. He enlisted into the
army at Rhyl in North Wales on 26th February 1915, becoming
Sapper 82239 in the 126th Field Company of the Royal Engineers
but was discharged to commission on 16th June 1915. At the
time, he was a 24 year old Draughtsman, stood 5 feet, 4 inches
tall, and he lived in the same house as his mother, being
'Prospect', Prestatyn, North Wales. He married Margaret Elizabeth
during his service in the war, although I have not traced
the details of this so far. Marten was gazetted as a 2/Lt
on the 1st July 1917 and joined the 8th battalion in France
soon afterwards, surviving the Third battle of Ypres and the
Battle of Cambrai. He transferred from 8th to the 7th Battalion
on 9th February 1918, along with another 7 Officers and 170
men when the 8th battalion disbanded and served less than
two months with them before his death. Both Duplock and Craig
(below) were casualties in a localized counter attack on the
evening of the 2nd April when the remnants of the battle weary
battalion, alongside the similarly exhausted survivors of
the 11th Royal Fusiliers, attacked a German held village near
Cachy, west of Albert. In a superb manoeuvre that one of the
senior officers present described as "the finest piece of
fighting" he had seen, the tiny band of exhausted British
troops who had been fighting and retiring for almost two weeks,
attacked a dug in, German held village and routed the entire
garrison, killing around 100 and capturing 2-300 more in the
process. However, the battalion lost a further 5 Officers
and almost 50 men killed, wounded or missing and were forced
to retire again overnight for fear of being overwhelmed by
the superior German forces in the area. Marten was killed
during the assault but his body was not recovered so he is
remembered on the Pozieres Memorial to the missing which can
be seen above. At the time of his death, his wife lived at
'The Central', Llanrwst, North Wales and there appears to
have been a dispute of some kind relating to his will between
his mother and wife, although details are not contained within
his record.
His service record is held at the National
Archives, reference WO339/31581.
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Second Lieutenant Gordon Robert CRAIG
Died of wounds 3rd April 1918 Gordon was gazetted
as a Temporary 2/Lt on the 25th February 1917 and arrived
with the battalion that summer, when he was posted to C Company.
He was wounded on the 8th August 1917 but remained at duty
and fought at Glencourse Wood on the 10th but finally fell
mortally wounded on the 2nd April 1918, in the same action
that Marten Duplock (above) was killed.
Gordon died the following day at a Casualty
Clearing Station and is buried in the Namps-au-Val British
cemetery, 16km south-west of Amiens.
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Captain Oliver KINGDON, M.C.
Killed in action 24th April 1918, aged 31 Oliver
was gazetted in the Times as a Temporary 2/Lt on the 26th
January 1915 and served in the battalion until his death in
April 1918. His Military Cross (gazetted on the 13th September
1918) was earned on the day of his death and was for leading
his Company in a counter attack during the battle at Villers-Bretonneux.
He was the son of Oliver and Maud Matilda Kingdon of 84 Brownlow
Road, New Southgate in London. He has no known grave but is
remembered on the Pozieres Memorial to the missing which can
be seen above.
His service record is held at the National Archives,
reference WO339/34679
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Captain Andrew Best McBRIDE, M.C.
 Killed
in action 24th April 1918, aged 22.
Andrew was born 16th June 1895 and educated
at Berkhampsted Grammar school, where he was a Corporal in
the cadets. He passed the senior Oxford local exams with honours
as well as his first professional medical exam at the University
of London. Andrew was gazetted as a Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire
regiment in September 1914 and promoted to Captain in 1st
June 1915. He was the Brigade's Musketry Instructor for a
period and transferred in from the 8th battalion to the 7th
when it was disbanded. His Colonel wrote to Andrew's parents
"I cannot speak too highly of your
son as an Officer in the recent fighting. He has done the
most splendid work, showing great coolness under fire and
his sound judgement on several occasions got his company out
of difficult situations." Captain McBride M.C., was
killed at Villers Bretonneux along with Captain Kingdon (above)
during the famous counter attack launched by British and Australian
forces that almost cut of and wiped out an entire German regiment.
He was the son of John Best McBride R.A.M.C.T. and Mary Constance
McBride of Falkland House, Berkhampsted in Herts. Andrew is
buried in the Longueau British Cemetery on the Somme. See
here
to see him in a group photo.
His service record is held at the National Archives,
reference WO339/34679
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Lieutenant (Acting Captain) Charles Alfred LAWRENCE,
M.C.
Killed in action 24th April 1918, aged 24
Charles was commissioned into the Bedfordshire
Regiment on the 10th September 1915, trained with the Inns
of Court OTC and arrived with the battalion the following
year. He survived the Somme serving in C Company and is shown
on the list of Officers going into action during the Ancre
Operations in February 1917, when Stretcher Bearer Christopher
Cox won his VC as well as at Glencourse Wood on 10th August
1917. His Military Cross was gazetted on page 40 of the London
Times, 28th December 1917 and was probably for gallantry at
Glencourse Wood the previous August. Charles fell at Villers
Brettoneux along with the two veteran Officers above and is
remembered on the Pozieres memorial to the missing, which
can be seen above. He was the son of Mr. A.H. Lawrence of
"Palmhurst", Gundulph Road in Chatham.
His service record is held at the National
Archives, reference WO339/42231
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7th Battalion links
Below are links to the other pages with information
on the 7th battalion during the Great War:
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