The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment

Lieutenant R C Sotham


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Lieutenant Ralph Clifford SOTHAM, 5th Battalion, Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, (attached No. 1 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps), killed in action, 9th January 1918, age 23.

23rd December 1894, born Gatwick Manor, son of Amelia & George Sotham, of Hazlewick, Horley, Surrey.

28th April 1895, St Bartholomew, Horley Surrey, baptism of Ralph Clifford Sotham, son of Amelia & George Sotham, (Gentleman), Gatwick Manor.


1911 Census - Grammar School, Sanatorium, Tonbridge, Kent - Ralph Clifford Sotham, boarder, age 16, single, school, born Gatwick, Surrey.

1911 Census - Hatchgate, Horley, Surrey - Amelia Southam, head, age 60, widowed, 7 children, 6 still alive, Private Means, born Paddington, London; Walter Geoffrey Sotham, son, age 26, single, timber merchant, worker, born Shabbington, Oxfordshire; Gladys Sotham, daughter, age 21, single, born Iselworth, Middlesex; Elizabeth Mary Holmwood, servant, age 22, single, cook domestic, born Burstow, Surrey; Ethel Nightingale, servant, age 21, single, housemaid domestic, born Charlwood, Surrey.


28th January 1919, Probate - Ralph Clifford Sotham, of Hatchgate, Horley, Surrey died 9th January 1918 in Flanders. Probate London 28th January to Charles Ralp Stevens, chemical manufacturer. Effects £1014 12s 9d.


Medals etc to Miss G Sotham, sister, Southbourne, Horley, Surrey.

Commemorated at Arras Flying Services Memorial, France.


London Gazette 1st October 1915.

The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) - Lance-Corporal Ralph Clifford Sotham, from the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps, to be Second Lieutenant. Dated 18th September, 1915.

London Gazette 30th November 1917.

Royal West Kent Regiment - The under mentioned 2nd Lieutenants to be Lieutenants -  1st July 1917 : R.C. Sotham, and to remain seconded.


OBITUARY

Lieut. Ralph Clifford Sotham - 5th Battallion,  Queens Own Royal West Kent Regt. (T.F.) - Flying Officer, 1st Squadron, R.F.C.

Killed in Aerial Combat on the Lys, January 9th, 1918.

Lieut. R.C. Sotham was the fourth son of the late George Sotham and of Mrs Sotham, now of Southbourne, Horley, Surrey, and formerly of Gatwick Manor, where he was born. 

Entering Tonbridge School in May 1909, from St. Winifred's, Kenley, he left at Easter 1911, and after six months in Germany, was articled to a firm of Chartered Accountants and sent to Brussels for a year. 

When War broke out he was seriously ill for four months, undergoing two operations for mastoid, but, in spite of remonstrance, in May 1915, after passing the Intermediate Examination, he joined the Inns of Court O.T.C., and was gazetted to a commission in a Territorial Battalion of the Royal West Kents, September 18th, 1915. 

In the spring of 1916 the Battalion went to India, but, being anxious to take part in actual fighting, of which he saw little chance there, he applied for a transfer to the R.F.C., and after training in Egypt and in England, was seconded to the R.F.C. as Flying Officer, May 18th, 1917, and went to France in that month. He was promoted Lieutenant in the West Kents, July 1st, 1917.

On January 9th, 1918, a very misty and cloudy day, he and others were on patrol over Hunland and became separated in a fight with enemy machines. He and brother pilot, Lieut. Shelton, both flying Newport Scouts, were seen by another pilot to collide, while diving on a German two seater, and to go down from 11,000 feet on the north bank of the Lys between Comines and Warvicq.
The two machines were subsequently seen lying on the ground, but it was impossible to obtain proof of the fate of the pilots. They were accordingly reported "missing" Eventually in May a German official list of machines brought down in their lines included two Newport Scouts on January 9th. The pilot of one had been identified as Lieut. Shelton and the Christian name of the other was given as surname unknown. They were both buried in the same grave at Warneton.

His Flight Commander wrote:-
"He was easily the most reliable man in our flight. If one went into any kind of trouble, one could rely on his backing one through thick and thin, and I know that Capt. ........ who had this flight before I did, shared this view with me."

Tonbridge School in the Great War 1914 - 1918.


This page was last updated on 25-Mar-2022.

Copyright © 2008 Janet & Richard Mason