Lieutenant
Richard William Gregory WELBY
Infantry
Died: 16th September 1914 - Age: 25

Commemorated:

1. Memorial:Soupir Communal CemeteryB. 2.
2. Book:The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918Pg.138
3. Memorial:The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour31B GQS
    

Awards & Titles:

 

Family :

Son of Sir Charles G. E. Welby, 5th Bart., C.B., and Lady Maria Welby, of Denton Manor, Grantham, Lincs.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards 

2nd Battalion August 1914 : in Chelsea. Part of 4th (Guards) Brigade, 2nd Division. 20 August 1915 : transferred to 1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division.

Action : The Battle of the Aisne 1914 and subsidiary actions 

12 - 15 September 1914. Following the defeat and retreat from the Marne, the German army stood and defended the next defensible river, the Aisne. This offered significant defensive potential on the high bluffs overlooking the river but the BEF succeeded in pushing back the Germans. The first examples of trench warfare emerged on the Aisne as trenches became necessary to offer protection from concentrated artillery barrages.

LIEUTENANT RICHARD WILLIAM GREGORY WELBY. 2nd BATTN. GRENADIER GUARDS Was the elder son of Sir Charles G. E. Welby, Bart., C.B.. by his wife Lady Maria, born at Denton Manor, Grantham, on the 16th October, 1888. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he received his commission in the Grenadier Guards in February, 1910, becoming Lieutenant in 1911. Lieutenant Welby, in the Great War, went with his battalion which belonged to the 2nd Division to the neighbourhood of Mons and took part in the retirement, including the Battles of Landrecies and Villers-Cotterets and the Marne, and subsequently in the advance to the Aisne. After crossing the latter river on the 14th September he was wounded on the heights above the village of Soupir. All the officers of his company (No. 3) were killed or wounded on that day, only Captain Gosselin (who received the D.S.O. for the action, and was subsequently killed) and Lieutenant Welby remaining on duty. On the l5th September a bullet was extracted from Lieutenant Welby's shoulder, but he returned to duty, and on the next day (16th September, 1914), was killed. He was buried in the churchyard at Soupir. A brother officer gave the following account of the circumstances to his relatives : We had a very severe action on Tuesday when Dick Welby was wounded in the shoulder. . . . We were very short of officers, owing to our heavy casualties. He very pluckily insisted on remaining at duty (instead of going into hospital) to blip us through the difficulty, and remained at duty during the day. On the third day we got a teirible shelling, and poor Dick was killed. His death was absolutely instantaneous - he was hit in the head by a shrapnel bullet - so that he had no pain or suffering, and he was cheerful and happy up to the minute before his death. ... I can't tell you how we all deplore Dick's loss, nor how gallantly he did his duty to the end, and I hope his people will accept the most deep and hearty sympathy of all his brother officers. Lieutenant Welby was mentioned in Sir John French's Despatch of the 5th October, 1914. He was the Inner Guard in his Lodge, Wellseley Lodge No. 1899.

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Wellesley No. 1899 E.C.Berkshire

Initiated
Passed
Raised
7th October 1912
2nd December 1912
17th January 1913
 

Inner Guard

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

Additional Source:

Last Updated: 2017-06-24 17:02:32