Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

Festubert (15-25 May 1915) was really a continuation of the Battle of Aubers Ridge that had been called off on 10th May, and in places fought over the same ground with the same depressing outcome. Some minor tactical success was achieved but it did not justify the 16,000 casualties. It did however reinforce the lessons of Neuve Chapelle and Aubers Ridge and conditioned planning and thinking that evolved into the tactical planning of the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

Roger Cecil Slacke (also known as Rory) was born in Ireland in 1880, the son of Sir Owen Slacke. He went to Repton and Cambridge. He joined the Buffs from the militia in 1902 (6th Royal Irish Rifles), serving in Burma, India and Aden. He married Violet in 1910 and they had a child in 1912. He went overseas on 25/11/1914 as a Captain and joined his Battalion on 3/12/14. He was killed whilst attached to the 2nd Queen's on 16/5/15 and was originally buried in an orchard near Festubert. A story in the Dundee Advertiser of August 1918 relating a story from a David Grant of Freuchie, near Falkland in Fife, Scotland, who said that just before the Battle of Festubert on 5 June 1915, "the grave of an officer of the Buffs attached to the West Surreys brought memories of Falkland again. Out into the devastation of No Man's land, he (David Grant) crawled, heedless of danger. It was the tomb of Major Slacke. Reverently he marked it out, and returned again to lay upon it the floral offerings which other soldiers from devoted Fife had brought from villages behind the lines." He was re-interred after the war and is one of seven Freemasons buried in Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy.

Probate SLACKE Roger Cevil of Mulgrave Cottage Hurlingham Middlesex died 16 May 1915 in France Probate London 1 July to William Lewis Harris solicitor. Effects £4684 1s. 9d.

He is commemorated on a plaque at St Canice's Church, Kilkenny:
"To the Glory of GOD and in loving memory of four brave soldiers Grandsons of the late Peter Connellan of Coolmore in this county Who after distinguished service laid down their lives for King and country.
[...]
Roger Cecil Slack
Major “The Buffs”
Third son of Sir Owen Slacke
Killed in the battle of Festubert
May xvi MCMX
Aged xxxv years
[...]"

Masonic :

Roger Cecil Slacke is listed amongst the names within the 1921 and 1933 workings of the Masonic Roll of Honour, however, his name is not found in the contribution records of Quadratic, under which Lodge he is recorded. He does not appear to be listed under the English or Irish Constitution, and so provides a masonic mystery as to where and when he was initiated and under what circumstance.

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