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2nd Lieutenant Christopher Herbert COUNSELL
3rd (Reserve) Battalion Hampshire Regiment attached to the 2nd Battalion Date of birth: 9th November 1889 Date of death: 6th July 1916 Killed in action aged 26 Buried at Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension Plot II Row A Grave 19
Christopher Herbert Counsell was born at 2 Born Hill Brow, East Liss in Hampshire on the 9th of November 1889 the son of Herbert Edward Counsell FRCS, a surgeon at Guys Hospital, and Helen (nee Ritchie) Counsell of 37 Broad Street, Oxford. He was educated at Oxford Preparatory School (the Dragon School) from 1899 to 1904 where he was a day boy. While he was there he represented the day boys in the Gymnasium Competition and won a V Form prize in 1902. He went on to Lancing College where he won an Exhibition and was in News House from September 1904 to July 1908. He won a school Greek Prize in 1908 and was a member of the Officer Training Corps in 1907 and 1908. He went on to Trinity College Oxford in 1908 where he achieved a BA (1st Class Law) in 1911 following which he became a student at the Inner Temple. Following the outbreak of war he enlisted at 24 St James Street, London as Private 383 in the 16th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, University and Public School Corps on the 11th of September 1914. At his medical examination held the same day is was recorded that he was 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall with a medium complexion, blue eyes and dark hair. He wrote the following letter to the Lancing College Magazine in late 1914:- "Dear Sir Might I be allowed through the medium of your columns to appeal to any OLs who are still civilian, or unfitted to take commissions, to join the above battalion. The Battalion has recently received special permission from the War Office to raise numbers 150 above the normal strength of a Battalion, and recruits are needed for this purpose, owing to the numbers of men who have left with commissions. I may add that although a considerable number of commissions have been given to men of all ranks here, the battalion is a service battalion in the first of Lord Kitchener's four new armies, and is likely to be the earliest to proceed to the front. The recruiting office at 24 St James's Street, is still open, or recruits can enlist by writing direct to the Commanding Officer here." Yours sincerely, C.H. Counsell (Private) (OL'04-'08) He was posted to C Company and was appointed to the rank of unpaid Lance Corporal on the 4th of February 1915. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 13th of February 1915 and relinquished his rank, returning to the rank of Private, at his own request on the 27th of March 1915 in order to seek a commission. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment on the 21st of April 1915. He was posted to the 2nd Battalion of his regiment on the 10th of May 1916 and arrived in Rouen on the 14th of May. He set out to join his battalion on the 31st of May and joined them in the field on the Somme on the 1st of June. On the 1st of July 1916 the British attacked the German army on the Somme. The first day was a disaster with the attacking battalions losing in excess of 58,000 casualties. The 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment had suffered heavily in the attack on Beaumont Hamel on that first day but the 2nd Battalion, being in reserve during the attack, had lost two men killed with one officer and twenty men wounded. They moved forward to St John's Road during the afternoon of the 1st of July and on the 3rd they entered the front line at Mary Redan where they spent the following week repairing trenches, bringing in the wounded and burying the dead. On the early morning of the 6th of July Christopher Counsell led a covering party out of the trench into no man's land to establish some advanced posts to the front of the Hampshire's positions. While in an exposed position he was hit by machine gun fire and was badly wounded in the head. He was evacuated by the 89th Field Ambulance but died on his way to 29 Casualty Clearing Station. During this period the battalion was under persistent shell fire before being relieved on the 10th. They had suffered casualties of Christopher Counsell and 13 other ranks killed with 2 officers and 84 other ranks being wounded. His father received the following telegram dated the 10th of July 1916:- "Regret to inform you that Lieut. C.H. Counsell was wounded 6th July. Details will follow when received. Please inform casualties war office relationship next of kin." His father received a further telegram dated the 13th of July 1916:- "Deeply regret to inform you that 2/Lt C.H. Counsell Hampshire Regt died of wounds July 6th. The Army Council express their regret." A statement was taken from 2nd Lieutenant L.F. Churcher, 2nd Hampshires, at the 3rd London General Hospital on the 24th of August 1916:- "Informant states Lt Counsell was out with a covering party to working party and was hit in head (and possibly both hands) by machine gun fire and as far as witness knows, never regained consciousness." A letter was received by his parents with details of the events leading to his death:- "He was sent out at night with his Captain in charge of a covering party to an advanced trench, when, in the early hours of July 6th, machine guns opened fire on them, and he fell. He was sent back at once to the clearing station, but passed away before it was reached." The Colonel of the Battalion wrote:- "Though he had not long been with us, he showed great promise, and is a great loss to the regiment." The Captain of his Company wrote:- "Although he had only been with us a short time, I had found him a capable and valuable officer, and his cheerfulness and willingness to undertake any job endeared him to all ranks." His parents applied for his medals in November 1919. He is commemorated on the war memorial at the Inner Temple, on the memorial at Oxford Preparatory School and on the memorial at Trinity College Oxford.

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