Sir Fenton Aylmer, 13th Baronet
Sir Fenton John Aylmer | |
---|---|
Corps of Royal Engineers | |
Commands held |
|
Battles/wars |
|
Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
Spouse(s) | Elsie Julie Oppermann, Lady Risley |
Early career
Born the son of Captain Fenton John Aylmer and Isabella Eleanor Darling. Aylmer attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a Gentleman Cadet and was promoted lieutenant on 27 July 1880.[1] He took part in the Burma expedition between 1886 and 1887.[2]
The Victoria Cross
Fenton was 29 years old, and a
On 2 December 1891 during the assault on
British India, Captain Aylmer, with the storming party, forced open the inner gate with gun-cotton which he had placed and ignited, and although severely wounded, fired 19 shots with his revolver, killing several of the enemy, and remained fighting until, fainting from loss of blood, he was carried out of action.[4]
He was promoted
In 1913 he married Lady Risley, the widow of Sir Herbert Hope Risley, head of the Indian Civil Service. She was born Elsie Julie Oppermann, daughter of Friedrich Oppermann.[8]
First World War
Having been promoted to
By now, a third division had been added to Aylmer's Tigris Corps, the 3rd (Lahore) Division. This new division, along with the weakened 7th Division, attacked Ottoman defensive works at Hanna on 21 January (the Battle of Hanna). This assault was a complete failure. The Ottoman troops held their trench lines while some 2,700 British soldiers were killed or wounded.[12]
General Aylmer was reinforced with another division, the
Fenton Aylmer was replaced by the former commander of the 12th Indian division, Major-General Gorringe. He did not command in battle again, but served as a divisional commander in India from 1915[13] to 1917[14] before retiring from the British Army in 1919.[2] From 1922 till his death he was a colonel commandant of the Royal Engineers.[2]
Following his death in 1935 he was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes remain.[15]
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent, England.[3]
References
- ^ "No. 24870". The London Gazette. 3 August 1880. p. 4258.
- ^ a b c d Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 February 2014)
- ^ a b The Royal Engineers Museum - Victoria Crosses held by the Royal Engineers Museum
- ^ "No. 26306". The London Gazette. 12 July 1892. p. 4006.
- ^ "No. 26450". The London Gazette. 17 October 1893. p. 5833.
- ^ "No. 27383". The London Gazette. 6 December 1901. p. 8642.
- ^ Army Commands Archived 5 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
- ^ "No. 29420". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 30 December 1915. p. 13009.
- ^ F. J. Moberly, History of the Great War: The Campaign in Mesopotamia, vol. 2 (1924) p. 146n.
- Lives of the First World War
- ^ a b c d e f Tucker, p. 1,233
- ^ "No. 29651". The London Gazette. 4 July 1916. p. 6619.
- ^ "No. 30353". The London Gazette. 26 October 1917. p. 11047.
- ^ "Sir Fenton John Aylmer". Memorials to Valour. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
Sources
- Tucker, Spencer C. (1997). World War 1. Routledge. ISBN 978-1857283914.
- Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross(Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)
- Monuments to Courage(David Harvey, 1999)
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
- The Sapper VCs(Gerald Napier, 1998)
External links
- Royal Engineers Museum Sappers VCs
- Burial location of Fenton Aylmer "Golders Green Crematorium, London"
- Location of Fenton Aylmer's Victoria Cross "Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham"
- The Attempt to Relieve Kut, 1916 - from The Long, Long March website, downloaded January, 2006.