Draft:Simon Mewburn

Captain Simon William Richmond Mewburn was a British captain of the 14th King's Hussars.

Captain Simon William Richmond Mewburn
Cause of death	KIA
Branch	14th King's Hassars
Rank	Captain
Relations	William Richmond Mewburn (father) James Mewburn (ancestor)

Early life & Education

He was the son of William Richmond Mewburn, a wealthy banker. He was a member and heir of the Mewburn gentry family of Acomb House, Northumberland. The family descended from James Mewburn the steward and clerk of the works of Seaton Delaval Hall and Jane Armstrong, daughter of Simon Armstrong of Acomb House whom the family home was inherited from.

Simon William Richmond Mewburn was born on the 9th September 1884, baptised at Brondesbury on the 4th October 1884, the eldest son of three children to a William Richmond Mewburn, born Acomb House, October 1834, baptised 17th November 1834, died 30th July 1921, and his wife Elizabeth Fanny (nee Savory) born 1854, baptised 26th October 1843, died 2nd June 1932. They were married on the 24th May 1870.

The other children were: –

• Dorethea Margaret Richmond Mewburn, born 23rd October 1882, baptised 16th December 1882 at Christ Church. She married a Captain Ivor Wilberforce Watson, [born 9th October 1875], on the 7th August 1912 at Datchet Parish Church. He was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment, and retired as a Major.

Another son born 14th March 1871, at Hill-Side, Cricklewood, London died at an early age.

The Father, William was a banker and became Manager of the Union Bank of Australia for 23 years at 3 Bank Buildings, Lothbury, London. He served a total of 45 years with the bank previously as a secretary. He retired on the 30th June 1899. In 1873, William owned 531 acres, 3 rods and 20 perts of land at Hill-Side Cricklewood N.W. with annual rent of £943 and 3 shillings a year. William resided at 6 Carlisle Place, Evelyn Mansions, S.W., and the Westminster Palace Hotel. The family home was Acomb House, near Hexham, Northumberland.

Elizabeth nee Savory was the daughter of a Joseph Thomas Savory, born 1800, died 1867, a surgeon and his wife Emma Rumsey nee Forster, born 1809, baptised 6th July 1809, died 20th September 1887. They were married on the 11th April 1829.

In 1886, the father was residing at St John Lee, Willesden Lane, Brondesbury. By 1911, he and his family were residing at 6 Evelyn Mansions.

Early life & Education

Simon William Richmond Mewburn was educated at Fonthill School in 1894, then Eton College from 1898 to 1902. From Eton, Simon entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

Career

On the 4th November 1903, he is commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 14th Hussars. He served many years in India and his Commanding officer wrote that “He had the happy talent of exacting obedience and respect without having to enforce it”.

The 14th King’s Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 20th Hussars to form the 14th/20th King’s Hussars in 1922.

The regiment, which was serving in Mhow in India as part of the Meerut Cavalry Brigade in the Meerut Divisional Area at the start of the First World War landed in Mesopotamia in November 1915. It was involved in most of the actions during the Mesopotamian campaign before moving to Persia in May 1918. The regiment retitled as the 14th King’s Hussars in January 1921.

Simon was promoted to a Lieutenant on the 17th February 1906 then a Captain on the 6th August 1910. When WW1 broke out, Simon was on leave, and was immediately ordered to France, arriving on the 20th September 1914. First attached to the 20th Hussars then the 4th Hussars.

The 20th Hussars regiment, which was based in Colchester at the start of the First World War, landed in France as part of the 5th Cavalry Brigade in the 2nd Cavalry Division in August 1914 for service on the First World War. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 and both the First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914. It went on fight at the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914, the Battle of Arras in April 1917 and the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. It later took part in the German spring offensive in 1918, the Battle of Amiens in August 1918 and the final push as the war drew to a close.

The 20th Hussars were with 5th Brigade, and in October 1914, they were positioned to the east of the Oosttaverne and Warneton road. Greys on the right astride the road in contact with 4th Brigade, 12th Lancers were on the left and 20th Hussars in the centre. All were instructed to ‘dig in’. On the morning of the 21st October the position found was not good so they made a new line further back behind the crest of a ridge with good fields of fire. They had no entrenching tools, so they resorted to using knives and forks bayonets, mess tins, broken plates! This was by the 9th Kilometre stone on the Ypres Road.

