Family :

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 :

CAPTAIN HORACE DORSET ECCLES, RAMC ATTACHED 13/ROYAL IRISH RIFLES Horace ECCLES was educated at Guys Hospital from 1888 and qualified as a surgeon in 1893. After acting as a clinical assistant at Guys he went to NZ where he practiced at Kawa Kawa, Bay of Islands before joining the RAMC on the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, where at once applied for employment in the New Zealand army. With no suitable post vacant, he returned to home, sailing back in the summer of 1915. He was given a commission and captaincy in the R.A.M.C. and attached to the 13th Royal Irish Rifles. He was killed on 16th August 1917 in circumstances which are currently unclear to us.

In a letter to his father the Colonel of the Battalion wrote: “When I left the dug-out your son, as usual, was doing all he could for the wounded, and was splendid with them. When I got back wounded they told me that he had been killed." Horace was mentioned in despatches just a few weeks before his death.

His Brother Freemason Lt Col A D PRATT was killed on the same day during action at Ypres. Horace ECCLES is recorded as part of the 8th New Zealand Contingent, embarked from North Island on the SS Surrey, 1 February 1902 en route to South Africa to participate in the Boer War as Surgeon-Captain. He had been in South Africa previously for 3 years, before moving onto New Zealand.

Horace returned back to New Zealand and was promoted to Major in the New Zealand Medical Service . He resumed his practice and continued his military service eventually becoming years Lieut.- Colonel of his regiment, moving to the Reserves by around 1911. practice with the arduous duties of the command, he felt compelled to retire to the Reserve.

[Guys] "Eccles was of a most kind and lovable nature and will be long remembered with affection by his many friends in the Old Country and in the Colony. He was an all-round sportsman, a good shot, and a keen fly fisherman. While in the Medical School he won the three-mile race on one occasion. Like most sportsmen he was very fond of animals."

See also: Kings College London - Guys Hospital
See also: Auckland Museum - Online Cenotaph

Masonic :

Joined Northern Light Lodge No. 1878 at Kawa Kawa, Auckland in June 1904 from No. 78 in the New Zealand Constitution.

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