Lancelot Rennison

CWGC Headstone

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

The son of Lancelot, a wine and spirits dealer, and Mary Ann (nee Rowntree) Rennison young Lancelot was born on 22nd January 1893, their first son and second child, after daughter Emily who was born in North Shields in 1889, and was followed by Enid born in 1895. Father Lancelot died in 1897 and the family moved to live in Syon Street, Tynemouth where Mary Ann took in lodgers.

Educated at North Shields Municipal High School from the age of 13, five years later Lancelot was a marine insurance clerk and also joined the Northumberland Fusiliers as a volunteer. On 28th March 1914 he arrived in Canada, having sailed from Liverpool on the SS Empress of Ireland, the ship’s manifest listing him as travelling to Saskatchewan with the intention of becoming a farmer.

Nine months later on 8th December 1914 Lancelot enlisted with the 5th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery in Winnipeg, where he had been working as an electrician, with the regimental number 70 and was attached to the Brigade Ammunition Park. Five months later he sailed aboard the SS Corinthian from Montreal to Devonport, Hampshire and a posting to camp at Westenhanger, Kent. Mid March 1916 saw him posted to France and attached to 2nd Ammunition Sub Park in Meteren, where after four months he was promoted to Bombardier and attached to the CFA Pool. In February 1917 he rejoined the 2nd ASP where his duty was care of ammunition.

The beginning of May 1917 saw Bombardier Rennison return to England for an Officer’s Training Course and at the end of September he was commissioned as a Lieutenant and posted to the 2nd Reserve Artillery based at Witley Camp, Surrey. Following a period of leave he was posted to France joining the 2nd Artillery Brigade at Brandhoek, Belgium at the beginning of November.

In January 1918 Lieutenant Rennison was admitted to hospital in Wimereux with trench fever and after three weeks was invalided to Prince of Wales Hospital in Marylebone, London. A Medical Board at the end of February granted him convalescent leave, and whilst at home he married local girl Minnie Burdon Jung, a milliner, on 27th March. At the end of April he reported to the CFA Reserve Brigade at Shorncliffe where another Medical Board found him fit for garrison duty only for a month, after which he was cleared for a return to full duty. Returning to France in late August he was immediately taken ill with dysentery and admitted to hospital in St. Pol.

Posted to the 3rd Artillery Brigade he joined them at Duissans on 14th September. Two weeks later on 27th September 1918 whilst engaged in one of the most dangerous of jobs for an artillery officer, that of forward observer, Lieutenant Lancelot Rennison was killed by enemy shell fire during the attack on Bourlon Wood.

Lancelot Rennison is remembered in Jesmond on J1.08, J1.42 and J1.48, in Newcastle on NUT271, in North Shields on N34.40 and N34.48 and in Tynemouth on T36.01 and T36.14

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Lieutenant Rennison