Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookarticulars of the gallant work done by your son and the 22nd Trench Mortar Battery while they were under me in the hard fighting of May 9 to 13, during the 2nd Battle of Ypres. Your son was posted in the trenches to the left of a building, named by the troops 'Shelltrap Farm,' which was about the hottest part of the line, and his duty was to assist the infantry in keeping back the enemy from sapping up to the farm buildings, and to endeavour to blow in their saps. The enemy's shelling was so intense that time after time the trench mortars were silenced and the crews buried, but they were dug out and started on again, and they refused to be relieved. Cooke, the subaltern, was hit and his shoulder dislocated, but he refused to go to hospital, and the whole battery displayed a similar spirit all through the fighting, the severity of which may be judged from the fact that Shelltrap Farm was lost and retaken with the bayonet three times in twenty-four hours." And the General Officer Commanding the 4th Division: "I remember Rait-Kerr and his 22nd Trench Mortar Battery well. It was the best battery of that sort that we ever had with the 4th Division, and under him it did invaluable service in the front trenches during the fighting from the 6th to the 13th of May (1915), which was some of the worst we had in France. I know he was a great loss to the Division and to the service." The officer in charge of the Trench Howitzer School, 2nd Army Corps, wrote: "He had done magnificently with his Trench battery and had received the congratulations of the Divisional and Brigade commanders to whom his battery was attached. He was a great friend of mine, and without doubt the finest officer who had passed through the Trench Howitzer School. There was no officer in the British Army who could have done it better. He was a gallant fellow. He was the ideal British officer, a real tiger with his men, but loved and admired by them. In this Army (the 2nd) he _made_ trench howitzers. He was, of course, recommended for a decoration, and he richly deserved it," and the subaltern under him in his battery wrote: "His death was a great blow to all of us in the battery. He was a splendid fellow, and did not know what fear was. He was recommended to General Commanding 4th Division for gallantry during the action by officer commanding the 2nd Monmouths, who told me he had upheld the best traditions of the Royal Artillery." His brother, Capt. W. C. Rait-Kerr, was killed in action at Veldhoek, 10 Nov. 1914 (see following notice). [Illustration: =Sylvester C. Rait-Kerr.=] =RAIT-KERR, WILLIAM CHARLES, D.S.O.=, Capt., 57th Howitzer Battery, R.F.A. eldest _s._ of Sylvester Rait-Kerr, of Rathmoyle, Edenderry, King's co. Ireland, by his wife, Mary, dau. of the late Major-General Charles Scrope Hutchinson, C.B., R.E.; _b._ Rathmoyle, afsd. 6 Aug. 1886; educ. Arnold House, Llandulas, Rugby School, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; gazetted 2nd Lieut. R.F.A. 23 July, 1907; and promoted Lieut. 23 July, 1910, and Capt. 30 Oct., 1914; went to France 16 Aug. 1914, with the 1st Division, commanded by Sir Douglas Haig, as Lieut. in 57th Howitzer Battery, 43rd Brigade, R.F.A.; took part in the Battle of, and retreat from, Mons, the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne, and the 1st Battle of Ypres, and was killed in action at Veldhoek, near Ypres, 10 Nov. following, whilst in charge of an advanced gun 250 yards from the enemy, being shot through the head by a German sniper. The rest of his battery had gone to the rear to rest and refit, having been out since the beginning of the war. Buried at Veldhoek, beside the gun "he had commanded so well"; _unm._ He was awarded the D.S.O. "For gallant conduct in bringing up a gun to within 250 yards of the enemy in a wood, and blowing down a house in which the enemy were working a machine-gun" [London Gazette, 1 Dec. 1914]; and was mentioned in F.M. Sir John (now Lord) French's Despatch of 14 Jan. 1915. His Colonel wrote: "He was in charge of a gun which had for some days been placed in a forward position for a special purpose, to destroy some houses from which some German snipers were causing heavy losses in our trenches. He had been doing splendid work, which had been specially noticed by the General, and only the day before his death the Commander of the French troops on our left had sent a letter of thanks for one particularly useful lot of shooting which he had put in and destroyed some German trenches in front of them. He was a brave and excellent officer and man. He had just appeared in the Gazette as Capt. and was so delighted that I had been able to get him posted to one of my batteries." Another officer wrote: "He was up in the infantry trenches with one gun close behind, in communication by telephone with him. He was there about a fortnight, and in that time did very fine work, knocking houses down with Germans and machine-guns in them, and various other jobs. He was highly praised by all the people up there, and by the General in command of the Infantry Brigade. He had a very rough time from both shell and rifle fire, but had done great execution in spite of it." His brother, Capt. S. C. Rait-Kerr, was killed in action 13 May, 1915 (see previous notice). [Illustration: =William C. Rait-Kerr.=] =KERRAY, JAMES=, Leading Stoker (R.F.R., Ch. B. 3918), 284967, H.M.S. Cressy; lost in action in the North Sea, 22 Sept. 1914. =KERRISON, ARTHUR JAMES=, Boy Servt., L. 4831, H.M.S. Good Hope; lost in action off Coronel, on the coast of Chili, 1 Nov. 1914. =KERWIN, ALBERT=, Stoker, 2nd Class, S.S. 115602 (Ports.), H.M.S. Hawke; lost when that ship was torpedoed in the North Sea, 15 Oct. 1914. =KESSELL, HARRY=, Lieut., Commanding Machine-Gun Section, 15th Infantry Battn. (Queensland), Australian Imperial Force, only _s._ of Thomas Norman Kessell, of Leederville, Western Australia, by his wife, Sophia: _b._ Leamington Spa, co. Warwick, 13 Jan. 1874; went to New Zealand with his parents and was educ. at the Normal School, Dunedin, afterwards settling in Australia. He joined the Victorian Rangers, 11 Dec. 1892, as a gunner in the Nordenfelt Battery; became Senior Sergt. 17 April, 1893; Lieut. G Coy., 23 Nov. 1895, Acting Signalling Inspector, 1 May, 1896, and after obtained the Flag Signalling Certificate (No. 600) 1 Aug. 1896, Signalling Instructor. He passed for promotion to the rank of Capt. Victorian Rangers, 10 Oct. 1897, and for the Militia with Special Certificate, No. 78, and obtained the extra Musketry Certificate, No. 12, 22 Oct. 1898, and re-qualified as Flag Signaller, 17 Dec. 1898. He served through the South African War, was appointed Lieut. to the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles: at Middleberg, 1901, acting as Troop Leader and Squadron Commander on various occasions, and was mentioned by Lord Kitchener in Despatches [London Gazette, 29 July, 1902] and awarded the Queen's medal with four clasps. After the close of the campaign he acted as Adjutant for the retur |