Part 56

=DALTON, WILLIAM HENRY=, Trooper, No. 7/185, C Coy., 10th Regt. (Canterbury Mounted Rifles) New Zealand Expeditionary Force, eldest _s._ of William Henry Dalton, Farmer (died 9 Oct. 1915), by his wife, Annie (Canvastown, Marlborough, New Zealand), dau. of James Twidle; _b._ Canvastown, Marlborough, New Zealand, 3 May, 1885; educ. Canvastown School. He was a member of the Canvastown Defence Club and had been Capt. for the last three years, and on the outbreak of war volunteered for Imperial Service; joined the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, and was killed in action at the Dardanelles, 19 May, 1915. His commanding officer wrote: “On the 19th, my troop was holding an outpost position Nelson Hill, we were under a heavy rifle fire, which we were returning to the best of our ability, when your son was instantaneously killed by a bullet. Your son was one of the most trustworthy men in the troop, and at the time of his death was taking part very gallantly in the defence of our post.”

=DALY, FRANCIS=, Corpl., No. 16949, 10th (Service) Battn. Highland L.I., _s._ of Patrick Daly, of Level Crossing, Carbury, co. Kildare, by his wife, Mary Bridget, dau. of Thomas Williams; _b._ Carbury, 13 Dec. 1891; educ. Derenturn National School, and was a post boy; enlisted 15 Aug. 1914, and was killed at the Battle of Loos, 25 Sept. 1915; _unm._

=DAMES, JAMES WILLIAM, D.C.M.=, Sergt.-Major, No. 1315, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, 2nd _s._ of John Joseph Dames, of London, England, by his wife, Mary Ann, dau. of James Raysbrook; _b._ London, 20 Nov. 1871; and enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regt.) in 1885 at the age of 14. In 1897 he was sent to India as Sergeant in charge of a draft for the 2nd Battn., and took part in the Tirah Campaign, receiving the medal. He was at Malta on the way back to England when the Boer War broke out, and at once volunteered for active service; went to South Africa with the Malta Mounted Infantry and served through that campaign. He was twice wounded and was three times mentioned in Dispatches, being awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Queen’s Medal with 3 bars. He was invalided home in 1901, and after being employed as a clerk at the War Office for eight years, went to Canada and settled at Derby town, Alberta. On the outbreak of the European War he again volunteered for active service and enlisted in Princess Patricia’s L.I.; came over with the 1st Canadian Contingent; went to France Dec. 1914, and was killed in action at Bellewaarde Lake, near Ypres, 8 May, 1915. Sergt.-Major Dames _m._ at St. George’s Church, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 26 July, 1897, Florence (Derbytown, Mound P. O., Alberta, Canada), yst. dau. of the late John Coneybeer, of Ivybridge, co. Devon, and had two sons: Frank Coneybeer, _b._ 15 Sept. 1899; and Harold Victor, _b._ 28 Sept. 1902.

=DANIEL, ALFRED AUSTEN=, Private, No. 35, 5th Battn. (London Rifle Brigade) The London Regt. (T.F.), 2nd _s._ of Herbert Daniel of 50, Tunnel Avenue, East Greenwich, S.E., by his wife, Clara Matilda, dau. of William Austen, H.M. Customs; _b._ Rotherhithe, co. Surrey, 18 Nov. 1894; educ. Aske School, Hatcham, and matriculated at London University with second class honours in July, 1912. At the time war broke out he was with the Star Assurance Society; enlisted in the London Rifle Brigade with his two brothers, 6 Aug. 1914, the day following the declaration of war. He went with the battn. to France in Nov., and while doing fatigue duty was dangerously wounded on the evening of 24 Jan. 1915, and died fourteen hours later, on the 25th. His company officer wrote: “He was at all times a most willing and cheerful worker, a splendid example to others, and he will be much missed by all in the platoon, and by me as commander”; and a comrade: “He died as all soldiers would wish to die--on duty--and by that glorious death he has done all that a brave man could do for his country.” A memorial, in the form of a copy in oils of the famous picture “The Great Sacrifice,” was placed in St. John’s Church, Isle of Dogs. E., of which church he was a Server, by the parishioners. At Aske School he was a prefect, played for the Champion House cricket team, 1910–11, in the school football second eleven, 1911–12, and in the Champion House football team, 1911–12. He was the first Askean to fall in the war.

=DANIELS, ERNEST=, Private, No. G. 2468, 12th (Service) Battn. Middlesex Regt., _s._ of William Daniels, of 5, Cardiff Road, Watford; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; killed in action, 5 May, 1915.

