Een nieuwe grafsteen voor Captain Gordon Cuthbert

Rededication Service for Captain Gordon Cuthbert - Passendale - 29/04/2026

On Wednesday, 29 April 2026, at 10:30 hours, a ceremony was held at the British Tyne Cot Cemetery in Passchendaele. Captain Gordon Cuthbert was given a new gravestone bearing his name, thanks to research that proved he was indeed buried there.

Gordon Cuthbert was born in Sunbury, Middlesex in Augsuts 1876, the third of four children born to Henry Westell Cuthbert, a Russia Broker / Oil and Tallow Broker, and his wife Rosa Isabel. Gordon was the only son, having two older sisters - Mildred born in 1873 and Eva born in 1874, and one younger sister Mary born in 1880. Gordon was educated at Clifton College in Bristol.

On reaching his majority in 1897 Gordon was granted the Freedom of the City of London and membership of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. He followed in his father's footsteps in civilian life, becoming an oil broker in the firm Messrs Cuthbert & Hall of Fenchurch Street, and a member of the Baltic Exchange.

In 1894, he joined the London Rifle Brigade, and he was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the 2 Volunteer Brigade of the Middlesex Regiment in February 1900. He transferred to the Territorial Reserve in 1908, was appointed captain in command of the Twickenham Company in 1911.

In 1905 he married Eleanor Bruce Anketell in Middlesex, and they began a family with the birth of his son Cholmeley Ranson Cuthbert late that year. Cholmeley was followed by two sisters - Elizabeth, born in 1908 and Patricia , born in 1911.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914 he rejoined the Middlesex Regiment and proceeded to Gibraltar for garrison duty untill February 1915 when he was sent to Northern Europe. He was killed on 25 April whilst leading a stormy party which retook a trench near Ypres that had been vacated by another battalion owing to gas. In the chaos of war immediate burial was impossible, and following the war Gordon's name was added to the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Ypres.

Gordon was obviously highly thought of by both his men, and his fellow officers. Second Lieutenant Leeson wrote a letter published in the Middlesex Chronicle in early May 1915 in which he said:

"It is no great exaggeration to say that his officers and men adored him - unfailing in sympathy, unfailing in good humour, he was always ready at the end of a long march or an exhausting turn of duty in the trenches with a laugh and a joke, however tired he might be. As one of his men said 'Our Captain Cuthbert is a champion'. His devotion was indeed an example. By disposition a man of peace, he might easily avoided service at the front on medical grounds, but he preferred to take the risk ... and go with his boys. The battalion has lost a loyal servant, his company a devoted leader, Lt Butler and I a true friend. He leaves a widow and three little children who I know will have your sympathy."

In 1920 the body of a Captain of the Middlesex Regiment was recovered on the southern side of the Ypres-Roulers railway line - his rank and regiment were determined from elements of his uniform, but his personal identity was impossible to tell and so he was buried as an unknown Captain at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

Recently in depth research has allowed the unknown Captain to be connected to Gordon Cuthbert and therefore his final resting place in his name was rededicated.