Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book(Militia), 1891; joined the Rhodesian Horse in 1895, and took part in the Matabeleland Campaign with Gwelo Field Force in 1896 (medal, "Matabeleland, 1896") and the Mashonaland Campaign in 1897 (clasp, "Mashonaland, 1897"). From 1899 to 1901 he served with the African Transcontinental Telegraph Survey through German East Africa, under O. Berringer, Chief Surveyor, Northern Rhodesia, and in 1901-2 with the Tanganyika Concessions Expedition to Katanga, Congo Free State. In 1903 he was employed as Secretary and A.D.C. to the First Minister of the Zanzibar Government. He obtained his company in the 3rd Battn. Royal Munster Fusiliers, 10 Feb. 1906, to remain seconded under the Foreign Office for service in Zanzibar. He was employed under both the military and civil administration of Zanzibar until 1913, being successively Acting-Commandant, Zanzibar Military Police, and Acting-Governor, Central Jail, 1907; 2nd Class Magistrate and Governor of District Jail, 1909; 2nd in Command, Zanzibar Armed Constabulary, 1911. He received the Zanzibar Orders of El Aliyeh (4th class) in 1907 and the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar (3rd class) in 1913, in which year he retired on a pension. He had passed the School of Musketry at Hythe in 1908 and in all subjects for promotion to rank of Field Officer in 1912, being one of only five officers specially mentioned in the Examiner's Report (May) to the Army Council. On mobilisation, 5 Aug. 1914, he joined his regt., the 3rd Munster Fusiliers, and on 8 Sept. 1914, was attached to the 2nd Battn. in France. He was present at the Battles of the Aisne and the Marne, and also at Ypres, and was killed in action between Givenchy and Festubert, 22 Dec. 1914, while leading his men in an attack to retake trenches lost the day before. On the evening of 20 Dec. 1914, the 2nd Munsters, commanded by Col. A. M. Bent, were billeted in the outskirts of Bailleul, when at 5 p.m. an urgent message was received by Col. Bent that the 3rd Brigade, to which the battn. belonged, was to be ready to march "as soon as possible." They started at 6.15 p.m., and after marching for six hours in a tearing blizzard of rain and hail, over roads ankle deep in mud, they reached Merville, where a short halt was called. At 8 a.m., outside Bethune, the battn. halted again, awaiting orders. By 3 p.m. orders were received that the battn. was to occupy the trenches at Festubert vacated by the Indians; the leading brigade deployed for attack and, shortly after, the 3rd Brigade, consisting of the 2nd Welsh Regt., the 1st Gloucester, the Munsters, the 1st South Wales Borderers and the 4th (T.) Royal Welsh Fusiliers, was placed on the left of the 1st Guards Brigade. The brigade then resumed its march, through Gorre to Festubert, where the battn. remained in reserve, but on the night of the 21st received orders that there was to be a general attack upon the German line. All that night the Munsters waited, and all that night it rained and snowed and stormed, until the hour arrived when the battn., led by Col. Bent, started to the attack. The men swarmed over the parapets and raced across the fields, carrying their heavy equipment and following their officers over the shell-scarred, churned-up earth. Strands of barbed wire beset their way and the ground was broken by great shell holes. Before them, from the German trenches, the machine guns hammered out their deadly message of welcome; and the men went gamely on, most splendidly led by their officers. Major Thomson, second in command, fell across the first German trench, but would not permit himself to be removed, continuing to issue orders from where he lay; he was wounded again, the second wound proving fatal. Col. Bent fell in the earlier part of the charge, desperately wounded; Major Day was killed a little later, and Capt. Hugh O'Brien fell as he shouted to his company, "Get a bit of your own back, boys." Not 20 yards from where Capt. O'Brien fell, Capt. Durand met his death, leading at the extreme point of the advance made by C Coy., under fierce enfilading fire. Men fell on the right and left, and again and again they rallied and stumbled over the broken ground, holding steadily on under the wail of tearing shrapnel, and at last the Munsters reached their goal, the given point, and in the fierce counter-attack they did not lose an inch of what they had taken. Capt. Durand _m._ at St. Mary Abbotts Church, Kensington, 4 June, 1903, Geraldine Vesey (40, Arundel Gardens, Kensington Park Road, W.), yst. dau. of the late Rev. John William Hawtrey, of Aldin House, Slough; _s.p._ [Illustration: Francis William Durand.] =DURAND, HAVILLAND MONTAGUE=, Private, No. 720, 13th Battn., Australian Imperial Force, yst. _s._ of the late Rev. Havilland Durand, for 13 years Vicar of Earley, co. Berks (died 1884), by his wife, Mary (Moulin Huet, Guernsey), dau. of the Rev. Montague John Gregg Hawtrey; _b._ Earley Vicarage, 21 Dec. 1883; educ. Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and University College, Durham; went to Australia in Sept. 1911, and settled at Brisbane, where he was engaged in teaching. Volunteered on the outbreak of the war and joined the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force, Sept. 1914; left for Egypt in Jan. and was killed in action two days after the landing at Gallipoli, 25 April, 1915; _unm._ His Capt. wrote: "His comrades having expended nearly all their ammunition, volunteers were asked for, to go to the beach for more; it was necessary to proceed down a fireswept gully, then on to a shell-swept beach, and return. Havilland volunteered to do this. He got to the beach and returned by way of the gully again. He had done his duty and saved our line. I should like to mention that he was loved by officers and men alike. He was selected and especially trained for a battn. scout, work that always requires a lot of intelligence and tact. The Colonel assured me that if Durand had not arrived with the ammunition his comrades, who were in an isolated position, would have been annihilated and our line would have been broken." He was supposed to have been killed after bringing up the ammunition, but another letter gave the information that he was killed the day after, whilst working in the trench. He was buried by his comrades on a hill at Gaba Tepe, and a rough wooden cross marks the place where he lies. Another letter said: "The landing must have been awful, and all who lived, if only for a day, did heroic work, as the few remaining officers say each man deserved a V.C. The Australians were simply magnificent." [Illustration: =Havilland M. Durand.=] =DURRANT, CYRIL GEORGE POPLE=, Acting E.R.A., 4th Class, M. 7271, H.M.S. Pathfinder; lost when that ship was sunk by a mine, about 20 miles off the East Coast, 5 Sept. 1914. =DURRANT, WILLIAM BLENCOWE WELLS=, 2nd Lieut., 6th, attd. 4th, Battn. The Rifle Brigade, only _s._ of the Hon. Frederick Chester Wells Durrant, M.A., K.C., Attorney-General of the Bahamas, and Member of Executive and Legislative Councils o |