In Saulcourt Churchyard Extension, Guyencourt-Saulcourt, France, is the Commonwealth War Grave of Second Lieutenant Robert Oakley Vavasour Thorp, M.C. serving with the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers attached 64th T.M. Battery who died 22/03/1918.

He was the son of the Rev. William Tudor Thorp and Mary Louisa Thorp, of Charlton Hall, Northumberland.

His CWGC headstone reads:
Second Lieutenant
R.O.V. Thorp, M.C.
Northumberland Fusiliers
attd. 64th Trench Mortor (sic) Bty.
22nd March 1918 age 39
In Thy Light
Shall we see ?might.

David Thompson has submitted the following:-

Robert Oakley Vavasour Thorp was born in 1877, at Llangaron, Herefordshire, the second son of the Reverend William Tudor Thorp and his second wife, Mary Louisa (née Jones), of Charlton Hall, Northumberland.

Rev. Thorp had previously been married to Emily West, who had died a couple of years after the birth of her fourth child.  Their marriage bore four children – Elizabeth Jane; Thomas Alder; Richard Fenwick; and William Tudor (born and died 28 November 1869) – thus, Robert Oakley Vavasour was the fifth child of the Rev. Thorp.

Robert was educated at Berwick Grammar School and King’s College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. on 19 June 1900 and M.A. on 19 December 1900.

He joined Berwick Naturalist’s Club on 13 October 1904, and, according to their history, he was ‘a good entomologist’.

He became a Schoolmaster and worked at the Mercer’s School, Holborn in 1901; at Pocklington School from 1901 to 1905; at Trent College in 1905; and at Scarborough College from 1906 to 1911 where he was the Modern Languages Master.  Thorp then went on to work as an Assistant Schoolmaster at Manchester Corporation School from 1911 to 1914 before joining the Army on the outbreak of the First World War.

Thorp’s family were the Alnwick solicitors Dickson, Archer and Thorp.

He was a cousin of  Thomas Tudor Thorp who died 16 September 1917.

Thorp enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), 21st (Service) Battalion (4th Public Schools) in October 1914, thus entitling him to the 1914-15 Star (Regimental service number PS/3294).

He reached the rank of Sergeant before being posted to the Oxford Officer Cadet Training School in 1916 from which he was gazetted later that year as a 2nd Lieutenant with either the 1st or 3rd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers.

On 14 October 1916, Thorp was involved in a raid on German trenches at a point opposite Luke Copse to secure important information about the line of the enemy’s artillery.  The raid was led by Lieutenant D. P. Hadow and included two officers and 47 other ranks of ‘Y’ Company.  Thorp’s role was to lead a ‘souvenir’ squad on the right flank, consisting of a NCO and eight ‘bayonet men’.

When the raiding party reached the German trench, they found two German sentries on duty.  One of the sentries attempted to attack the party but was wounded and taken prisoner by Thorp.  The other was killed as he tried to run away.  Shortly after, the signal was given for retreat and the raiding party returned safely to the British trenches having captured one prisoner and sustained no casualties.

‘The Fifth in the Great War…’ (Sandilands) recalls that:
‘On this night, 2nd Lieutenant Thorp, whose conduct throughout had been admirable, had been given a first opportunity to show the high qualities of leadership which were to distinguish him on many later occasions.’

For his part in the raid, in November 1916, Thorp was awarded a Military Cross.  The award’s citation reads:
‘For conspicuous gallantry in action.  He led a successful raid against the enemy with
great courage and determination, himself killing two of the enemy and capturing a
prisoner.’

Thorp was later invalided home with trench fever but returned to the Western Front in 1917, attached to the 64th Trench Mortar Battery.  He was killed in action on 22 March 1918, aged 39, at Saulcourt near Epéhy.

Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-

In St Maurice Church, Ellingham, is a plaque which reads;

In Loving Memory
Of
WILLIAM TUDOR THORP B.A. Oxon
Of Charlton Hall In This Parish. Clerk In Holy Orders
2nd Son Of Thomas Thorp and Elisabeth Jane His Wife
Born Alnwick 25th April 1841 Died Charlton Hall 11th Nov 1919 Buried In Alnwick Cemetery

For 40 Years He Gave Voluntary Assistance In The Services Of This Church.

