No

Date Died

Surname

Forenames

Rank

Decs

Age

Cause

Country

Location/Sector

Cemetery/Memorial

Notes

1916

1

12th April

WILSON

William Keates Harrison

Capt

-

56

D

Egypt

Military Hospital at Cairo

Cairo War Memorial Cemetery (F.33)

(1)

2

1st August

FRAZER

John Gordon

Lt Col

-

56

DOI

Egypt

Military Hospital at Cairo

Cairo War Memorial Cemetery (F.121)

-

Notes:

1.   WILSON took his own life.

The 1st (Garrison) Battalion was formed at Westham Camp, Weymouth, on 8th August 1915.   The Battalion consisted of men from the Wessex area who were considered to be unfit for active service but quite capable of performing Garrison duties.   The Battalion was first allocated to the Portland Defences before being sent to the Egypt, sailing for Alexandria on 27th September 1915.   On arrival the Battalion was deployed to Cairo to carry out mainly guard and administrative duties at Army HQ, local hospitals, POW camps, wireless stations and the High Commissioners Residency.   After the Turkish Armistice in 1918, and up to March 1919, the Battalion sent detachments to Bir Saleh, Ramleh, Jerusalem and Haifa until the unit concentrated in Cairo to begin the demobilisation process.   In July 1919, those who had not yet been demobilised were posted to 12th Battalion Hampshire Regiment and the 1st (Garrison) Battalion Devonshire Regiment was disbanded.

The 2nd (Home Service) Garrison Battalion was formed at Exeter in July 1916 for guard and other administrative duties at Plymouth and Falmouth consisting of men only fit for local defence duties in the UK.   The unit was converted to and re-titled 5th Battalion Royal Defence Corps in August 1917.

The Devonshire Regiment was formed on 1st July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, which saw the two Battalions of the 11th (North Devon) Regiment of Foot being renamed and reconstituted as the Regular 1st and 2nd Battalions of the new Regiment, with the Regimental Depot based at Topsham Barracks, Exeter.  The 1881 reforms also redesignated the Militia and Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) units within the Regimental District of Devon as Battalions of the new Regiment  - the East Devon Militia forming the 1st (Militia) Battalion and the South Devon Militia forming the 2nd (Militia) Battalion.   Five Volunteer Battalions of the new Regiment were formed from the county Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) units: 1st Devonshire (Exeter and South Devon) RVC , the 2nd Devonshire (Prince of Wales's) RVC, the 3rd Devonshire RVC, the 4th Devonshire RVC and the 5th Devonshire RVC.  In 1908, as part of the Haldane Reforms, the two Militia Battalions were amalgamated, reorganised and restructured forming the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion and the five Volunteer Battalions were reorganised and formed the 4th Battalion, 5th Battalion, 6th Battalion and 7th Battalion of the Regimental Territorial Force (TF).   After the Declaration of War on 4th August 1914 and at various stages up to 1st June 1918, the order of battle of the Devonshire Regiment was made up of 30 Regular, Territorial Force, Service, Labour, Works, Garrison, Reserve and Graduated Battalions.

A detailed history of the Devonshire Regiment can also be viewed here, here and here.

The "Devonshire Regiment 1914 - 1918" (by C T Atkinson - ISBN 13: 978-184342150 ) provides a detailed account of the operations of the Battalions of the Regiment which took an active part in the Great War.