A ROYAL SOLDIER
OUR FIRST VISIT TO A CEMETERY TODAY IS TO YPRES … BELGIUM … H.H. PRINCE MAURICE OF BATTENBURG WAS THE FORTIETH AND YOUNGEST OF QUEEN VICTORIA’S GRANDCHILDREN … A LANCE CORPORAL … HE WAS REPUTEDLY ONE OF THE FINEST MARKSMEN AT HIS COLLEGE … AND WOULD BE A FITTING OFFICER IN THE KINGS ROYAL RIFLE CORPS … HE WAS ALSO KEEN ON POLO … AVIATION AND FAST CARS … HE WAS CHARGED WITH SPEEDING AT LEAST TWICE … HE WAS INITIATED INTO MASONIC LODGE BY SPECIAL DISPENSATION IN JUNE 1912 … AGED JUST 20 IN TRULY GRAND STYLE … THE GRAND SECRETARY AND THE GDC AS WORSHIPFUL MASTER AND JUNIOR DEACON RESPECTIVELY … AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR HE WENT TO THE WESTERN FRONT … TWICE MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES FOR GALLANTRY IN THE FIELD AT THE CROSSING OF THE AISNE … HE WAS FIRST OVER THE BRIDGE BY WHICH HIS BATTALION HAD TO CROSS … THEY WERE UNDER HEAVY FIRE … WHEN MAJOR ARMITAGE LED THEM FORWARD IN A SPLENDID CHARGE … BATTENBURG WAS IN THE THICK OF THE FRAY … HIS NAME WAS ON THE LIP’S OF EVERY MAN IN THE BATTALION … HE DIED OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION LEADING HIS PLATOON NEAR ZONNEBEKE ON THE 27TH OCTOBER 1914 IN THE YPRES SALIENT … KNOWING HE WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED BY A SHELL BLAST HE HAD THE PRESENCE OF MIND TO BID FAREWELL TO HIS MEN … HE WAS CARRIED BACK TO A FIELD DRESSING STATION WHERE HE DIED … HE WAS BURIED AT YPRES … WITH THE CEREMONY CONDUCTED BY A BROTHER MASON … THE REVEREND CAPTAIN EDMUND KENNEDY … PAST PROVINCIAL GRAND CHAPLAIN OF HAMPSHIRE … CAPTAIN W. DYER RECALLED “ NOT FAR AWAY THE GERMAN BIG GUNS WERE FIRING ON OUR TRENCHES … OUR MEN WERE DOING THEIR BEST TO PUT THEM OUT OF ACTION … THE GUNS WERE MAKING SUCH A NOISE THEY COULD NOT HEAR THE CHAPLAINS VOICE … IT WAS A SOLDIER’S FUNERAL AMIDST THE NOISE OF BATTLE “ … HE WAS ONE OF 18 OWs SERVING IN THE REGIMENT TO DIE ON ACTIVE SERVICE … AND THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY TO DIE IN THE WAR …
Written by Elizabeth Sands