Captian Frederick George BONHAM-CARTER Croce di Guerra
No 1 Company, 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards attached to 3rd Guards Brigade Trench Mortar Battery

Date of birth: 8th September 1877
Date of death: 13th December 1968

Survived aged 91
Unknown
Frederick George Bonham-Carter was born at Bromley Common in Kent on the 8th of September 1877 the tenth son of Sir Henry Bonham-Carter, a barrister, and Sibella Charlotte (nee Norman) Bonham-Carter of 91 Gloucester Terrace, Paddington and of Woodside House, Keston in Kent.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until December 1890 where he was Head of School. He went on to Winchester College where he was in Bramston's House until 1896. He went on to New College Oxford where he achieved a BA in 1900.

On leaving university he worked as a civil servant in the Colonial Secretary's Office, serving as a Secretary in South Africa in 1908, and later went into business in Egypt.

During the Great War he applied for a commission in the Special Reserve of Officers for the Grenadier Guards on the 29th of June 1915. At a medical examination, which was held at Queen Alexandra's Hospital, Millbank the previous day, it was recorded that he was five feet eleven and a quarter inches tall and that he weighed 168lbs.

On the 14th of July 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on probation in the 5th (Reserve) Battalion Grenadier Guards and was posted to the King’s Company of the 1st Battalion. He joined the battalion in the field at Wizernes on the 11th of September 1915. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 15th of September 1915. From the 5th to the 12th of November 1915 he attended a course at the 1st Army's School of Mortars and on the latter date he joined No. 1 Stokes Mortar Battery, 3rd Guards Brigade.

By the 1st of January 1916 he had transferred to the 4th Battalion and on the 13th of June 1916 he was promoted to Temporary Captain while in charge of a Trench Mortar Battery. He was wounded in the wrist by a gunshot at Tatinghem in Belgium on the 15th of June 1916 and was treated by 16 Field Ambulance before moving to 10 Casualty Clearing Station the next day. Later on the 16th of June he was transferred again to 14 General Hospital (Lady Hadfield's) at Boulogne. He re-joined the 3rd Guards Brigade on the 5th of July 1916 and was appointed as Commanding Officer of the 3rd Guards Brigade Trench Mortar Battery on the 13th of July.

On the 4th of January 1917 he was admitted to a Field Ambulance unit suffering from boils and was transferred to 5 Casualty Clearing Station the following day. He was transferred to No. 2 British Red Cross Hospital at Rouen on the 7th of January and returned to his unit on the 18th of January 1917. On the 19th of April 1917 he was admitted to 41 Casualty Clearing Station suffering from a stye and transferred to No. 2 British Red Cross Hospital at Rouen on the 22nd of April. He returned to Base Depot at Le Havre on the 9th of May 1917.

He retained the rank of Temporary Captain while posted as Chief Instructor to XIV Corps Bomb and Trench Mortar School on the 12th of June 1917.
He was posted to England on the 8th of April 1918 for a course at the Senior Officer's School at Aldershot. On completing the course he embarked for service in Italy on the 20th of May 1918 where he went on leave in Florence and Rome from the 11th to the 30th of September 1918. On the 3rd of November 1918 he was posted to Treviso for prisoner of war duties. He was appointed as Commanding Officer of 504 Prisoner of War Company on the 1st of December 1918 and served in that capacity until the 18th of December 1918.

He was mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Croce di Guerra which was announced by the War Office on the 17th of May 1919.

He was demobilised at No. 1 Dispersal Unit at Crystal Palace on the 1st of April 1919 and resigned his commission on the 31st of January 1920.

He was married firstly to Annie E. (nee Starkey) in 1923 and secondly to Dorothy (nee Lubbock) on the 30th of June 1933 at Chelsea Old Church and served as Company Secretary for the merchant bank Lazard Brothers. He lived at 14 Montagu Place, Paddington, London W1.

He died at home and his funeral was held at Watlington parish church at 11am on the 18th of December which was followed by a cremation.

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