CHERRY Lancelot Arthur

Appears in the Worcester/Worcestershire Roll of Honour Book for navy casualties located in Worcester Cathedral.

Lancelot Cherry was born on the 11th October 1883 at Henwick Hall, Worcester, the only son of Arthur Charles Cherry, barrister at law, and his wife Lucy Annora (nee Martin) Cherry of Henwick Hall, Worcester. He was commissioned on the 1st October 1914 and posted to Drake Battalion on the 19th November 1914. He was killed in action on the 11th May 1915 by a single bullet through the head.

De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, Volume I, Part II (page 67):
CHERRY, Lancelot Arthur, Sub-Lieut., R.N.V.R., Drake Battn. Royal Naval Division, only s. of Arthur Charles Cherry, of Henwick Hall, Worcester, Barrister-at-Law and Local Director, Capital and Counties Bank, Worcester, by his wife, Lucy Annora, dau. Of the Rev. Chancellor Martin, Canon of Exeter and Vicar of Harberton, Totnes; b. Henwick Hall, Worcester, 11 Oct. 1883; Educ. Rev. H. Bull’s Preparatory School, Westgate-on-Sea; Eton, and New College, Oxford (Second Class History, Final School), and on leaving Oxford he read for the Bar; but before he was ready to be called, was offered and accepted a post in Martin’s Bank, Ltd., with a view to joining the Directorate. He remained with the bank for rather than more than a year, and showed great aptitude for the work; but as London did not suit his health, he, in 1910, accepted an appointment as Private Secretary to Mr. Bernard Berenson, the celebrated authority on Italian Old Masters. He spent the following year in France and Germany, learning the languages and studying the Art Galleries of those nations. At the end of the year he went to reside in Florence and took up his duties. He found his work entirely congenial and made many friends. He was in England at the outbreak of the war, and after working for some time at the County of London Territorial Force Headquarters, he rejoined the R.N.V.R.; was gazetted Sub-Lieut. 1 Oct. 1914, and pointed to the Drake Battalion, and with them he left for Gallipoli Feb. 1915, being killed in action there, on the heights above Cape Helles, on the morning of 9 May following. Buried on the heights where he fell. Commander Victor Campbell, R.N., D.S.O., Commanding Drake Battalion, wrote: “It is something to know that his death was instantaneous, and in the firing line looking after his men….We all miss him very much,” and Lieut.-Commander Norman Wells, who commanded the company in which Sub-Lieut. A. Cherry commanded a platoon: “Our company had orders to advance about 9 p.m. on May 8th, to support the Australians. We got in touch with them and started to dig in under fire. We worked all night, the men dead tired. Your son was invaluable to me all this time. We were lying behind a bit of shelter, and he said: ‘I am going along to stop the men firing.’ He had not got three yards away when he exclaimed: ‘I am gone!’ He had been shot through the head. He was killed instantaneously. I buried him last night, and have marked his grave with a cross.” In a subsequent letter he said: “I have had to read a lot of letters written by the men of your son’s platoon, and it is very nice to read of how his men loved and respected him.” Unm.