October 31st, November 1st In Wytschaete, the Germans had established the selves in the village by 2.45am and the defenders were left hanging on to the western and southern edges, whist in the north 20th Hussars remained in control. At 8.00am, the 20th Hussars with the French 32nd Division broke into the north of the village and cleared the Germans from the village of Wytschaete temporarily. The French now took over the line and the 2nd Cavalry Division could now be withdrawn. 5th Brigade to Kemmel. Battle of Messines ridge.

On the 20th October the 4th Hussars (3rd Brigade) were brought up to the Hollebeke area and were to dig a line through the village. On the 23rd they were relieved by the 129th Baluchis Indian Battalion.

In 1915, he rejoined his own regiment the 14th Hussars who had returned from India and were now in Mesopotamia.

Death and legacy

Simon was killed when he led his men to attack a bridge over the Shatt-el-hai. Shatt al Hai is also known as Nahr al Gharraf, Nahr al Gharrāf, Nahr al Giharraf, Nahr al Giharrāf, Shat el Gharaf, Shatt al Gharraf, Shatt al Hai, Shaţţ al Gharrāf.

His body was never found.

A fellow Officer wrote:

“I can’t bear to think that we shall have his cheery company no more in this world”

Another Officer wrote:

“The last time I spoke to Simon was about 3 o’ clock yesterday morning, just as we marched off, when he pressed some of his scanty supply of water on me….one does not make such friends again”.

A third Officer wrote:

“The first of our happy brotherhood to be taken…and the best”.

In 1921, the father and mother were now residing at Langley House at Slough, Buckinghamshire. Dorethea and Ivor were also residing at this address.

In 1939, Dorethea and Ivor were residing at Canonleigh Lower, Ashton, Dorset.

Sources: The British Newspaper Archive; The Western Front Association; Eton College Archives; IWM; National Archives; John Gedge; Tapatalk; Woose; The Sphere;

Pauline Priano has submitted he following:-

Simon William Richmond Mewburn was the only son of William Richmond Mewburn and Elizabeth Fanny Savory.

William Richmond Mewburn was born in 1835 in the parish of St. John’s Lee, including the township of Acomb, in the district of Hexham, where his father Simon Mewburn was a wealthy land proprietor and Justice of the Peace.

At the age of 46 years William Richmond Mewburn was staying as a visitor in his uncle’s home in the village of Spring Grove, with his wife Elizabeth Fanny whom he had married in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, May 24th 1870, where Elizabeth was born in 1845. She was the daughter of general practitioner and Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Joseph Thomas Savory and Emma Ramsay Forster.

William’s father Simon Mewburn died October 5th 1872 at 1, Hillside, Cricklewood, Middlesex, 18 days later, October 23rd Elizabeth Fanny gave birth to their first child, Dorothea Margaret Richmond Mewburn at 81, John Lee, Christchurch, Willesden, Middlesex.  Simon William Richmond Mewburn was born September 9th 1884 in Brondesbury, London Borough of Brent, Greater London and baptised October 4th.

The Mewburn family remained at John Lee where William was a bank manager but he had retired to 6, Evelyn Mansions, Westminster, by 1911 with his wife and daughter, employing 3 domestic servants. Simon William Richmond Mewburn (26) is listed as a Captain with the 14th Hussars in the Indian Army.

Simon had begun his career in the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 14th Hussars, November 4th 1903 upon its return from the Boer War in South Africa. The regiment had arrived in England and entrained to Aldershot where 2nd Lieutenant Mewburn joined them. In anticipation that the regiment would once again be sent overseas it was moved from Aldershot to Shorncliffe before departing to Bangalore in India. 2nd Lieutenant Mewburn departed to India, February 17th 1906 where he remained until August 8th 1910. Two days prior, August 6th 1910, he had been attached to the 20th Hussars and promoted to the rank of Captain.

In 1910 the 20th Hussars were in Ireland but returned to England in 1911 and were stationed in Colchester from where they sent detachments of experienced men to join the 14th Hussars in India.

When Britain declared a state of war existed with Germany, August 4th 1914, Captain Mewburn was mobilised as the 20th Hussars had been ordered to make ready to depart to France. The first draft of men departed, August 17th 1914 with the 5th Cavalry Brigade as part of the British Expeditionary Force. Captain Mewburn joined his regiment in the fired, September 20th 1914 after the conclusion of the Battle of Mons, St. Quentin and fighting on the Aisne and the Marne.

