Montgomeryshire Yeomanry - Roll of Honour of Officers of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry Who Died in the Great War

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Roll of Honour of Officers of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry

Who Died in the Great War

Formation and Early History of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry

The Regiment was founded in 1803 as the Montgomeryshire Volunteer Legion, and reorganised in 1808 and retitled to the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry Cavalry. This was a County Regiment of light cavalry in a Home Defence and Militia role, in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France. This Regiment, like all Yeomanry Regiments, was not intended to serve overseas, but due to the string of defeats during the Second Boer War in December 1899, the British Government realized that there was a requirement for more troops to reinforce the Regular Army in South Africa. A Royal Warrant was issued on 24th December 1899 to allow volunteer forces to serve in South Africa, requesting Yeomanry Regiments each to provide up to 115 men in Company strength units, to be attached to the Imperial Yeomanry (IY), equipped and deployed as Mounted infantry. The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry provided the two Companies for the 9th (Welsh) Battalion, IY, in 1900. The mounted infantry experiment was considered a success and the existing Yeomanry Regiments were converted to IY in 1901, the Regiment becoming the Montgomeryshire Imperial Yeomanry . The title 'Imperial' was dropped in 1908 when the Yeomanry were transferred to the Territorial Force (TF) and the Regiment was retitled as the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry (Dragoons).

The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, which brought the Territorial Force (TF) into being, established the TF as a Home Defence force for service during wartime, and members could not be compelled to serve outside the UK. However, on the outbreak of war on 4th August 1914, many members volunteered for overseas Imperial Service. Therefore, in August and September of 1914, TF units were split into the 1st Line (liable for overseas service) and the 2nd Line (home service for those unable or unwilling to serve overseas) units. Later, a 3rd Line was formed to act as a reserve, providing trained replacements for the 1st and 2nd Line units.

During the Great War the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was organised into three separate units as described below.

Regimental Details of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry

(As Published in the Army List of August 1918)

Montgomeryshire Yeomanry - Army List 1918

Those Officers of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry

Who Died in the Great War

No	Date Died	Surname	Forenames	Rank	Decs	Age	Cause	Country	Location	Cemetery/Memorial	Notes
1917
1	16th February	LANGRISHE	Hercules Ralph	Lt	-	29	KWF	UK	Dover area	Knocktopher (St David's) Churchyard	(1)
2	14th April	CAPPER	Edward Walter	Lt	-	27	KIAA	France	Over Peronne	Arras Flying Services Memorial	(2)
3	31st October	FITZHUGH	Godfrey	Capt	-	44	KIA	Palestine	West of Beersheba	Beersheba War Cemetery (K.13)	(3)
4	27th December	ROBERTS	Harry Cureton	Lt	-	32	KIA	Palestine	East of Jerusalem	Jerusalem War Cemetery (E.26)	(4)
1918
5	14th January	NORRIS	William Eric	2Lt	-	20	A	France	Southeast of Arras	St Leger British Cemetery (F.27)	(5)
6	19th September	CHARLESWORTH	Frederic Raymond	Capt	-	24	DOW	France	20th CCS, Doingt	Doingt Communal Cemetery Extn (I.A.23)	(6)
7	22nd September	ELLIS	Rae Adam	Capt	-	36	DOW	France	20th CCS, Doingt	Doingt Communal Cemetery Extn (I.A.33)	(7)
Notes: 1. LANGRISHE was killed in a flying accident in the Dover area, serving with 13th (Reserve) Squadron Royal Flying Corps. He is buried in the family plot at St David's Churchyard Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny and commemorated on the Grangegorman Memorial. 2. CAPPER was born in Australia. He was serving with 19th Squadron Royal Flying Corps at the time of this death. 3. FITZHUGH was serving with 25th (Montgomeryshire and Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. 4. ROBERTS was serving with 25th (Montgomeryshire and Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. 5. NORRIS was serving with 17th Battalion Welsh Regiment. 6. CHARLESWORTH was serving with 25th (Montgomeryshire and Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers and wounded near Ronnsoy on 18th September 1918. 7. ELLIS was serving with 25th (Montgomeryshire and Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers and wounded near Ronnsoy on 19th September 1918.

