Extraordinary stories of ordinary men M-Z
Here you can read more about the Rosslyn Park players, as their stories come forward. If you know more about these men, please email info@rugbyremembers.co.uk
Please note that alphabetical order has not yet been strictly applied!
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Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO 18 May 1865 - 9 March 1915
Guy du Maurier is the veteran of this story, dying at the age of 49 near Ypres in 1915. He joined the Club at the age of 16 in 1881 only two years after its founding, when it was little more than a group of friends playing rugby together in North London. This may be not unconnected with the fact that the club's founder, Charles Hoyer Millar was to marry his older sister Beatrix ('Trixie') - which is one way to get into the XV. He is seated front left of this somewhat camp team photo of 1882-3, at the tender age of 17.
He came from a celebrated artistic family: father George was an author and cartoonist, creator of the characters Trilby and Svengali; brother Gerald was an actor and theatrical manager, who also entertained Park members at informal suppers; niece Daphne was to become the author Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel etc. Guy was himself a successful playwright, most notably making a stir in 1909 with An Englishman's Home, which tells the story of the Brown family under invasion by an unnamed foreign power. When the play was staged in Germany, it caused an outrage, as the German press saw clear references to their Homeland. In 1940 it was made into a propaganda film, more pointedly titled Mad Men of Europe.
Photograph copyright Gt Ormond St Hospital
Guy was educated at Marlborough and Sandhurst and was gazetted to the Royal Fusiliers as Lieutenant in 1885, becoming captain in 1896, and major in 1900. He served in the Boer war in South Africa, was Mentioned in Despatches in 1902 and received the Queen's Medal and DSO. In 1905 he married Gwendolen, and returned to South Africa to command a battalion of mounted infantry in 1906. Stories tell that his hair turned white after witnessing a shell take the head off the man next to him.
By 1915 he was Lt Col and the Regimental history describes his death: '3rd Bn Royal Fusiliers were in the trenches east of Kemmel, near Ypres, being badly knocked about. On the night of the 9th March 1915 Bn. HQ were shelled and burned. Official correspondence, a machine gun, rifles and eighty sets of equipment were destroyed. It was on this occasion that Lieut-Col Guy du Maurier was killed. L/Cpl Fovargue who was at HQ at the time, stated they were asleep when a shell suddenly tore off part of the roof. The Colonel rushed to the doorway, and just as he reached it a shell fell on the spot and killed him instantly.'
Guy's younger sister Sylvia became close to the playwright JM Barrie - in the film Finding Neverland she is played by Kate Winslet. (Brother Gerald was to be the first stage Captain Hook/Mr Darling in 1904, Sylvia's sons George, Michael, John and Peter were the models for the children in Peter Pan, and Barrie helped to produce Guy's play) In a letter dated 11 March 1915, Barrie wrote to Sylvia's eldest boy, 2/Lt George Llewellyn Davies to inform him of his uncle's death:
There was always something pathetic about him to me. He had lots of stern stuff in him, and yet always the mournful smile of one who could pretend that life was gay but knew it wasn’t. One of the most attractive personalities I have ever known.
George received this letter the day before he was killed (15 March 1915). His response, written a few hours before his death, is shown in full below:
Dear Uncle Jim,
I have just got your letter about Uncle Guy. You said it hasn’t made you think any more about the danger I am in. But I know it has. Do not try to let it. I take every care of myself that can decently be taken. And if I am going to stop a bullet, why should it be with a vital place?....
It is very bad about Uncle Guy. I wonder how he was killed. As he was a colonel, I imagine his battalion was doing an attack. Poor Aunt Gwen. This war is a dreadful show.
The ground is drying up fast now, and the weather far better…There have already been doings in various parts of the line, and I would rather be George Davies than Sir John French just now. He must have got some hard decisions in front of him. Well, let’s hope for a good change in the next month.
Meanwhile dear Uncle Jim, you must carry on with your job of keeping up your courage. I will write every time I come out of action. We go up to the trenches in a few days again.
Yours affectionately, George
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George received this letter the day before he was killed (15 March 1915). His response, written a few hours before his death, is shown in full below:
Dear Uncle Jim,
I have just got your letter about Uncle Guy. You said it hasn’t made you think any more about the danger I am in. But I know it has. Do not try to let it. I take every care of myself that can decently be taken. And if I am going to stop a bullet, why should it be with a vital place?....
It is very bad about Uncle Guy. I wonder how he was killed. As he was a colonel, I imagine his battalion was doing an attack. Poor Aunt Gwen. This war is a dreadful show.
The ground is drying up fast now, and the weather far better…There have already been doings in various parts of the line, and I would rather be George Davies than Sir John French just now. He must have got some hard decisions in front of him. Well, let’s hope for a good change in the next month.
Meanwhile dear Uncle Jim, you must carry on with your job of keeping up your courage. I will write every time I come out of action. We go up to the trenches in a few days again.
Yours affectionately, George
Denis Laurence Monaghan 23 Nov 1888 – 24 Nov 1917
Born in Stroud, Gloucs, educated at Uppingham and University College London. He played for Rosslyn Park from 1909-12, on the wing for Middlesex and was a Barbarian centre/wing on the traditional Easter tours of 1911 and 1912. He is seated on the right in the 1910/11 team, next to the standing Treasurer :
A Civil Engineer, he volunteered for active service on the outbreak of war, and rejoined the Artists' Rifles early in Aug 1914. He received a commission, and was gazetted 2nd Lieut. Royal Irish Rifles in October; promoted Lieut. 23 Nov 1914, and Capt 16 Jan.1917; was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, and subsequently to the Tank Corps; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 2 Oct. 1915; was wounded at Thiepval on the first day of the battle of the Somme 1 July, 1916; recovered and returned to France 22 July 1917.
Five days later the Tank Corps was formed. The Battle of Cambrai would be the first time in history that a major battle had been led by armoured vehicles. Each Tank battalion had a fighting strength of forty two Mk IV tanks with two supply tanks and four more to act as wire pullers. A Captain like Monaghan would normally have command of four tanks, each crewed by an officer, an NCO and six soldiers.
