White, Roger. 1915

Major Roger Wingate White. Died 18 May 1915.

Major White was born in India to a wealthy military family and spent his early life in London. He became a member in the regular army, joining the Royal Field Artillery and fought on the east side of the Ypres Salient in May 1915. The greater battle is called the Second Battle of Ypres and is known for the first time the Germans used mustard gas in April of that year. Although Major White’s death was through sniper fire, he was probably aware of the usage of the gas. This was first time it was employed and was a disaster for the German protagonists as the wind turned on them, triggering many hundreds of deaths.

We are grateful to Caroline Millard, the grand daughter of Major White, for providing the following information:

“My grandfather was the second son of James and Elizabeth (nee Wingate) White. His father was English and served in the Bengal Civil Service. The family firm was RF White & Son Ltd, which started as an agency for provincial newspapers, and developed into an advertising agency. The children were born in India and educated in England. My grandfather fought in the Anglo Boer War, and in South Africa met Ida Elizabeth Hall who he married. They had one son, Peter James White. Wiltshire Farm in Wokingham was the home of my grandmother’s aunt, Mrs Herbert Edlmann nee Gertrude Hall. My grandmother lived there while my grandfather was at the Front, and continued to live there after his death in 1915 from sniper fire”.

 

Roger joined the Royal Field Artillery in the early stages of the war

Commonwealth War Graves information:

Name: WHITE, ROGER WINGATE Initials: R W

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Major

Regiment/Service: Royal Field Artillery

Unit Text: 364th Battery.

(27th Division – 82nd Brigade – XX Artillery Brigade)

Age: 35

Date of Death: 18/05/1915

Additional information: Son of James and Elizabeth White; husband of Ida, of Wiltshire Farm, Wokingham.

Cemetery: Perth. (China Wall)

Country: Belgium

Locality: Ieper, West-Vlaanderen

Identified Casualties: 1422

Historical Information: The cemetery was begun by French troops in November 1914 (the French graves were removed after the Armistice) and adopted by the 2nd Scottish Rifles in June 1917. It was called Perth (as the predecessors of the 2nd Scottish Rifles were raised in Perth), China Wall (from the communication trench known as the Great Wall of China), or Halfway House Cemetery. The cemetery was used for front line burials until October 1917 when it occupied about half of the present Plot I and contained 130 graves. It was not used again until after the Armistice, when graves were brought in from the battlefields around Ypres.

There are now 2,791 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,369 of the burials are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 27 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials bear the names of 104 casualties buried in the cemeteries concentrated here, whose graves could not be found. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Location at Google Maps

History of 27th Division (up to 1915). As regular units from the further garrisons of Empire arrived back in England, having been recalled soon after the declaration of war but many having waited until a Territorial unit had gone out to replace them, they were formed up into three Divisions, numbered 27th to 29th. The 27th was formed at Magdalen hill Camp near Winchester in November-December 1914 and was soon rushed as a much-needed reinforcement to France. Shortage of some types of units were filled by Territorial units taken from other Divisions. It embarked at Southampton and landed at Le Havre on 20-23 December 1914 and then moved to concentrate in the area between Aire and Arques. The Division subsequently took part in these actions:

1915
The action of St Eloi
The Second Battle of Ypres

The Division was ordered to Salonika in November 1915 and embarkation began on 17 November, but it was not until 13 February 1916 that the last of the Division finally arrived.

Information from 1914-18.net Find more here

Wiltshire Farm, Wiltshire Road, Wokingham, Berkshire Mrs Caroline Millard explains the connection with Wiltshire Farm: “It was owned by Herbert and Gertrude Edlmann, (my grandmother’s aunt), and after his death, my grandmother went to live with her aunt there. My father was more or less brought up there, and it was very formal. Herbert Edlmann was an Austrian business man who settled in this country”.

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