Lieutenant Colonel Henry William Gifford DANSEY DSO Croix de Guerre
Railway Transport Establishment

Date of birth: 28th May 1881
Date of death: 17th October 1962

Died aged 81
Buried at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Staplegrove, Somerset
Henry William Gifford Dansey was born at Ampney Crucis in Gloucestershire on the 28th of May 1881 the son of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Mashiter Dansey OBE, 1st Life Guards, and Eleanor (nee Gifford) Dansey of "The Park", Ampney Crucis, later of St John's House, Clevedon in Somerset. He was christened at the Church of the Holy Rood at Ampney Crucis on the 24th of June 1881.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until July 1895 where he was a member of the Cricket XI in 1895. The school magazine wrote of his 1895 cricket season: - "A terribly stiff bat, but has played a useful innings, uncertain field, but fair thrower."

The school magazine wrote the following of him when he left the school: - "....goes to Haileybury where his football will probably be heard of. He is also a keen and hardworking cricketer."

He went on to Haileybury School where he was in Highfield House from September 1895 to July 1898.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (Militia) on the 22nd of September 1899 and served in the South African War where he was wounded and he returned to Southampton on the 19th of April 1901 on the SS “Aurania”. He went back to South Africa in January 1902. He returned from Cape Town aboard the SS Kildonan Castle landing in England on the 23rd of July 1902 and on the 9th of August 1902 his rank was confirmed as Lieutenant. He resigned his commission on the 25th of February 1905 and left the army.

Following the outbreak of the Great War he was re-appointed as a Temporary Captain and Staff Officer on the 19th of September 1914 and embarked for France the following day. On the 6th of May 1915 he was appointed as Deputy Assistant Director of Railway Transport serving in France and was promoted to Temporary Major on the 26th of March 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in the New Years Honours List of January 1919; he was also awarded the Croix de Guerre

On the 5th of February 1919 he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant Colonel and he resigned his commission on the 8th of June 1919 retaining the rank of Major.

He lived at Higher Yarde, Staplegrove in Somerset.
Went on to Haileybury School

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