Monaghan here was Reconnaissance Officer, who would go ahead on foot with a stick to recce the ground if it was passable by tanks. 12 tanks from ‘I’ Bn were tasked to support 121st Infantry Brigade’s attempt to capture Bourlon Wood on 24th Nov. The attack was due to commence at noon but was put back until 3 p.m. At midday the tanks left Orival wood for Anneux. At 2.00 they received the orders to attack at 3.30 p.m. They speeded up and arrived just in time. As they approached, Capt Monaghan had his head blown clean off by a shell.
He was buried where he fell and is on the Cambrai Memorial at Louverval. That year he would never send the Christmas greetings cards printed by the new Tank Corps.
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Roger Ludovic Moore 12 May 1890 - 20 Dec 1914
The third son of a Maidenhead doctor, Roger Moore, whose brother James also played for Rosslyn Park, was educated at Uppingham and RMC Sandhurst. He received a commission into the Somerset Light Infantry in March 1911, becoming Lieutenant in April 1914. In 1913, he qualified as Interpreter in Colloquial Pekingese, although it is not clear when he was able to put this rare talent to good use. He was also a good shot, horseman and polo player.
Attached to the 1st Battalion, Prince Albert's, he was shot in the spine while visiting his sentries in Flanders, early on the morning of 20th December 1914, and died the same day, at the age of 24. He was mentioned in Sir John French's Despatch of 14 January 1915, for bravery in the field.
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Claude Douglas Fenelon de la Mothe (?)19 April 1888 - 13 Nov 1916
Claude was descended from an 18th Century French navy surgeon, Dominique la Mothe from Bayonne, who was captured by the British, imprisoned on the Isle of Man then liberated. He stayed and founded a prominent Manx family. Claude's father, Reverend Claude added 'de' to the family name, presumably to add pedigree.
He attended St Christopher's Eastbourne. Commissioned Sub Lt in Aug 1914, he went on the Antwerp raid (above) in October with Howe Battalion, RNVR. In June 1915 he became Company commander. He went to the Dardanelles with the MEF, but was hospitalised with sickness in Ghezireh, Egypt. He rejoined his battalion, served in Salonika and went to France in May 1916. He was killed in the Battle of the Ancre aged 28. His Battalion was part of 63rd Royal Naval Division, which helped finally take Beaumont-Hamel in November, five months after it was first attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, but at the cost of his own life and many others. The Royal Naval Division took 4,000 casualties, of which 1,600 fell during the assault on 13/14 November.
“In early October, the RN division was directed to the Somme, where British and French troops had been trying to break through German defensive lines since 1 July 1916. The Royal Naval Division was only deployed by the end of the battle of the Somme in what was to become known as the battle of the Ancre, a tributary river of the Somme.
Since the start of the Battle of the Somme, the front had been deadlocked near Beaumont-Hamel on the left shore of the Ancre River. Serre, one of the aims of the first day of the assault of 1 July 1916 had never been reached.
Hoping for a breakthrough here by the end of the year was in no way possible. The rain had turned the battlefield into a mud-bath. Particularly the area along the Ancre had been turned into a morass. Nonetheless, an attack was launched on Monday 13 November.
Howe-battalion and the first battalion of marines had to launch the attack in whirling sleet which afterwards changed to rain. More abominable conditions for active warfare are hardly to be imagined...
The Battle at the Somme was ended on 19 November 1916. There was no major breakthrough, just a partial success and appalling loss of life.
Claude's war was one of contrasts: he applied for service at sea, but was refused; he was court-martialled in the field for drunkenness; yet he was also Mentioned in Despatches in July 1916. He is finally at rest in the Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel.
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Francis James Ormsby 1884 - 3 Sept 1916
Born in 1884, possibly in Ireland, the son of Colonel John and Mrs Fanny Ormsby, later of Bexhill. Ormsby played for Park in 1903/4 and 1904/5 and can be seen seated front left below.
He left England for South Africa in 1908, and when war broke out served with General Botha's force in German South West Africa, subsequently returning to England where he was commissioned into the 14th Royal Sussex Regiment and attached to the 13th, the 3rd SouthDowns Battalion as a 2nd Lieut on 15th January 1916.
The SouthDowns 'pals' battalions, raised by Colonel Claude Lowther, owner of Herstmonceux Castle from Sussex volunteers, and known as " Lowther's lambs", sailed for France in March 1916. On 30th June, in what was described as a diversionary attack to distract the enemy from the Somme offensive due to start the next day, the 12th and 13th went over the top at Richebourg, and took over 1300 casualties.
In August they moved to the Somme and suffered terribly at Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel where Ormsby died on 3rd Sept 1916, aged 32, and is buried at Hamel Military Cemetery. He is commemorated on the memorial at Bexhill-on-Sea. His elder brother Lieut Horatio Nelson Ormsby was killed in 1915 with the Scottish Rifles.
www.royalsussex-southdowns.co.uk
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Nowell Oxland 1890 - 9th Aug 1915
A Cumberland vicar's son who attended Durham School as a Scholar, rower and XV rugby player and from 1909, Worcester College, Oxford, reading history when war broke out. While at Oxford he played rugby for Rosslyn Park (1910-11 XV photo), Richmond, Middlesex and Cumberland. He was gazetted as a 2nd Lieut, 6th Border Regiment in 1914 (staying loyal to his northern roots although his parents now lived in Portsmouth) and went to the Dardanelles,Turkey in June 1915 (as did Arthur Dingle and several other Park players).
The Gallipolli campaign was fought by Commonwealth and French forces trying to force Turkey out of the war, relieve the Western Front deadlock and open a supply route to Russia. The first Allies landed on 25-26 April, and Oxland's battalion landed at Suvla Bay, just north of Anzac Bay on 6th August. The aim had been to secure the high ground above the bay, but confused landings and indecision caused fatal delays, allowing the Turks to reinforce. Green Hill and Chocolate Hill (together Yilghin Burnu) were taken by Oxland's 6th Borders Rgt on 7th August, but he was killed two days later, aged 24. He is buried in Green Hill Cemetery.
