british war memorials · lieutenant raymond asquith

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= ---------- section a ---------- argentine graves [Rem] asquith, lieutenant raymond [BWM] ========================= ---------- section b ---------- baltic exchange [BWM] battle britain memorial flight [BWM] bayes, gilbert [BWM] bean, charles [BWM] blighty, a soldier's dream of [BWM] british medical association [BWM] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- canada and liverpool [BWM] cenotaph, new zealand [BWM] chopsticks memorial [BWM] cochrane, admiral lord thomas [Rem] collingwood, vice admiral lord [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- fishguard [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- glasgow university memorial chapel [BWM] grenfell, captain the honourable julian [Rem] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- halifax bomber lw 340 [Rem] havelock, major general sir henry [BWM] helles memorial [BWM] home guard memorial (torbay) [BWM] hollis vc, stanley [BWM] horner, lieutenant edward [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- king’s own royal regiment memorial chapel [BWM] king's royal rifle corps [BWM] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lincoln cathedral [BWM] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- malta [BWM] madingly [Rem] montford, paul [BWM] mckenzie, dr r tait [BWM] midleton, lord [BWM] music of remembrance [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nelson's island [Rem] newgass, lieutenant harold [BWM] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- polish war memorial [BWM] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- rugby school memorial chapel [BWM] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sandhurst, royal memorial chapel [BWM] sicily [Rem] st brides church [BWM] stirling bomber n 3654 [Rem] strange burial, a [Rem] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- turing, alan [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wakeful, HMS [Rem] wakenshaw vc, private adam [BWM] williams, lieutenant colonel henry [Rem] women at war memorial [BWM]

Raymond Asquith was born on 6 November 1878. He was the son of the Liberal politician Herbert Asquith (Prime Minster 1908-16). He was educated at Winchester, won an open scholarship to Balliol in 1896 and went up with a brilliant reputation. There he won first class honours and was President of the Oxford Union. In 1902 he was elected Fellow of All Souls.

“The Canadians had almost all been killed in the recent fighting there (which was unlucky for them) and hardly any of them had been buried (which was unlucky for us)”

He was called to the Bar in 1904 and was engaged as junior counsel in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration at The Hague and in 1912 was junior counsel for the Board of Trade Enquiry into the sinking of the steamship TITANIC.

In 1907 he married Katherine Horner, they had two daughters and his son Julian would eventually succeed his grandfather as 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith. As a rising barrister and as a future politician, Raymond was adopted as prospective Liberal candidate for Derby and was already following in his father's footsteps by the time war broke out in 1914. He quickly applied for a commission and obtained one in the Queen's Westminsters, from which he transferred to 3rd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards and embarked for Flanders.

He was seconded to the General Staff, but pressed to be allowed to return to his battalion. His correspondence with friends and loved ones at home is a valuable source for those wishing to learn of the conditions endured by soldiers on the Western Front.

In one letter he wrote: 'I am in the trenches and have been for three or four days now. So far they are more uncomfortable and less dangerous than I had been led to expect. Waders are essential as the mud and water are well above the knee and the cold is intense. An unpleasant feature is the vast number of rats which gnaw the dead bodies and then run about on one's face, making obscene noises and gestures.'

In another he wrote: 'We have a parson attached to us now, a Cambridge don who wanted to hold a service today in our battalion mess room; but the walls have been thickly papered with French pictures of naked women. He had to confess the site inappropriate for a holy purpose.'

On 22 June 1916 he wrote to his wife: 'We were pushed in to relieve the Canadians opposite Hooge. The Canadians had almost all been killed in the recent fighting there (which was unlucky for them) and hardly any of them had been buried (which was unlucky for us). The confusion and mess were indescribable and the stinks hardly to be borne. I never saw anything like the foulness and desolation of this bit of the Salient. There were two woods near to us in which we roamed about picking up gruesome relics in the dusk - Maple Copse and Sanctuary Wood - not a leaf or blade of grass in either of them, nothing but twisted and blackened stumps and a mesh of shell holes dimpling into one another, full of mud and blood, and dead men and overfed rats which blundered into one in the twilight like fat moths.'

On 10 July he wrote to his friend Lady Diana Manners (later Lady Diana Cooper): 'I agree with you about the utter senselessness of war, one of its chief effects being to make one more callous, short-sighted and unimaginative than one is by nature. The suggestion that it elevates the character is hideous. Burglary, assassination, and picking oakum would do as much for anyone.'

Asquith was killed during an attack on Ginchy on 15 September 1916 and was buried in Guillemont Road Cemetery, Guillemont. The Prime Minister resisted calls for his son's body to be repatriated and issued the statement: 'Mr Asquith prefers that his son, who met a soldier's death, should have a soldier's burial.'

Raymond's sister, Lady Cynthia Asquith noted in her diary on 19 September, 1916: 'Heartbreaking day. Came downstairs in high spirits, opened newspaper and saw in large print: 'Lieutenant Asquith Killed in Action'. Darling, brilliant, magically charming Raymond - how much delight and laughter goes with him! It seems to take away one's last remains of courage. One might have known that nothing so brilliant and precious could escape. Now I feel I have really relinquished all hope and expect no one to survive.'

Raymond Asquith's name may be found inscribed at the entrance to Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The memorial plaque to his memory inscribed in Latin by Eric Gill may be found on the south wall of the Horner Memorial Chapel in St Andrew's Church at Mells, Somerset. The wooden cross that originally marked his grave in France may also be found there.