Lionel Cole Whitefoord

1876 - 1916  (39 years)

• Name	Lionel Cole Whitefoord  [1, 2, 3]
  Birth	02 Oct 1876	Wokingham   [2, 3, 4, 5]
  	father Adam John Whitefoord, general practitioner, birth St Johns Wood reg Marylebone 2Q1846, death reg Fulham 3Q1885; mother Ellen Mary Cole, b Calcutta 1848, death reg Hampstead 2Q1902 [E&W census 1881 etc; BMD reg; Chris Rooney email 09 Mar 2011]
  Residence	Apr 1881	48 The Grove, Hammersmith   [2]
  Residence	Apr 1891	Lordship Lane, Wood Green ; Royal Masonic Institution for Boys  [3]
  Occupation	Mar 1901	Private Secretary  [6]
  Residence	Mar 1901	28 South Hill Park, Hampstead   [6]
  Marriage	abt Aug 1904	Thanet   [7, 8]
  	Marjorie Agatha Postlethwaite,   b. 29 Oct 1883, Acton ,   d. 11 Feb 1963, London Clinic, Devonshire Place, Marylebone
  Occupation	abt 1905 - 1914	Arundel House, Strand ; Journalist  [9, 10]
  Residence	Oct 1905	21 Willoughby Rd, Hampstead   [10]
  Residence	1911	Reston Lodge, Petersham   [9]
  	not at home for Apr 1911 census
  Military Service	abt 1914 - 1916	Lieutenant, 1st Battn, Irish Guards  [11]
  Death	15 Sep 1916	Somme, France ; Cause: Killed in action  [1, 11, 12]
  Burial	15 Sep 1916	No known grave   [11]
  	Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 7D
  Probate	23 Mar 1917	London ; £23,488 13s. 1d  [13]
  	Whitefoord Lionel Cole of 6 Norfolk-crescent Paddington Middlesex lieutenant Irish Guards died 15 September 1916 in France Probate London 23 March [1917] to Marjorie Agatha Whitefoord widow. Effects £22903 13s. 1d. Resworn £23488 13s. 1d. [NPC]
  Notes	On the evening of the 14th September 1916, the 1st Brigade of Guards moved out to the shell-holes and fragments of trench that formed their assembly-positions, on a front of five hundred yards between Delville Wood and the northern flank of Ginchy. There was a limited objective, three hundred yards beyond the first, which worked in with the advance towards Flers of the divisions on the left of the Guards from Delville Wood to Martinpuich. Incidentally, it was announced that as soon as all the objectives had been seized, "Cavalry would advance and seize the heights ahead." The Battalion formed up north-west of Ginchy in two lines, facing north-east. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies in the first line; 1 and 2 in the second on the right. Captain L. R. Hargreaves, Lieutenants the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy, and R. Rodakowski, 2nd Lieutenant T. C. Gibson, and C.S.M. Voyles and Farrell were left in reserve. Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord and his section of the Brigade Machine-gun Company was attached to the Battalion. About an hour and a half after the advance began, what the countless machine-guns had left of the Irish found itself with three out of its four company commanders already casualties, all officers of No. 2 Company out of action, and the second in command, Major T. M. D. Bailie, killed. They were held up under heavy shelling, either in front of German wire, or, approximately, on the firstline objective - a battered German trench, which our artillery had done its best to obliterate, but fortunately had failed in parts. Outside their area, the Sixth Division's attacks between Ginchy, Telegraph and Leuze Wood had failed, thanks to a driving fire from the Quadrilateral, the great fortified work that controlled the landscape for a mile and a half; so the right flank of the Guards Division was left in the air, the enemy zealously trying to turn it - bomb versus bayonet. Nobody knew within hundreds of yards where they were, but since it was obvious that the whole attack of the Division, pressed, after the failure of the Sixth Division, by the fire from the Quadrilateral, had sheered too far towards the left or north, as the spasmodic shelling of the congested line turned into the full roll of the German barrage. The Diary covers these experiences of the three hours between 8 A.M. and 11 A.M. with the words: "In the meantime, despite rather heavy shelling, a certain amount of consolidation was done on the trench while the work of reorganization was continued. About half-past eleven the Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, and 2nd Lieutenant G. V. Williams and Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord of the 1st Guards Brigade Machine-gun Company, who represented all that was left of the officers, went forward with all that was left of the Irish Guards towards the next objective". Their road lay uphill through a field of rank, unweeded stuff, and, when they had topped a little rise, they saw what seemed, by comparison, untouched country where houses had some roofs on them and trees some branches, all laid out ahead, in the hot sunshine between Flers and Lesboeufs. Then a German field-battery, also in the open, pulled up and methodically shelled them. At this juncture, Captain L. R. Hargreaves, left behind with the Reserve of Officers in Trônes Wood, was ordered up, and reached the line with nothing worse than one wound. He led out a mixed party of Coldstream and Irish to a chain of disconnected shell-holes a few hundred yards in advance of the trench. Here they suffered for the rest of the afternoon under the field-battery shelling them at less than half a mile, and the regular scything of the machine-guns from the Quadrilateral on their right. A machine-gun detachment, under Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, went with them. Major T. M. Bailie, Lieutenant C. R. Tisdall, Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, and 2nd Lieutenant N. Butler were killed. There were over 330 casualties in the other ranks. [Rudyard Kipling: The Irish Guards in the Great War]
  Person ID	I2821	Tatham | Meaburn branch | Parent of spouse
  Last Modified	23 Jan 2013

  
  

  Family	Marjorie Agatha Postlethwaite,   b. 29 Oct 1883, Acton ,   d. 11 Feb 1963, London Clinic, Devonshire Place, Marylebone  (Age 79 years)
  Marriage	abt Aug 1904	Thanet   [7, 8]
  	St John, Hampstead: Banns of Marriage between Lionel Cole Whitefoord, Bachelor, of this Parish, and Marjorie Agatha Postlethwaite, spinster, of the Parish of St Peter, Thanet, published 07/14/21 Aug 1904
  Notes	Myles youngest son. Also Esmond, b abt 1906; Alan, abt 1909; Patrick, abt 1915.
  Children	+ 1. Myles Anthony Whitefoord,   b. 14 Aug 1916, Paddington ,   d. 14 Nov 1986, Scotland?  (Age 70 years)
  Last Modified	23 Jan 2013
  Family ID	F0739	Family Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S05] The Times, forthcoming marriages, 25 Mar 1939. late [S01] Census, UK, 1881. age 4 [S01] Census, UK, 1891. age 14 [S02] BMD Index, birth reg Wokingham, 4Q1876. [S13] thePeerage.com. [S01] Census, UK, 1901. age 24 [S02] BMD Index, marriage reg Thanet, 3Q1904. [S01] Census, UK, 1911. marr 6 yrs [S17] Telephone Directories, 1911. [S06] Parish Registers, baptisms, St John, Hampstead, 20 Oct 1905. son Hew Lionel Esmond Caleb Whitefoord [S34] Commonwealth War Graves Commission. [S29] Medal Index Cards WW1. [S14] National Probate Calendar.