Family :

Education & Career :

Educated at the Sherborne School 1882-1884 in Price House and afterwards at St. Thomas's Hosp.

Practised at Wincanton, Woodford Green, Essex, and Exeter, and was Tuberculosis Officer to the Stonehouse District of the Devon County Council.

He is recorded in the Medical Directory of 1905 with his qualifications and a summary of his career to that point: "SAYRES, ALEX WARD FORTESCUE, St. Andrew, The Barnneld, Exeter- M.D. Brux. 1896; M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. Lond. 1890, D.P.H. 1902; (St. Thos.); Fell. Roy Inst. Pub.Health and Med. Soc.Lond.; Mem. Brit. Med. Assoc.; Mem. Counc. Brussles Med. Grad. Assoc.; late Surg. Woodford Jubilee Hosp.; Clin. Asst. Ear Departm. St. Thos. Hosp.; Res. Clin. Asst. Bethlem Roy. Hosp., and Asst. House Surg. S.Devon and E. Cornw. Hosp. Plymouth."

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Ward Fortescue Sayres, 2nd/1st Wessex Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Force). Died of Wounds, 10th October, 1917 from wounds received on the 17th July, 1917.

THE DEVONIAN YEAR BOOK 1915, OFFICERS OF THE DEVON MILITARY UNITS ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS. FIELD AMBULANCES WESSEX DIVISION. Hon. Colonel : Sir F. Treves, Bart., G.C.V.O., C.B., F.R.C.S. 1ST WESSEX. 7, Holloway Street, Exeter. Lt.-Colonel : R. Pickard, M.D. Majors : A. W. F. Sayres BMJ: 27/10/1917 LIEUT. COLONEL A. W. F. SAYRES, R.A.M.C.(T.F.). Lieut. Colonel Alexander Ward Fortescue Sayres, R.A.M.C.(T.F.), of Hartley, Plymouth, died on October lOtlh of wounds received on July 17th. He was born in 1867, the son of the Rev. Edward Sayres, rector of Cold Ashton, near Bath, and was educated at Sherborne and at St. Thomas's Hospital, taking the diplomas of M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P.Lond. in 1890, the degree of M.D.Brux. in 1896,-and the D.P.H. of the London colleges in 1902. After acting as clinical assistant intlle ear department at St. Thomas's, as resident clinical assistant at Bethlem Royal Hospital, and as assistant house-surgeon of the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital at Plymouth,, he practised successively at Wineanton, at Woodford, Essex, and at Exeter, finally becoming tuberculosis officer for Stonehouse district under the Devon County Council. For many years he had held a commission in the 1st Wessex (Exeter) Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C.(T.F.), in which he attained the rank of major on March 22nd, 1912.

He is commemorated at the King's College Hospital War Memorial.

Masonic :

Alexander was 37 years old when initiated into the St. George's Lodge No. 112 at Exeter, Devon. He is listed as a Surgeon and resident at St. Andrews, Barnfield, Exeter. In the latter register of St. George Lodge it shows no explicit war service and dues paid throughout and the innocuous comment of "Died 3rd October 1917." He joined Sir Francis Drake Lodge No. 2549 when living in Plymouth in the months preceding the war, on 13th May, 1914. He resigned from Sir Francis Drake Lodge in the same month he died, October, 1917 perhaps full knowing that the end was near. He was a Past Master.

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