Fallen Officers of the Great War   |   Cheshire Regiment

No

Date Died

Surname

Forenames

Rank

Decs

Age

Cause

Country

Location/Sector

Cemetery/Memorial

Notes

Died in 1917

1

5th September

GELL

Philip

2Lt

-

25

DOI

UK

Fermoy Military Hospital

Fermoy Military Cemetery (Screen Wall)

(1)

2

26th December

REYNOLDS

Eric Hinton

2Lt

-

26

DOI

UK

Eaton Hall Military Hospital, Chester

Eccleston (St Mary) Churchyard

(2)

3

30th December

BAILEY

John William

2Lt

-

26

LAS

SEA

Off Alexandria, Mediterranean Sea

Chatby Memorial, Egypt

(3)

Died in 1918

4

4th February

LLOYD

Arthur

Lt

-

28

A

UK

Kimnel Park Camp, Rhyl

Birkenhead (Flaybrick Hill) Cemetery (9.CofE.157A

(4)

Died in 1919

5

25th June

LEES

William Henry

2Lt

-

30

DOI

UK

Cottage Hospital, Fleetwood Road, Southport

Stretford Cemetery (K.6)

(5 )

Notes:   

1.   GELL died of malaria.   Attached to 217th Graduated Battalion, based at Fermoy.

2.   REYNOLDS may well have been attached to 120th Prisoner of War Company and transferred to General List.  Civilian headstone engraving states 3rd Battalion.

3.   BAILEY was aboard HMT "Aragon" en route to Egypt (as a reinforcement for the EEF) when the ship was torpedoed off Alexandria by U34 and later sank with the loss of over 600 military passengers and crew.

4.   LLOYD died in a fire at the officers quarters at Kimnel Park Camp.   According to press cuttings, he was attached to the Manchester Regiment at the time.

5.   LEES died of from the effects of gas poisoning.

In 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, the two Militia units of the County of Cheshire (the 1st Royal Cheshire Light Infantry Militia and 2nd Royal Cheshire Militia) were brought under command of the newly formed Cheshire Regiment.  These Militia Battalions were amalgamated, reorganised and restructured in 1908, part of the Haldane Reforms, as the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion Cheshire Regiment based at Chester Castle.   Its duties were to provide a depot and to train and supply reinforcements to the 1st and 2nd Battalions, and to deploy on mobilisation to its war station of Birkenhead, in the Mersey Defences, as a Home and Coastal Defence unit.   In 1917 the Battalion was moved to the Newcastle area in the Tyne Garrison and was moved again in May 1918 to Seaton Carew, and then to West Hartlepool in September 1918 in the Tees Garrison.

The Cheshire Regiment was formed on 1st July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, which saw the 2 separate Battalions of the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment of Foot re-titled to become the regular 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Regiment, with the Regimental Depot based at Chester Castle. 

The 1881 reforms also added the Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) and Militia units within the Regimental District of the County of Cheshire to the Regimental Establishment as numbered Battalions of the Regiment.   The Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) units were the 1st Cheshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, the 2nd (Earl of Chester's) Cheshire RVC,  the 3rd Cheshire RVC, the 4th Cheshire (Cheshire and Derbyshire) RVC and the 5th Cheshire RVC.   The Militia units of the Regiment were the 1st Royal Cheshire Light Infantry Militia and the 2nd Royal Cheshire Militia. 

In 1908, as part of the Haldane Reforms, the Militia Battalions were reorganised and restructured forming the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion and the RVC Battalions were retitled as Battalions of the Regimental Territorial Force.   The 1st Cheshire RVC became the 4th Battalion TF, the 2nd (Earl of Chester's) Cheshire RVC and the 3rd Cheshire RVC amalgamated and became the 5th (Earl of Chester's) Battalion TF, the 4th Cheshire RVC became the 6th Battalion TF and the 5th Cheshire RVC became the 7th Battalion TF.  

After the Declaration of War on 4th August 1914 and up to 1st June 1918, the Cheshire Regiment had formed, disbanded or reconstituted 35 Territorial Force, Service, Garrison, Labour, Reserve, Graduated and Young Soldier Battalions.