CAPTAIN CECIL RICHARD LANGHAM
ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT
16TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 26
BURIED: VLAMERTINGHE NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
A father chose this inscription for his son, Cecil Langham; a son who was a captain in the regiment his father, Colonel Frederick Langham, commanded. This was the 5th (Cinque Ports) Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment with which the family had been associated for many years. Captain Langham was killed at Langemarck attempting to bring in his badly wounded orderly. His death was a blow to this territorial battalion, as the regimental gazette reported, "The loss of such a fine officer as Captain Langham ... was keenly felt by the whole battalion, which made their beloved C.O.'s grief their own".
Cecil Langham joined the 5th Battalion on leaving school in 1910. As with all territorials, his peacetime commitment was limited to four years' service, regular drills and between eight to fifteen days annual training a year. Langham was therefore able to combine his service with a degree at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to which he had won an open classics scholarship. Whilst there he rowed both for his college and for the uiversity.
In 1914, Langham took a position with the trading house of Patterson, Simmons & Co in Singapore. He had scarcely arrived before war was declared and having applied to be released he returned to Britain to rejoin the battalion. He served on the Western Front continuously from February 1915 until his death in August 1917 - earning from his father the tribute: a good son, a good soldier, a good sportsman, unselfish to the end.