Regimental History

A detailed history of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry can be viewed here.

During the Great War the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was organised into three separate units as described below:

1/1st Montgomeryshire Yeomanry. Initially deployed in the UK for its mobilisation role of Home Defence duties in the Hereford area and then later moved to Thetford. Became a dismounted unit (used in infantry role) in November 1915 and deployed to Egypt in March 1916. Fought in Egypt and Palestine in the dismounted role. All personnel of this unit were posted to the 25th (Montgomeryshire & Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers when it was formed in March 1917, part of 231st Brigade, 74th (Yeomanry) Division, and fought in Palestine until re-deployed to France in May 1918.

2/1st Montgomeryshire Yeomanry. Formed in September 1914 at Welshpool, as a UK Home Defence, depot and training unit providing reinforcements for the 1/1st. Moved in May 1915 to Dorchester, and then to Southwold, Suffolk, in September 1915. In November 1916, with 2/1st Denbighshire Yeomanry, formed 3rd Yeomanry Cyclist Regiment in the 1st Cyclist Brigade. Reverted to original identity at Worlingham, Suffolk, in March 1917. By November 1917 the unit was posted to Gorleston, Norfolk, with 1st Cyclist Brigade in May 1918, where it remained for the remainder of the war.

3/1st Montgomeryshire Yeomanry. Formed at Welshpool in June 1915 as a depot, reserve and Third Line training unit and was affiliated to 6th Reserve Cavalry Regiment at The Curragh, Kildare, Ireland. In June 1916 the unit was posted to Gobowen, Salop, and then to Oswestry. In Early 1917 the unit was disbanded with personnel posted to the 2/1st Regiment and the 4th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers TF.

Regimental Battle Honours of the Great War

The sheer scale of the Great War led to a previously unheard of number of honours being awarded and it was simply impractical to emblazon every one of them on the Regimental Colour. In September 1922 it was ordered that Regiments should select up to 10 Honours to be emblazoned on their Regimental Colours along with previous awards, up to a total of 24. This led to a storm of protest, since many Regiments would have had to remove previous Honours. The order was therefore amended the following December, to allow each Infantry Regiment to select up to 10 Honours to be emblazoned on its King's/Queen's Colour, Honours from other conflicts continuing to be displayed on the Regimental Colour.

Egypt, 1916 - 17 Palestine, 1917 - 18 France and Flanders, 1918

The Debt Of Honour Register

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was established by Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), and pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two World Wars. It is a non-profit-making organisation founded by Sir Fabian Ware.

The CWGC's principles are:

Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial.
Headstones and memorials should be permanent.
Headstones should be uniform.
There should be no distinction made of account of military or civil rank, race or creed.

Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials. Over one million casualties are now commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150 countries.

Together with the tasks of structural and horticultural maintenance, the CWGC is charged with keeping records of the 1.75 million Commonwealth war dead. At each cemetery and memorial you will find a register showing the service details and, in some cases, family details, of the men and women buried or commemorated there. Much of the Commission’s day-to-day work is concerned with maintaining the integrity of the casualty database, the electronic version of the records, which can be accessed via the Debt of Honour Register (DoHR).

t should be noted that in December 2020, the Commission reviewed their policy on amendments to the Casualty Database. One of the outcomes of the review was that they would no longer add awards to the database where there is no entitlement to post-nominal letters. Therefore the recording of "Mentioned in Despatches", for instance, would no longer be carried out. Included in the list below, where applicable, are names of officers awarded "Mentioned in Despatches" which will not be recorded in the Casualty Database.

Some apparent inaccuracies in the records of Officers of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry may have been found in the DoHR. The Webmaster will investigate and report these errors to the CWGC as the project/website is progressed.

Below is a brief summary of apparent inaccuracies discovered so far and action taken or planned to take.

Name	Apparent Inaccuracy	Date Reported to CWGC	Agreed by CWGC
FITZHUGH, Capt Godrey	Parent Regiment not shown. Badge on headstone is Royal Welsh Fusiliers
CHARLESWORTH, Capt Frederic Raymond	Parent Regiment not shown.
ELLIS, Capt Rae Adam	Parent Regiment not shown.