Major Arthur Kenlis Maxwell, 11th Baron Farnham
Arthur Kenlis Maxwell was the son of Somerset Maxwell, 10th Baron Farnham and Lady Florence Jane Taylour. On his father's death, he succeeded as 11th Baron Farnham and 14th Baronet of Calderwood on the 22 November 1900. He married Aileen Selina Coote, daughter of Charles Purdon Coote and Lydia Lucy Wingfield-Digby on 8 October 1903. On the 18 December 1908, he was elected an Irish Representative peer.
He arrived in France in command of F Squadron, North Irish Horse, in September 1915. He later became Lieutenant-Colonel, first attached to the 10th, and then the 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
During the War two of his young sons died of illness at home. Another son, Somerset was to die of wounds in North Africa in 1942.
Lord Farnham was captured at Boadicea Redoubt south west of St Quentin on the first day of the German Kaiserschlacht offensive in March 1918. According to German records, the Inniskillings, surrounded by overwhelming forces, were offered the choice of surrender or destruction by heavy artillery bombardment. "... a few minutes later, there filed out of the redoubt a lieutenant-colonel, carrying a small white dog, three captains, seven subalterns and 241 other men. Forty-one machine-guns and mortars were found in the redoubt. The British lieutenant-colonel asked for, and was given, a document stating that he had put up a good fight before surrendering." (Martin Middlebrook, The Kaiser's Battle, Penguin, 1983 ed., pp267-68.)
Maxwell (standing second from right) as a prisoner of war in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Images 1 and 3 sourced from Brendan Scott, Farnham: Images from the Maxwell Estate, Co. Cavan, Wordwell, Dublin, 2010, pp.50, 52; Image 2 from The War Illustrated, 20 February 1915.