Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Arthur TOWNEND (5516) MC
1st Battalion, Prince of Wales' Volunteers (South Lancashire) Regiment

Date of birth: 3rd October 1893
Date of death: 4th October 1941

Killed on active service aged 48
Buried at Poole (Parkstone) Cemetery Row R Grave 55
He was born at Ealing, Middlesex on the 3rd of October 1893 the fourth and youngest son of the Reverend Chaplain Alfred John Townend, Chaplain to the Forces, and Margaret Wiseman (nee Stairs) of 5, The Square, Sandhurst in Berkshire.

He was educated at the Junior King's School from May 1906 and at the King's School Canterbury from January 1908 to July 1911. He was a member of the unbeaten Rugby XV of 1910/11 and the Cantuarian recorded at the end of that season that:-

"Does not show up much, but is doing quiet, honest work in the scrum. Saves well."

On leaving school he entered the Royal Military COn leaving school he entered the Royal Military College Sandhurst from 1911 to 1912 from where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, Prince of Wales? Volunteers (South Lancashire) Regiment on the 22nd of January 1913.

He disembarked at Salonika on the 6th of November 1915 where he was appointed as Battalion Adjutant and was promoted to Captain on the 11th of November 1915. He saw action on the Western Front, Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey and the Aegean Islands during the Great War. On the 3rd of June 1919 he was awarded the Military Cross for his service in the Balkans connected with the British Army of the Black Sea while attached to the 9th Battalion and was also mentioned in despatches.

He was married at Binstead Church on the Isle of Wight on the 17th of March 1926 to Joyce Eleanor (nee Buchanan). From April 1926 he served in India, including at Lebong, Barrackpore and Jubbulpore. His wife returned to England and lived at ?Elsa Dene?, Church Road, Fleet in Hampshire. He returned home later and was based at Warrington Barracks. He filed for divorce on the 4th of January 1935 on the grounds of his wife?s repeated adultery with Geoffery Hugh Bosenquet at her home from March 1934 to January 1935 and at the Forest Park Hotel at Brockenhurst on the 8th and 9th of December 1934. He was granted a Decree Nisi on the 11th of December 1935 and a Decree Absolute on the 22nd of June 1936.

He was promoted to Major on the 4th of July 1929 and retired from the army on the 4th of February 1939 with the rank of Major on retirement pay. He was appointed as an Honorary Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force on the 13th of February 1939, a rank he relinquished on the 29th of October 1939.

The following year he was recalled to the services, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and was appointed as Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of his Regiment on the 18th of June 1940.

On the 4th of October 1941 the battalion was moving from Henlow to Parkstone Barracks in Dorset when Gerald Townend was killed in a motorcycle accident.

His brother, Captain Francis Whitchurch Townend 35th Signal Company, Royal Engineers, was killed in action on the 28th of March 1915.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Poole.
 

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