His poem 'Outward Bound' appeared in the Times in August 1915, and can be found in many anthologies. Written en route to Gallipoli, he invokes the past invasion by the Greeks at Troy (across the Dardanelles) but dwells more on his fond memories of his home county:
We shall pass in summer weather/We shall come at eventide.../One with Cumberland for ever/We shall go not forth again.
His work was collected and published as Poems and Stories in 1917. At St. Augustine’s Church, Alston there are two portraits of him each side of the altar. His friend and fellow Durham King's Scholar, team and crew-mate and Oxford University man, WN Hodgson MC was killed on the first day of the Somme, 1st July 1916. He was also a war poet, best known for his 'Before Action', written two days before he died.
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Owen Guy Parry-Jones 1887 - 29 Sept 1916
Educated at Sherborne, Magdalen College, Oxford, and Guy's Hospital. He died of wounds on the Somme in Sept 1916 and is buried at Puchevillers. Guy’s Memorial Roll paid tribute to him:
‘We regret to record that Capt. Owen Parry- Jones, R.A.M.C, elder son of Dr. and 'Mrs. Parry-Jones, Full Street, Derby, has died in France, from wounds received in the recent fighting.
Owen Guy Parry-Jones was born at Pinxton, Derbyshire, in June 1887. He was educated first at a Preparatory School at Bournemouth, and then at Sherborne School, where he reached the Sixth Form and was School Prefect, but was, perhaps, more distinguished for his musical gifts and athletics. He was a prominent member of the Rugby XV, won the Steeplechase, and was a Sergeant in the O.T.C. He went up to Oxford with a Choral Scholarship at Magdalen College, became captain of the College XV and played many times for the University. After taking his B.A. degree he entered Guy's Hospital.
He was very specially a Guy's man, his father was here from 1878 to 1885, and his mother was for a short time Sister Cornelius. Known to all his friends as P. J., he was beloved by everyone who met him. In the Rugby XV he excelled as a forward, physically strong and powerful, he was one of the mainstays of a team that for some years remained undefeated in the Final Cup Ties. He also played for Kent, and was a member of two teams that went to France and Austria respectively. Possessed of a very fine baritone voice, his services for Ward Concerts at Christmas time was always most eagerly sought after.
In 1913 he accepted a Commission in (the Special Reserve of Officers and was called up when war broke but, when he was just on the eve of qualifying as a medical man, and was sent to the Lancashire Fusiliers as Second Lieutenant. He served with them at their depot and at Hull for five months, and then in view of the shortage of doctors he was given a month's leave to try and qualify. This he did and became M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in January, 1915, and was at once gazetted Lieutenant in the R.A.M.C and joined a training camp at Eastbourne. Promoted Captain in May, 1915, he went out to France in July, 1915, with the 56th Field Ambulance in the 18th Division. For the last few weeks he had been attached to the 8th Suffolks, and whilst with them he met his death. On September 28th he was standing outside the Advanced Aid Post when he received severe wounds from fragments of a shell. He died the following day, and we are told that he remained bright and cheerful to the end.
Thus P. J., in laying down his life voluntarily for his Country, reflects Honour and Glory on the name he bore, which will ever be remembered by his Hospital — Guy's.’
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Robert Denzil Patterson 18 Dec 1892 – 12 Oct 1916
Born in Rock Ferry, Robert Patterson attended Birkenhead School 1902-11. He was a School Prefect, Head of House, and Captain of the Cricket XI, and was in the Rugby XV. On leaving School he went up to Clare College, Cambridge, where he was in the cricket and Association football teams, editor of the Magazine, President of the Debating Society, and a member of the Hawks Club.
After taking his degree he went as a master to Copthorne School, in Sussex, and on the outbreak of war first joined the ranks and later obtained a commission with the 20th Bn The King’s(Liverpool Regiment). At the time of his death in the Battle of the Somme, between Gueudecourt and Le Sars, he was acting Captain and Adjutant. In command of his company, he was killed as they moved into the front line. He was 23.
His Colonel wrote to his parents: ‘May I offer you my very sincere sympathy. He died
doing his duty gallantly to the end.' His Major wrote: ‘He was a very competent and keen officer, and one in whom I had every confidence; he will be a great loss to the army and the country.' Another officer wrote: ‘It certainly requires the very highest form of courage
to stick on when things are as terrible as they were on the Somme, and I know from various sources that Roy refused several times to leave his men when he might very well have done so, simply because he had a strong sense of honour and duty. I knew him as an excellent and capable officer myself, and several others, men as well as officers, have told me he was both courageous and efficient in France.'
The Master of Clare College wrote: ‘As soon as your son came up, his energy and personality won him the regard and affection of all who knew him, and his memory will not soon fail here.'
He is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.
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Guy Vickery Pinfield 21 Oct 1894 - 24 April 1916
Guy Pinfield of Bishops Stortford, Marlborough College and Clare College, Cambridge was commissioned as 2nd Lieut into the 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars on 15th August 1914. He was killed aged 21 on Easter Monday, the first day of the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland. Only 500 troops were in Dublin at the time and many were at the races on Easter Monday. They were quickly reinforced and the rising suppressed within the week, at the cost of 116 soldiers killed, including Pinfield. A memorial plaque to him can be found in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
At the time, he was with the 10th Reserve Cavalry Regt, primarily a training regiment stationed at the Curragh Camp. He was buried initially in the grounds of Dublin castle, the seat of British government and now lies in Grangegorman Military Cemetery. Pinfield was part of the guardroom garrison which was attacked by Captain Sean Connolly's Irish Citizen Army, before the gates to the Castle were closed.
