Name
Robert Ellis Cunliffe
17 October 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/05/1915
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Berkshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL
Panel 7 and 8.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Radlett memorials, Ascham St Vincent War Memorial Arch, Eastbourne. Sussex.
Pre War
Robert Ellis Cunliffe was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, India on 17 October 1893, the son of Alfred Edward & Agnes Cunliffe. and baptised in Calcutta on 14 November 1893.
He was sent back to be educated in England and on the 1901 Census he was living at 14-16 Loscelles Terrace, Eastbourne in the care of Florence Mellish, whose occupation was listed as "carer of Indian children" and attended Ascham St Vincent School, Eastbourne.
After leaving school he went to London and worked as a bank clerk for Parr's bank. On the 1911 Census he was aged 17 and a boarder at the house of Frederick and Georgina Walton at 2a Sydenham Park, Sydenham, S E (Lewisham) and working as a bank clerk and later lived at 31 Marmosa Road, Honour Oak, South London.
Wartime Service
He joined the Territorial Army on 17 June 1913 and at the outbreak of the war enlisted as a Private (Reg, no 1570) into the 16th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles).
He was 5' 9" tall and of average build and was declared fit for service in the infantry, despite having extremely poor eyesight, and he arrived in France on 1 November 1914.
He was later commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment as Second Lieutenant on 20 March 1915.
He was killed in action near Fromelles, France on 9 May 1915 during the Battle of Aubers Ridge. The same ridge had been the scene of disastrous fighting during the Battle of Neuve Chappelle and the Germans had greatly reinforced and fortified their trenches since that time and British forces did not seem to be aware of the strength of the defences. The attack began at 5.40 am when the Royal Berkshires and Rifle Brigade went over the top and advanced towards the German lines. A later report suggests that men were cut down by machine gun fire as soon as they left the trenches. The attack was a disaster and casualties were heavy, The 2nd Battalion lost over 250 men killed, wounded or missing.
The body of Robert Cunliffe was never found and he is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial. He was 21 years old.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
www.natwestgroupremembers.com, bloxhamschoolwardead.co.uk,
