| The cemetery was begun
in July 1917 and in October and November 1918, Gordon Daubeney Gresley Elton
DSO, MC was a Captain in the Royal Irish Fusiliers who was killed in action 5th
November 1917. He is buried in Duhallows ADS Cemetery, and is, believed to have
been named after a southern Irish hunt, was a medical post 1.6 kilometres north
of Ypres (now Ieper). |
| It was used by the 11th, 36th and
44th Casualty Clearing Stations.Gordon was the son of the late Col. A.G.G.
Elton (Connaught Rangers and 7th Royal Warwicks) and was the husband of Doris
Elton |
|
Click here for close up |
Duhallows cemetery |
| He is also located on the
Fryerning Roll of Honour |
|
| Gordon
Daubney Gresley Elton, D.S.O., M.C. appears on both the Ingatestone and
Fryerning Roll of Honour and the Margaretting War memorial. |
| He was born in Jellunder, India 31st December 1888 during what
could only be described as the height of the Victorian era. His father was
Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred George Goodenough Elton of the Connaught Rangers, and
his mother was Rhoda whose father was a Colonel in the Indian Army. |
| Gordon was educated at Wellington College and went on to the Royal
Military College, Sandhurst. He became a Second Lieutenant in Nov 1910 and had
risen to the rank of Captain by 1915. |
| When war broke out, Gordon was in India, he resigned his post and
came back to fight with the 82nd Brigade in France as a Captain in the Royal
Irish Fusiliers, however on 12th May 1915 he was severely wounded in the second
battle of Ypres. |
| On his return in November 1915 , he served with the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force and went to Gallipoli as a Brigade Major and saw action
there and was one of the last to leave Suvla Bay when the evacuation took
place. |
| He started the year being posted to Egypt and then in July 1916 he
was back in France and in June 1917 he was appointed General Staff Officer to
the 58th Division. |
| In Jan 1917 back home on leave, he married Doris, the second
daughter of Mr and Mrs Robert Miller of St Leonards, Ingatestone, at St
James’ Church, Piccadilly. |
| Gordon saw action on the Somme, at Arras, Messines, Wytschaete, and
the third battle of Ypres. His good fortune ran out at Poelcappelle, where he
was killed in action in the trenches on November 5th 1917 when fighting in the
Passchendale campaign. He was 29 years old and had been married only 10 months.
He was buried in Duhallow ADS Cemetery. |
| His general wrote,” He was a splendid officer, and I know he
had a great future. I have never met a man with a more charming nature than he
had. I think he was one of the few who captured everyone’s affection from
the moment one saw him..” |
| He was mentioned in dispatches four times from 1915 – 1917 by
the elite commanders of the British Army. He was awarded the Military Cross
14th March 1915,” For conspicuous gallantry at St Eloi from 14th to 16th
March 1915, when he obtained valuable and very essential information relative
to the enemy position on four separate occasions, whilst exposed to heavy close
range rifle fire”. In June 1917 he gained the additional honour of the
D.S.O. |
| In his short life Gordon had achieved much and was on the way to a
brilliant military career. He was a product of everything Victorian, yet it
seems he had the ability to endear himself to those who met him. |
