Poppy In memoriam Poppy

Lieutenant Lancelot Charles Wise

 

Wise

 

 

Lancelot Charles Wise was born on 10 March 1894 at The Lydes, Toddington, Tewkesbury, the second of seven children of Charles Dacres and Madeline Stella Wise (nee Glynn), of Alleron, Loddiswell, Devon. Educated at Temple Grove, Charterhouse and Edinburgh Agricultural College, he enlisted as a Trooper in 1st King Edward’s Horse on 8 August 1914.

In December 1914 he applied for a commission and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the North Irish Horse on 20 December 1914. On 1 May 1915 he sailed for France with D Squadron and was promoted to Lieutenant on 1 July 1915.

In February 1916 he fell ill with diphtheria and was hospitalised at Le Harvre, returning to England in May.  Here he was granted sick leave until 29 August 1916 due to the after-effects of diptheria “and the stress of 14 months in France”. He applied for a position in the Indian Army and joined the 3rd (Skinner's) Horse in India in 1917. However he again became ill and died on 2 May 1917. He is buried in Rawalpindi War Cemetery, Pakistan, grave 4.A.6. The gravestone inscription reads:

LIEUTENANT

L.C. WISE

NORTH IRISH HORSE

2ND MAY 1917 AGE 23

FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST

AND TO DIE IS GAIN

 

Wise

The Times, 3 July 1917, p.11

 

A photo postcard of Lieutenant Wise's original burial site is shown below.

 

Image of Lieutenant Wise from the University of Edinburgh Roll of Honour 1914-1919 kindly provided by Edinburgh University Library. Gravestone (colour) image kindly provided by Steve Rogers, Project Co-ordinator of the The War Graves Photographic Project, www.twgpp.org. Original gravestone image and some of the information above kindly provided by Peter Wise and Lancelot E.D. Wise.