Saturday, 9 November 2024

No more the song of the skylark: 21 gallant soldier-birdwatchers who lost their lives in the 1914-18 war

                                                             

Skylark - its song brought cheer to many serving in the trenches on the Front Line



GROWING up in Scotland at the start of the twentieth century, close

pals Arthur Landsborough Thomson, Arthur Davidson and Lewis 

Ramsay were ardent birdwatchers.


All three lived in Aberdeen, and Thomson and Davidson both

attended the Grammar School, while Ramsay met up with them on

holiday when he returned from Merchiston School in Edinburgh.


As boys they explored, on foot or cycle, the wildlife-rich countryside

of the Ythan Estuary and Royal Deeside.


Landsborough Thomson went on to become an undergraduate at the 

University of Aberdeen where he established Britain’s first co-

ordinated bird-ringing scheme.


Davidson and Ramsay were only too keen to become involved, and, 

on May 8, 1909, the first birds to be ringed by the trio were six

young lapwings at the Sands of Forvie in Aberdeenshire, plus a 

starling at Inverurie by an older associate, Thomas Tait.


Herring gulls became of particular interest, and the teenagers would 

use their acetylene cycle-lamps to dazzle and trap them.


One bird, ringed on October 3, 1910, was caught, on May 20 the 

following year, by a farmer working in a turnip field on the Orkney 

island of Burray. 


The incident was deemed sufficiently newsworthy 

to be reported in the Aberdeen Free Press in its edition of May 26, 

1911.


When war broke out on July 28, 1914, Davidson and Ramsey were 

24 while Thomson was only 23.


According to Alan Knox who, much later, wrote an article about the 

trio for the journal British Birds, they had had six other friends who 

studied wildlife in and around Aberdeen.


Of the nine who signed up to fight for King and Country in 1914,

 only Landsborough Thomson was to survive the war.


There must have been hundreds more similar instances all over 

Europe - on both sides of the conflict - of friends who grew up 

together and who had watched and recorded birds and their 

behaviour.


Tragically, many never returned from the battlefield.


In some cemeteries, Germans and Allied soldiers rest close together, 

united again in death as they might have been in life had it not been 

for the dislocation caused by the war.


Among those that fell are doubtless hundreds of scientists, spare-time

naturalists and literary or artistic figures who had been forced on to 

opposing sides, thence to have had their plans and careers - and all 

too often their lives - destroyed by the conflict.


How cruel the irony that those who  fell were fighting in an 

environment which, in peacetime, would have provided the very 

habitats for them to pursue their enjoyment of birdwatching.


Remembered below are 21 of these gallant soldiers. 


All apart from one were officers. 


Some were members of the peerage, and one had served in a front-

bench role in government


It is a reflection of what was then a far more hierarchical and class-

divided society that, unfairly, the lives off those lower on the social 

ladder have, with few exceptions, gone unrecorded.


Several of those listed must have been men of significant financial

means because, before the war, they had participated in wide-

ranging voyages of exploration and discovery.


The list includes the writer, Edward Thomas, who was

commemorated by his friend and fellow-poet, William “W.H.”

Davies, in this extract from Killed In Action (Edward Thomas):


Happy the man whose home is still

In Nature's green and peaceful ways;

To wake and hear the birds so loud,

That scream for joy to see the sun

Is shouldering past a sullen cloud.


But thou, my friend, art lying dead:

War, with its hell-born childishness,

Has claimed thy life, with many more:

The man that loved this England well,

And never left it once before.


***


Sydney Edward Brock 


Captain, 10th Cyclist Battalion, Royal Scots

Aged 34. On November 11,1918.


A tenant farmer, of Kirkliston, Linlithgowshire, he was awarded the 

Military Cross for most conspicuous gallantry at the bridgehead at 

Cuerne on October 17, 1918. 


According to the London Gazette, he had led part of his company 

over the bridge, under heavy enemy fire, displaying great coolness 

and setting a most inspiring example to his men. 


Alas, he was severely wounded and died in a military hospital in 

Aberdeen, from the effects of his wounds, on November 11, the day 

on which hostilities ceased.


Although chiefly interested in birdlife, he had acquired considerable 

knowledge of some of the lesser known groups of insects. Most of 

his contributions to science appeared in the Annals of Scottish 

Natural History from 1906 onward, but he also wrote for the 

Zoologist, and the volume for 1910 contains his observations on the 

fledging periods of birds plus an article entitled The Willow-Wrens 

of a Lothian Wood. While in France, he recorded the birds of the 

Peronne.


Place of rest: Kirkliston Burial Ground, Lothian, Scotland.


***


George Wyman Bury


Lieutenant, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Aged 46. On September 23, 1920.


Bury was educated firstly at the grammar school in Atherstone, 

Warwickshire, then by tutors ("Army crammers") who specialised in 

preparing students for the examinations that were part of Army 

Officer Selection.


As a naturalist and explorer of Arabia, Bury took part in zoological 

expeditions to Somaliland, to the southern Arabian peninsular and to 

the Yemen highlands. 


He was in special service in Egypt in 1914 and 

served on the intelligence staff on the Suez Canal front in 1915. 


He became an officer in the Red Sea Northern Patrol and, in 1915, 

was given the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. 


In the first half of 1916, he participated in naval operations along the 

Arabian coast.


He met his future wife, Florence Ann Marshall, in 1911, when he 

was a tuberculosis patient in Westminster Hospital and she was his 

nurse. 


On 19 June, 1913, they married in Hodeida, Yemen. 


In July, 1916, he was sent on convalescent leave to live in Cairo 

under the care of his wife. 


At the end of World War I, Bury and his wife went to live in 

Helwan, Egypt, where he died in 1920 from TB


As a result of his pioneering work as an ornithologist, Bury gave his

 name to the Yemen warbler (Sylvia buryi), southern grey shrike

(Lanius meridionalis buryi), streaked scrub warbler (Scotocera

buryi), buff-spotted flufftail (Sarothrura elegans buryi) and a reptile,

Bury’s worm snake (Leptotyphlops buryi).


Place of rest: Cairo New British Protestant Cemetery.


***


Hugh Vaughn Charlton


2nd Lieutenant, 7th Battalion, Northumberland

Fusiliers.

Aged 32. On June 24, 2016.


Educated at Armstrong College in Newcastle, it was here that he 

joined the Officer Training Corps. He enlisted in August,1915, and 

left for France on March 13,1916.


He was killed by a bomb from a trench mortar near Wytschaete,

 Belgium, just a week before the death of his younger brother,

 Captain John McFarlan Charlton.


Hugh was born in London in 1884 and moved to the North-east in

1901 with his family where he followed in his father’s footsteps by

becoming a skilled naturalist and artist, focusing on birds. 

In 1912 his work was exhibited in the Royal Academy.


Place of rest: La Laiterie Military Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium.


***


John MacFarlan Charlton


Captain, 21st Northumberland Fusiliers

Aged 25. On July 1, 1916


Charlton was killed by a shot through the head near La Boiselle on 

the first day of the Battle of the Somme.


John had enlisted in October 1914, and, following training, he and

 the rest of his battalion left for France in early 1916.


The Northumberland Fusiliers aided the attack on La Boiselle, a 

village near Amiens which became a crucial backdrop as part of the 

Battle of the Somme. 


He successfully assisted in the capture of the 1st and 2nd lines of 

German trenches and was soon to lead the advance on the 3rd line at 

7.30am on July 1,1916. 


After leading his men over the top in the face of heavy fire from the 

Bavarian Infantry Regiment, his party became temporarily stuck in a 

crater which provided cover. 


When they resumed the advance later, Charlton and many of his 

battalion lost their lives. 


His final words to a colleague were: "For God’s sake, push on, I’m

 done."


On November 13, 1917 John was Mentioned in Dispatches

acknowledging his sacrifice at the Somme.


There is a Charlton family grave/headstone in St Cuthbert’s


churchyard in Cleveland, plus memorials to John and his brother, 

Hugh, at Lanercost Priory, Cumbria, and at Old Jesmond Cemetery 

in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.


Born in London in 1891, John had relocated to the North-east of

England in 1901 with his family. Aged 12, he was awarded a special 

commendation in the Natural History Society of Northumberland, 

Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Hancock Prize competition for 

his essay entitled A Trip to The Farnes in 1903.


He went on to become both an excellent ornithologist and a skilled

taxidermist.


As well as contributing to the journal, British Birds, he was author of

 a pamphlet, Birds of South-east Northumberland, published in 1912,

and an article, Notes on Norwegian Birds, which was published in 1913.


Place of commemoration: Thiepval Memorial, northern France.


***


Arthur Gerrard Davidson


Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps

Aged 27. On September 9,1917.


At the start of war, Davidson went to France as a private in the 

Gordon Highlanders and rose to sergeant before gaining a 

commission. 


After fresh training, he returned to France in April 1917 as a pilot in 

the Royal Flying Corps, losing his life, as did his observer, when

their open-cockpit aeroplane was shot down in a dogfight with four 

German planes.


Davidson was the son of an Aberdeen master clothier who, after 

attending the city’s grammar school, worked for several years in his 

father’s shop before transferring to a similar establishment in 

London.


He was a less academically-minded birdwatching pal of Arthur 

Landsborough Thomson and Lewis Ramsay, contributing to their 

pioneering ringing activities in Aberdeenshire.


Place of rest: Zuydcoote Military Cemetery near Dunkirk.


***


Eric B. Dunlop


2nd Lieutenant, 5th Battalion Border Regiment

Aged 30. On May 19, 1917.


A native of Troutbeck, near Windermere in the Lake District, 

Dunlop enlisted in the 78th Canadian Grenadiers in 1915 while in 

Canada, but, on arrival in England in 1917, he transferred to the 

Border Regiment. 


He had been in France barely a month before his death.


Educated at schools in Rugby and Carlisle, he became a boyhood 

expert on the distribution and behaviour within Cumbria of the 

buzzard, peregrine falcon and raven. 


He also made a study of the roosting habits of corvidae which

indicated that all the British members of this avian group

congregated for roosting at certain seasons. 


At the outbreak of the war, he had been engaged 

upon a study of the nesting habits of the birds of 

northern Manitoba in Canada.


Place of commemoration: Arras Memorial, France.


***



John ‘Jack’ Dighton Grafton-Wignall


Captain, 82nd Punjabis

Aged 29. Killed in action in the historic region of South-western 

Asia, then known as Mesopotamia (now Iraq), on January 26, 1917.


After having been educated at Clifton College, Bristol, he entered 

Sandhurst and served in India before being transferred to 

Mesopotamia (now Iraq).


A fine boxer and mountaineer, he had been interested in birds since 

boyhood, and, even by the age of 19, had expertise on certain 

species, among them being buzzard, peregrine, raven, chough, 

woodlark, Dartford warbler and water rail. 


In his 20s, the list grew to include Kentish plover, stone curlew, 

short-eared owl and more. 


Fellow-ornithologists were astonished at his ability to detect a 

camouflaged woodcock on a nest or a clutch of eggs on a shingle 

beach.


Place of commemoration: Basra Memorial, Iraq.


***


Leonard Gray


Captain, 5th Battalion Essex Regiment

Aged 45. On July 31,1917, while on active service 

at Alexandria in Egypt.


The member of a prominent family of Chelmsford in Essex, he was

educated at Eastbourne in Sussex, then at Oxford University after 

which he pursued a career as a solicitor.


He gained an officer’s commission in October 1915 and, a year later, 

arrived in Gallipoli to join his battalion in their struggle against the 

Turks. 


He suffered ill-health from November, 1915, and eventually died in 

Egypt, in July 1917, having survived the first two Battles of Gaza.



An occasional contributor to British Birds, he was particularly 

interested in birds’ nests, and, at a time when the activity was still 

legal, he collected eggs, frequently visiting Scotland to add to his 

collection. 


From time to time, he contributed news items - for instance, on the 

nesting behaviour of lesser redpolls and crossbills.


Gray bequeathed his collection of eggs and the cabinets containing 

them to the corporation museum at Chelmsford, though it is not 

clear from the records whether they were of sufficient interest 

to  have been accepted.


He practised as a solicitor in his hometown, Chelmsford, and the

practice that bears his name still flourishes as a law firm and estate 

agents.


Place of commemoration: Alexandria/Hadra Memorial Cemetery, 

Egypt


***


Herbert Hastings Harington


Lieutenant-Colonel, 62nd Punjabis

Aged 48. On March 8, 1916, in Mesopotamia while leading 

his regiment into action.


Born at Lucknow in northern India and educated at Malvern, 

he served in Burma for more than 20 years, for five of which he 

was attached to the Burmese Police. 


In February, 1916, he was posted to the command of the 

62nd Punjabis, and it was while leading this regiment into action 

that he was killed.


It had been while in Burma that Harington really took up 

ornithology seriously, and his first bird articles, written for the

Rangoon Gazette, were subsequently to provide much of the text for 

his book, Birds of Burma, which was published in 1909. 


Species named after him include Indian sport-billed duck (Anas

poecilorhyncha haringtoni); dark grey bush-chat (Oreicola ferrea 

haringtoni) and rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler (Pomatorhinus 

erythrogenys haringtoni).


Place of commemoration: Basra Memorial, Iraq.


***


Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas and 5th Lord 

Dingwall


Captain, Royal Flying Corps

Aged 40. On 3 November, 1916, after having been wounded in 

the head by bullets from a German fighter aircraft during a flight 

over enemy lines.


Educated at Bedford School and Balliol College, Oxford, he became 

a Liberal politician and served in 1914-15, as President of the Board 

of Agriculture, in Asquith’s Cabinet. 


He had previously lost a leg after having been wounded while 

working as a war correspondent during the South African War, 1899-

1902.


A member of the British Ornithologists' Union and a keen bird 

ringer, his early interest in wildlife had doubtless been encouraged 

by his father, also a politician, who had been at the forefront of the 

passing of the 1872 Protection of Wild Birds Act.


Place of commemoration: H.A.C. (Honourable Artillery Company) 

Cemetery, Ecoust-Saint-Mein, France.


***


Boyd Horsbrugh


Lieutenant-Colonel, Armed Service Corps.


Aged 45. On July 11, 1916. Wounded during the Battle of Loos in 

November, 2015, he was invalided home that month and underwent 

an operation from which he never recovered.


Educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst, he joined the 

Warwickshire Regiment in 1893 and served for two years in Ceylon, 

subsequently transferring to the Army Service Corps. 


He saw active service during the Sierra Leone Rebellion, 1898-99,

and in the South African War, 1899-1902.


He wrote Game Birds and Waterfowl of South Africa and gave his 

name to the red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera horsbrughi).


An aviculturalist as well as an ornithologist, the ponds at 

his Tandridge Priory home in Oxted, Surrey, contained ducks and 

geese including some rarer species from America. species. 


His aviaries accommodated exotic foreign species, including 

minivets and sunbirds, imported from India and other countries.


Place of rest: Tandridge Churchyard, Surrey.


***


Wyndham Knatchbull-Hugessen, 3rd Baron Brabourne


Lieutenant, Special Reserve, attached to 1st Battalion Grenadier 

Guards.

Aged 30. On March 12, 1915, he was killed in action at Neuve 

Chapelle in France.


Co-author of Birds of South America with Charles Hubb, Henrik 

Gronvold and H. Kirke Swann, he gave his name to a species of 

hummingbird, Brabourne’s emerald (Agyrtrina versicolor brabourni)


Place of commemoration: Le Touret Memorial, France


***


The Hon Gerald Legge, Earl of Dartmouth


7th Battalion, South Staffs Regiment

Aged 33. On September 9,1915, he was fatally wounded at Suvla 

Bay on the Aegean coast of Gallipoli peninsula.


In an appreciation in The Field magazine, his friend and fellow-

naturalist, John Millais wrote: "He was last seen lying mortally 

wounded on the ground, and cheering on the men of whom he was 

so proud."


As well as being an ornithologist, Legge was an aviculturist, his 

special interest being in wildfowl of which he had a collection at 

Patshull, his father's seat in Staffordshire.


Another friend, J. R. B Masefield, wrote: "As an instance of his 

keenness in studying ducks, I may relate that one day when I met 

him at Patshull, he had just arrived from Northumberland, whence 

he had brought a nest of teal just hatching out. 


"By telegraphing forward to several railway stations en route he had 

secured a relay of  hot-water bottles by means of which he had

 succeeded in keeping the ducklings warm."


Legge was a member of the British Museum expedition under 

Richard Woosnam (see below) which explored with much success 

the Ruwenzori in 1906,while, in 1909, he again went to Africa with 

Woosnam to explore the Kalahari Desert. 


During both expeditions, valuable collections of birds were made.


He gave his name to the short-tailed pipit (Anthus brachyurus 

leggei).


***


Alfred Stanley Marsh


Captain, 8th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry

Aged 24. On January 5, 1916, when he was shot through the heart 

by a sniper’s bullet in the trenches of Armentieres.


Brought up in Blacknell, near Crewkerne, in Somerset, he was 

author of an article, Maritime Ecology of Holme-next-Sea, Norfolk, 

that had been published in a 1915 edition of the Journal of Ecology. 


His map-reading and landscape survey skills, particularly in relation 

to saltmarsh and sand dune surveys, proved highly useful in 

his wartime work as an infantry officer.


Place of rest: Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres, France.


***


Francis Algernon Monckton


Lieutenant, Ist Battalion, Scots Guards

Aged 24. Killed in action on November 8, 1914.


The eldest son of Francis Monckton, of Stretton Hall, Stafford, he 

was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.


Around his rural home, he made the most of opportunities to study 

the local birds, especially the wildfowl on the lake in Stretton Park, 

on the River Penk and a large sheet of water known as Bellfield's 

reservoir, now known as Belvide’s reservoir. 


The area was noted for lying on a significant flightline of wintering 

migrants coming in from the East Coast to the South-west.


From the age of 16, Monckton annually contributed valuable notes 

on the birds of Staffordshire which appeared in the Transactions of 

the North Staffordshire Field Club.


In a letter dated October 22, 1914, from St. Nazaire, at the mouth of 

the Loire, where he was quartered before going to the Front, he 

wrote to a friend: "Both pied and white wagtails are common here 

now, while grey wagtails are scattered about in small numbers.


"Rooks, jackdaws and starlings are rare here, but have been coming 

over in small flocks during the last few days.


"Stonechats seem to be sparsely distributed. Chiffchaffs are 

swarming everywhere, and often sing in the early morning, but I 

have been struck by the absence of other warblers.


"When I was here in August, I saw a few whitethroats, but this 

month I have not seen one, nor any blackcaps. 


"Robins, hedge sparrows, and wrens are common, and the robins

seem to have increased in numbers recently. 


"Thrushes are mostly conspicuous by their absence.


"Blackbirds were uncommon until October 17 after which date they 

have become more and more numerous in the gardens along the

cliffs. 


"On several nights, I have heard them passing over.


"Chaffinches struck me as being very uncommon up till the 17th, 

since when they have arrived in great numbers. 


"On that date, there was a great rush of birds. I was out about 

7.15am, and the migration seemed to reach its height about 8am, but 

had practically stopped by 10.30 a.m. 


"It was a cold, overcast, hazy morning, with a fresh north-easterly. 


"The birds were flying up the river along the shore. They mostly 

passed straight on, but some dropped out here and there. 


"The vast majority seemed to be chaffinches, linnets, skylarks and 

goldfinches, with a certain number of meadow pipits. 


"There were also a few rooks, jackdaws, swallows, martins and 

wagtails. 


