VEREKER, ROBERT HUMPHREY MEDLICOTT, 2nd Lieut., 2nd Grenadier Guards, 2nd s. of George Medlicott Vereker, of Sharpitor, near Salcombe, South Devon, J.P. for co. Galway, Freeman of the City of Dublin, late Capt. Kildare Militia, by his wife, Frances Gore, eldest dau. of Robert Manders, of Landscape, Dundrum, co. Dublin, and grandson of the Hon. John Prendergast Vereker (3rd son of John Prendergast, 3rd Viscount Gort); b. Dublin, 15 Oct. 1894; educ. Cheam, Osborne Naval College and Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut. to 2nd Grenadier Guards, 17 Sept. 1913, and joined his battn. the following month at the Tower of London; went to France with the Expeditionary Force, Aug. 1914, and was killed in action during the desperate night battle at Landrecies, on the 25th of the same month. Buried at Landrecies; unm.
The Rev. Benjamin G. O. Rorke, Chaplain to the Forces, wrote: “You have probably already heard that your brave son met his death in action on the 25th inst. while trying to draw Corpl. Bacchus of his regt. out of the range of the German fire. Corpl. Bacchus, who was wounded, is now convalescent, and, if spared, can tell you all about it. He showed me the exact spot at Landrecies, on the town side of the railway level-crossing, on the left of the road. It was a brave man’s death. There were in his pocket a silver flask from his mother and his own ‘Onoto’ diary. I gave them into the custody of the medical officer, Major Fry (brother of C. B. Fry), to take charge of for you. He was buried in the next grave to Lord Hawarden and the Hon. Windsor Clive on the one side, and eight men of the Coldstream Guards on the other, and on the same occasion we erected a rough wooden cross inscribing the names. The following day the wife of the ‘Garde Cimetière’, brought me a wooden cross of a more substantial kind, and I left instructions for the names to be painted on it; it was her own thought and her own tribute. Mme. Bocquet, The Pharmacie, Grande Rue, Landrecies (a very kind lady), undertook to see this done. I have heard from the regt. how much he is missed. He died like a brave man. This will be a great consolation to you.” The house and grounds at Sharpitor were lent to the Red Cross Society for the duration of the war by Mr. and Mrs. George Vereker in memory of their son.
Source : De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour Vol 1