CLUE: Gheluvelt Chateau with Captain Balfour, 27 October 1914

[laughton]

Remember the "Game of Clue", Colonel Mustard with a Candlestick in the Library?

 

Here we have two (2) men buried with Captain Robert Frederick Balfour at 28.J.22.b.6.1 at the Gheluvelt Chateau. He was with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards (1st Division, 1st Guards Brigade).

 

The first clue may be that the CWGC has his date of death wrong (to be reported), as he was killed during the shelling of the Chateau Gardens on 27 October 1914, not on the 28th as recorded (war diary page 18 of 71).

 

Looking on at those now with NKG:

 

The next Officer deaths were not recorded until the 29th, when Lieutenant Sir Gilchrist Nevill Ogilvy was reported killed, along with Captain Charles Edward De La Pasture who was reported missing, later killed. A logical conclusion would be that it was Officers that were buried in the Chateau grounds.

 

But, let us no jump to conclusions! What if it was not an Officer? Private William Miller was killed the same day (the 27th) and then the following day, Privates James Young and David Henderson. Would they warrant a burial in the Chateau Gardens? If so, there should be three (3) unknown OR burials in the garden, not two (2).

 

A gambling man might go with Ogilvy and De La Pasture. But then the question, why no identification as Officers?

 

Next player?

 

 

Note:

 

More confusion on the case of Captain Robert Frederick Balfour as the only Robert Frederick Balfour is on the UKNA as Second Lieutenant with the Royal Army Service Corps? The Captain Balfour of the Scots Guards is named as John Balfour, or maybe even Evan Balfour, both killed in 1918?

Captain Robert Frederick Balfour. Unit: 1st Battalion, Scots Guards. Death: 28 October 1914 Gheluvelt Western Front

 

[laughton]

I should have kept going .... there three (3) more COG-BR documents in that series.

 

So yes, Privates were buried in the Chateau Garden.

 

http://archive.cloud.cwgc.org/archive/doc/doc2154094.JPG

http://archive.cloud.cwgc.org/archive/doc/doc2154095.JPG

http://archive.cloud.cwgc.org/archive/doc/doc2154096.JPG

 

[LDT006]

There is another Captain of the Scots Guards at the Chateau: