Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Roll of Honour, Volume 1 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Roll of Honour, Volume 1 A biographical record of all members of His Majesty's naval and military forces who have fallen in the war Author: marquis de Melville Henry Massue Ruvigny et Raineval Release date: April 18, 2025 [eBook #75883] Language: English Original publication: London: The Standard Art Book Co, 1917 Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75883 Credits: Brian Coe, Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROLL OF HONOUR, VOLUME 1 *** The ROLL OF HONOUR A BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF ALL MEMBERS OF HIS MAJESTY’S NAVAL AND MILITARY FORCES WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE WAR BY THE MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY _Author and Editor of “The Blood Royal of Britain,” “The Titled Nobility of Europe,” and other works._ “And he Passed over ... and all the Trumpetts sounded for him on the other side.” Volume I. With some 2,500 portraits. LONDON: THE STANDARD ART BOOK COMPANY, LIMITED, 30–32, LUDGATE HILL. AND EVER THE FAITH ENDURES. These men have laid down their lives for England. In the future, History will pass its verdict upon the War, its causes and its consequences, the methods of its accomplishment, and on the men who planned and schemed and fought to bring it to a triumphantly victorious ending. Our children, and the generations which are to follow us, for whose sake we have believed this war is being waged, will sit in judgment on all that has been done in it for good or for ill. Let us be content to be so judged. But, whatever may be that verdict, what grander tribute can we humbly pay to those who have fallen, what else can we proudly say of them than the bare reiteration of the simple fact that they have made that last and greatest sacrifice of all? That sacrifice has been reached after the manner of our race, for the benefit of others, for the sake of those ideals which we rightly regard alike as the foundation and the characteristics of our nation. From the fringes of the Empire men came homing back to the Motherland to shoulder her troubles and die for her alongside of the veterans who had already grown grey in the service of the King, and of the boys from London Town. Some have gone out to meet their death with laughter on their lips, and some with prayers; and others have faced the end racked with the pain of long drawn suffering. Some have died in the gladdening exaltation of accomplished victory; and there are those who fought--and fought--and turned again and fought--and fell, sleeping as they fell and dying as they slept, in that grimmest nightmare of retreat at the opening of the campaign. Victory we have known--failure we have met; yet those who have fought this fight for us have heaped up laurel upon laurel to add eternal lustre to that battle fame which the centuries behind us have woven for our name; and our children’s children will rejoice in the glory they have made. There are British graves in Flanders and Gallipoli, on the bleak hillsides of Serbia and by the waters of the Euphrates. There are those who now rest peacefully beneath the sullen waves of the grey North Sea or the sun-kissed far Pacific; and of those who sleep so quietly none now hears the maddening racket of this world at war in which they played out their parts so gallantly. Here are their names, officers and men together, as they fought and died for this dear Empire which they have loved so exceeding well. Let us pay tribute to their memory. PREFACE. The purpose of the Roll of Honour is to place on permanent record the name of every officer, non-commissioned officer and man of His Majesty’s Forces, on land or sea, who is killed in action, who dies of wounds, or whose death is otherwise resulting from the present war. The work is to be issued in a series of volumes, and the arrangement is alphabetical. The name, rank and regiment of every one whose name appears in the official casualty lists are included, and where details have been obtainable, the parentage, place and date of birth, schools, a biographical sketch of career, and date and place of death, with extracts from letters of Commanding Officers or comrades relating to the action in which the officer or man fell, or to the particular circumstances of his death. The names of children have been included so that in the years to come they may themselves read, or teach their children to read, of the glorious way in which their fathers died; and of those individual acts of bravery that are the chief redeeming features of war. The present volume contains some 8,000 names, and deals with casualties during the first year of the war, though certain exceptions