Philip Malcolm Wolryche-Whitmore (1889-1918)

Philip Malcolm Wolryche-Whitmore was the son of Malcolm Wolryche-Whitmore, a civil servant, and his wife, Beatrice. They lived at Thurloe Square, Kensington, London and Ufford Hall, Stamford, Lincs. Philip was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Philip served first as a lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and went to Egypt in September 1914. He resigned his commission in December 1916 and enlisted as a gunner in the RFA. He was killed in action on 1st August, 1918, while serving with the 42nd Trench Mortar Battery. He is buried in Bertrancourt Military Cemetery.

Gunner Whitmore, 209543, RFA, was awarded the Victory and British War Medals.

His cousin, Geoffrey Wolryche-Whitmore, wrote:

I found a wire from father saying Philip had been killed. Poor Aunt B and Uncle M, they were devoted and so wrapped up in P especially since Francis was killed in B.E.A. I have had no particulars as to how it happened. Our first cousins have indeed suffered. I always think Philip did a real fine thing, when after being an officer, and when all the glamour of war was a thing of the past, he decided to enlist as a private soldier – no-one could do more and I should say no-one would have made a better hand at it, or put up with privations and hardships more willingly. I only hope he wasn’t wounded. They would hate to feel he had been in pain. [quoted on the National Trust Dudmaston website].