Early Life :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

Palestine is a generic term to cover actions in the region now consisting of Sinai, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Aden and involved operations against the Turks. Once the security of the Suez Canal was assured in 1915 the focus shifted to the area now within the post 1967 borders of Israel. In 1917 there were three battles at Gaza, which enabled the capture of Jerusalem in December. In 1918 the campaign continued north into the Jordan Valley then towards Damascus. The Armistice with Turkey was signed on the 31st October 1918.

Detail :

The Gloucestershire Echo of the 17th November 1917 reports: " Casualties to Local Officers. Lieut. R. Graham Anderson. News was received in Cirencester on Friday that Lieut. R. Graham Anderson, only son of Mr. Robert Anderson, formerly estate agent for Lord Bathurst, was killed in Palestine on November 12. Lieut. Anderson had been serving with the Yeomanry since the outbreak of war and was wounded in one of the fights in Egypt about a year ago and was home on sick leave, part of which he spent at Cirencester with Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Sewell, his uncle and aunt. Before returning to active service he served for some time as military instructor at Tidworth."


The Wiltshire and Gloucstershire Standard of the 24th November, 1917 writes in more detail: "THE LATE LIEUTENANT R. GRAHAM ANDERSON We recorded last week with deep regret the death in action of Lieutenant Robert Graham Anderson, Yeomanry, only son of Mr and Mrs Robert Anderson, of Knowsley, Prescott, Lancashire, and formerly of Cirencester. So far no details have been received, and we can only conclude that the gallant young officer fell in the course of the brilliantly successful operations which General Allenby is now conducting against the routed Turks in Palestine.Robert Graham Anderson was born August 18 1890 at The Barton, Cirencester. He was educated at Eton, where he went from his private school at Eastbourne in 1904. He boarded in Keates Lane with the late Miss Jane Evans, whose house after her death was taken over by Mr A.B. Ramsay, the present Lower Master. He was Secretary of the Musical Society, Editor of the Eton Chronicle, and in “Pop.” After leaving Eton he spent a few months at Ciceter and passed the examination into the Surveyors’ Institution, first on the list, before going as pupil to Mr Warner Turner, agent to the Duke of Portland. In 1913 he was offered an appointment in the Valuation Department, and was a year in Norfolk. Resigning early in 1914, he returned to Ciceter and was assisting his father when war was declared. He at once enlisted in the Public Schools Battalion, and subsequently Colonel Sandeman gave him a commission in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, quartered at Gloucester. After passing his musketry course with distinction he became Instructor, afterwards going to the East Coast with the Regiment. In October 1915 he went out with drafts to the Mediterranean, joining the Expeditionary Force which had just been withdrawn from Gallipoli, meeting the Regiment at Mudros, afterwards going on to Egypt. In the battle of Romani in July 1916 he was shot through the shoulder and later sent back to England. As we stated last week, Lieutenant Anderson spent a part of his leave at Cirencester [with his uncle and aunt Mr & Mrs Sewell, The Beeches], and enjoyed several days’ hunting with the local packs, as he also did during one or two week-ends when employed as Musketry Instructor on Salisbury Plain. He was passed fit again for foreign service last June and returned to Egypt, rejoining his regiment at the front. He was killed in action on November 12th. Lieutenant Graham Anderson was not only one of the most popular but also one of the most efficient officers in his battalion, being simply loved by his men, for he was the personification of geniality and kindness. The estimation in which he was held by his brother officers is shown by the following extract of a letter from one under whom he served: “He would have done great things with his life, for he had so many gifts and everyone was fond of him, and with it all he had such a charming nature and was quite unspoiled. He was of the greatest help to me when he came to my Squadron last August, he was so keen and took so much trouble and brought so much natural ability to everything he did, and he ad tact and such a friendly disposition that made him popular with officers and men and made everything go smoothly and happily. He will be a terrible loss to the Regiment.” In private life Lieutenant Graham Anderson’s delightfully sunny disposition, charm of manner, and rare natural gifts gave promise of an honourable and distinguished career, and that such a bright young life should have been cut off almost on its threshold is one of the unspeakably pathetic tragedies of this terrible war. As in military life, so in his civil duties, he brought the best of his high abilities to bear on what fell to him to do. He would no doubt have adorned his father’s profession, which he adopted of his own choice. But he had also the makings of an artist or a musician. Some of our readers will remember the pretty water colour drawings from his brush of Cirencester Church, Cirencester and Eton scenes, etc., at the amateur exhibition that was held at the Thomas Street Vicarage a few years ago. As a boy and as a pupil of Mr A.H. Gibbons, he developed high musical talent, and when he went to Eton Dr Harford Lloyd thought highly of his capabilities. He composed and published many dainty and tuneful songs, which showed deft and artistic interpretation and illustration of the lyrics to which they were set, several pianoforte pieces, and an operetta which was, we believe, privately performed. He was also a keen lover of Church music, and while home on sick leave last summer he wrote an evening service, “Cantate” and “Nunc Dimittis,” which he left behind him in manuscript. R.L. Stevenson’s tender and touching poem, “In Memoriam, A.S.F..” might have been written to commemorate just such a brief, bright, and happy life – Yet, O stricken hear, remember, O remember How of human days he lived the better part. April came to bloom and never dim December Breather its killing chills upon the hear or heart. Doomed to know not Winter, only Spring, a being Trod the flowery April blithely for a while, Took his fill of music, joy of thought and seeing, Came and stayed and went, nor ever ceased to smile. Came and stayed and went, and now when all is finished, You alone have crossed the melancholy stream, Yours the pang, but his, O his, the undiminished Undecaying gladness, undeparted dream. All that life contains of torture, toil, and treason, Shame, dishonour, death, to him were but a name. Here, a boy, he dwelt through all the singing season And ere the day of sorrow departed as he came.