=DANIELS, JAMES=, A.B., J. 1544, H.M.S. Aboukir; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914.

=DANIELS, JOHN=, S.P.O., 286387, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chilli, 1 Nov. 1914.

=DANIELS, JOHN ALBERT=, Stoker, 1st Class, K. 14505, H.M.S. Aboukir; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914.

=DANN, DAVID GEORGE=, Private, No. 2249, 6th Battn. Royal Fusiliers, _s._ of the late David George Dann, Postman, by his wife, Annie (now wife of George Alfred Ernest Thorp, of 5, Boundary Road, Notting Hill, now serving with the 6th Royal Fusiliers), dau. of Henry George, Goldsmith; _b._ West Kensington, 8 April, 1897; educ. St. Paul’s Church School, Hammersmith, and Saunders Road School, Notting Hill; enlisted in the 6th Battn. Royal Fusiliers in Sept. 1913; served with his regt. in France and Flanders, and was killed in action at Hill 60, 17 April, 1915; _unm._ A half-brother of his (James Baseley Goldsmith) is now (1916) on active service on H.M.S. Juno, and two of his maternal uncles, B. H. Goldsmith and I. M. Goldsmith, were killed in action, the first being lost in the Aboukir, 22 Sept. 1914, and the second dying of wounds in France, 25 April, 1915.

=DANN, FRANCIS JOSEPH=, Private, R.M.L.I. (R.F.R., B. 628), late Ch./11623, H.M.S. Hogue; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914; _m._

=DARBY, MAURICE ALFRED ALEXANDER=, Lieut., 1st Battn. Grenadier Guards, only _s._ of Alfred Edmund William Darby, of Adcote and Coalbrookdale, co. Salop, J.P., D.L., by his wife, Frederica Louisa Juliana, dau. of the late Col. Sir Frederick Arthur, 2nd Bart. [by his wife, Lady Elizabeth, née Hay, dau. of Thomas Robert, 10th Earl of Kinnoull]; _b._ London, 6 May, 1894; educ. Eton and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; joined the Grenadier Guards on 24 Jan. 1914, and obtained his Lieutenancy on 15 Nov. 1914. He went to France in Oct. 1914, with the 7th Division of the Expeditionary Force, served in the trenches throughout the winter of 1914–15, and was killed in action near Neuve Chapelle, 11 March, 1915; _unm._ His body was brought home and interred in Little Ness Churchyard, near Adcote. Lieut. Darby was mentioned in F.M. Sir John (now Lord) French’s Despatch of 14 Jan. 1915. He was a keen cricketer and fond of sports generally, and was a great-great-great-grandson of the famous Quaker ironfounder, Abraham Darby, whose firm invented the process of taking castings and built the first iron bridge.

=DARCHE, AUGUST RAOUL=, Capt., 4th Battn., Canadian Expeditionary Force, _s._ of Edouard René Darche, of Danville, Province of Quebec, Canada, M.D., by his wife, Hermine, dau. of Pierre Dansereau; _b._ Danville, Province of Quebec, 16 April, 1882; educ. St. Hyacinth Seminary; was Mercantile Agent for R. G. Dun & Co., Montreal; joined the 64th Chateauguay and Beauharnois (Canadian Militia) Regt. in 1909, and became Capt. in 1910; volunteered for Imperial Service on the outbreak of war and was appointed Capt. of the Record Office at Lark Hill; left for England with the first contingent, 30 Sept. 1914; went to France, 6 April, 1915, and was promoted Capt. the same day; took part in the first Battle of Ypres, where he was the only officer of his Battn. who came through untouched; was wounded in action at the Battle of Festubert, 27 May, 1915, and died in hospital at Lillers the next day, from shock following the amputation of his leg. Buried in Lillers Cemetery, Pas de Calais (Grave No. 45. R4). He _m._ at Montreal, 8 Sept. 1904, Athala (1693, Rue Clarke, Montreal), now auxiliary of the Canadian Patriotic Fund, dau. of the late Adolphe Lafond, of Warwick, Province of Quebec, Merchant, and had three children: Maurice, _b._ 16 March, 1907; Philippe, _b._ 11 May, 1911; and Cecile, _b._ 7 July, 1905.

