Blackwell W G Lt 8th Royal Fusiliers
L IEUTENANT WILLIAM GORDON BLACKWELL (“Don”), Royal Fusiliers, was the seventh son of Samuel John Blackwell, J.P., and of Elizabeth, his wife, and was born in 1885.
Educated at Mr. Herbert Bowden-Smith’s Preparatory School at Bengeo and privately, he joined his brother Robert in the firm of Blackwell Brothers, and became a member of the Stock Exchange in 1908.
On the declaration of war he enlisted straightway in the Honourable Artillery Company and was sent to the French front in September 1914, obtaining a commission in the 4th Royal Fusiliers in 1915.
He fell at Flers, in the battle of the Somme, on 6 October 1916, being then attached to the 8th Royal Fusiliers.
One of his Commanding Officers wrote of him: “I saw a great deal of him and he naturally endeared himself to me by his kind nature and manliness of character. I deplore his loss; the nation has lost a gallant soldier and a great gentleman.”
His Major wrote: “He was a grand soldier; he could get the utmost out of men and did so, but they all worshipped him.”
Lieutenant Blackwell married in 1910 Nina Mary, daughter of the late Middleton Moore O’Malley and Mrs. O’Malley of West- port, co. Mayo, and leaves a widow and one son.
Source : The Stock Exchange War Memorial 1914-1918
Blackwell W G Captain 8th Royal Fusiliers
Source : The Sphere 13th Jan 1917