New non-commemoration cases accepted for commemoration

Over the first half of 2023, the Commemorations Team have completed reviews and received adjudications for Non-Commemoration cases. Every individual accepted as a Commonwealth war casualty is added onto the Commission’s Casualty Database.

Four stories below detail some of our latest British Army commemorations.

GS/24096 Private Rex Chuter

Private Rex Chuter served in several Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers from April 1916. This image showing Rex in his military uniform was originally published in the Middlesex Chronicle in 1918.

During the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, Rex went missing in action in France. Red Cross & Order of St John Enquiry List records show that his father sought information about his son’s whereabouts. A letter from the Army Council in April 1919 concluded that Private Chuter had gone missing and died on or since 27 March 1918.

During research, it was discovered that Rex’s brother, 38677 Private Clive Chuter, was killed on the same day, whilst also serving in the Royal Fusiliers. Clive is now commemorated in perpetuity on the Pozières Memorial on the Somme in France.

Photo: Pte Rex Chuter. Reproduced courtesy of Oscar Chuter and the Teddington History Society.

25726 Private Edward Hoy

Private Edward Hoy started a career in the Army in 1909. Signing up with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he was discharged for being underaged around the age of fifteen.

During the First World War, he enlisted with the South Irish Horse, joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at the start of 1916 and was posted to France that summer. He served overseas until March 1918, when he suffered a gunshot wound to his right thigh and transferred home shortly afterwards.

Private Hoy continued to serve at home, though was found to be absent without leave for a brief period in September 1918. He did re-join his unit but was officially discharged from military service in November 1919. Suffering from Tuberculosis, this illness was deemed attributable to his military service. He died from the condition in July 1920, with his widow, Ellen, awarded a dependant’s pension.

15399 Private Cyril Henry

Private Cyril Henry enlisted into the British West Indies Regiment. Having embarked from Jamaica in October 1917, he subsequently contracted mumps and was admitted to hospital for rheumatism. By October 1918, he was serving in Taranto in Italy.

In May 1919, Private Henry was invalided back to the West Indies, where he remained in military service until being discharged from the Army in April 1920. A Medical Report confirmed a disability of ‘Tubercule Gland of Neck’ – a condition assessed as originating in Italy and deemed ‘aggravated’ by his war service. Private Henry died in Saint Ann’s Parish, Jamaica in February 1921, as a result of contracting tuberculosis.

2418 Private Peter Ritchie

Private Peter Ritchie enlisted with the Royal Highlanders in 1912. At the outbreak of the First World War, he was mobilised and landed overseas in August 1914 with the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

During his service, he suffered a gunshot wound to the skull, requiring his evacuation from the front line. The injury saw him subsequently discharged from the Army in June 1916, due to wounds attributable to war service, for which he received a Silver War Badge and Disability Pension.

Pte Ritchie continued to suffer from his war wound and ill health. He passed away in September 1920 from bronchopneumonia and complications, caused during a hospital operation to graft rib bone to his damaged skull. His widow’s dependant’s pension application was refused by the authorities, as they married after he had left the Army.