Lieutenant Robert Ormonde Brabazon Pottinger
2nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 1895
Place of Birth: Belgaum, Bombay, India
Date of Death: 9th May 1915, in France aged 19
Buried: Remembered on the Le Touret Memorial
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Lieutenant Robert Ormonde Brabazon Pottinger, age 19. Robert was born 17 June 1895 and baptised on 10 July in Belgaume, Bombay, India.
His parents were Ada and Major Robert Southey Pottinger, a Lieutenant with the Indian Political Department. The family were shown on the 1881 Census for Teignmouth. He was from a large Army and diplomatic family with connections to India, most of whom were born there.
Royal Munster Fusiliers
Cap Badge
He attended Sandhurst Military College but failed his last term there and was not accepted for the Indian Army.
Robert was serving with 2nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers when he was reported missing, wounded on 9 May 1915 at the Battle of Aubers Ridge.
Later confirmed as killed in action on this date just a month before his 20th birthday. Remembered on Le Touret Memorial, France; Seafront Memorial and St James’ Church Memorial Window, Teignmouth.
View more
In Volume 4 of the Letters of Rudyard Kipling (page 223/224) there is a letter that Rudyard Kipling wrote to Sir James Dunlop Smith, the Private Secretary to the Viceroy of India seeking a commission for Robert in the Indian Army (having failed at Sandhurst Robert was no longer eligible to be an officer).
The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers
Ten days after the declaration of war the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers landed in France.
They stayed on the Western Front throughout the war.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers receiving absolution from their chaplain, Father Francis Gleeson prior to the battle. By Fortunino Matania Originally published in The Sphere, 27 November 1916 PD-US
The painting The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois, by Fortunino Matania,depicts some of the men of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers who gathered at a shrine on the Western Front on May 8th 1915 and received absolution from their chaplain, Father Francis Gleeson on the eve of a battle.
The following day, they were due to fight, in what became known as the Battle of Aubers Ridge, part of a series of conflicts that took place over the strategic town of Ypres.
The Royal Munster Fusiliers suffered terrible losses, estimates vary, but one account records 800 Munsters went into battle on the 9th May 1915 and only 200 remained to assemble in the evening.
That was the date that Robert Ormonde Brabazon Pottinger died on the Western Front aged 19.