As a tragic side-note, we know that he was wounded and tended to by a civilian Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, a friend of James Joyce, journalist, socialist and - although a supporter of Home Rule - a dedicated pacifist. Having put his own life at risk to save Pinfield (who later died of his wounds) he was arrested the next day for no apparent reason and summarily executed at Portobello Barracks.
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Frank Dulcken Purser 9 March 1887 - 27 Dec 1917
Frank Purser of St John's Wood was at Uppingham (1901-06) and was admitted to Trinity College Cambridge as a sizar (reduced fees in return for work). He won the College History prize in 1907, was elected to a Major Scholarship in 1908 and took a First Class Honours Degree in 1909. He played rugby at Uppingham and Trinity and is seen here captaining the Trinity XV(sic) - few students attended the photo session, an experience with which the author is not unfamiliar.
He became a schoolmaster at Haileybury College, then joined the Royal Naval Volunter Reserve (RNVR) like de la Mothe. His Nelson battalion served at Gallipoli from the April landings at ANZAC Bay to the evacuation in Jan 1916. Until May he was at Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos,which had been used as the depot for the Dardanelles campaign. Then Nelson Bn and Lt Purser were despatched to the Western Front as part of the 63rd RN Division.
He was killed aged 29 at Villers-Plouich, near Cambrai, where he is buried. As a side note, Wandsworth Council - in which borough Park now resides - adopted this town in 1920, under the British League of Help scheme to fund the restoration of a devastated French or Belgian community. The Wandsworth 'Pals' Battalion had taken the village from the Germans in 1917, with Edward Foster, a Tooting dustman winning the VC.
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Edward Percy Wallis 5 June 1894 – 18 Oct 1916
A doctor’s son from East Grinstead, he attended Marlborough College 1908 to 1912 and matriculated Clare College, Cambridge 1912. He was commissioned Temp Lieutenant into the Royal Sussex Regt in 1914, sent to France in July 1915 and was gazetted Lieutenant to the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) in 1916, where he was promoted to Captain and attached to 8/Royal Sussex.
He was killed in action aged 22 on the Somme, and is buried at Bapaume Post Military Cemetery, near Albert. The July 1st frontline ran between the site of this cemetery and La Boisselle.
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Dawyck Moberley Veitch Jan 1890 – 8 July 1916
The younger son of the late Andrew Veitch, of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, he was educated at Bedford Grammar School, at Uppingham (1904-08) where he played on the XV and at RMC Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 1st Duke of York’s Lancers (Skinners Horse) stationed at Meerut, India. He was on leave in England when war broke out, and went out to France attached to the 9th Lancers early in September 1914, and was transferred in November to 4th Dragoon Guards. He was invalided home in December, and in January 1915, joined the RFC as an observer.
On 21 March, Capt Veitch and his pilot Lt. J. C. Joubert de la Ferté, flying Avro 504 for No. 1 Squadron were hit by AA fire and forced to land in Holland. Veitch escaped from internment and returned to duty.
In February, 1916, he was asked to qualify as a pilot, and after some months' work in England returned to France on June 28th. While he was flying on reconnaissance with 70 Squadron on July 8th both wings of his machine were blown off, and it is believed he was killed aged 27. His name is on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, below.
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Harry Burnett Stevenson 1882 - 6 Aug 1915
Obituary to be added.
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Arthur Darrell Stafford 1891- 20 May 1918
Arthur Stafford was originally from Battersea. A Colet Court and St Paul's boy, he was Captain of the St Paul's XV and team secretary of the Old Paulines as well as playing for Park. At Easter 1913, he was part of the Rosslyn Park team who went on tour to Germany, playing games in Hanover and Frankfort (sic). The Hanover team had ten years previously been captained by the Park skipper TR Treloar, had several Old Uppinghamians, but had never played an English club. The Annual Report states that the team had a great time "owing to the wonderful hospitality of the Germans". They would not be so welcoming on Stafford's next visit to the Continent.
He joined the Public Schools Bn of the Middlesex Regiment, later obtaining a commission in the Royal Warwicks. He married Violet Biggs in August 1917.
Lt Stafford, attached to the 1/3 Bn Lancashire Fusiliers was wounded on 13 May 1918, and was evacuated to hospital on the southern outskirts of Rouen. He succumbed to his wounds a week later and is buried at St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen.
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John Douglas Rutherford Died 11 Sept 1917
John Rutherford, a doctor's son was born in Exeter. He became a Royal Navy surgeon on HMS Theseus. He died of tuberculosis and is buried at East Mudros Military cemetery on the Greek island of Lemnos.
Because of its position,Lemnos played an important part in the campaigns against Turkey. It was occupied by a force of marines, likely to have included de la Mothe and Purser, on 23 February 1915 in preparation for the military attack on Gallipoli, and Mudros became a considerable Allied camp with several hospitals.
August of the same year saw HMS Theseus, below, landing 1,000 men at Suvla Bay for the second stage of the Allied attempt to capture the Dardanelles. No casualties were suffered while she disembarked the troops, and she anchored offshore in order to maintain a steady covering fire.
In October , Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and Admiral de Robeck, in charge of the British Squadron, was ordered to blockade the Bulgarian coast. On October 21st Admiral de Robeck bombarded the barracks at the port of Dede Agatch in the Aegean Sea. Hundreds of troops were seen hurrying to the hills as shells from Theseus reduced the barracks to a burning shambles. In spite of a bitterly cold northeasterly gale, a rapid fire was kept up, and the second target, consisting of the main line railway and sidings crowded with rolling stock was successfully eliminated. During the bombardment, care was taken to avoid shelling the town where there were no important objectives.
A fortnight before Christmas 1915, Theseus was engaged in covering the withdrawal of troops from Anzac Cove: her fire, combined with that of Grafton, surprised the enemy and inflicted great slaughter among the Turks. Soon after the New Year a similar task was allotted to her and she was again covering the withdrawal of allied troops - this time at Helles. In 1917, Theseus worked with the Aegean Squadron and at the close of the war was sent into the Black Sea and stationed at Batum.
