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Remembered Today:

Ceylon Tea Planters Company


yeadon

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Is any member of the Forum able to tell me if members of the Ceylon Tea Planters Company who lost their lives in World War One are commemorated by name on any memorials in Sri Lanka?
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if it is the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps the "Geoffs (wonderful) search engine can identify six

H A Carisle 2076 02/05/1915

A Forrest 2163 02/05/2015

A N Galbraith Captain 16/02/2015

L H R Grey 1778 15/09/2014

G Middlemiss 2022 06/05/2015

L N Were 2028 12/05/2015

Faugh a Ballagh

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  • 2 weeks later...
Yes. I am specifically seeking to know if any of their deaths are named on memorials in Sri Lanka itself.
Do you mean the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps?
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There was once a Ceylon Rifles that wore the old Rifle Brigade uniform apart from bare feet and a blue turban on a wire frame, armed with the Baker Rifle. Is this a descendant unit?

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Name: MIDDLEMISS, GUY

Initials: G

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Rifleman

Regiment/Service: Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps

Age: 23

Date of Death: 06/05/1915

Service No: 2022

Additional information: Born at Rawalpindi, India. Son of C. S. Middlemiss, C.I.E., F.R.S., and Mrs. Middlemiss, of Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Educated at St. John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey, England.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: I. B. 36.

Cemetery: BEACH CEMETERY, ANZAC

Middlemiss_G.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
Is any member of the Forum able to tell me if members of the Ceylon Tea Planters Company who lost their lives in World War One are commemorated by name on any memorials in Sri Lanka?

I think someone published a book on them very recently. They used to have an annual lunch in Ceylon. The association gradualy became a general ex service comrades association which still has an annual comrades lunch in London. A number of CPRC were commissioned at and after Gallipoli. I imagine that they have a memorial in Sri Lanka but they certainly had plaques to fallen comrades from ww1 in the planters clubs. Should be one in the queens club in colombo if its still there

regards David

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I think someone published a book on them very recently. They used to have an annual lunch in Ceylon. The association gradualy became a general ex service comrades association which still has an annual comrades lunch in London. A number of CPRC were commissioned at and after Gallipoli. I imagine that they have a memorial in Sri Lanka but they certainly had plaques to fallen comrades from ww1 in the planters clubs. Should be one in the queens club in colombo if its still there

regards David

The History of the CMR and CPRC was published late in 2009 in the UK authored by Mrs Dawn Waring as a limited edition. You might be able to borrow a copy from the British Library.

regards

David

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The History of the CMR and CPRC was published late in 2009 in the UK authored by Mrs Dawn Waring as a limited edition. You might be able to borrow a copy from the British Library.

regards

David

Thankyou for this David; very helpful. Will seek this out. Stillearning

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Is any member of the Forum able to tell me if members of the Ceylon Tea Planters Company who lost their lives in World War One are commemorated by name on any memorials in Sri Lanka?

Cant help re actual names - but there is a smallish , incredibly well kept cemetery on the banks of the Mahaveli (great sandy river) outside Kandy. This is a war cemetery surrounded by "Pride of Burma" trees and is kept in a very manicured state by the very diligent staff.The graves are very much a mixed bag from all over Sri Lanka.A lot from WW 2 from memory.

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  • 5 months later...

Afraid I just stumbled across this posting. Their names are recorded on several monuments around the island. All are recorded at the main cenotaph in the S/W corner of Victoria Park in Colombo (which I think has been renamed Viharamahadevi Park); and then there are several "provincial" memorials in places like Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Batticaloa, Kurunegala, etc., which carry the names of local chappies.

Attached, please find a photo of the main cenotaph I took on a very rainy (monsoon) day in 1999.

Cheers,

Glen,

In Our Dominion of the North

post-5403-075112900 1288655129.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

A party of 79 memeber of the CPRC arrived in London, from Colombo, on 13th December 1914. One of them, Herbert Hiscock had emlisted on 9th November and, immediately on arrival travelled to Winchester where he enlisted in the Rifle bde. He was commissioned into the North Lancs regiment five weeks later. He was a tank section commander, supporting the Guards Division at the battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916.

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  • 2 years later...

Does anyone know anything of a Stephen B Cooke of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps please? His record show he enlisted in 1914, but died in Ceylon in 1915. Its not clear from the Times newspaper announcement whether he died of wounds received abroad or illness? Any information would be useful. He is on our School war memorial.

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The Ceylon Observer of 23 September 1914 reports that No 886 Trooper S B Cooke of 3 Galle Face Cottages, Colombo was enrolled in No 1 Troop, B Squadron of the CMR.

Also, the Ceylon Observer of 17 June 1915 has the following:

C.M.R Regimental Orders: Obituary:- The Commanding Officer regrets to announce the death of Trooper S B Cooke, No 1 Troop, B Squadron, who is struck off from the 5th instant. - [sgd] A E Andrews, Captain, Major, Acting Adjutant, C.M.R. and C.P.R.C.

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I've just found a detailed report of his funeral. I can send you a copy if you PM me with your email address. He was buried in the General Cemetery, Borella.

It was reported as a sudden death from sunstroke, caught whilst patrolling the streets of Colombo.

Aled

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Another former Ceylon PRC man (1910-1915) who fought at Flers and was killed on 15/9/1916 was Lt Albert Humphrey Pinder, 1/Leicester Regiment.

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  • 10 years later...

In case anyone's returning to this in the future, there's a memorial for the dead of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps at Diyatalawa, where their initial training took place. Given the site is still an active army base, it requires special permission to access. The memorial has 78 names, of whom almost all appear on the national memorial in Colombo. Many of them also appear on other memorials across Sri Lanka.

On 10/06/2013 at 16:32, ssmart42 said:

Does anyone know anything of a Stephen B Cooke of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps please? His record show he enlisted in 1914, but died in Ceylon in 1915. Its not clear from the Times newspaper announcement whether he died of wounds received abroad or illness? Any information would be useful. He is on our School war memorial.

Interestingly, Cooke doesn't appear on the CPRC memorial.

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