"As the birds were mostly passing overhead and in dull light, it was 

difficult to distinguish species.


"On the 18th, I had not much opportunity of watching, but I think 

there was a slight migration because I saw parties of blue tits, 

starlings and swallows. 


"Skylarks and thrushes of some sort were passing over during the 

night, 17th-18th.


"On the 19th, the east wind still continued, and there was a 

remarkable rush of birds in the morning, dying away about 9 am, 

though birds were still coming in at 10.30 am. 


"The vast majority of birds seemed to be chaffinches, linnets, 

skylarks and meadow pipits. 


"Many flocks of blue tits were also coming in, but I saw only one 

great tit arriving though both these species seem common about 

here. 


"Many goldfinches, wagtails and starlings were coming in along 

with three flocks of rooks, 12 jackdaws, five stock doves, and a very 

few swallows and martins.


"On the 20th there was another strong migration, though hardly so 

many birds as on the day before. 


"Mostly they were chaffinches, linnets, skylarks and goldfinches, but

not so many meadow pipits, plus a few rooks, starlings, swallows, 

martins and mistle thrushes, plus one redwing (or possibly a song 

thrush), a wheatear, a merlin and a good many blue tits. 


"On Wednesday the 21st, I saw a wheatear, and I think there was a 

slight migration, but it was difficult to tell owing to the fog. 


"Today (22nd), all migration seems to have stopped."


Place of commemoration: Menin Gate Memorial in Begium


***


Henry Edward Otto Murray Dixon


2nd Lieutenant, 4th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders

Aged 32. On April 10,1917 in Vimy, France the day after having 

been wounded during an attack on Vimy Ridge.


Born in Swithland, near Loughborough in Leicestershire, he was a 

keen naturalist and artist whose work had been influenced Archibald 

Thorburn. However, his colours tended to be stronger. 


He was one of four artists who contributed plates to J.G. Millais' 

British Diving Ducks, published in 1913.


Place of rest: Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France.


***


Lewis Neil Griffith Ramsay


2nd Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

Aged 25. On March 21, 1915, he fell to a sniper’s bullet while 

repairing a trench on territory taken from the Germans. 



Ramsay had fought through the 1914-15 winter in France, surviving 

the short battle of Neuve Chapelle on March 10-12, the first set-

piece offensive from static trenches.


The second son of Prof Sir William M. Ramsay, he was born in 

Aberdeen and educated at Merchiston School, Edinburgh, afterwards 

studying at Aberdeen University and later at Christ's College, 

Cambridge, then at the Imperial College of Science. 


A birdwatcher from an early age, Ramsay had travelled extensively, 

notably to Asia Minor in summer,1907, making collections not only 

of birds but also of mammals, insects and wild flowers. 


He also wrote up the research of the birdlife encountered on William 

Speirs Bruce’s Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-04).


In an obituary written for British Birds, his friend and fellow-

naturalist, Arthur Landsborough Thomson, wrote: "He was 

conspicuous for the enthusiasm which he displayed in everything he 

took up, whether scientific work, hill-climbing, or athletics."


His scientific papers on birds in his native Aberdeenshire included 

studies of garganey, gadwall, blue-headed wagtail, spotted redshank, 

mealy redpoll, grasshopper warbler and herring gull (with particular 

reference to its moult).


He also wrote Observations on Bird-Life on the Anatolian Plateau 

during the Summer of 1907.


Place of rest: Estaires Communal Cemetery, northern France.


***


George Stout


Private, 93rd Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps

Aged 28. On November 3, 1916.


Born in Dunrossness, Shetland, and the son of a crofter, Stout was a 

taxidermist as well as an ornithologist. 

During a spell working at Fair Isle Bird Observatory, he is credited 

with having added two species to the list of British avifauna - red-

rumped swallow (1905) and Eastern short-toed lark (1904).


Place of rest: Coiuin British Cemetery, France


***


Philip Edward Thomas


2nd Lieutenant, Royal Garrison Artillery

Aged 39. Killed in Action in the Battle of Arras in April, 1917, soon 

after he arrived in France.


