Name
Vere Duncombe Loxley
7 Sep 1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
43
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
Royal Marine Light Infantry
1st R.M. Bn. Royal Naval Division.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KNIGHTSBRIDGE CEMETERY, MESNIL-MARTINSART
E. 1.
France
Headstone Inscription
In Peace
UK & Other Memorials
Northchurch Village Memorial, St Mary’s Church Window, Northchurch, Individual plaque, St Mary’s Church, Northchurch
Pre War
Vere Duncombe Loxley was born 7 Sep 1881at Fairford, Glos., son of Rev Arthur Smart Loxley and Alice Mary (nee Duncombe) and was educated at Horris Hill, Newbury, Radley College, Abingdon, Oxon. and the Royal Military College Sandhurst after which he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 1 Sep 1900, Lieutenant 1 July 1901, Captain 1 Sep 1911.
Attended Royal Naval College, Greenwich and served in Portsmouth Command and Ships.
Wartime Service
He was appointed to command on 13 Nov 1915 of 1st Royal Marine battalion in the Dardanelles during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign and then served in France from 16 May 1916 where he commanded the 1st Royal Marine Battalion of the Royal Naval Division during the Battle of the Somme.
He was appointed Temp Major on 30 May 1916, wounded on 15 July but returned to the front line two months later. He was mentioned in Despatches 13 Jul 1916. He was killed leading his battalion in the Battle of the Ancre on 13 November 1916; 20 of the battalion’s 22 officers were either killed, missing or wounded during the battle.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs. Alice M. Loxley, Little Cloisters, Gloucester, ordered his headstone inscription: "In Peace". Probate was granted to his Mother (£1770 19s 4d). Vere’s brothers, Arthur serving as Captain RN and Reginald RNAS & RAF, were also killed in the Great War.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/first-world-war-database