=DARLEY, ARTHUR TUDOR=, Commander, R.N., H.M.S. Good Hope, elder _s._ of Wellington Darley, of Violet Hill, Bray, co. Wicklow, by his wife, Anna Frances, dau. of Richard Tudor; _b._ Glensouthwell, Rathfarnham, co. Dublin, 29 Aug. 1876; educ. at Cheam and at Stubbington House, Fareham, Hants; joined the Britannia in 1890, passing in seventh out of 57 candidates. He was promoted Midshipman, 15 March, 1893; Sub-Lieut. 15 Sept. 1896; Lieut. 15 Dec. 1898; and Commander, 31 Dec. 1909. In Jan. 1910, he was appointed Flag-Commander to Admiral Winsloe, Commander-in-Chief on the China Station, and in June, 1912, was one of the first 15 Commanders selected for special appointment to the newly-formed War St.... In March, 1914, he was temporarily appointed to H.M.S. Good Hope, while waiting to take up an appointment to the Flagship of the China Squadron, and was killed in the naval action off Coronel on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914. He _m._ at Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, 10 Nov. 1910, Charlotte Sinclair (Wraysbury House, Emsworth, Hants), eldest dau. of Major-Gen. Edward Sinclair May, C.B., C.M.G., commanding the Lucknow Division, India, and left a son and a dau.: Arthur Tudor, _b._ (posthumous), 5 Dec. 1914, and Evelyn Elizabeth, _b._ 25 Oct. 1911.

=DARNELL, WILLIAM=, Sergt., No. 22653, 4th Battn. Canadian Expeditionary Force; served in France; killed in action, 29 Dec. 1915.

=DARNELL, WILLIAM HENRY=, Stoker, 2nd Class, S.S. 114438, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914.

=DARNILL, WILLIAM ALFRED=, Private, No. 8/358, 8th Southland Regt., Otago Infantry, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, _s._ of the late Francis William Darnill, of 218, Crinan Street, Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand, formerly of Richmond, co. Surrey, by his wife, Jane, dau. of Thomson McNatty; _b._ Otatara Bush, Southland, New Zealand, 25 March, 1882; educ. Otatara School; volunteered on the outbreak of war and joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force about 10 Aug. 1914, left for Egypt in Oct., and died of wounds, 25 April, 1915, received in the landing at the Dardanelles; _unm._

=DARROCH, ALEXANDER=, Private, No. 2866, 2nd Battn. Royal Scots (Lothian Regt.); served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; killed in action near Kemmel, 21 April, 1915.

=DART, GEORGE WILLIAM=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 2788), 214135, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914.

=DARTON, HENRY THEODORE=, Corpl., No. 929, 1st Battn. Australian Imperial Force; killed in action at the Dardanelles, 17 May, 1915.

=DARTY, EDWARD=, Private, No. G. 63, 3rd Battn. Middlesex Regt.; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; died 20 April, 1915, of wounds received in action; _m._

=DARVILL, PERCY HENRY=, Leading Seaman, 184384, H.M.S. Hogue; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914.