To spare the feelings of his widow Helen, by whom he had a son and 

two daughters, it was said that Thomas had been killed by the 

concussive blast wave of a shell fired as he stood to light his pipe 

and that there had been no mark on his body. 


However, a letter from his commanding officer Franklin Lushington, 

written in 1936, states that in reality the cause of Thomas' death was 

due to being "shot clean through the chest".


The son of civil service clerk, Thomas was born of Welsh descent in 

Lambeth, South London and educated at Battersea Grammar School 

and St Paul’s School, both in London, then Lincoln College, Oxford, 

where History was his degree subject.


In June, 1899, he married Helen while still an undergraduate, and 

determined to live his life by the pen. He worked as a literary critic, 

reviewing up to 15 books every week, but subsequently made his 

name as a poet, initially publishing under the name Edward 

Eastaway.


His observations on birds featured in several works, including the 

famous, Adlestrop and  The|Thrush and The Owl which includes the 

lines:


An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry

Speaking for all who lay under the stars,

Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.


Place of rest: Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, Agny, France.


***


C.H.T Whitehead


Major, 56th Punjab Rifles

Aged 34. on September 26,1915. Killed in Action in France.


Whitehead fell leading his men in a charge, being shot

dead on the very parapet of an enemy's trench which

had been taken. 


At the time of his death, he was attached

to the Highland Light Infantry, but his own regiment was the 56th 

Punjab Rifles.


One of seven sons, of Deighton Grove, York, Whitehead had served 

in the 1899-1902 South African War.


Prior to the 19114-18 war, he had explored the birds North-west 

India and was author of a book, Birds of Kohat and Kurram, 

Northern India, which was published in 1909.


The western Alpine thrush (Zoothera mollissima whiteheadi), which 

he discovered, was named after him.


In a tribute, published in British Birds, his friend and fellow-

naturalist, Stuart Baker wrote: “Whitehead was a 

singularly charming character, intensely earnest in everything he 

did, persevering and thorough in all his work. 


"Among other interesting discoveries he made were the breeding-

haunts in the Himalayas of the Chinese reed warbler."


Place of commemoration: Neuve Chappelle Memorial, France.


***


Richard Bowen Woosnam


Second-Lieutenant, 6th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment

Aged 35. On June 4, 915. Killed while leading his men in an attack on the Turkish trenches in Gallipoli.


The only son of the late Mr and Mrs Bowen R. Woosnam, of Tyn-y-

graig, near Builth Wells, Woosnam had fought throughout the South 

African War (1899-1902) but resigned his commission in order to 

pursue his interest in natural history.


A collecting trip in Cape Colony in 1903 was followed, in 1905, by 

an extensive journey through-western Persia and Armenia where he 

collected both birds and mammals.


In the following year, he led an expedition to Ruwenzori, then again 

to Persia, this time to the Elburz Mountains.


In 1909, he returned to Africa to explore the Kalahari Desert with 

one of his Ruwenzori companions, Gerald Legge (see above).


In 1910, Woosnam was appointed game-warden in British East 

Africa, but, following the outbreak of war, returned to England in 

order to rejoin his old regiment, the Worcesters.


All the collections he had made were donated to the British 

Museum, and accounts of the birds with his field-notes have 

appeared in various volumes of the journal, Ibis.


Following his death, three newspapers - the Brecon Radnor Express

Carmarthen and Swansea Valley Gazette and Brynmawr District 

Advertiser - published his obituary, under the heading Gallant Builth 

Soldier Dies for Country’s Honour.


Woosnam gave his name to various birds including trilling cisticola 

(Cisticola woosnami), fire-crested slete (Alethe castanea woosnami

and red-tailed bristlerbill (Bleda syndactylus woosnami).


A fish (Synodontis woosnami), commonly known as the bubblebarb 

squeaker, is also named after him.


Place of commemoration: Helles Memorial, Turkey.


Lives cut short - many birdwatchers were among those who fell in battle 

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