Gatacre J K Major Indian Army
11TH KING EDWARD’S OWN LANCERS (PROBYN’S HORSE)
JOHN KIRWAN GATACRE was the younger son of Major-General Sir William Forbes Gatacre, K.C.B., D.S.O., and grandson of Edward Lloyd Gatacre (O.R., 1818), of Gatacre, Shropshire.
He entered the School in 1898 and passed into the R.M.C., Sandhurst, in 1901. He was gazetted to his Regiment, then called the Prince of Wales’ Own Bengal Lancers, in 1902, and was promoted Captain in 1911. Не served various periods as Squadron Officer, Quartermaster, and Adjutant in his Regiment, and in 1912 was appointed for Special Duty in attendance on His Majesty King George, at the Delhi Durbar. In 1913 he qualified for the Staff College at Camberley.
He won many Cups for tent pegging and swordsmanship, and in 1913, the Kaidir Cup for pig-sticking, the Blue Ribbon of India. In the same year he was one of the four representatives of England in the Fencing Tournament in Paris, in which the English team gained the third prize.
On the outbreak of War he was attached to the 4th Hussars, crossed over to France on August 14th, 1914, and took part in the Retreat from Mons and the Battles of the Marne and of the Aisne. On September 20th he was promoted Major “for distinguished service in the field.” While reconnoitring a position, held in great strength by the enemy at the Monastery of Mont des Cats, near Godewaersvelde, a few miles from Hazebrouck, he was killed, on October 12th, 1914. Age 31.
He was mentioned in Despatches of October 8th, 1914, and was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour (Croix de Chevalier).
The following are extracts from a notice in the “Indiaman,” of October 31st, 1914:
“All those who knew Captain Gatacre will mourn one of the bravest spirits in the British Expeditionary Force fighting for their country’s honour. He was a born soldier. Fighting seemed to him, as he said in one of his most recent letters, the most natural thing in the world. He was absolutely fearless and was possessed of one of those iron constitutions which seem to be immune from fatigue. He was a fine rider and sportsman. He had won the Kaidir Cup and, as an experienced swordsman, he was very near winning the prize for the best Man-at-Arms in the Army at the Delhi Durbar. He had a sword made from his own design just before the War, and took it with him to the Front. How well he wielded it is known by his gallant exploits. It is said that on one occasion he engaged three Uhlans single-handed and killed them all.
“Whatever John Gatacre did, he did well. He possessed considerable talent as an artist in Water Colour, and the vivid actuality of his sketches at the Simla Fine Art Exhibition, where he was a Prize Winner, will be remembered by all Simla residents of the time. His pictures were, like himself, full of individuality, and distinctive by reason of their rugged and rare simplicity; but there is no doubt that his métier lay in War. It was there that his splendid, soldierly qualities found their fit expression, and now that he is dead death has scarcely ever seemed so nearly an empty name.”
Source : Memorials Of Rugbeians Who Fell In The Great War Vol 1
Gatacre J K Major Indian Army
Source : The Sphere 31st Oct 1914