=DARWIN, ERASMUS=, 2nd Lieut., 4th Battn. Alexandra, Princess of Wales’ Own Yorkshire Regt. (T.F.), only _s._ of Horace Darwin, F.R.S., Chairman of Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., by his wife, the Hon. Emma Cecilla (Ida) née Farrer, only dau. of Thomas Henry, 1st Lord Farrer, and grandson of Charles Darwin; _b._ Cambridge, 7 Dec. 1881; educ. at Horris Hill and Marlborough (Cotton House), and gained an exhibition for mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. He went up to Trinity in Oct. 1901, and took the Mathematical Tripos in his second year, being placed among the Senior Optimes. Afterwards he took the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, and was placed in the second class in 1905. On leaving Cambridge, he went through the shops at Messrs. Mather and Platt’s at Manchester. After this he worked for some little while with the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., of which he was a director, and then became assistant secretary of Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., Ltd., at Middlesbrough. Here he stayed for seven years, and at the outbreak of war occupied the position of secretary to the company. As soon as war broke out he decided to join the army and on 12 Sept. 1914, was gazetted 2nd Lieut. in the 4th (Territorial) Battn. of the Yorkshires, which after training at Darlington and Newcastle crossed to France, as part of the Northumbrian Division, on 17 April, 1915, and was within a week called upon to take part in the second battle of Ypres. Here these Territorial troops fresh from home and tried at the very outset almost as highly as men could be tried, behaved with a steadiness and coolness which gained for them the congratulations of the Generals commanding respectively their Division and their Army Corps. Early in the afternoon of 24 April the Battn. was ordered to attack the village of Fortuin, close to St. Julien where the Germans had broken through. This attack they successfully carried out in the face of terrific shell fire, before being ordered to retire at dusk. By driving the enemy back a mile or more they had attained their object which was to prevent a breach in the line; and they had made good their front with the Canadians and Royal Irish on their right. It was during this advance that Darwin fell, killed instantaneously. His Commanding officer, Colonel Bell, wrote of him: “Loyalty, courage, and devotion to duty--he had them all.... He died in an attack which gained many compliments to the Battn. He was right in front. It was a man’s death.” Corpl. Wearmouth, who was in his platoon, wrote: “I am a section leader in his platoon, and when we got the order to advance he proved himself a hero. He nursed us men; in fact, the comment was, ‘You would say we were on a field-day.’ We had got to within twenty yards of our halting place when he turned to our platoon to say something. As he turned he fell, and I am sure he never spoke. As soon as I could I went to him but he was beyond human aid. Our platoon sadly miss him, as he could not do enough for us, and we are all extremely sorry for you in your great loss”; and Private Wood wrote to a friend in Middlesbrough: “I expect you would know poor Mr. Darwin.... I was in his platoon, and I can tell you he died a hero. He led us absolutely regardless of the bullets from the German Maxim guns and snipers that whistled all round him.” Just before he left England, when his Battn. was under orders for the Front, he was summoned to the War Office and offered a Staff appointment at home in connection with munitions of war. This would have given great scope to his capabilities. “It would have been interesting and important work,” he wrote, “but, of course, there are plenty of older men who can do it just as well as I can.” He felt that at that moment his place should be with his regt., and made, in the words of one present at the interview, a “fine appeal” to be allowed to go with his men. It was granted, and he went gladly and with no looking back. The Times (30 April, 1915) said of him: “Erasmus Darwin would, if he had lived, have added fresh distinction to the name of his family in a walk of life in which it has never before figured. Between Cambridge and a great iron works in the North there is something of a gulf fixed and one who knew Darwin only in his Cambridge home cannot say anything more than that all those who met him in business conceived a very high opinion of his grasp of his subject, his acuteness and administrative ability. It was, indeed, impossible to know him without realising that he combined with intellectual ability a calm, sound, and practical judgment, and a general capacity for doing things well and thoroughly. He had, too, what must have been invaluable to him in his work, a most genuine sympathy with and affection for working men, and this quality, which, amongst so many other things, had made him love his work at Middlesbrough, gave him intense pleasure when soldiering came to him as a wholly new and unlooked-for experience. He delighted in the men, and especially in long expeditions across the moors with his scouts. There is one more quality as to which all his friends would agree, namely, a conscientiousness that was eminently sane and wide-minded and completely unswerving. No one in the world was more certain to do what he believed to be right.”

=DASH, FREDERICK JOHN=, Officer’s Cook, 1st Class, 363215 (Ports.), H.M.S. Pathfinder; lost when that ship was sunk by a mine, about 20 miles off the East Coast, 5 Sept. 1914.

=DASHWOOD, FRANK LEOPOLD=, L.-Corpl., No. 241, D Coy., 10th Battn. Australian Imperial Force, first and only surviving _s._ of the late Leopold Dashwood, of 180, Dereham Road, Norwich, Commercial Traveller, by his wife, Lottie, dau. of the late William Worts, of North Walsham; _b._ Norwich, 9 Feb. 1882; educ. Cambridge House and Higher Grade Schools, Norwich; joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1901 during the South African war, and served eight years with the Colours and four in the Reserve. He emigrated to Australia in 1911, and on the outbreak of the war joined the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force, 12 Aug. 1914, and was killed in action at the Dardanelles, 26 April, 1915; _unm._ His Capt. wrote: “He was a very fine soldier indeed, stood out from some others as a particularly smart example. It was not until we had been some time in Egypt that he would accept promotion, otherwise he would have been much higher in rank than he was. There is no question he was popular with the men in his section.”

