Major (Acting) Roland Elphinstone Gordon, MC
C Battery, 251st (Northumbrian) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Died of Wounds
Date of Birth: 22nd of January 1893
Place of Birth: Selangor, Malay Straits Settlement in South-East Asia
Date of Death: 30 August 1918 aged 25, in the 61 Casualty Clearing Station (South Midland CCS), Vecquemont, The Somme
Buried: Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme. Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. Michael's Church Memorial, Teignmouth, the memorial at Christchurch (Clevedon) and the memorial at Blackheath Football Club
Awarded the Military Cross with bar, the 1914-15 Star, the British War medal and the Victory Medal, Mentioned in Dispatches
Military Cross and Bar
Major (Acting) Roland Elphinstone Gordon, MC and Bar, MID, age 25.
Born on 22 January 1893 in Selangor, Malay Straits, the son of George Dalrymple Gordon and Georgina Meredith Gordon (née Williams) of Alwyns, Teignmouth.
Later that year he was travelling with his mother and sister to Colombo from Plymouth aboard SS Oruba. On 1 November 1896 he was again shown travelling with his mother and sister from Plymouth to Colombo and again in 1898. On 1911 he was listed as a visitor at Kings Road, Clevedon along with his mother, a widow, and sister.
Mentioned in Despatches
As a young Scottish Rugby International, Roland was capped in 1913; he also played as Centre for King's School, Canterbury; Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and the Royal Artillery.
He was listed in Hart's Army List as 2nd Lieutenant from 20 December 1912 and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant with Royal Field Artillery on 22 January 1913.
His international career was cut short when he was posted to India in late 1913, and attached to 82nd Battery, RFA.
In November 1914 Roland was posted to Mesopotamia where he was seriously wounded in action in 1915 and thus invalided home. Whilst convalescing at home he coached the Royal Artillery cadets at Exeter.
He returned to the front in 1917, being sent to France where he was wounded in June 1917 and again in May 1918.
He was gazetted 3 June 1918 for the Military Cross, and also Mentioned in Despatches, Roland was offered a Home posting but turned it down.
London Gazette June 1918 (MC)
He was wounded for the final time in August 1918 whilst serving with "C" Battery, 251st Brigade, RFA, and died of his gunshot wounds at No. 61 Casualty Clearing Station, Vecquemont on 30 August 1918.
The Evening Telegraph and Post 10th January 1916
Buried in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme. Remembered on Teignmouth War Memorial St. Michael's Church Memorial in Teignmouth, the memorial at Christchurch (Clevedon) and the memorial at Blackheath Football Club.
Daours Communal Cemetery Extension Image from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Certificate - downloaded 
Daours Communal Cemetery Extension Burial Records
Note: Roland's aunt (Georgina Meredith Gordon's sister) Mary Wade Williams was a VAD nurse at the Teignmouth General Hospital.
British 18 pounder mark II field gun Imperial War Museum 1. British 18 pounder mark II field gun Imperial War Museum 1. By Emoke Dénes - kindly granted by the author, CC BY-SA 4.0
On the 23rd of November 1915 the 251st (Northumbrian) Brigade, of the Royal Field Artillery was re-equipped with four modern 18-pounder guns to each battery.
These replaced the older, short-ranged 15-pounders known to the gunners as 'pip-squeaks'.
