Name
Stanley Dunton
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/09/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/7623
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 99 to 101.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Stanley Dunton was born in Tring in 1897 (baptised 10 Jul 1898 in Tring) to Fredrick Dunton, omnibus driver, and Elizabeth (nee Clark).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, George (born 1881), Ethel (born 1884), Stanley, Jennie (born 1899) and Winifred (born 1901) were living at 17 Henry Street, Tring.
On the 1911 Census the family of parents, Stanley, a grocer’s errand boy, Jennie, Winifred, Frederick (born 1903) and Irene May (born 1910) were living at 17 Henry Street, Tring.
Wartime Service
Stanley volunteered soon after the declaration of the Great War. No Service Record was found for Stanley, but he is recorded as joining the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) as Private G/7623 in 1/9th Battalion, a territorial formation based at Harrow (G Company).
The 3rd Battalion, to which Stanley was later transferred ,was in Cawnpore, India, in Aug 1914. As soon as a territorial unit arrived to take over the garrison they returned to England, arriving in Dec 1914 and joining the 85th Brigade in the 28th Division, who were assembling near Winchester. They then proceeded to France, landing at Le Havre on the 19th of January 1915. The Division concentrated in the area between Bailleul and Hazebrouck, being joined by additional Territorial units. Stanley joined the Battalion on 18 May 1915.
During the Battle of Loos (25 Sep- 8 Oct 1915), the 3rd Middlesex was involved in heavy fighting at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a defensive strongpoint of the German 6th Army. When relieved on the 1st October the Battalion had lost 6 officers killed, 2 wounded and 24 other ranks killed, 189 wounded and 88 missing. Stanley was reported as one of the Missing and his death presumed to have occurred on 30 Sep 1915. His remains were not recovered and he is remembered on the Loos Memorial.
This from the Bucks Herald, 21st October 1916: “Our Roll Of Honour. Stanley Dunton who joined the 9th Middlesex at the commencement of the war and was transferred to the 3rd Middlesex, has been missing since 30th September 1915 and the War Office now definitely report him as dead. He was 19 years of age and had been in France about five months. He was at one time a choirboy at the Parish Church and a member of the Church Lads’ Brigade.”
From the Parish Magazine, November 1916: “Stanley Dunton has been missing since September 30th 1915 and nothing has been heard of him since. He is now supposed by the War Office to have been killed about that date. Early in the war he heard the call of King and Country and joined the 9th Middlesex, being later transferred to the 3rd Btn. Middx. It does not seem long ago that he was singing as a boy in our Parish Church choir, and taking part in the musical drills at the Church Lads’ Brigade winter Entertainments. May he rest in peace.”
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £3 and arrears of £4 15s 6d was paid to his Mother who also received a pension of 5s per week.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