=DAUN, EDWARD CHARLES=, Lieut. and Assistant Adjutant, 2nd Battn. Royal Sussex Regt., 2nd Infantry Brigade, only _s._ of Charles James Daun, by his wife, Ada Margaret, dau. of Lieut.-Gen. Edward Arthur Williams, C.B., Colonel Commandant R.A., and great-grandson of Col. Henry Williams, R.A., who served at Waterloo; _b._ Streatham, Surrey, 15 June, 1885; educ. Sunningdale School and Harrow; joined the 3rd Battn. Royal Sussex Regt. 27 Feb. 1904; gazetted 2nd Lieut. in the 2nd Battn. 29 Nov. 1905, and promoted Lieut. 10 Nov. 1909. On the outbreak of war he left Woking for the Front, 12 Aug. 1914; was present in the fighting at, and retreat from, Mons, and was killed near Troyon at the Battle of the Aisne, 14 Sept. 1914; _unm._ A comrade wrote: “We were in the same company. I was unfortunately sent home with an injured leg, but last saw your son on 4 Sept. At that time he was in splendid health and in such good spirits. He was a splendid officer, and worked night and day for the good of his regt. and his company, and had a great future before him. He was to have been our next Adjutant, and will be a great loss to the regt.” The Colonel, senior Major and Adjutant all fell the same day. Lieut. Daun was a fine rifle shot, and won the Officers’ Cup at the Aldershot Command Meeting in 1912 and 1913, and was second in 1914. Of his uncles, Lieut.-Col. H. F. Williams, Royal Munster Fusiliers, and Lieut.-Col. E. G. Williams, C.M.G., commanding 1st Battn. Devonshire Regt., are at the Front; and Capt. A. L. Williams, Royal Scots (died 24 May, 1906) served with the Bechuanaland Expedition, 1884–85; while of his great-uncles, Lieut.-Gen. Sir H. F. Williams, K.C.B., 60th Rifles, served through the Mutiny and Lieut.-Col. the Hon. H. R. Handcock, 97th Regt., was killed at the storming of the Redan in the Crimean war; and his great-great-uncle, Admiral Sir William Pierson, K.C.B., was wounded as a Midshipman in the Belleisle at Trafalgar.

=DAVEY, ARTHUR JOHN=, Private, No. 11483, 1st Battn. Coldstream Guards, _s._ of Richard Soper Davey, of Broadway, Woodbury, Exeter, by his wife, Emily, dau. of Samuel Litton; _b._ Woodbury, co. Devon, 23 May, 1897; educ. Woodbury Council School; enlisted 31 Aug. 1914; went to France, 11 Dec., and was killed in action at Givenchy, 22 Dec. 1914; _unm._

=DAVEY, WILLIAM ALFRED GEORGE=, Rifleman, No. 2080, 1/18th Battn. (London Irish) The London Regt. (T.F.), _s._ of James Best Davey, Sergt. 15th Middlesex Regt., by his wife, Sarah Elizabeth (42, Pretoria Avenue, Walthamstow), dau. of William Thomas Warner; _b._ Willesden, 18 May, 1894; was a student at the International Correspondence Schools, Kingsway, and had been employed for many years on the clerical staff of the Stores Department of the London County Council. After the outbreak of war he joined the London Irish on 31 Aug. 1914; went to the Front, 9 March, 1915, and was killed in action at the Battle of Loos, 25 Sept. 1915; _unm._ He was in the first line of German trenches binding up wounds sustained by a comrade, when he must have been observed by a German sniper, for, as he was advancing towards the second line of trenches, he was shot in the head by a rifle bullet. Lieut. G. M. Slattery wrote: “The Capt. of your son’s company was struck by a shell, and your son was seen at once to make for him. On his way he was struck in the head and killed. He was a good lad and liked by everybody, and the action which led to his death was characteristic of him. He never seemed to trouble about himself, but was always the first to help others.” He was buried in a village just outside Loos.

=DAVID, CHARLIE=, Stoker, 1st Class, 311578, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914.

=DAVID, JAMES STANLEY=, L.-Corpl., No. 30737, 1st Battn. Welsh Regt., _s._ of Walter David, of Uplands, Swansea; served with the Expeditionary Force in France, etc.; killed in action, being buried in a trench on the night of 3 Aug. 1915, aged 23; _unm._

=DAVIDSON, ALEXANDER BISSETT=, Private, No. 16166, 2nd Battn. (Queen’s Own) Cameron Highlanders, _s._ of James Brown Davidson, of 15, High Street, Portobello, near Edinburgh, an employee on the N.B. Ry., by his wife, Margaret, dau. of Alexander Bissett; _b._ Portobello, 12 Jan. 1891; educ. Tower Bank Public School there; enlisted 7 Dec. 1914; and was killed in action at the Battle of Hill 60, 29 April, 1915; _unm._

=DAVIDSON, ALEXANDER MURRAY STUART=, A.B. (R.F.R., B. 6689), 185747, H.M.S. Hawke; lost when that ship was torpedoed in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914; _m._