Leading Seaman, 220345, H.M.S. "Princess Irene", Royal Navy. Lost when the ship blew up off Sheerness 27th May 1915. Born 13 November 1866, in Devon. Enlisted 13 November 1904 for 12 years, aged 16. height 5 feet 1 nch, hair light brown, eyes hazel, complexion fresh. Widow. Lilian, Amelia, 138A, Malins Rd., Landport, Portsmouth. Buried in GILLINGHAM (WOODLANDS) CEMETERY, Kent. Naval. 19. 986. See also Milton

Private 44643, "D" Company, 8th (Service) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment. Died 30 May 1918. Aged 18. Born cambridge, enlisted Whitehall, London. Son of Elizabeth Ann Dant, of 20, Victoria Rd., Cambridge, and the late Charles Dant. Formerly 537227, London Regiment. No known grave. Commemorated on SOISSONS MEMORIAL Aisne, France. See also Cambridge St Lukes

[Listed as Henry on SDGW and CWGC] Lance Corporal 26689, 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). Died of wounds 11 June 1917. Aged 32. Born and resident Cambridge, enlisted Harrow. Son of George and Caroline Darkins, of 25, Malcolm St., Cambridge. Buried in MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Plot I. Row E. Grave 8. See also Cambridge All Saints

Private 868, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Born 21st April 1891 at Cambridge, aged 17 years 11 months. Died between January and March 1917, aged 25 (GRO ref: Cambridge 3b 698). Attested at Cambridge 4th March 1909. Embodied 5th August 1914, discharged on 1st February 1916 as medically unfit for further service (Para 392 XVI Kings Regulations). Son of the late Joseph Frederick Darling and Emma Darling of 18 Wellington Street, Cambridge. He was a Gas Fitter's Mate for Cambridge Gas Company, in 1911, he was 19 and working as a gas fitter. Unmarried. Height 5 feet 7½ inches. Hair dark, eyes blue, medium figure. Recorded as having pain radiating down his left arm and shortness of breath; he was in hospital for 3 months; initial cause was influenza. Buried in Mill Road Cemetery, parish of St Andrew the Less section. See also Cambridge Gas Company and also Cambridge, Christ Church

Lance Corporal 202010 [SDGW] or 202016 [CWGC], 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 26 September 1917. Born and enlisted Cambridge. Formerly 3793, Suffolk Regiment. No known grave. Commemorated on TYNE COT MEMORIAL, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 40 to 41 and 162 to 162A. See also Cambridge, Christ Church

Second Lieutenant 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment who was killed in action on Saturday, 24th April 1915. Aged 33. Son of Horace and Ida Darwin, of The Orchard, Cambridge. Employed Cambridge Scientific Instrument Coy Ltd. Commemorated on the YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 33 Also listed on family gravestone in churchyard. See also Cambridge St Giles and Cambridge University, Trinity College

Extract from de Ruvigny's Roll of Honour Volume 1, Part 1, Page 106:

DARWIN, Erasmus, 2nd Lieut 4th battalion, Aleaxandra, Princess of Wales Own Yorkshire Regiment (T.F) Only son of Horace Darwin, F.R.S. Chairman of Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co, by his wife, the Hon Emma Cecilla (Ida) nee Farrer, only daughter of Thomas Henry, 1st Lord Farrer and grandson of Charles Darwin.

Born Cambridge 7-12-1881, educated at Horris Hill and Marlborough (Cotton House) and gained an exhibition for Mathematics at Trinity College,Cambridge. He went up to Trinity in October 1901 and took the mathematical Tripos in his second year being placed among the senior Optimes. Afterwards he took the mechanical sciences Tripos and was placed in the second class in 1905.

On leaving Cambridge he went through the shops at Messrs Mather and Platts at Manchester. After this he worked for some little while with the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., of which he was a director, and then became assistant secretary of Bocklow Vaughan and Co Ltd at Middlesborough. Here he stayed for seven years and at the outbreak of war occupied the postion of secretary to the company.

As soon as war broke out he decided to join the army and on 12-9-14 was gazetted 2nd Lieut in the 4th (Territorial) battalion of the Yorkshires, which after training at Darlington and Newcastle crossed to France, as part of the Northumbria division on 17-4-15 and was within a week called upon to take part in the second battle of Ypres. Here these Territorial troops fresh from home and tried at the very outset almost as highly as men could be tried, behaved with a steadiness and coolness which gained for them the congratulations of the generals commanding their division and their army corps.

Early on the morning of the 24-4-15 the battalion was ordered to attack the village of Fortuin, close to St Julien where the Germans had broken through. This attack they successfully carried out in the face of terrific shellfire, being ordered to retire at dusk.

By driving the enemy back a mile or more they had attained their object which was to prevent a breach in the line, and they hade made good their front with the Canadians and Royal Irish on their right.

