Family :

Education & Career :

Educated at the City of London School, and Sandhurst. Member of the Middle Temple; Freeman of the City of London.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

Naval Campaign is defined as to include all sea operations where attrition rates are in ones and twos and which do not fall within specific naval battles such as Jutland, Coronel, Falklands etc. This includes Merchant Navy losses.

Detail :

De Ruvignys KINGHAM, GEORGE WILLIAM AMBROSE, Lieut., 1st Battn. (3rd Foot) The Buffs (East Kent Regt.), attd. to the West African Frontier Force, only s. of George Frederick Kingam, of Wareside, Co. Hertford, and of 3, Plowden Buildings, Temple, London, E.C., Barrister-at-Law, and a member of the General Council of the Bar, by his wife, Lila Emily; b. London; 24 May, 1895; educ. City of London School, was a Sergt. of his School O.T.C., with Certificate "A" in Aug. 1914; gazetted Temp. 2nd Lieut. 5 Sept. 1914; promoted Lieut. as from Nov. of the same year; being advised to make the Army his profession, he successfully sat for both the Indian Army and Sandhurst entrance examination; had the option of taking a commission in either the Indian or British Army, but chose Sandhurst, feeling it his duty to see service in France with his old regiment; entered Sandhurst 9 Nov. 1915; passed out the following July, and was again gazetted to The Buffs, acting for a time before he proceeded to France as Assistant Bombing Officer to the 3rd Battn.; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from Sept. 1916; took part in strenuous fighting on the Somme with the 1st Battn. the Buffs, and on 29 Nov. 1916, was reported "wounded, shell-shock"; was discharged from hospital in France at the end of Jan. 1917, and eventually was returned to Base, but in the following March underwent in England an operation to his throat, necessitated by loss of voice due to shell-shock; returned to his regiment in April, and again left for the Western front at the end of June, where he took part in further fighting; in Sept. 1917, was recommended for transfer to the Indian Army, and returned From France for a Medical Board; owing to the fact he had shell-shock, was temporarily rejected, and in order to get tropical experience, he applied for service in German East Africa, and for that purpose became attached to the West African Frontier Force (Gold Coast Regt.) in Oct. 1917; sailed under orders for the West African Coast in S.S. Umgeni 31 Oct. 1917, and was drowned at sea when that vessel was sunk with all on board on or about 9 Nov. following. His body was found on Lunga Island, an uninhabited island of the West Coast of the Isle of Mull, 22 Dec. following, and he was buried at Tobermory on Christmas Day, 1917; but his body was disinterred and re-buried with full military honours at Paddington Cemetery, Willesden, N.W., on 6 July, 1918. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute in Sept. 1917, and was also a member of the Royal Colonial Institute Lodge; he received the freedom of the City of London in Oct. 1917. He was also a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, in which Inn of Court he had resided from his early boyhood; unm."

Masonic :

It is unsurprising that, given his age, George would have got far in Freemasonry. He was unable to progress higher than that of Entered Apprentice and died at the same age he was initiated...22. His occupation is not listed, but resident in Wareside, Herts. Within a year he has "Drowned at Sea Dec 1917."

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