Name
Cyril Richard Lydekker
8 Nov 1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/08/1915
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Bedfordshire Regiment
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AZMAK CEMETERY, SUVLA
Special Memorial 14.
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
Headstone Inscription
HE THAT LOSETH HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND IT
UK & Other Memorials
Haileybury College Cloister Wall Memorial, Hertford Heath, Harpenden Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Harpenden
Pre War
Cyril Richard was born on 8 Nov 1889 in Harpenden Lodge, Harpenden, Hertfordshire son of Richard Lydekker F.R.S. and Lucy Marianne (Davys) Lydekker and baptised on 8 Dec 1889.
Educated at Haileybury College 1903-06, he then joined Barclays Bank in 1906. He joined the Hertfordshire Artillery (T.F.) in 1910 and after service in the Battery was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant, 5th Battalion (T.F.) Bedfordshire Regiment on 14 Mar 1914. He was unmarried.
Wartime Service
On the outbreak of war, he volunteered for foreign service. and was also promoted to Lieutenant on 29 Aug 1914.
He embarked with the Battalion for the Dardanelles on 26 Jul 1915 and landed at Suvla Bay on 11 Aug 1915 and went into action against the enemy on 15 Aug.
He was killed the same day being shot in the head while leading his men in a charge in the assault on Kiretch Tepe Siri. He is commemorated as believed to have been buried in Azmak Cemetery, Suvla Bay, Turkey.
Additional Information
Miss H.M. Lydekker, Harpenden Lodge, Harpenden, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: “HE THAT LOSETH HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND IT”. Arrears of £73 13s 9d paid to sister Helen. Brother of Lieutenant Gerard Owen Lydekker, also of the Bedfordshires, who died on service on 14 Jun 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt and is also commemorated on these memorials.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Malcolm Lennox, Karen Smith - Acting Director of External Relations www.haileybury.com/honour, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk)