It was during this advance that Darwin fell, killed instantaneously. His Commanding Officer, Colonel Bell wrote of him "Loyalty, Courage and Devotion to duty - he had them all .... He died in an attack which gained many compliments to the battalion. He was right in front. It was a mans death". Corporal Wearmouth, who was in his platoon wrote "I am a section leader in his platoon and when we got the order to advance he proved himself a hero. He nursed us men, in fact the comment was, you would say we were on a field day. We had got to within twenty yards of our halting place when he turned to our platoon to say something. As he turned he fell, and I am sure he never spoke. As soon as I could I went to him but he was beyond human aid. Our platoon sadly miss him, as he could not do enough for us, and we are all extremely sorry for you, in your great loss".

Private Wood wrote to a friend in Middlesborough "I would expect you would know poor Mr. Darwin .... I was in his platoon and I can tell you he died a hero. He led us absolutely regardless of the bullets from the German Maxim guns and snipers that whistled all around him".

Just before he left England, when his battalion was under orders for the front, he was summoned to the war office and offered a staff appointment at home in connection with munitions of war. This would have given great scope to his capabilities. "It would have been interesting and important work" he wrote "but of course there are plenty of older men who can do it just as well as I can".

He felt that at the moment his place should be with his Regiment and made, in the words of one present at the interview, a fine appeal to be allowed to go with his men. It was granted and he went gladly with no looking back.

The Times (30-4-15) said of him "Erasmus Darwin would, if he had lived, have added fresh distinction to the name of his familyin a walk of life in which it has never before figured. Between Cambridge and a great iron works in the north there is something of a gulf fixed and one who knew Darwin only in his Cambridge home cannot say anything more than that all that met him in business conceived a very high opinion of his grasp of the subject, his acuteness and administrative ability. It was indeed impossibe to know him without realising that he combined with intellectual ability a calm, sound and practical judgement, and a general capacity for doing things well and thoroughly. He had, too, what must have been invaluable to him in his work, a most genuine sympathy with and affection for working men, and this quality, which, amongst so many other things, had made him love his work at Middlesborough, gave him intense pleasure when soldiering came to him as a wholly new and unlooked for esperience. He delighted in the men, and especially in long expeditions across the moors with his scouts. There is one more quality as to which all his friends would agree, namely a conscientiousness that was eminently sane and wide minded and completely unswerving. No one in the world was more certain what to do what he believd to be right.

[Spelt DECKS on SDGW] Private 61510, 22nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). Died while a Prisoner of War in Germany 8 November 1918. Aged 21. Born, resident nd enlisted Cambridge. Son of Alfred J. and E. Maud Deeks, of 6, Brunswick Terrace, Cambridge. Formerly 15123, Royal West Kent Regiment. Buried in NIEDERZWEHREN CEMETERY, Hessen, Germany. Plot X. Row S. Grave 1. See also Cambridge, Christ Church

Captain Gerald William Deighton © IWM (HU 121137)

Captain, ‘D’ Company, 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action Ovillers 3rd July 1916. Aged 23. Awarded Military Cross (M.C.) and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Scholar of Eton College, and of King's College, Cambridge. Classical Honours degree, B.A. 1914. Baptised 2 November 1882 in Cambridge, St Paul, son of Frederick and Louisa Ellen Deighton, of St Bernard's, Hills Road, Cambridge. Son of Louisa Ellen Deighton, "Little St. Bernard's", Cambridge Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge, and the late Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Deighton (R.A.M.C.) Surgeon, Cambridge; brother of John Deignton (below). Also resident at 47, Hills Road, Cambridge. In the 1901 census he was aged 8, born Cambridgeshire, son of frederick and Louisa E Deighton, resident 47, Hills Road, Cambridge. In the 1911 census he was aged 18, born Cambridge, a boarder at school, resident Eton College, Buckinghamshire. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Panels 1C & 2A.

See also Cambridge St Paul's and also Cambridge, St Faith's School

Extract from England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1919:

DEIGHTON Gerald William of St. Bernard's Hills-road Cambridge captain 7th Suffolk regiment died 3 July 1916 in France or Belgium Administration (with Will) Peterborough 13 September to Frederick Deighton lieutenant-colonel R.A.M.C. Effects £346 3s. 6d.

Extract from Register of Admissions to King's College Cambridge, 1929:

Deighton, Gerald William : son of Frederick Deighton, M.A., M.B., of
St. Bernards, Hills Road, Cambridge, Surgeon.
School: Eton, H.S.
Admitted 7 Oct. 1911; Scholar ; Prizeman ; 1st Class Classical
Tripos, Pt. I, 1914. Degree : B.A. 1914.
During the Great War served as Captain Suffolk Regiment ; M.C.
Jan. 1916; mentioned in despatches Jan. 1916; Chevalier Legion
of Honour (France) Oct. 1915.
Killed in action 3 July 1916 at Oville

Private 29074, 2nd Battalion, Border Regiment, Died of wounds 29 October 1917. Aged 36. Born and resident Cambridge, enlisted Bury St Edmunds. Son of John and Catherine Deller; husband of Annie Deller, of 20, Brandon Place, City Rd., Cambridge. Formerly 58682, Royal Fusiliers. Buried in BOULOGNE EASTERN CEMETERY, Pas de Calais, France. Plot VIII. Row I. Grave 88. See also Cambridge, Christ Church

