Newcastle Daily Chronicle 13/07/1916
Rowland Telford Casebourne was the son of Charles Townsend and Eliza Jane Casebourne born in 1864. (His father was a Civil Engineer for a cement manufacturer and had been born in Ireland, and his mother was born in Leeds.) He was the fourth youngest of nine children. They lived at Greatham House, Greatham near Hartlepool.
Rowland was a employed at a Cement works and resided at 5 Westbourne Road. He volunteered for the Boer War and was in the 5th Imperial Yeomanry as a private with a Service Number of 3259. He was in the Northumberland Hussars. He saw extensive service in the Boer War. He was part of the relief force for the Siege of Mafeking.
By 1911 he had married Eva Gertrude (who came from Hartlepool) and was now managing a Cement works. They had a domestic who lived in with them at Junction Lane, Hartburn Village.
At the outbreak of WW1, Rowland was posted to the 3rd Reserve Battalion of the Yorkshires which was mainly engaged in training of drafts for the front and coastal defence of the North East Coast of England.
Due to his experience he was posted to France and was attached to the 5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire regiment.
On the 2nd of July 1916, the West Yorks were fighting at the Schwaben Redoubt. He was killed trying to take this position.
In his will he left Eva Gertrude Casebourne and Samuel Ward Jackson Casebourne electrical engineer, effects of £883 18s 4d.
He is remembered at Newcastle in NUT236, page 320, in NUT195, page 10, at West Hartlepool on W111.54, at Hartlepool on H115.10, H115.30, G52.01, G52.02 and at Greatham G52.04
See also Local Men at the Front and Boer War Letters from home
