21 May 1894 in 2nd Lieutenant 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment. Killed in action 24th October 1914. Aged 20. Born Feltham, Middx. Resident Harrow Weald, Middx. Baptised 22 June 1894 in Kings Walden, Hertfordshire. Son of William Langstaff and Jane Ainslie of Hanworth House, Harrow Weald. No known grave. Commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais France. Panels 8 and 9.

Extract from Bond of Sacrifice: Officers Who Died In the Great War 1914-1916, volume 1, page 3:

2nd LIEUTENANT DENYS ALFRED LAFONE AINSLIE, 1st BATTN. DEVONSHIRE REGT., who was killed in action on the 24th October, 1914, in France, was the third son of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Ainslie, of Hanworth House, Harrow Weald.

He was educated at Wellington, where he was in the Talbot from 1906-1910.

He was gazetted to the 3rd Battalion of his regiment in April. 1913, and was granted a commission in the 1st Battalion in August, 1914.

Death also reported in Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Friday 29 January 1915

Lance Corporal L/12386. Ist Battalion Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment). Killed in action at Chapille d'Armentiers 1 December 1914. Aged 25. Born Harrow Weald.Resident Harrow, Middx. Enlisted Hounslow, Middx. Son of Walter and Alice Biggs of 2 Ivy Cottages, Box Tree Lane, Harrow Weald, Middx. No known grave. Commemorated on Ploegstreet Memorial, Hainault, Belgium, Panel 3.

Death also reported in Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Friday 29 January 1915

Lieutenant 6th (London) Brigade. Royal Field Artillery. Killed in action 2 June 1917. Aged 27. Born Paddington, London. Son of Thomas Francis and Louisa Ann Blackwell of The Cedars, Harrow Weald, Middx. Educated Harrow School 1905-1909 Small Houses; Moretons. Awarded the Military Cross. (London Gazette 1916 p. 9423). Reading for the Bar when he obtained his commission. Buried in Poperinghe New Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Plot I I, Row D. Grave 10.

Extract from Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Friday 30 November 1917, page 4:

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL

Lieutenant Aubrey Francis Blackwell M.C., R.F.A., of The cedars, Harrow Weald, who was killed in Belgium on June 2nd, son of the late Thomas Francis Blackwell, of Soho-square, W., has left a fortune of the value of £145,013. He bequeathed "2,000 to Harrow School, and £1,000 to Oriel College, Oxford.

Lieutenant 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment). Killed in action 5 October 1916. Aged 31. Born and resident Harrow Weald. Son of Samuel John and Eliza Blackwell. Husband of Mina Blackwell nee O’Malley. Brother of Charles (above). No known grave. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. Pier and Face 8C9A and 16A. (Brother of Charles Blackwell). See also London Stock Exchange.

Extract from the Stock Exchange Memorial Book:

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM GORDON BLACKWELL ("Don"), Royal Fusiliers, was the seventh son of Samuel John Blackwell, J.P., and of Elizabeth, his wife, and was born in 1885.

Educated at Mr. Herbert Bowden-Smith's Preparatory School at Bengeo and privately, he joined his brother Robert in the firm of Blackwell Brothers, and became a member of the Stock Exchange in 1908.

On the declaration of war he enlisted straightway in the Honourable Artillery Company and was sent to the French front in September 1914, obtaining a commission in the 4th Royal Fusiliers in 1915.

He fell at Flers, in the battle of the Somme, on 6 October 1916, being then attached to the 8th Royal Fusiliers.

One of his Commanding Officers wrote of him: “I saw a great deal of him and he naturally endeared himself to me by his kind nature and manliness of character. I deplore his loss; the nation has lost a gallant soldier and a great gentleman."

His Major wrote: “He was a grand soldier; he could get the utmost out of men and did so, but they all worshipped him."

Lieutenant Blackwell married in 1910 Nina Mary, daughter of the late Middleton Moore O'Malley and Mrs. O'Malley of Westport, co. Mayo, and leaves a widow and one son.

Air Mechanic 2nd Class 50284, Royal Flying Corps. Died of illness, double lobar pneumonia, at Council School Hospital, Aylesbury, 30 December 1916. Aged 26. Born and resident Wealdstone, Middx. Son of William and Kezia Short of Locket Road, Wealdstone. Middx. In the 1911 census he was aged 20, born Wealdstone, Middlesex, a Railway Pureels Carman, resident with his parents, William and Kezia Short, at 51 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Middlesex. Motor Driver, Traffic Department, Harrow, London & North Western Railway. Also commemorated in the St Paul's Cathedral Order of Service 1919. Attested 16 November 1916 aged 24 years 8 months, at Harrow, resident Caranfir, Lockett Road, Wealdstone, unmarried, height 5 feet 10 inches, chest 36 inches, to Amry Reserve 17 November 1916, mobilised 28 November 1916, posted 28 November 1916, with R.F.C. 29 November 1916. Buried in Harrow (Wealdstone) Cemetery, Middx. Grave A.172. (Also commemorated on the Wealdstone, Middx.War Memorial)

In the obituary given in the March 1917 issue of the London and North Western Railway Gazette, it says that Short was in training when he contracted a severe chill, which after a few days pneumonia set in. All was done for him, but he sadly passed away. He was described as always being of a kind and cheery disposition, and a favourite in the company. His coffin was carried under the Union Jack, and his funeral service was seen to be a very impressive one.