Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.

The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.

Detail :

2nd LIEUTENANT REGINALD GLOVER KER GULLAND 14th COUNTY OF LONDON BATTN. THE LONDON REGIMENT (LONDON SCOTTISH). was born in London on the 2nd December, 1885, and was the son of James Ker Gulland, M.I.M.E., F.G.S., and F.S.A. He was educated at Clifton College and the Central Technical College, London, becoming afterwards a civil and mechanical engineer. At Clifton he was in the Cadet Corps, and joined the electrical engineers while at college in 1907 was transferred to the London Scottish in 1908, and received his commission in July, 1910. He passed through musketry and machine gun courses at Hythe, and was appointed Instructor of Musketry and Machine Gun Officer to his battalion. His chief hobby was rifle shooting. He was a member of the National Rifle Association and the North London Rifle Club. In 1910 he was in the King's Hundred and shot for Scotland in the National Challenge Trophy Competition in 1911. He was again in the King's Hundred and also in the final stage for the St. George's Vase in 1914. He was also in the Old Cliftonian team for the Public Schools' Veterans' Challenge Trophy on many occasions. He was hit by a sniper on the 11th November, 1914 while in command of his machine-gun section near Ypres, and died early next morning. By 11 November the London Scottish were in the line south of the Menin Road in Shrewsbury Forest. This was the day of the last desperate defence of Ypres by the cooks at Nonne Bosschen. The London Scottish held their positions South of the Menin Road despite considerable German pressure. Lieutenant Ker Gulland married, in June 1914 Miss Beatrice E. Welch.

Masonic :

Source :

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

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley