Name
Richard Charles Graves-Sawle
10 August 1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/11/1914
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Coldstream Guards
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 11
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Ind. Plaque, St Giles’ Church, Wyddial, Ind. Cenotaph, St Levan's Churchyard, Porthpean, Cornwell, Individual Memorial, St Michael's Chapel, St Austell, Cornwall, Harrow School Memorial Wall, Middlesex
Pre War
Richard Charles Graves-Sawle was born on 10 August 1888 in Kensington, London, the only son of Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Graves-Sawle, 4th Bart, and Lady Constance Graves-Sawle and baptised in Folkestone, Kent on 14 September 1888.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 17 Sloane Gardens, Chelsea and his father's occupation was recorded as Commander in the Royal Navy, with five servants living in the household. At the time of the 1901 Census Richard was a 12 year old schoolboy at Cordwalles School, a preparatory school in Maidenhead, Berks, prior to attending Harrow School. By 1911 his parents had moved to 60, Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London, his father was then a retired Rear Admiral and Richard was a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. Also living there were his two sisters, Joan Rosemary and Hyacinth Constance, and 10 servants. They also had a residence in Penrice, St Austell, Cornwall.
He married Muriel Heaton-Ellis of Wyddial Hall, Buntingford, by special licence on 6 August 1914 at St Marks Church, North Audley Street, Mayfair. Her father was a Major with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
Wartime Service
He trained at R.M.C. Sandhurst and enlisted into the Coldstream Guards in 1908 as Sub-Lieutenant. He received a promotion in 1910 and on the 1911 Census he was recorded as Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards and was living in 60 Queens Gate, South Kensington with his parents, sisters, and ten servants. From 1913 to the outbreak of the war he was Assistant Adjutant (assistant to the commanding officer with administrative duties).
He left for the front in France on 12 August 1914, having been married less than a week before and saw action at the retreat from Mons and the Battles of the Arne and Maisne.
Richard fell in action near Ypres on 2 November 1914, aged 27 when he attempted to take charge of a Company which had lost its Captain and was shot in the head by an explosive bullet from a snipers rifle whilst standing on a communication trench near Polygon Wood. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £40. Any pay owing seems to have been used to pay debts to the officers mess and servants wages. She also obtained probate of his estate in Bodmin, Cornwall, on 1 April 1915 with effects of £1591 5s 3d.
His parents are both buried in St Levan's Churchyard, Porthpean, Cornwall, as are sisters Joan Cobbold and Hyacinth Markham
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, archive.org/details/harrowmemorials, greatwarcornishsoldier.exeter.ac.uk