At the conclusion of the crossing of the Marne the Hussars marched north to the Ypres salient in Belgium and were in action during the 1st Battle of Ypres, October 15th-November 30th 1914 and by the 31st had reached Oostaverne but were withdrawn from the front line November 1st 1914.

During 1915 Captain Mewburn returned to the 14th Hussars which at the outbreak of war was deemed to be fit to take into the field but had suffered from a move in November 1914 to the unhealthy climate of Meerut in the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was not until October 27th 1915 that they were mobilised and sent to Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The Hussars left on 3 ships from Karachi, November 8th 1915 with a strength of 18 officers, 443 rank and 490 horses as reinforcements.

The 14th Hussars arrived and weighed anchor off Basra a week later, making land on 4 river steamers, reaching Kut towards the end of November and were ordered to move immediately to join the retreating West Kents at Aziziyeh. They participated during the actions at El Kutunie, November 28th 1915, Umm-al-Tubai, December 1st, reaching Kut, December 2nd 1915 and although the British prepared to defend the town the Hussars were ordered forward to Ali-al-Gharbi.

The Turks made a final attempt to recapture Kut in April 1916 and the starving garrison surrendered, April 29th. The 14th Hussars had been subjected to little action on the banks of the Tigris but suffered with illness, fever and dysentery. May 19th 1916 they were ordered to move and rode to Maqasis to seize a Turkish pontoon bridge. There was shelling from the enemy artillery at Kut but the 14th Hussars did not sustain any casualties. At 3.30 in the morning, May 20th they received the order to move to a position below Kut across the Shaft-al-Hai.

The 14th Hussars led the 6th Cavalry Brigade under fire, “B” Squadron took cover, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Deakin they attacked the Turkish trenches at the juncture of the Tigris and Hai rivers and were joined by D Squadron. The regiment was 3 miles in advance of the remaining troops and were soon overwhelmed without support from the remainder of the brigade until they were ordered to retreat. “C” Squadron covered the retreat with rifle and machine-gun fire and the Hussars, although outnumbered, were able to get away.

During the retreat, May 21st 1916, Captain Simon William Richmond Mewburn and 2nd Lieutenant Deakin were killed, the first two officers of the 14th Hussars to die in the campaign, a further 15 men were wounded and 8 horses killed.

The sacrifice  of Captain Mewburn (King’s) Hussars is recorded as one of 40,636 names inscribed on the Basra Memorial, Iraq, a combined British-Indian memorial to the missing. Captain Mewburn was 31 years of age and single.

The Basra Memorial first stood on the main quay of the naval dockyard in Maquis until 1997 but was then moved by presidential decree 32 kilometres along the road to Nasiriyah to the middle of what was a battlefield during the Gulf War, August 2nd 1990-February 28th 1991. Due to the difficulties accessing the memorial since the first Gulf War, a two volume Roll of Honour listing all casualties buried and commemorated in Iraq is on public display at the C.W.G.C. Head office in Maidenhead and digital volumes online.

Captain Mewburn’s father resident of Langley House, Slough, Buckinghamshire and 6, Evelyn Mansions, Westminster, received all monies due to his late son from the Army, also his awards of the British War Medal and Victory Medal and after an application, November 28th 1917, the 1914 Star. November 6th 1919 he also applied for a clasp to the 1914 Star.

William Richmond Mewburn, resident of Langley House, Buckinghamshire, died, July 30th 1921. His assets in the sum of £43477 13 shillings 4 pence were assigned to his widow Elizabeth Fanny, his daughter Dorothea Margaret Richmond Watson and her husband Ivor Wilberforce Watson, H.M. Army.

Elizabeth Fanny Mewburn nee Savory died June 2nd 1932 in Eton, Buckinghamshire.

With the death of William Richmond Mewburn in the absence of a son and heir this line of the Mewburn family ceased to exist.

In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.

Simon William Richmond Mewburn is remembered at St. John Lee on S1.01, S1.05 and S1.07.  He is also remembered at Eton College.

Ancestors of Simon Mewburn
James Mewburn Simon Mewburn Simon Armestrong Jane Armstrong 8. Simon Mewburn 4. Simon Mewburn 2. William Richmond Mewburn 1. Simon William Richmond Mewburn

References