L IEUTENANT ALAN FREDERICK JAMES, BARON DE RUTZEN, son of the late Sir Albert de Rutzen, the famous Metropolitan Magistrate at Bow Street, was born in 1876. He was educated at Eton and in 1904 became a member of the Stock Exchange.

He succeeded his uncle as Baron de Rutzen in 1915. At the outbreak of the war he joined the Pembroke Yeomanry, being gazetted in August 1914, and went with them to Egypt in March 1916. Whilst there, he volunteered for and became attached to the Imperial Camel Corps, with which he was serving at the time of his death. He fell leading a company of the Camel Corps against the Turks near Katia.

The following extract, testifying to his great ability as an officer and leader of men, is from a letter of an officer of the Camel Corps to the Colonel of the Pembroke Yeomanry: “You will probably have heard, before this reaches you, that Baron de Rutzen was killed yesterday. He was in command of this company and the amount of confidence he put into his men helped considerably towards holding a very tight corner.”

“A brave man and a real topper in the field and out of it. His men simply adored him, as did all his brother officers.”

Baron de Rutzen had travelled extensively. He was greatly interested in horses, hunting and agriculture, and was a keen fisherman.

He married, in 1908, Eleanor Etna Audley, the only child of Captain Pelham Thursby Pelham of Abermarlais Park, Carmarthenshire, and Ridgeway, Pembrokeshire.

Source : The Stock Exchange War Memorial 1914-1918