Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry - Roll of Honour of Officers of the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry Who Died in the Great War

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Roll of Honour of Officers of the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry

Who Died in the Great War

Formation and Early Years
The Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry was a Yeomanry Regiment first raised on 15th May 1794 as the 1st Devon Troop, in response to the growing threat of invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1803 the unit was retitled as the 1st Devonshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Despite the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Yeomanry Regiments were retained as militia by the Government for military service in aid of the Civil Power, in the absence of organised police forces. In time, the unwillingness of the Government to pay for the Yeomanry led to many units being disbanded during 1827 - 28. Twenty two Yeomanry Regiments were authorised to continue officially, and another sixteen were allowed to continue to serve without pay. Serving without pay from 1828 to 1831, the Regiment was never disbanded. The Regiment was renamed as the Royal 1st Devonshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1871, with its HQ at Exeter. On 1st April 1893, the Regiment was reorganised into Squadrons.

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 to provide each up to 115 men in Company strength units, to be attached to the Imperial Yeomanry (IY), equipped and deployed as mounted infantry. The Royal 1st Devonshire Yeomanry Cavalry and the Royal North Devon Hussars co-sponsored the 27th (Devonshire) Company of the 7th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, which arrived in South Africa on 23rd March 1900. The mounted infantry experiment was considered a success and the existing Yeomanry Regiments were converted to IY in 1901, the Regiment becoming the Royal 1st Devon Imperial Yeomanry. The title 'Imperial' was dropped in 1908 when the Yeomanry Regiments were transferred to the Territorial Force (TF) and the Regiment was retitled as the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry.

The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, which brought the Territorial Force (TF) into being, established the TF as a Home and Coastal 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. Consequently, in August and September of 1914, TF units were split into a 1st Line unit (liable for overseas service) and a 2nd Line unit (home service for those unable or unwilling to serve overseas). Later, a 3rd Line unit was formed to act as a depot and reserve, providing trained replacements for the 1st and 2nd Line units whilst in the Home and Coastal Defence role.

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

Regimental Details of the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry

(As Published in the Army List of August 1918)

Royal 1st Devon AL 1918

Those Officers of the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry

Who Died in the Great War

No	Date Died	Surname	Forenames	Rank	Decs	Age	Cause	Country	Location	Cemetery/Memorial	Notes
Died in 1915
1	11th November	HAIN	Edward	Capt	-	29	KIA	Gallipoli	Hill 10, north east of Suvla Bay	Hill 10 Cemetery (I.F.18)	-
Died in 1917
2	27th July	PIZEY	Noel Martin	Lt	-	18	DOW	Belgium	CCS near Poperinghe	Dozinghem Military Cemetery (I.H.20)	(1)
3	29th July	NICKALLS	Hugh Quidhampton	Lt	-	22	KIAA	Belgium	East of Nieupoort	Arras Flying Services Memorial	(2)
4	9tt November	HAWKER	Reginald Sudlow	Capt	-	28	DOW	Egypt	Hospital at Kantara	Kantara War Memorial Cemetery (C.94)	(3)
5	3rd December	BRAGG	William Robyns	Lt	-	22	DOW	Palestine	Beit-ur-el-Foka, near Jerusalem	Jerusalem War Cemetery (Y.74)	(4)
Died in 1918
6	25th August	HEATHCOAT-AMORY	Ludovic	Capt	MiD	37	DOW	France	CCS at Achiet-le-Grand	Daours Community Cemetery Extn (VI.B.2)	(5)
Died in 1919
7	21st February	BOLITHO	William Edward Thomas	Lt Col	DSO	56	DOI	UK	Hospital at Bath	Gulval Churchyard (NE Corner)	(6)
Notes: 1. PIZEY was seconded to 57th Sqn RFC and was on an observation/bombing mission in an DH4, when he and his pilot were shot down east of Menin. Pizey was taken to a CCS but died of his wounds. 2. NICKALLS was seconded to 52nd Sqn RFC and was acting as observer when he and his pilot, Lt W M Roskelly, on an artillery observation mission in an RE 8, number A4607, were shot down and killed. 3. HAWKER was wounded at Tel esh Sheria, north west of Beersheba, Palestine on 31st October 1917 and was seconded to 4th Company Machine Gun Corps at the time of his death. 4. BRAGG was serving with 16th (Royal 1st Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion Devonshire Regiment TF at the time of his death. 5. HEATHCOAT-AMORY was wounded at Bayonvillers, east of Villers-Bretonneux on 25th August 1918 and was serving on the Staff of HQ 32nd Division at the time of his death. 6. BOLITHO died of illness contracted during service. He was Commanding Officer 2/1st Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry at the time of his death.

Regimental History and Battle Honours of the Great War

A detailed history of the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry can be viewed here.

During the Great War the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry was organised into three separate units as described below:

1/1st Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry. Initially deployed in the UK for its mobilisation role of Home Defence duties in the Colchester area. Became a dismounted unit (used in infantry role) in September 1915 and deployed to Gallipoli. Evacuated from Gallipoli and returned to Egypt in January 1916 and fought in Egypt and Palestine in the dismounted role. All personnel of the Regiment were posted to the 16th (Royal 1st Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion Devonshire Regiment TF when it was formed in January 1917, part of 229th Brigade, 74th (Yeomanry) Division, and fought in Palestine until re-deployed to France in May 1918.

2/1st Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry. Formed in September 1914 as a UK Home Defence, depot and training unit providing reinforcements for the 1/1st, and moved to its initial deployment location in Teignmouth. Moved in May 1915 to Woodbury, Devon and then to Colchester in September 1915. In November 1916, with 2/1st Royal North Devon Yeomanry, formed 4th Yeomanry Cyclist Regiment in the 2nd Cyclist Brigade. Resumed original identity at Holt, Norfolk in March 1917 and the unit was posted to Ireland with 2nd Cyclist Brigade in May 1918, where it remained for the rest of the war.

3/1st Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry. Formed at Exeter in April 1915 as a depot, reserve and Third Line training unit and was affiliated to a Reserve Cavalry Regiment at Tidworth . In February 1917 the unit was disbanded with personnel posted to the 2/1st Regiment and 4th (Reserve) Battalion Devonshire Regiment TF.

Battle Honours. 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 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. Honours in bold are emblazoned on the Regimental Colours.

The Regiment earned the following Battle Honours during the Great War:

Somme 1918, Bapaume 1918, Hindenburg Line, Epehy. Pursuit to Mons. France and Flanders 1918, Egypt 1916–17, Gaza, Jerusalem, Jericho, Tell 'Asur, Palestine 1917–18

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), 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).

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 Honours and 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. Listed in the table below are names, where applicable, of any officers awarded "Mentioned in Despatches" which will not be recorded in the Casualty Database.

Some apparent inaccuracies in the records of Officers of the Denbighshire 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	Date Agreed by CWGC
HAWKER, Capt Reginald Sudlow	Seconded to 4th Company Machine Gun Corps at the time of his dearth.
BRAGG, Lt William Robyns	Serving with 16th (Royal 1st Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion Devonshire Regiment TF at the time of his death.