De Ruvigney Roll of Honour

Illustrated Chronicle

Newcastle Journal Saturday 09/01/1915

Newcastle Journal Monday 08/02/1915

Newcastle Journal Tuesday 01/06/1915

Wilfred Joseph was born on the 21st February 1882 the second son of Colonel Charles Bunbury, of Cotswold House, Winchester, late Rifle Brigade, and his wife Lady Harriot Emily Dundas, sister to Sir Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Earl and 1st Marquess of Zetland, K.T., P.C. and daughter of Charles Dundas, of Woodhall, Wetherby, Yorkshire. M.P. for Richmond, Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Zetland.

Wilfred was educated at Beaumont, Eastman's and St George's College, Weybridge, where he matriculated at the London University Examination, he was afterwards at Ushaw College, Durham in 1901. Before the war he was in the firm of Wise, Speke & Company, Stockbrokers, Newcastle on Tyne. Wilfred was a well-known member of the St. George's Hockey Club, for whom he played frequently; he also played several times for Northumberland County, his place being centre half-back. He was a very keen cricketer, was a member of the Northumberland County Club, and the Jesmond Cricket Club, the Yorkshire Gentlemen and the Borderers, for all of which he used to play.

Wilfred belonged to the Portland Park Tennis Club, at Newcastle, where he played most days during the season when he was residing there. (St Georges Gazette - 31st May 1917).

[At Whitby, on 24th September 1908, Wilfred married Dorothy Beresford, [Barbara] second daughter of Major Arthur John Preston, B.A., J.P. (late of the 33rd Duke of Wellington Regiment) of Swainston, Kilmessan, Co. Meath. His widow only survived him until 30th October 1918. They left a baby son, Wilfred, and two small daughters. The eldest daughter Dorothy Barbara Mary Bunbury was born in November, 1909, married Arthur Wilson and settled in Hove, Sussex. The younger daughter Margaret Joan Beresford Bunbury born in July 1911 became a nun of the Order of the Sacred Heart].

Wilfred and Dorothy's son, (Wilfred Joseph) Michael de St. Pierre Bunbury, was born posthumously on 3rd September 1917 and educated at Ampleforth and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He served as a Temporary Lieutenant with the Royal Navy during World War Two and settled at 39 Paul Roos Street, Unitas Park, Vereeniging, South Africa. In June 1952, Michael Bunbury married Deirdre Mulcahy, daughter of Dr. Daniel Mulcahy of Perth, West Australia, and Mrs Hamish Mitchell of Dublin, and sister of John Mulcahy, founder of The 'Phoenix' magazine. They have two sons, Patrick John de St Pierre Bunbury (born 1956) and Dr. Michael Charles Bunbury (now living in Mustique, married to clothes designer Lotty Bunbury and father to at least one son and two daughters, Jemima Bunbury and Madeleine Bunbury) and two daughters Charlotte Bunbury (born 1953) and the late Harriot Bunbury (who was married to Richard James Jessel from 1982 to 1997). I spent a very enjoyable evening in the company of the late Mrs Deirdre Bunbury (nee Mulcahy) in Ranelagh, Dublin, in about 2004. She lived at Rosary Gardens, London SW7, and died on 3rd November 2009].

[Thomas and Lady Harriot Bunbury's third son Bertram John Bunbury was born in March 1887 and served as a lieutenant with the Rifle Brigade in the Great War. On 8th July 1915 he married in Kensington Nira Hardcastle, daughter of Frank Hardcastle, DL, JP, of Bolton, Lancs. Nina was born in Bolton on 24th March 1892. Bertram and Nina Bunbury had three daughters. The eldest (Marie) Justine (Antoinette) Bunbury was born in Banbury on 13th June 1916 and married at Worthing, Sussex, on 26th April 1941 John Mair, son of Colonel John Allen Freeman Mair, MC, of Saltair, old Bosham, Sussex and had three sons, John Christian Mair (born 1942), Antony Stefan Rumley Mair (born 1946) and Simon James Justin Mair (born 1954). The middle sister (Mary Teresa) Lynette Bunbury was born in Banbury on the 21st September 1917, is thought to have never married and died in Chichester in February 2006 aged 89.The youngest sister Nira (Mary Gabrielle) Bunbury was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, on the 21st January 1923). All three sisters were educated at St. Mary's, Ascot.

