3 February 1915: Capt Oriel William Erskine Bannerman

Oriel Bannerman died of wounds on this day in 1915

Oriel was born in Bombay, India on 13 December 1877. He was the second son of the General William Bannerman CB 104th Wellesley’s Rifles and of Louisa Bannerman (née Goddard).

He was educated at Cheltenham College and Sandhurst.

Cheltenham College

Cadets undertaking a bridge-building exercise at Sandhurst, 1911 (National Army Museum)

He joined the Indian Army 27 July 1898 and was promoted to Lieutenant 27 October 1900 and Captain on 27 July 1907. From October 1903-07 he was ADC to Major-General G Henry, Divisional Commander at Meerut.

On 15 September 1907 Oriel married Emilie Henriette 'Millie' Lousada of Shelburne Hall, Cheltenham in Mussoorie, Bengal. [Seen here as a girl in a family photograph sitting on our left in white in about 1880].

Simeon Lousada and his family c.1890. The young Emilie is seated in white on the left

Millie was given away by Commissioner of Fyzabad. The reception was at the Charleville Hotel. Gens Spens (Meerut Division) proposed the toast. The couple honeymooned in Chekata, Deoban and Konain. Her mother had died 1894 and her father in 1904. 

Millie's brother Edward Lousada died on 2 November 1914 at Ypres and her other brother Bertie Lousada died on 9 May 1915 also at Ypres

Oriel was severely wounded in action at Givenchy, on 20 December 1914, and died in hospital at Boulogne.

Captain Bannerman is buried at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.

Above: Oriel's headstone (www.findagrave.com)

Millie Lousada remarried in 1920 and had two children. She died in Cheltenham in 1956. 

Capt Oriel William Erskine Bannerman, 15th Lancers (Cureton’s Multanis), Indian Army.

3 February 1915 died of wounds

 

Research by Jonathan Vernon

Sources: Gloucester Echo, 15 October 1907, Ancestry. 

Photograph: Anthony Gordon (Emilie Lousada's grandson) Lousada Family Photograph  and National Army Museum : Sandhurst 'Officers and the role of history'.