Vere Sidney Tudor Harmsworth (1895 - 1916)

Born 25 Sep 1895 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 13 Nov 1916 at age 21 in Somme, Picardie, France

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Biography

LEST WE FORGET

Vere was born in 1895. He was the son of Harold Harmsworth and Mary Share. He was baptised 12 January 1896 at Paddington St Augustine, Westminster, England. ^[1]

He was educated at Osborne and Dartmouth Naval College.

Military Service

He entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman. Retired in consequence of deafness caused by gunfire ; took service in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in which he was a Lieut. ; was present at the bombardment of Antwerp, October 1914; was interned in Holland, from whence he escaped; served at Gallipoli and in France, and was killed in action at the battle of the Ancre, 13 November 1916.

The Commanding Officer of his battalion (the Drake Battalion of the Royal Naval Division) wrote of him : — " The men of his battalion who survived the action are thrilled with pride in his name. He led his company in the attack on the trenches. In going across No Man's Land he was wounded in the throat. In spite of this he rallied a party of another battalion, and such of his own battalion as were in his immediate neighbourhood, and led the attack on the first German trenches. He saw that these were cleared of the Germans, and advanced with a number of men on the second line. In or near this line he was again wounded, this time on the right shoulder. Almost immediately he got up and collected such men as were near him, and led the attack on the third line. Just before reaching it he was hit by a shell, and instantly killed. During the greater part of this time he was commanding the attacking line, and by his endurance and courage got the men forward it a critical juncture."

He is buried in the Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France ^[2]

Probate (1918) ^[3]
Harmsworth, the honourable Vere Sidney Tudor of Hemsted, Cranbook, Kent, lieutenant R.N.V.R. died 13 November 1916 in France. Administration to the Right honourable Harold Sidney baron Rothemere.

THE VERE HARMSWORTH PROFESSORSHIP OF IMPERIAL AND NAVAL HISTORY - University of Cambridge

The Professorship was established in 1919 with an endowment of £20,000 to the University by Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, to commemorate his son Vere, who was killed at the Battle of Ancre in November 1916. The original intention was a ‘Chair of Naval History’, but following a campaign by the Royal Empire Society, the chair was renamed in 1932 as a ‘Professor of Imperial and Naval History’. ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Source Citation: London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p87/aug/007, Source Information: Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
2. ↑ Commonwealth War Graves - Vere Sidney Tudor Harmsworth
3. ↑ https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/
4. ↑ https://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/files/vereharmsworth.pdf

• Hamilton Memoirs - Historical and genealogical notices of a branch of that family which settled in Ireland in the reign of King James 1., Author Everard Hamilton, Publisher: Dundalk, William Tempest, Dundafgan Press, 1920