(With thanks to Veronica Bunbury for the latter detail)

Thanks to Turtle Bunbury.

On 1911, Wilfred and his wife were residing at 31 Eskdale Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with 3 servants.

On the 4th August, 1914, he joined the 4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers as a Private, obtained a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 12th August, volunteered for foreign service and was promoted Lieutenant on the 27th December of the same year. He proceeded overseas to France with his Battalion on the 20th April 1915 and was wounded at St Julien, during the Second battle of Ypres, 24th May 1915. He then was invalided home.

After some months of hospital treatment he was able to rejoin and attended a course of physical training and bayonet exercise at Aldershot on recovery in December 1915. He was appointed Supervisor of Physical Training and Bayonet fighting first to his battalion, then to his Brigade, and subsequently to a Command Depot in Ireland.

While with his Brigade at Redcar Camp, Yorkshire, he arranged most successful sports in the summer of 1916, when he was complimented by the General, and while at Ballyvonar Camp, Cork, he started games for the men, cross-country runs and boxing matches, all of which were greatly appreciated by the convalescent soldiers in his charge.

He was posthumously gazetted Captain, antedated [sic] to June 1916. He held this appointment until he got orders to return to France.

He left England on 8th March 1917 and was attached to the 1/6th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers when killed in action on the 15th April 1917, at the Battle of Arras, whilst leading his men to take the Tower of Waucourt.

His Colonel wrote:- He was leading an attack in a conspicuously gallant manner and was the first man into the enemy trench when he was hit in the face and died painlessly. We recovered his body and buried it at night. His death was a great grief to me as we were great friends when he was in my Company, where he always earned our admiration for the thorough way in which he carried out any work entrusted to him.

One of his superior officers:- He came out, as you know, in April 1915, as a subaltern in my battalion, and was one of my most reliable and popular officers. When wounded on May 26th, it was with great difficulty that he was persuaded to leave the line, though the wound was a serious one, and led to his [sic] having a long spell in England. On returning to the front in March last he was posted to another battalion of the 'Fighting Fifth,' but I often saw him, and only the day before he fell we laughingly arranged to celebrate the capture of a tower well within the German lines by dining together there. The following day part of his battalion attacked an important observation point which had been seized by the enemy. Bunbury's company was not detailed for the assault, but he had been reconnoitering with an orderly in front, and as the attacking party passed him he jumped up and joined them, and was killed just as the position was taken. He lies buried within a few yards of where he fell. Cheery under the most adverse circumstances, and absolutely fearless in action, while never missing an opportunity of attending to his religious duties, Wilfred Bunbury was a splendid example of soldier. Throughout the regiment the memory of 'Bun' as he was known to his pals, will always be held in honour and affectionate regard.

Wilfred Joseph Bunbury produced a book called A diary of an officer, with the 4th Northumberland Fusiliers, in France and Flanders, from April 20th to May 24th, 1915. Publisher: Hexhan [England] : J. Catherall & Co., [1915?].

Notes: "This diary was originally written from letters sent home by me [Lieutenant W.J. Bunbury], from the front, and from notes I made while there".

He was buried at Wancourt British Cemetery S.M 72.

De Ruvigny Roll of Honour

Wilfred Joseph's will dated 27th July left effects of £1835 6s 7d. to Dorothy Beresford Bunbury.

Wilfred Joseph Bunbury is remembered at Ushaw College on U10.01 and U10.07, at Jesmond on J1.12 and at Newcastle on NUT137

History of the Bunbury family
The CWGC entry for Captain Bunbury