SECOND LIEUTENANT RODERICK ALGERNON ANTHONY DE STACPOOLE
ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
11TH MARCH 1915 AGE 19
BURIED: PONT-DU-HEM MILITARY CEMETERY, LA GORGUE, FRANCE
... the whole brigade felt the loss of that dear spirited boy, de Stacpoole, a charming youngster, almost a child, with the face of a girl and the heart of a hero. He was killed carrying wire across an open and fire-swept field, leaving his men under cover, and doing the most dangerous work himself.' So wrote one of Roderick (Roddy) de Stacpoole's senior officers in a letter to his wife. Major Head, another officer, reported how he had had de Stacpoole's body brought back to the Battery for burial, recording that his grave "is on the south side of the Rue du Bacquerat, 300 yards NE of Rouge Croix crossroads on the main Estaires - La Bassee road". The Grave Registration Unit later marked the grave with a wooden cross and recorded the map reference - SH 36/M.21.d.9.1. On 12 July 1920 Roddy's body was disinterred and reburied in Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery.
Roddy de Stacpoole was the youngest of the five sons of the Duke de Stacpoole, an Irish Catholic title awarded by the Pope in 1830. All five served in the war and Roddy's elder brother, Robert, was killed on the Aisne on 20 September 1914.