The Queens Own Royal West Kent R

The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment

Second Lieutenant R D W Lovelace

Second Lieutenant Ronald Desmond Weston (Dick) LOVELACE, 1st Battalion, Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, killed in action, 26th October 1917, age 19.

6th February 1898, born Woolwich, eldest Son of Henry James Weston & Ruth Lovelace, Windmill, Milford on Sea, Hampshire / Peans Wood, Robertsbridge, Sussex.

1911 Census - 31 St Johns Park, Blackheath, SE - Ronald Desmond Weston, scholar, age 13, born Blackheath, Kent.

27th February 1917, posted BEF

Commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial, Panel 106 to 108, Belgium.

London Gazette 26th October 1916.

The under mentioned Gentlemen Cadets, from the Royal Military College, to be 2nd Lieutenants 27th Oct. 1916: Royal West Kent Regiment.

OBITUARY

2nd Lieut. R.D.W. Lovelace was the elder son of James Weston Lovelace, who became a Temporary Lieutenant, A.P.D., and of Mrs Ruth Lovelace, of Windmill, Milford-on-Sea, Hants.

Entering Tonbridge School in January 1912, from Stratheden House, Blackheath, he left from the Engineering Sixth at Christmas 1915, to go to the RMC Sandhurst. He had gained the Spanish prize in the previous July, whilst in the Modern Sixth, and had become a prominent member of the XI and the XV in his last two years. In the XI he had each year a batting average of over 20, and was described as "the best all round" player in 1915 " a useful left handed bat with a forcing style" and "as a leg break and googlie bowler sometimes very difficult to play. "He took considerably more wickets than any other bowler in 1915. In the XV, as an inside three quarter, he was at times brilliant.

From the RMC he was gazetted to the Royal West Kent Regiment on October 27th, 1916, and after being stationed for some time at Rochester left for the front in February, 1917, shortly after his nineteenth birthday. He was home on leave in August, and on his return was for a month at a Corps School before going again to the trenches. On October 26th, 1917, he was instantaneously killed by a shell near the Menin Road.

A brother Officer, writing to tell of his death, said:- "He was always so cool and did not appear to know what danger was."

His C.O. wrote:- "Your boy was one of the best and most reliable subalterns I had in the Battalion, and I had marked him down for promotion when opportunity offered. He was just splendid with the men, who would have followed him anywhere, and his presence in the firing line and his astonishing coolness in emergency were of unfailing help to his Company and the Battalion generally."

And, in a letter to a friend, said of him:- "His loss is very much felt by all the ranks. He was a most gallant boy and one of the coolest in battle I have ever met."

Tonbridge School and the Great War of 1914 - 1918.

This page was last updated on 24-Aug-2020.