Surgeons like Rutherford had to work in terrible heat and sanitary conditions and disease and infection was rife in the wounded troops evacauted from the Dardanelles. It is no surprise that he succumbed to illness.
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Charles Harry Norman 'Sam' Scholey 19 Aug 1892 - 25 Sept 1915
Charles Henry Norman Scholey, only son of Harry and Frances Scholey, and known as 'Sam', was educated at Uppingham (1907-11) and Clare College, Cambridge. He won school colours for rugby, and played cricket, hockey and rugby for Clare. Still an undergraduate when war broke out, he was gazetted to the 9th (Service) Battalion of the Rifle Brigade on 12 September 1914, became a Lieutenant in February 1915 and went to Flanders in May.
During the Second Battle of Ypres, the 9th was in Railway Wood, left sector. On the 25th they were taking part in an attack by the 14th Division on the Bellewarde Farm position, the task allotted to the Battalion being to seize and hold the enemy trenches.
In the attack on the German trenches on 25 September he was mortally wounded, and died shortly afterwards, aged just 23. His Commanding officer wrote:- " His Company led the assault on the East Force. He did splendidly and carried two lines of German trenches. It was while he was consolidating the position won that he was very badly wounded by a bomb. Although we lost the position he had so bravely won he was not abandoned but brought back to the first line, where he died later in the day....Of his Company only one N.C.O. and six Riflemen returned to the British lines." His obituary appeared in The Times on 1st October 1915
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In the attack on the German trenches on 25 September he was mortally wounded, and died shortly afterwards, aged just 23. His Commanding officer wrote:- " His Company led the assault on the East Force. He did splendidly and carried two lines of German trenches. It was while he was consolidating the position won that he was very badly wounded by a bomb. Although we lost the position he had so bravely won he was not abandoned but brought back to the first line, where he died later in the day....Of his Company only one N.C.O. and six Riflemen returned to the British lines." His obituary appeared in The Times on 1st October 1915
Alexander Findlater Todd 20 Sept 1873 - 21 April 1915
AF Todd (as he is in the Club history) was born in Forest Hill, SE London and son of Bruce Beveridge Todd. His father was taken into partnership in a wine and spirits family firm that had no line of male descent. Presumably in gratitude, he named his son Alexander Findlater, after the firm's founder from Greenock, and the firm became Findlater, Mackie, Todd & Co Ltd, trading independently until 1968. It survives today within the Waitrose company.
He was educated at Mill Hill, was captain of cricket and rugby and played as a forward for Old Milhillians against Park in 1889, and 'defected' to Park soon afterwards. He remained a playing member whilst up at Caius, Cambridge, where he won three Blues (1894 photo standing at back). He was still playing for Park in 1894/5, but was then selected after his final year at Cambridge for the British Lions tour to South Africa in 1896. He was capped as a Lion before he played for England, for whom he later won two caps in 1900.
On his return, he was 'headhunted' by Blackheath, nearer to his family home, and faced his former Park team-mates in 1896. He also captained Kent and played for the Barbarians and Berkshire County at cricket.
He served in the Boer War 1899-1900 as Squadron Commander of Robert's Horse and Carrington's Horse, where he was wounded at Diamond Hill. In 1914 he was commissioned as Lieutenant into The Norfolk Regt (Special Reserve Battalion), at the age of 41. Sent to France in October he was quickly Mentioned in Despatches and gazetted Captain in the 3rd Bn, attached to the 1st. He was shot through the neck whilst in the trenches near Hill 60 in the Ypres salient on 18 April 1915 (the day after returning from leave) and died of his wounds three days later.He is buried at Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery.
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Charles Geoffrey Tomlin Dec 1890 - 9 July 1916
One of many Uppingham School boys to play for Park and fall in the War (see Ash, Cull, Dowson, Glover, Harman, Kerr, Monaghan, Scholey, Stevenson, Veitch). Born in Streatham, he was a keen cricketer, being captain and wicket-keeper for Uppingham, playing for the Public Schools in 1910, and joining the MCC after school. He played rugby in the Uppingham XV in 1908 and 1909. He went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he played in the Freshman's match of 1911 but did not gain his Blue.
A 2nd Lieut. in the 22nd (Queen's) Bn, London Regiment, he died on the Somme, at the age of 23, succumbing to his wounds in July 1916. He is buried at Barlin Cemetery, near Bethune.
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Harry Turner Tovey 16 May 1880 - 22 April 1918
Born at Waltham Abbey, the sixth son and 10th child of Col. Hamilton Tovey, Royal Engineers and a Canadian mother. He married Gwendoline 'Poppy' Noel. Harry Tovey was Major of C Battery, 88th Brigade, 19th Division of the Royal Field Artillery.
This Division was established in September 1914, as part of the Army Orders authorising Kitchener's Second New Army, K2. Early days were somewhat chaotic, the new volunteers having very few trained officers and NCOs to command them, no organised billets or equipment. The Division was inspected at Tidworth by King George V on 23 June 1915. Advance parties left for France on 11 July and the main body crossed the English Channel 16-21 July. The Division served on the Western Front for the remainder of the war, taking part in many of the significant actions.
Capt Tovey died at the age of 37 on 22nd April, of his wounds after the first of two battles of Kemmel, from 17 to 19 April 1918. The two battles were part of the Fourth Battle of Ypres, during the Spring Offensive by the German army.
He is buried at 'Mendinghem' Military Cemetery. Like Dozinghem and Bandaghem, Mendinghem was not a town but a popular name given by the troops to casualty clearing stations in the area. Tovey sadly was never 'mended'.
An older brother George, became a Lt Col in the Artillery, served in South Africa and the Great War, being awarded the CMG and DSO. His younger brother became Admiral Lord John Cronyn Tovey, who commanded the force that sank the Bismarck in WW2.