have been made in order that relatives, though killed at different periods, may be included together. In every case it has been found possible to give the full name and to state the actual date, and the locality, of death, and these details must add very greatly to the value of the record, as they are not to be found in the Official Casualty Lists. A large number of portraits of officers and men will be found included. With some 300,000 casualties it was obviously clearly impossible that one should be given in every case, but when a portrait is supplied, the publishers do their best to include it. The three following volumes, which are at present in course of completion or preparation, will, it is hoped, be issued this year. These are the second and third volumes for 1914–15, and the first volume for 1916. It is earnestly hoped that relatives of those deceased in the service will, by furnishing particulars, co-operate in carrying out what is, even with the official facilities which are being given, an exceedingly difficult task. The Editor and Publishers wish it to be distinctly understood that the insertion of any name is in no way dependent upon the payment of any fee or of subscription to the book, and that no fee will be accepted for the insertion of any name. The complete text of the official despatches will be given in the final volume, and in this will also be included a regimental index, in which will appear under each regiment a roll of the officers and men who have been killed, or died on active service, throughout the war, with a reference to the volume in which the biography appears. 14–15, HANOVER CHAMBERS, BUCKINGHAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C. _December, 1916._ The Roll of Honour. =ABBAY, MARMADUKE JOHN NORMAN=, Capt., 87th Punjabis, Indian Army, 2nd _s._ of the Rev. Richard Abbay, Rector of Earl Soham, Framlingham, Hon. Canon of Norwich, and Alderman of East Suffolk, by his wife, Janet, dau. of the Rev. Canon C. F. Norman, and grandson of Thomas Abbay, of Great Ouseburn; _b._ Earl Soham Rectory, co. Suffolk, 3 Nov. 1885; educ. at The College, Framlingham; Mr. T. Eastman’s, Winchester, and at Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut. Dorsetshire Regt. 16 Aug. 1905; promoted Lieut. and transferred to the 87th Punjabis, 16 Nov. 1907, and Capt. 16 Aug. 1914. On the outbreak of war he was attached to the 47th Sikhs, Lahore Division, served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, and was slightly wounded at Neuve Chapelle, 10–14 March, 1915, where only one British officer out of ten was untouched; and in the attack at Ypres on Sunday, 25 April, when the machine gun bearer--a Sikh--was struck down, Capt. Abbay took the gun and carried it, drawing the fire of the enemy on himself, until he fell badly wounded. Being very hot with his exertions and faint from loss of blood, he told his men to pour cold water over him, and they, being Indians, did so. The result was that, besides being very seriously wounded, he was very ill when he reached the hospital at Boulogne, the wound would not heal, and he was unable to survive the third serious operation, and died under an anaesthetic on 10 May. He was brought home and buried with military honours at Earl Soham. Bronze memorial tablets by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, Bt., R.A., have been placed in the churches of Earl Soham, Suffolk, and Great Ouseburn, Yorkshire. His two brothers are (1916) on Active Service--Major Bryan Abbay as second in command of the 20th Royal Fusiliers (3rd Public Schools Battn.,) and Lieut. Ambrose Abbay, in command of the Destroyer Garry. [Illustration: =Marmaduke J. N. Abbay.=] =ABBOT, JOHN=, Private, No. 3248, 1st Battn. Loyal North Lancashire Regt.; was employed at Mr. J. Fletcher’s Great Lever Brickworks, Bolton; enlisted on the outbreak of war; went to France early in April, 1915, and was killed in action on the Western Front, June following, aged 19. =ABBOTT, ALBERT=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 5365), S.S. 99, H.M.S. Hawke; lost in action in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914. =ABBOTT, CHARLES THOMAS=, Coy. Q.M. Sergt., No. 5080, B Coy., 2nd Battn. Royal Irish Regt., _s._ of Graves Abbott, Sergt. 1st Battn. Royal Scottish Fusiliers; _b._ Secunderabad, India, 13 Sept, 1881; enlisted 15 April, 1896; served in the South African War (Medal with Clasps), in India, and with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders; killed in action 24 May, 1915. He _m._ at Karachi, 9 Dec. 1908, Margaret Helen, dau. of John William Gorbey, of Carrick-on-Suir, and had a son and two daus: Henry Graves, _b._ Agra, 17 Nov. 1910; Agnes May, _b._ Agra, 2 Oct. 1909; and Ellen Rewa, _b._ on the troopship Rewa in the Bay of Biscay, 26 Dec.