Name
David Alfred Rutherford (MC & Bar)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/11/1920
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Royal Garrison Artillery
115th Siege Battery, 7th Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Military Cross and Bar
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HOLLYBROOK MEMORIAL, SOUTHAMPTON
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Bushey memorials, Not on the Waltham Cross memorials
Pre War
Born in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire on 19 July 1898 and baptised at Waltham Holy Cross, St Lawrence and Holy Cross in Essex on 21 August 1898, David Alfred was the second son of David Carter and Charlotte Ann Rutherford. David Carter Rutherford and Charlotte Ann Morling were married on 29 June 1895 at St Andrew’s Church in Enfield.
At the 1901 Census, David Arthur was 2 years old and was living with his parents and two brothers at The Hollies in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. His father was 32 years old and working as an Import and Export Merchant and his mother was 30 years old. David’s brothers are Peter William, who is 4 years old, and Colin Charles, who is 11 months old. The birthplaces are given as Enfield for David Carter, Hackney for Charlotte and Waltham Cross for all of the three children. Also present are two servants; a nurse and a general servant.
By the time of the 1911 Census, David’s parents had moved to Ivy Lodge in Turners Hill, Cheshunt. His father was a Merchant Importer and Exporter of Manufactured and Unmanufactured Articles and they had three servants. None of the three children were still living at home. David was now 12 years old and he and his younger brother were pupils at Mostyn House School at Parkgate, Neston, Chester.
Wartime Service
David Rutherford became a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military Academy and, on 10 May 1916, gained a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He served in France throughout the war and on 15 June 1917 was award the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when acting as Forward Observing Officer.
“He sent back most valuable reports on the situation, and eventually succeeded in establishing a telephone line in close proximity to the enemy.”
On 22 June 1918 a bar was added to the Military Cross, again for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty:
“When in command of the forward section of the battery he kept all his guns in action under a heavy fire, until being ordered to withdraw late in the day he got his guns safely away across open country and over a railway embankment, the roads having become unpassable from shell fire. His quick and determined action saved the guns.”
David was appointed Acting Captain on 15 October 1918, but relinquished the rank on 8 April 1919.
David Rutherford continued to serve after the end of the Great War, and when the Irish War of Independence began on the 21 January 1919 he was deployed there with the Royal Garrison Artillery. Lieutenant Rutherford and fellow officer, Lieutenant Brown, had three days’ leave and departed at 15:00 hours on 20 October 1920 from their base at Moore Park, Kilworth, Fermoy. They were each riding a motorcycle, dressed in mufti and carrying officer’s haversacks and bedding. A sergeant on the base remarked: "They don't look much like civilians." They told the regiment that they intended to go to Killarney. They had two or three days of food, bedding and primus stoves with them in a sidecar. They were last seen filling with petrol at Kilworth village.
Charlie Browne of Macroom IRA said that Brown and Rutherford were "dressed in civilian clothes, were armed" and that they were later executed as enemy spies. Their bodies were never recovered.
The British Army WO 141/94 does say “Brown and Rutherford had been employed from time to time on intelligence work...this may have been the reason for their murder.”
A Sergeant at the inquiry said, “Mr Brown was occupied in operations against Sinn Feiners on patrols, or with one man or by himself. He has told me of going out and pulling down Sinn Fein signs...I know of him being out more than once at night in the battery trap.”
Nothing except the short ‘missing’ announcement appeared in the press. It was not until 20 November 1921 that the British finally got proof from the IRA that Lieutenant David Rutherford and Lieutenant Brown had been executed. The date of their death was given as 1 November 1920.
David Rutherford is remembered with honour at Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton, which commemorates the names of almost 1,900 servicemen and women of the Commonwealth land and air forces, whose graves are not known, many of whom were lost in transports or other vessels torpedoed or mined in home waters.
Mostyn House School, where David was a pupil, created as a war memorial a rare carillon of 37 bells on the roof over the entrance to the school chapel. The names of all former pupils who fell in the Great War are shown on a panel in the entrance to the chapel. David Rutherford’s name appears there. Mostyn School closed in 2010 and, in 2012, the carillon and the commemorative panel were transferred to Charterhouse School.
After the war, David and Charlotte Rutherford, now Lord and Lady Rutherford, came to live at ‘Powis Court’ in The Rutts, Bushey Heath, and own the property until the 1930s.
There is an entry for David in the National Probate Calendar for 1922, which reads: RUTHERFORD David Alfred of Powis Court Bushey Heath Hertfordshire and of Moore Park Kilworth near Fermoy county Cork Ireland died 1 November 1920 or since in Ireland Probate London 11 February to David Carter Rutherford retired merchant. Effects £123 13s. 11d.
The tower at St Peter’s Church was built in 1913 with only a single bell and, in 1921, Lord and Lady Rutherford gave a peal of eight bells in memory of their son. The inscription on the tenor bell confirms: "To the glory of God and in loving memory of their dear son, Lieut David Alfred Rutherford, MC RGA killed in Ireland October 1920, these eight bells were presented by Mr & Mrs D C Rutherford, of this parish.”
It was Sir David's custom to invite the ringers to his house for a meal on 31st December before they went on to the church to ring out the Old Year and ring in the New. For ringing out the Old Year the bells were muffled by strapping a leather pad on one side of the bell clapper so giving a dull and mournful sound at every other stroke. At midnight the pads were removed and the bells rang out in their full strength. Unhappily this practice had to cease because bells at midnight, even once a year, were not welcomed by the ever-increasing and largely secular local populace.
There is an entry in the National Probate Calendar for 1940, which reads: RUTHERFORD dame Charlotte Ann of Powis Court Bushey Heath Hertfordshire (wife of sir David Carter Rutherford) died 6 February 1940 at Coombe Cottages Butlers Cross Ellesborough Buckinghamshire Probate London 17 June to Midland Bank and Trustee Company Limited the said sir David Carter Rutherford knight and Colin Charles Rutherford captain H.M. army. Effects £10030 3s. 7d.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