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Charles Alvarez Vaughan 1892 - 25 Sept 1915
A Second Lieutenant in the 7th Seaforth Highlanders, Charles Vaughan came from Colombia, South America to serve. He played on the wing for Park in 1914, and is on the team sheet against Cambridge University below. He was also a Barbarian, as was Denis Monaghan. (Of the names below, George Juckes of Park was also killed, Maynard and Norman of Cambridge served with Claude de la Mothe and were killed; Vintcent, a South African, is an unconfirmed Park player who died, and Parry- Jones' brother Owen was another Park player KIA.)
His Battalion formed in August 1914 at Fort George, as part of the 9th(Scottish) Division and landed in France in mid-May 1915. Vaughan was killed 4 months later on the first day of the Battle of Loos, his body was never found and he is one of 20,000 officers and men with no known grave on the Loos memorial at Dud Corner Cemetery(including Sydney Burdekin). His CO was killed the same day, and Divisonal Commander days later - a counter to the view that the generals never led from the front. On Sept 25th, the Seaforths found themselves in the front line, facing the formidable obstacle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, the high point of the enemy observation posts looking across the whole battlefield.
The war diary records: “25th: Battn attacked and captured Hohenzollern Redoubt & Fosse 8. The attack began at 6.28 a.m.The Battn held trench in front of Fosse 8, facing Haisnes, until midnight, when the Royal Sussex relieved them. From 9.30 a.m.the Battn was under the command of Capt. W.T. Henderson, all those senior to him being out of action… The four company commanders were casualties very early in the action… Other casualties were Lt N. Bruce Lockhart and 2/Lt C.A. Vaughan…”
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Charles Phelps Tuckey 11 Feb 1895 - 23 April 1918
Captain Tuckey was killed in the same Zeebrugge raid as AL Harrison VC. His memorial is in Zeebrugge churchyard. Commisioned into the Royal Marines before the war in October 1913, he entered the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He was at the Antwerp Raid - like de la Mothe - and landed at Y Beach Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and X Beach three days later, serving continuously until the evacuation in January 1916. After returning to England to qualify in gunnery, he was with the RM Battalion in Ireland during the Easter Rising. He was promoted Captain in Feb 1918.
He volunteered for the Zeebrugge Raid, when in April 1918, British sailors and marines in a collection of monitors, destroyers, motorboats, old cruisers and submarines and Mersey ferry boats attacked the harbour mole at Zeebrugge and attempted to block the canal leading to Bruges and the German submarine HQ. Tuckey was 2/ic Portsmouth Company on HMS Vindictive. From 'Britain's Sea Soldiers' by Gen. Sir H. E. Blumberg:
"The withdrawal had now to be commenced; in order to reach the raised path and so the gangways of the ship, the men had to climb up the scaling ladders carrying their wounded and their guns, and then cross the swaying brows to the ship. The enemy were shelling the Mole heavily; but the platoons, now reduced to very small numbers, came back in good order bringing their wounded with them... Private W. J. Wakefield (Portsmouth) also particularly distinguished himself in the work of getting the wounded up the ladders and Captain C. P. Tuckey, who was missing and later reported killed, when last seen was at the foot of the ladders helping men up."
On Nov 2o 1918, The Times reported: FALLEN OFFICERS: CAPTAIN CHARLES PHELPS TUCKEY, R.M.L.I., was the only son of Mr. Charles Tuckey, of 3, Mincing- lane, E.C., and Queen's-gate, S.W., and received his commission in the Royal Marines in 1913, entering the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He served at Antwerp and Gallipoli, and later in H.M.S. Erin. He volunteered for the raid on Zeebrugge, and was reported missing April 23. He is now officially presumed dead aged 23.
Tuckey is middle row far right in the photo of 4th Bn RM Officers
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Robert Keith McDermott 8 April 1885 - 20 Sept 1918
Son of a mining engineer, he was at Charterhouse and Oriel College Oxford before being called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1908. Commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders on Aug 15th 1914, his promotion to captain is recorded in the London Gazette, 7 March 1916.
Captain McDermott was killed in action aged 33 at Beit-Lid, near Messudiyeh in Palestine and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial to 3,300 Commonwealth servicemen who died during the First World War in Egypt or Palestine and who have no known grave.
McDermott was educated at Charterhouse School and is one of 670 fallen in the Great War commemorated on the walls of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's chapel. No rugby would have been played at Charterhouse in his schooldays - a tradition that still survives until the 6th form, as two of our tour party can testify - but he was a member of "Harpies" the winning House Club football team in his final year in school, seen here back row second from left.
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Henry Russell Townsend-Green 1889 - 3 March 1915
Henry Townsend-Green was Captain and Hon Secretary of the Rosslyn Park 2nd XV in the 1909-10 season.
He joined the Queen's Westminster Rifles, a Territorial London regiment based near his parents' home in Kensington. TA Regiments were like a family, and many soldiers were employees of the officers, like Shoolbred the Colonel who ran the furniture repository, and whose delivery van horses provided much of the transport. For most of the men, the Regiment was their only chance of an annual holiday. Field days and trips to Bisley were highly prized days out. Below is a field camp at Tal-y-Mass on May 1913. Both men marked in red are Townsend-Green, HR and SL, and their close resemblance suggests they are brothers. (I cannot identify which is Henry).
The QWR was the second Territorial battalion to go to France, as part of the first TA Brigade (the 18th Infantry Brigade, part of the 6th Division). They were sent to Houplines, where they manned a section of "trench" from 16th November 1914 until 29th May 1915.
The Queen’s Westminster Rifles were one of the units that took part in the Christmas 1914 truce: “Rather than flinging lead at their opponents, the troops would occasionally hurl newspapers (weighted with stones) and ration tins across the lines. Barrages of insults sometimes erupted as well, but they were delivered "generally with less venom than a couple of London cabbies after a mild collision," reported Leslie Walkinton of the Queen's Westminster Rifles.”
Elsewhere along the Front, arrangements were worked out to retrieve fallen soldiers and give them proper treatment or burial. In a letter to his mother, Lt. Geoffrey Heinekey of the 2nd Queen's Westminster Rifles described one such event that took place on December 19. "Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also," he recalled. "The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men.... It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours."
