Major Harold Kelway Colston (MiD)
1st Battalion (65th Foot), York and Lancaster Regiment
Killed in Military Service
Date of Birth: 26 April 1872
Place of Birth: Salara, India
Date of Death: 23 April 1915 aged 42.
Buried: Remembered on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium; Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial , Teignmouth.
Mentioned in Dispatches, awarded the Queen's Medal with two Clasps for operations in the Orange River Colony South Africa, the 1914-15 Star, the British War medal and the Victory Medal
Major Harold Kelway Colston, age 42.
Harold was born in India on 26 April 1872, his father was the late Deputy Surgeon, General Charles Kelway Colston and his mother was Emily, she retired to Teignmouth.
The 1911 census shows Harold's sister Amy Kelway Colston, with her elderly widowed father and her sister Nora O'Keefe at 4. Cross Park, Teignmouth, Devon.
In 1881 Harold was shown with his mother and siblings living in Bath. Educated at Clifton College, Bristol he then attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. In 1901 he was shown serving as a Major with 1st Battalion, Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, stationed at Napier Barracks, Karachi.
Harold married Violet Emily Patterson in Karachi on 15 January 1912.
York and Lancaster Regiment cap badge. © IWM (INS 7223)
He was a serving army officer and took part in the South African wars. Harold Colston went to France in Jan 1915, with the 1st Battalion Yorks and Lancaster Regiment.
Reported missing on 23 April 1915; this was later confirmed as his date of death after his body was found and identified three months later.
Newspaper clipping
He was killed in action at the second Battle of Ypres Western Front.
Major Colston whose battalion had been resting in billets, went to the aid of the Canadians with a party of his men.
The Canadian flank had been exposed by the attack, which the Germans delivered after their use of gas for the first time, and Major Colston and his men were all found killed amongst the dead Canadians.
It was said "It did not seem possible that any human being could live in the shower of shot and shell which began to play upon the advancing troops. They suffered terrible casualties for a short time; every other man seemed to fall".
His body was found three months later."
Menin Gate North: In Memory and In Mourning
By Paul Chapman, page 405.
Major Harold Kelway Colston. Unit: 1st Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. © IWM (HU 120234)
Remembered on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium; Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial , Teignmouth.
