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FROM THE CONTEMPORARY LOCAL NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH BUCKS (BUCKS STANDARD, NORTH BUCKS TIMES, WOLVERTON EXPRESS)
With today’s internet a wealth of official information is available regarding those who served.
In an age before local radio and television, families often allowed letters to be published in the local press from their loved ones on active service.
However, for their descendants the letters reveal a more personal aspect, graphically describing the experience of the people and providing an insight into their personalities.

W.E. 1915 May 28th

In last Saturday’s ‘Times,’ it was reported that “Lieut. Colonel Henry Osbert Samuel Cadogan, 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, missing since October 30, 1914, is now believed to have been killed on that date at Zandvoorde, near Ypres, while going to the assistance of his Adjutant, who was wounded.” He was the only surviving son of the late Reverend Edward Cadogan, Rector of Wicken, and a brother of Mrs. W.W. Carlile, of Gayhurst House. Born in 1869, he joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers from the Militia in 1888, and having been promoted to captain in 1896, and major in 1907, he succeeded to the command of the 1st Battalion in 1912. He was adjutant of the 2nd Battalion from 1900 to 1904, assistant commandant, Indian Mounted Infantry School from 1906 to 1908, and station staff officer and commandant at Kasauli in 1908-1909. He served with the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers throughout the Hazara Expedition in 1891, and with the 2nd Battalion in the China Expedition and Relief of Peking in 1900. He was mentioned in dispatches by Sir John French last January, and leaves an only son, born in 1908. His sister, Mrs. Carlile, of Gayhurst House, writes;

“No reliable information with regard to Lieut.-Colonel H.O.S. Cadogan, of the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, has been received since October 30th, when he was reported missing at the battle of Zandvoorde, near Ypres.”

(By July 1915 Mr. W.W. Carlile, D.L., of Gayhurst House had been appointed as second in command of the North Bucks Battalion of the County Volunteer Defence Corps. For some months he has performed voluntary Red Cross work on the battlefields of France.)


W.E. 1915 July 9th

Lieutenant the Hon. Alan George Sholto Douglas-Pennant, of the Grenadier Guards, who was officially reported wounded and missing in November, is now unofficially reported killed. He was the eldest son and heir of Lord Penrhyn, of Wicken Park, and was born in 1890. Educated at Eton, he received his commission in 1910, and served as A.D.C. to the Governor of Bengal in 1914. Two of his uncles have been killed in the war. Captain the Hon. G.H. Douglas-Pennant fell at Neuve Chapelle in March, and Lieutenant the Hon. C.D. Douglas-Pennant in October. He is succeeded as heir to the barony by his brother, Second Lieutenant the Hon. H.N. Douglas-Pennant, of the 2nd Dragoons.


B.S. 1915 July 24th

Lieutenant the Hon. Charles W. Douglas Pennant, Coldstream Guards, is unofficially reported to have been killed in action at Gneiuvelt last October 29th. He had previously been officially reported as missing. The third son of the second Lord Penrhyn, he was born in 1877, being educated at Eton and Sandhurst. From 1899 to 1905 he held a lieutenant’s commission in the Coldstream Guards, and with them he served with distinction throughout the South African War. In 1905 he married Lady Edith Anne, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Dartrey, and in that year resigned his commission. Since 1911 he had been a lieutenant in the Reserve of Officers, and on the outbreak of war was re-gazetted to the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, with his former rank. His brother, Captain the Hon. G. Douglas Pennant, Grenadier Guards, was reported to have been killed in action on March 17th.


ALSO AVAILABLE IN BOOK FORM AS ‘LETTERS FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR’ FROM WWW. LULU.COM,
PRODUCED WITH THE INVALUABLE EXPERTISE OF ALAN KAY & ZENA DAN.