Their section of the line near Armentieres ran across the flood plain of the River Lys. The water table was so close to the surface that trenches were not possible, so the men built up a parapet of logs, mud and building rubble, about two or more metres high and over a mile long between the village of Houplines and Frelinghein.
Frelinghein had on its outskirts a large brewery complete with a very tall brick
chimney. This completely dominated the front line, and allowed the Germans to snipe the British barricade throughout the hours of daylight. The Regimental History has the following account of his death, aged 26:
"On the 3rd March, Captain H.R. Townsend-Green, 2nd in command of No. 3 Company, died from wounds received the previous day. He was an exceptionally keen soldier, and one of the best rifle shots in the Regiment. Before mobilisation he had been Battalion machine-gun officer, an appointment he relinquished to take over command of F Company. His cheerful spirits were infectious, it was impossible to be dull or gloomy when he was present. His loss was very deeply felt in the Regiment. It was a curious coincidence that, within a little over six weeks, the Battalion should have lost three of its members who were so prominently associated with its success as a shooting regiment."
This stained glass window in his memory was erected by his father, his American-born mother Cornelia and aunt, Mary Russell Lewis of New York at Ashley Green, Bucks
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John Robert Trinder MC Dec 1890 - 15 Sept 1916
The 'Private Ryan' of Rosslyn Park. The last survivor of three brothers, John Trinder, a solicitor's son from Walton, attended Wellington College from 1904-09, where he was a Prefect, Head of Corps and in the XV. He is second from right, front row, in photo below with Malborough College.
He went up to Trinity College, Oxford in 1909 and was later called to the Bar at the Inner Temple. After joining the 18th Bn London Irish Rifles (Territorial ), he was gazetted Captain in August 1914. An outstanding officer, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1915 at the Battle of Loos and promoted to Major by February 1916. At his death at High Wood during the battle of the Somme he was only 25. He lies in Flatiron Copse Cemetery, Mametz. The chaos of war is clear from the Regimental history:
'Zero was at 6.20 a.m. The troops attacking High Wood were at once engaged in heavy fighting. Four Tanks accompanied the attack, but could make no headway over the broken tree-stumps and deeply-pitted ground and were stuck before they could give the help expected from them. The infantry, thus disappointed of the Tanks' assistance, were also deprived of the support of the guns, which were afraid to fire near the Tanks. The 17th and 18th Battalions and half the 15th Battalion had a desperate fight for every foot of their advance. The enemy met them with bombs and rifle-fire from his trenches, and machine-guns from concrete emplacements, still undamaged, mowed them down.
With the second wave of attack the 19th and 20th Battalions and part of the 8th joined the fight, and during the morning five battalions were at once engaged in the wood. Casualties were very heavy. Among many others fell Lieut.Colonel A. P. Hamilton, of the 19th Battalion, who called all available men to follow him, and went up into the wood to try to restore order to the confused fighting. A little later Major J. R. Trinder, of the 18th, was killed.'
The London Irish war diary is more specific: '... between 9 and 10 am the enemy all along the Batt front surrendered with the exception of a few snipers in shell holes behind the German line. These caused a number of casualties including Major J. R. Trinder who was shot through the head whilst superintending the removal of German prisoners.'
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Colin Turner Young 1891- 24 April 1917
Colin Young was born in South Hornsey, second son of Herbert, a solicitor, and Mabel. The progress of the Young family can be charted quite precisely through census records: changes of address, growing children, household staff coming and going and the sad death of a sister.
In the 1911 census, Colin is noted as a law student at age 21. He graduated with his LlB from London University and joined the war effort relatively early on 19 December 1914. He was in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment but, unusually appears to have been attached to three battalions, the Welsh, the 17th and the 3rd. He was Mentioned in Despatches in the London Gazette on 22 June 1915 and at the time of a photograph of officers of the 3rd battalion taken in 1916, he was a Lieutenant (and his two attachments were noted underneath). He stands in the centre row, second from the left. (photo not yet posted).
He died on the Somme, aged 26, and is buried at Fins New British Cemetery, Sorel-le-Grand, a village between Cambrai and Peronne.
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Edward Ernest Wynne Killed 8 June 1917
Another son of the clergy, Wynne went up to Corpus Christi, Cambridge in 1913. War soon interrupted his studies and he enlisted as a private in the Royal Fusiliers, Public Schools and University Battalion, which formed at Epsom in Sept 1914 and landed in France in Nov 1915. He was commissioned into the 1/5 Leicestershire Regt and became a captain by the time of his death in June 1917 near Arras.
“On the 6th of June we moved up to Liévin and took over the line…For the first time the officers were clothed exactly as the men. "D" Co. (Burnett) was in front, "A" Co. (Broughton) in support, and "B" and "C" (Wynne and Moore) in the row of houses just west of Riaumont Hill. These had hardly settled down before a shell burst in the doorway of "C" Company HQ killing Sgt Harper, and wounding six others. Capt. Wynne was also far from well, but refused to leave his Company on the eve of the attack.
…as "B" Company passed the group of cottages the Boche opened a heavy fire on the trench and dropped a shell right amongst the Company Headquarters. Capt. Wynne was untouched, but his Sgt-Major, Gore, and his runner, Ghent, both first-class soldiers, were killed by his side. Assembly was complete by 6.0 p.m. and "B," "C," with "D" Co. in close support, waited for Zero in some short lengths of trench, dug amongst the houses at the East end of "Assign" trench. Capt. Wynne, though worn out with fever, and hardly able to stand, still stuck to his Company….
