Name
Allan Ernest Messer
01/05/1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/02/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
King's Royal Rifle Corps
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CALAIS SOUTHERN CEMETERY
Plot A. Row Officers. Grave 4.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Inscription on his Headstone
UK & Other Memorials
St Matthews Church Memorial, Oxhey, Oxhey War Memorial, Oxhey Baptist Chapel Memorial, Memorial of Rugbeians who fell in the Great War, St Johns Collage WW1 Memorial, Oxford University
Pre War
Allan Ernest Messer was born on 1st May 1895 in Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica, British Guyana, son of Allan Ernest Messer (1865 – 1954) a Solicitor and Louisa Ord Messer (1862 – 1951) (nee Holladay). Allan had a younger sister Ruth Cresap Messer born in 1895, in Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica, British Guyana. The family returned to the UK in 1900.
1901 Census records Allan aged 6, living with his parents, at 23, Campden House Road, Kensington, London / Middlesex. His sister Ruth was staying with relatives at the time. The family had three live-in Domestic Servants.
Allan was educated at Rugby School in Warwickshire, were he was a member of the Rugby School, Officer Training Corps.
1911 Census has Allan aged 16, a boarder at Rugby School in Warwickshire. He later attended St Johns Collage, Oxford University, were he also was a member of the Oxford University, O.T.C.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Allan applied for a commission.
He arrived in France in December 1914, with the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Serving as a Lieutenant and then Captain. Allan died on 17th February 1916, at Lahore British General Hospital, Calais, France, from a gun shot wound to the head received in action, at the time of his death he was attached to the 1st Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
Additional Information
Allan is possibly the A E Messer, Commemorated on St Matthews Church Memorial and the Oxhey, Herts, War memorial.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
