Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.

The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.

Detail :

LIEUTENANT HENRY BLIGH FORTESCUE PARNELL. 5th BARON CONGLETON AND A BARONET OF IRELAND. 2nd BATTN. GRENADIER GUARDS, was the first member of the House of Peers to be killed in the Great War. He succeeded his father in 1906. Lieutenant Lord Congleton was the eldest son of Major-General Lord Congleton.C.B., a distinguished officer, and was born on the 6th September, 1890, at Annerville, Clonmel, when his father was in command of that District. He was a grandson of a naval officer who had five sons in the Army and Navy. He was also related to the poet Parnell, a friend of Addison, et al., and was a distant cousin of Charles Stewart Parnell, the famous Irish politician. He was educated at Eton (Somerville's) and New College, Oxford, where he took very good second class Honours for History; and was also Master of the New College and Magdalen Beagles. He joined the Grenadier Guards as a University candidate in 1912. but his having taken honours at the University gave him many months' seniority, and his commission was antedated to July, 1911. He was promoted Lieutenant in March, 1913. Lord Congleton was mentioned in Sir John French's Despatch of the 14th January, 1915 for gallant conduct and skilful handling of his platoon against terrific odds on the 6th November, 1914, thereby saving the British line at that point. He was killed in action near Ypres on the 10th November, 1914 and was buried in Zillebeke Churchyard. Lord Congleton was a gifted and many-sided man: a keen sportsman, a good shot (small and big game), and, as a traveller, he had hoped to go with Stackhouse to the Antarctic. He wrote articles in magazines and in The Field on sporting subjects over the signature of Con. He was a polo player, an ardent Tariff Reformer and student of social prolilenis but had joined no political party, though he was often in the House of Lords as a listener. He also took an active interest in Rural Housing, etc. By his death his family, his regiment, and his country sustained a great loss. Memoirs of his career have been published in The Field, The World Truth Country Life British Sports and Sportsmen The Tramp and in several of the daily papers. Lord Congleton was not married, and his brother the Hon. J. B. I. Parnell a Lieutenant in the Navy succeeds him in the title.

Masonic :

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