At Zero Captain Wynne led "B" Company from their trenches and advanced towards the "L-shaped" building. They had hardly started before their ranks were swept from end to end with machine gun fire from the houses to their left and front. Capt. Wynne and 2nd Lieut. R.B. Farrer were killed…”
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Bertram Baker Silcock Killed 10 Aug 1915
2nd Lt Bertram Silcock. originally of Maida Hill, London attended Blundells School in Tiverton, Devon. His father, who died when he was 13, was a noted surgeon at St Mary’s and Royal London Ophthalmic Hospitals and Bertram followed in his footsteps. Like his father he attended the University of London, passing an exam toward his MB (Bachelor of Medicine degree) in 1913.
He enlisted as a private in the 28th County of London Battalion (Artists’ Rifles) whose Roll of Honour lists him as a surgeon. The 2/28th Battalion was formed at the outbreak of war and acted as a training battalion in Richmond Park, before recruits were sent as officer cadets to Gidea Park, Essex for field training. (Some 10,256 officers were commissioned in WW1 after training with the Artists Rifles). He was commissioned into the 7th (Merioneth and Montgomery) Battalion, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 11th June 1915. This was a Territorial Battalion, although he seems to have had no Welsh connections. He was Mentioned in Despatches by Sir Ian Hamilton.
The 7th landed at C Beach Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on the morning of 9th August 1915, then marched to bivouacs at Lala Baba. The next day they were ordered to relieve the 159th Brigade on the frontline, then advance on enemy positions at Scimitar Hill. They moved forward across Salt Lake 5am in centre of Brigade attack. Came under heavy shrapnel fire then rifle and machine gun. War Diary records… “engaged all day. Fighting ceased 7.30pm.” Casualties included 15 officers, including Second-Lieutenant BB Silcock.
The landings at Suvla decimated the 5th, 6 and 7th Battalions with most officers being casualties. Silcock was killed on 10th August 1915, aged 23. Like Arthur Dingle, killed 12 days later at the same age, he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.
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Frederick Alfred Trenchard April 12 1888 – 24 May 1915
Born in Clifton, Bristol, the only son of Mr and Mrs RB Trenchard of Richmond went to Oundle (Laxton House) 1902-06. Trenchard was a prefect, captain of Rowing, and a member of the XV for several years. Entering Trinity Hall, Cambridge he graduated in 1909 and represented his University in the sports of 1910.
He was gazetted Lieutenant to the Royal Field Artillery from Cambridge in 1910. In July 1914 he married Ann Barnett and went to France with his battery in September. Mentioned in Sir John French’s despatch of November 20 1914, he was wounded in December, but remained with his battery, the 86th, and on May 24, 1915, fell in action near Ypres, aged 27.
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"The withdrawal had now to be commenced; in order to reach the raised path and so the gangways of the ship, the men had to climb up the scaling ladders carrying their wounded and their guns, and then cross the swaying brows to the ship. The enemy were shelling the Mole heavily; but the platoons, now reduced to very small numbers, came back in good order bringing their wounded with them... Private W. J. Wakefield (Portsmouth) also particularly distinguished himself in the work of getting the wounded up the ladders and Captain C. P. Tuckey, who was missing and later reported killed, when last seen was at the foot of the ladders helping men up."
Elsewhere along the Front, arrangements were worked out to retrieve fallen soldiers and give them proper treatment or burial. In a letter to his mother, Lt. Geoffrey Heinekey of the 2nd Queen's Westminster Rifles described one such event that took place on December 19. "Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also," he recalled. "The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men.... It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours."
Their section of the line near Armentieres ran across the flood plain of the River Lys. The water table was so close to the surface that trenches were not possible, so the men built up a parapet of logs, mud and building rubble, about two or more metres high and over a mile long between the village of Houplines and Frelinghein.
chimney. This completely dominated the front line, and allowed the Germans to snipe the British barricade throughout the hours of daylight. The Regimental History has the following account of his death, aged 26:
“On the 6th of June we moved up to Liévin and took over the line…For the first time the officers were clothed exactly as the men. "D" Co. (Burnett) was in front, "A" Co. (Broughton) in support, and "B" and "C" (Wynne and Moore) in the row of houses just west of Riaumont Hill. These had hardly settled down before a shell burst in the doorway of "C" Company HQ killing Sgt Harper, and wounding six others. Capt. Wynne was also far from well, but refused to leave his Company on the eve of the attack.
At Zero Captain Wynne led "B" Company from their trenches and advanced towards the "L-shaped" building. They had hardly started before their ranks were swept from end to end with machine gun fire from the houses to their left and front. Capt. Wynne and 2nd Lieut. R.B. Farrer were killed…”
He enlisted as a private in the 28th County of London Battalion (Artists’ Rifles) whose Roll of Honour lists him as a surgeon. The 2/28th Battalion was formed at the outbreak of war and acted as a training battalion in Richmond Park, before recruits were sent as officer cadets to Gidea Park, Essex for field training. (Some 10,256 officers were commissioned in WW1 after training with the Artists Rifles). He was commissioned into the 7th (Merioneth and Montgomery) Battalion, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 11th June 1915. This was a Territorial Battalion, although he seems to have had no Welsh connections. He was Mentioned in Despatches by Sir Ian Hamilton.
The 7th landed at C Beach Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on the morning of 9th August 1915, then marched to bivouacs at Lala Baba. The next day they were ordered to relieve the 159th Brigade on the frontline, then advance on enemy positions at Scimitar Hill. They moved forward across Salt Lake 5am in centre of Brigade attack. Came under heavy shrapnel fire then rifle and machine gun. War Diary records… “engaged all day. Fighting ceased 7.30pm.” Casualties included 15 officers, including Second-Lieutenant BB Silcock.
The landings at Suvla decimated the 5th, 6 and 7th Battalions with most officers being casualties. Silcock was killed on 10th August 1915, aged 23. Like Arthur Dingle, killed 12 days later at the same age, he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.
He was gazetted Lieutenant to the Royal Field Artillery from Cambridge in 1910. In July 1914 he married Ann Barnett and went to France with his battery in September. Mentioned in Sir John French’s despatch of November 20 1914, he was wounded in December, but remained with his battery, the 86th, and on May 24, 1915, fell in action near Ypres, aged 27.