Name
Cyril Frederick Austin
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/03/1915
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
“A” Company, 2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ROYAL IRISH RIFLES GRAVEYARD, LAVENTIE
I. D. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Ippolyts Village Memorial,
Roll of Honour, St Ippolyts Church,
Individual plaque, St Ippolyts Church
Pre War
Cyril was born on the 6th October 1884, in Chiswick, London. The son of Louis Frederick Austin an American born journalist and his English mother Wilhelmina Austin (Nee Robinson). The 1891 Census shows Cyril aged 6 living with his mother, 2 brothers and sister Phyllis at 48 Woodstock Road, Chiswick, Middlesex.
In 1907 Cyril joined the 1st/28th (County of London) Regiment (Artist Rifles) TA, with the Service Number 693. The 1911 Census shows Cyril aged 26, Living with his widowed mother 2 brothers and sister Hilda at 48 Woodstock Road, Chiswick, Middlesex. His occupation is given as a Journalist.
Cyril Married Elizabeth Russell of Gosmore, Hitchin, Herts, on Saturday 27th February 1915 at St Ippolyts Church, St Ippolyts, Herts. He returned home from the front to get Married, returning to the front the next day. He was Killed in Action less than two weeks later.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of War, Cyril was a Sargent with the 1st/28th (County of London) Regiment (Artist Rifles) a Territorial Force having joined them in 1907, with the Service Number 693.
He disembarked in France with his Battalion on the 26th October 1914. Cyril was Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant to the 2nd Battalion, The Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) on the 14th November 1914. An extract from the Battalion War Diaries for the 13th November 1914, shows Cyril and 3 others from the Artist Rifles, were posted to the 2nd Battalion, TQRWS Regiment as probationary 2nd Lieutenants.
His name and picture appear in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, the entry reads:
"AUSTIN, CYRIL FREDERIC, 2nd Lieut., 2nd Battn. Queen's Royal West Surrey Regt., yst, son of the late Louis Frederic Austin, of 48, Woodstock Road, Bedford Park, W., the well-known journalist, by his wife, Wilhelmina, daughter of Richard Robinson, C.E. ; b. Bedford Park, W., 6 Oct. 1884; educ, in Belgium and Germany; was on Reuter's editorial Staff, and had been a member of the Artists' Rifles since 1907. Went to the Front with them in Oct. 1914, and was given his commission as 2nd Lieut. in the Queen's 15 Nov. following; served continuously in the trenches during the winter of 1914-15, came home for the week-end in Feb. for his marriage, returning to the Front the following day, and was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle, 10 March, 1915; buried at Laventie. While serving at the Front he sent home several graphic sketches of soldier life, which were printed as "From a subaltern in the trenches". He was mentioned for important and dangerous reconnaissance work in ascertaining the whereabouts of enemy saps by F.M. Sir John French in his Despatch of 31 May, 1915. The Medical Officer of the battn., writing with reference to his death said: "For some time he and his men occupied a small position of the utmost importance to our line, a position constantly sniped and bombarded by the enemy. I well remember going down to see a wounded man in this isolated post after the German trench mortars has blown the defences about their ears. Austin - wet, muddy, but cheerful - crawled out of the ruins and displayed the utmost concern about his wounded man. Brave, cool, and fearless himself, he would go out of his way to show me a safe way out of the trenches and where should avoid ploughing through too much mud and water. I was talking to him a few minutes before he was hit, and it was a terrible blow to me that when I was called to him his condition was such that no treatment was available." While a member of the Artists' Rifles Sec. Lieut. Austin won cups with the Tent Pitching Team, and for five years was in the Bayonet Team, taking part in the Naval and Military Tournament at Olympia in 1913 and 1914, and winning many spoons and cups. The chairman of Reuter's at the annual general meeting on 3 June 1915, described him as "one of our most promising young editors." He married at St. Ippolyt's Herts, 27 Feb. 1915, Margaret Elizabeth (Gosmore, Hitchin), elder daughter of Samuel Bridgman Russell, of Gosmore, Hitchin, Herts."
Additional Information
His personal inscription on the headstone reads: “Husband of M. E. Austin, of Flat 5, 1, Carlisle Mansions, Bayswater, London”.
Cyril worked for the Reuters News Agency. The Wall Tablet in St Ippolyts Church reads: IN LOVING MEMORY OF 2ND LIEUTENANT CYRIL FREDERICK AUSTIN 2ND QUEENS WHO WAS MARRIED IN THIS CHURCH ON FEBRUARY 27TH 1915 AND GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY IN NORTHERN FRANCE ON MARCH 10TH 1915 AGED 30 YEARS + “ TO THEE O GOD WE COMMEND THE SOUL OF A GALLENT SOLDIER AND A GOOD COMRADE”
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Derry Warners
Stuart Osborne