Private 40176, 9th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. Killed in action 5 January 1917. Aged 20. Enlisted Cambridge. Son of Thomas Price Dennard and Harriet Elizabeth Dennard, of 16, Benson St., Huntingdon Rd., Cambridge. In the 1911 census he is aged 14, son of Harriet Dennard (a widow), at school, born Cambridge and rewsident with family at 16 Benson Street, Huntingdon Road, Chesterton, Cambridge. Buried in VERMELLES BRITISH CEMETERY, Pas de Calais, France. Plot V. Row E. Grave 35. See also Cambridge St Lukes

Private 326027, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Killed in action 31 July 1917. Aged 23. Enlisted Cambridge. Husband of Ethel B. Sanders (formerly Dent), of 12, Gloucester Terrace, Swindon, Wilts. Formerly 2923, Cambridgeshire Regiment. No known grave. Commemorated on YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 50 and 52. See also Cambridge St Barnabas and also Cambridge, Christ Church

[Spelt Nobel on memorial] Corporal, 1357, 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Died of wounds Thursday, 4th March 1915. Born Cambridge. Enlisted Cambridge. Son of Thomas Henry and Elizabeth Dewey, of 6, Searle St., Cambridge. Buried in DICKEBUSCH NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Plot/Row/Section A. Grave 1. See also Cambridge St Lukes

Private 5334, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 26 September 1917. Aged 36. Born and enlisted Cambridge. Son of Walter Dickerson; husband of Rose Dickerson, of 138, Thoday St., Cambridge. No known grave. Commemorated on TYNE COT MEMORIAL, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 40 to 41 and 162 to 162A. See also Cambridge St Philips

Lance Corporal 326095 "A" Coy. 1st Bn., Cambridgeshire Regiment who was killed in action on Tuesday, 31st July 1917. Age 24. Born Grantchester, enlisted Cambridge. Son of Frederick and Phoebe Dilley, of Grantchester, Cambs. Formerly 3048, Cambridgeshire Regiment. Commemorated on YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 50 and 52. See also Grantchester

From a roll compiled by Caroline Burkitt that can be found in Cambridge Library, reference section:

Walter was the third child of Frederick was born in 1895. He went to school in Grantchester and then worked as a garden boy at West House, West Road for Misses Clay. He was later employed at 17, Trumpington Street by their nephew, Dr. Henry Buckley Roderick, Surgeon and University demonstrator of surgery.

Very early in the war he enlisted into A Company, 1st battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment and was sent to France at the beggining of 1915.

In the early hours of 31st July 1917, in very bad weather, the Allies launched the offensive in the Third Battle of Ypres. Walter was killed on the first day of the assault in the battle for Hill 19. Hill 19 was a mere apology for a hill, being four hundred yards long and only fifteen feet high, nevertheless it was regarded as strategically important. 302 officers and men of the Cambridgeshires lost their lives that day and the next. The courage and fighting spirit of the Regiment is Illistrated by the tale of Private Muffet. C Company had captured Border House and then had been outflanked and were ordered to fall back. Soon afterward a wounded runner brought the following message to battalion headquarters : "I received an order by orderly to retire, but as Captain Jones before he was killed said we were not to retire without written orders from the CO, I am holding Border House. There are only three of us left alive and two of those chaps are wounded. I am holding Border House until I get a written order to retire." A written order was immediately issued.

After Walters death Mrs Dilley received a letter from the Lieutenant in command of A Company "My dear Mrs Dilley, I am writing to convey to you on behalf of the officers, non commissioned officers and men of this company our sympathy on the sad loss of your son. Walter Dilley was one of the most popular men of the company. He was a fine soldier and as a man was British to the backbone.

As his platoon officer for several months I soon realised what a fine boy he was, so cheery and willing, and we all sadly miss him and the other brave men of the Cambridgeshires who made the great sacrifice on July 31st."

Walter was 22 at the time of his death.

Second Lieutenant, 1/7th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) (Territorial Force). Died of wounds in hospital 4 July 1917. Agde 22. Son of George Henry and Mary Ann Doggett, of Abbey Lodge, Beche Rd., Cambridge. Buried in CAMBRIDGE CITY CEMETERY, Cambridge. Section B Grave 1802. See also Perse School and also Cambridge, Christ Church

Private 473501, 88th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Killed in action 9 October 1917. Aged 23. Enlisted Cambridge. Son of John Charles and Annie Elizabeth Dorban, of 57, Searle St., Cambridge. In the 1911 census he was aged 17, son of John Charles and Annie Elizabeth Dorban, a Grocer's Apprectice, born Cambridge, resident 57 Searle Street, Chesterton, Cambridge. No known grave. Commemorated on TYNE COT MEMORIAL Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Panel 160. See also Cambridge St Lukes