Cirencester Freemasons’ Sympathy Lieutenant Graham Anderson was the great-grandson of Brother Robert Anderson, who was one of the founders of the Cotteswold Lodge of Freemasons on 1851, being one of the signatories to the Petition for a Warrant or Charter addressed to the Grand Lodge. Lieut. Anderson became a member of the Cotteswold Lodge, of which his father is a Past Master, in 1914, but owing to the outbreak of war and his military duties he was unable to complete the ceremony of his initiation, till he came home on sick leave exactly a year ago in November 1916. At the meeting of the Lodge held on Wednesday evening last, the following resolution was adopted and directed to be forwarded to Mr Anderson: “The members of the Cotteswold Lodge desire to convey to W. Bro. Robert Anderson and Mrs Anderson an expression of the sincere sorrow with which they have received the sad news of the death in action of Bro. Robert Graham Anderson, Yeomanry, on Nov. 12th. In offering to Mr and Mrs Anderson their deep sympathy in the loss of their only son, the Brethren are themselves under a sense of real personal bereavement, for Bro. Graham Anderson’s gallant death in his country’s cause has removed one who it was hoped would long be associated with the Lodge, and would have continued in its records the only name now surviving among those who founded the Lodge sixty-six years ago."

He is buried in the Gaza War Cemetery, Israel, XXVI.D.3

Probate record: ANDERSON Robert Graham of Knowsley, Prescot Lancashire. Lieutenant Gloucestershire Yeomanry died 12th November 1917 at Palestine on active service. Granted London 17th May 1918 to Robert Anderson - Land Agent. Effects £1196 14s 11d.

He is commemorated on the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Yeomanry War Memorial, located at College Green Gloucester. Additionally, his name is listed amongst nine names of Freemasons of the Province of Gloucestershire, located at Gloucester Cathedral in the Cloisters, which was reported in the Gloucester Journal 30th October 1920: "WAR MEMORIAL ERECTED IN THE CATHEDRAL. A bronze masonic memorial tablet has recently been erected in Gloucester Cathedral to the memory of Freemasons of the Province of Gloucestershire who fell in the Great War. The tablet which was designed by Mr. N.H. Waller of College Green, Gloucester, and executed by Messrs. Martyn of Cheltenham, ahs been surmounted by masonic emblems, and placed within the cuspated stone panelling of the north wall of the Cloisters- a most appropriate position in view of the fact that the north walk owes its restoration to the munificence of the Freemasons of the county-and it has been deservedly admired by all who have seen it. Nine names are recorded in the order of Lodges to which the deceased respectively belonged."

"Lieut Robert Graham Anderson, / Royal Gloucestershire Hussars / Killed in action Nov 12th 1917"

Masonic :

Discrepancies (Require checks, clarity or further research) :

Recorded as Graham Anderson in the 1921 Masonic Roll of Honour. His name appears as Robert Groham (sic) Anderson in search through archives. It is possible that because there was already a Robert Anderson (his father) within the Lodge that Robert Junior was called either Robert Graham or just Graham. The entry against Robert Graham Anderson in the records of United Grand Lodge of England shows that he was "Killed in Action November 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