Name
Cecil Weare (MC)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/10/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Canadian Infantry (Nova Scotia Regiment)
25th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Military Cross
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
XXI. AA. 14.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial,
St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin,
British Schools Museum Memorial, Hitchin,
Town Hall Memorial, Hitchin
Pre War
Cecil was the second son of Mrs F.W. Weare of 5, Park Street, Hitchin.
He was a boot boy at the Priory and then a chauffer. The family believe that he was stopped from joining up by his parents and ran away to Canada where he joined the Nova Scotia infantry, enlisting on 8th December 1914 into the Nova Scotia Regiment.
Wartime Service
He was in the 26th Canadian Infantry and he had joined the Canadian forces in October 1914 as a private soldier, going to France in September 1915.
He was promoted to Lieutenant in October 1916 and then promoted to Captain and awarded the Military Cross following the taking of Vimy Ridge on the 9th April 1917. As a result of the fighting at Vimy Ridge he suffered from shellshock and lost the hearing in his left ear and in consequence was made Conducting Officer at the base.
The London Gazette records the award of the Military Cross to "Lieutenant Cecil Weare Canadian Infantry for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led his Company in the face of heavy fire of all kinds and despite strong opposition captured and consolidated the enemy trench. He displayed great courage and initiative throughout."
At the time of his death the Canadian Corps were attacking in the vicinity of Passchendaele in the Ypres Salient. The unit sustained numerous counter attacks all of which were repulsed by the evening of the 31st October 1917 but the casualties were considerable. Cecil had conducted troops up the line to Ypres where he had met his brother Lance Corporal Raymond Weare who had just returned from leave in Hitchin and whom he had not met since April 1916. In the early hours of the morning the hut he was in was struck by an aerial bomb severely wounding him He was received into a Casualty Clearing Station at 6.00am but died at 9.25am being conscious to the last.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild, Ian Hart
