Family :

Education & Career :

Guy Willock went to Cambridge University. He was a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

"The Battle of Loos (25 September to 18 October 1915) was the major battle on the Western Front in 1915, surpassing in every respect all that had gone before in terms of numbers of men and materiel committed to battle. The preliminary bombardment was the most violent to date and the battle was charaterised by the committment of Regular and Territorial battalions on a large scale, in which the Territorials performed just as well as the Regulars. As the battles on the Western Front in 1915 increased in size and violence, so the casualties increased in proportion: Neuve Chapelle 12,000, Aubers Ridge/Festubert 29,000 , Loos 60,000. 1916 was to take the casualty cost to another level. Loos was intended as a minor role in support of French efforts around Arras but circumstances reduced the French effort. It marked the first use of poison gas by the British. Once the initial assualt had failed the battle continued in a series of actions mostly focused on the northern sector around the tactically important Hohenzollern Redoubt."

Detail :

Guy Willock died leading his men over the top in an attack on the German trenches on the first day of the battle of Loos, 25 September 1915.

The Official History outlines the action of the London Irish Rifles at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.

On capturing the Loos Defences Trench the 1/18th was to halt and the 1/19 and 1/20 were to pass by and through. At 0640hrs, 45 mins after the gas release, the 1/18 London dribbling a football (now in London Irish Rifles Museum) in front of them, coming up behind a curtain of smoke and gas, entered the enemy front trench. They were opposed by 2 Companies of the German 22nd Reserve Regiment covering the sector from Double Crassier to Bethune-Lens road. The Londoners arrived in time to catch many of the enemy emerging from deep dug outs who fought with bayonet but eventually broke and ran, and were taken by Machine Gun fire from North Maroc where half the Machine Guns in the 47th Division were positioned. North of the Lens Road, led by the 1/18th, the 141st Bde reached the Loos Defences trench immediately south of the cemetery. Casualties 9 officers, 235 O/R Captain WILLOCK was one of those 9 officers who fell. Also on the same day in the same action Lance Corporal Percy Edwin WARNE of the London Irish Rifles was killed.

His headstone has a much greater amount of text than normal including at the bottom a quote from a poem by Percy Byshe Shelly (who also met an untimely young death) which reads:
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep --
he hath awakened from the dream of life.
What is not shown is the more powerful second part which is;
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions,
keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife'.

This I think is a hidden coded bitter anti-war comment of a father who could not bring himself to put a consoling comment so often seen on graves.

This non conforming sentiment is quite common on the few atheist graves. Presumably Guy did believe in a Supreme Being but not in structured religion. Hopefully his lodge will in due course add to our knowledge of Bro Willock.

Citations & Commemorations :

Masonic :

Guy WILLOCK is an example of a Freemason who came from the highest echelons of society but fell with a Brother mason in the same battalion who did not enjoy the same social background and privileges yet on the 25th September 1915 'parted on the square' with him.

Kipling explained the relationship in his poem 'The Mother Lodge'. showing that outside the lodge rank and status were obvious influences and dividers. Inside the lodge the brethren were considered equals, regardless of rank and background. It would not be unusual for a Private to the the Master of a lodge with officers holding junior offices. Outside - Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam! Inside - 'Brother, an' it doesn't do no 'arm. We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square, An' I was junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!
The Mother Lodge - Kipling

WILLOCK was a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple. He was also a nephew of the late Queen Victoria. His father left an intriguing message on his gravestone which is in the Dud Corner Cemetery at Loos. It does not carry any religious marking (Cross, Star of David etc) which normally implies that the soldier was an atheist (or did not declare any religious adherence).

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
• Researcher : Tom Hawley