Also His Son
ROBERT OAKLEY VAVASOUR THORP M.A. Cantab. M.C.
Lieut. 3rd Batt. Northumberland Fusiliers, Attached 64th Trench Mortar Batt.
Born 3rd Dec 1877. Killed In Action 22nd March 1918 At Saulcourt Nr Epény, France.

“In Thy Light Shall We See Light” ps. 36. v. 9.

In St. Michael Churchyard, Alnwick, there is a monument/gravestone, virtually illegible, nominating amongst others:

ELIZABETH JANE THORP
77 Years died 1890

REV. WILLIAM TUDOR THORP
79 Years died 1919

Thomas Alder Thorp
79 Years died 1945

Also St. Michael, Alnwick, there are two plaques, the first bears a partial quotation from Galatians 6. 14, in Greek.

SAVE IN THE CROSS
In Loving Memory of ELISABETH JANE THORP
Widow Of THOMAS THORP Esq.
And Daughter Of WILLIAM TUDOR F.R.G.S.
Born April 12th 1813
Died March 2nd 1890

Also of her son
The Rev’d WILLIAM TUDOR THORP B.A. Oxon
Of Charlton Hall Northumberland
Born April 23rd 1841
Died Nov 11th 1919

THOMAS ALDER THORPE
Son of
WILLIAM TUDOR THORPE
born 21st Dec 1895 died 10th Jan 1945

Robert Oakley Vavasour Thorp was the second eldest of his 6 siblings and had 3 half- siblings. 

His father the Reverend William Tudor Thorp was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, April 25th 1841, educated at Oxford University, in 1861, he was an under graduate student and  obtained a B.A. He was married, February 10th 1863 in Dunmow, Essex, to Emily Sarah West, who was born in 1839 in Pinner, Middlesex, she was the daughter of barrister Francis Gorge West and his wife Frances, they were living in 1864 in Oxton, Devon, where their eldest child Elizabeth Emily was born. 

They had migrated to Cramlington, Northumberland by the following year, birthplace of Thomas Alder Thorp, December 21st 1865, their youngest child Richard Fenwick Thorp was born in Portland, Northamptonshire, in 1969. Between 1869 and 1871 the Reverend Thorp and his family transferred to Bournemouth, residing at Ferne House, their children aged 7, 5 and 2 were assisted by nurse, Jemima Chisholm (18), the household was run with the help of cook Mary Bourden (23).

Emily Sarah Thorp nee West (32) died October 24th 1871 in Christchurch, Paddington. the Reverend Thorp transferred to Llangarron, Herefordshire, where he was clerk of the parish and remarried, June 16th 1875 in Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, district of Bayswater, London, by special licence issued June 14th, without the reading of Banns, to Mary Louisa Jones, daughter of Dr. John Jones of Langstone House, Llangarron and Emily Edith Oakeley from Lydart, Monmouthshire. 

They remained in Herefordshire for the next 4 years and Mary Louisa gave birth to 3 children, William Tudor Sayce, Robert Oakeley Vavasour and Collingwood Forster Thorp, May 21st 1876, December 26th 1877 and January 21st 1879 respectively. By he time Beatrice Jane Fenwick Thorp was born in October 1880 they had moved to Ellingham, Northumberland, where the Reverend Thorp had purchased Charlton Hall from the late lawyer and landowner, William Spours’ family, although the house was originally built by the Cay family who had owned the land on which it stood since 1696, however, the children from his first marriage did not accompany them. 

In 1881 the Reverend Thorp is described as a clergyman of the Church of England without cure of souls did however give voluntary assistance to the Church of St. Maurice, Ellingham, for 40 years. 

Charlton Hall, a mansion, had three servant rooms and the family employed in 1881 nursemaid/domestic and under nurse, Dorothy Robinson (19) and Ellen Clough (14), cook Mary Mayfield (25) and housemaid Mary Cotterell (17). Over the next 4 years Mary Louisa gave birth to a further 2 children, Harold Tragett was born in 1883, his brother Reginald Pearce Thorp, December 26th 1884. 

By 1891 solicitor Thomas Alder Thorp, Reverend Thorp’s eldest son from his first marriage, had joined the family in Northumberland and was a partner in the Alnwick firm of Dickson, Archer and Thorp in 1894. After his marriage he took up permanent residence in Alnwick at Belvedere Terrace and was joined in the firm by his half-brother Collingwood Forster Thorp. The male members of the Thorp family were educated in various prestigious schools and universities and left the family home in Northumberland.

Mary Louisa Thorp nee Jones died aged 55-years, February 29th 1904, at Charlton Hall and was interred within Ellingham churchyard. Administration at Newcastle upon Tyne, April 12th, the sum of £637 5 shillings 1 pence was assigned to her husband. After her death Beatrice was the only member of the family still living with her now retired father at Charlton Hall, assisted by a cook and housemaid. 

Robert Oakeley Vavasour Thorp had as a young man attended Berwick Grammar School and received a BA and a MA in 1900 at King’s College, Cambridge (1897-1900). After spending time abroad in Europe he returned to England where he took up a post as Assistant Schoolmaster at the Mercers’ School, Holborn, London, then at Pocklington School and Trent College before moving to Scarborough College in 1906 until 1911 where he taught modern languages. At the time of the outbreak of war, August 4th 1914 he was employed at Manchester Corporation School.

Having left his employment he joined the Army, posted as Lance Corporal PS/3294 to the 21st (Service) Battalion (4th Public Schools) Royal Fusiliers. He departed for the front, November 11th 1915, until, as Corporal Thorp, March 14th 1916, he was brought back to England to join the Cadet Corps, Oxford School for Officers. Gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant, July 6th 1916, posted to the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers he returned to France. 

October 14th 1916, 2nd Lieutenant Thorp was involved in a trench raid of the German lines to asses the enemy’s artillery. The raiding party reached a trench and found 3 German sentries, 2nd Lieutenant Thorp captured one and the others were killed attempting to escape. November 1916 for his part in the raid he received the Military Cross, “For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led a successful raid against the enemy with great courage and determination, himself killing two of the enemy and capturing a prisoner.”

Suffering from trench fever he was shipped back to England for a period of rest and recuperation, then joined the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers in Newcastle for retraining, returning to the Western Front in 1917 attached to the 64th Trench Mortar Battery, which as of March 20th 1916 had become 1Z TMB, part of the 64th Brigade, 21st Division, on the Western Front. 

The 21st Division and its components fought at every major battle after arriving in France in 1915. During 1917 they were engaged during the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line at the 1st and 3rd Battles of the Scarpe, the flanking operations at Bullecourt, a phase of the Battles of Arras, before leaving France for Belgium, in action during the Battle of Polygon Wood at Broodseinde and Passchendaele. They were in line to be sent to Italy in late 1917, however this order was reversed and when the Germans attacked again on the Somme they were rushed back to France. 

The Germans during the Attack which commenced March 21st 1918 intended to split the British and French forces and to break through to the Flanders coat cutting off any means of escape in the hope of a British surrender. The area between St Quentin/Cambrai and Bapaume/Albert lines had been laid waste by the Germans when they retreated from the area in 1917 offering little or no cover to Allied forces. 

The Battle of St. Quentin lasted three days, March 21st-23rd 1918, during which 2nd Lieutenant Robert Oakeley Vavasour Thorp was killed in action, March 22nd 1918, and buried by the Germans in Saulcourt Churchyard Extension, Guyencourt-Saulcourt, Somme, France, as were all those in rows C and D, as the place was in German hands during March and April 1918. 

2nd Lieutenant Robert Oakeley Vavasour Thorp Northumberland Fusiliers is at least grave D. 11, he was 39 years of age and single. His brother Collingwood Forster Thorp of Belvedere Terrace, Alnwick, commissioned an additional inscription to be added to his military headstone, the same as that which appears on a plaque dedicated to 2nd Lieutenant Thorp in St. Maurice Church, Ellingham, Northumberland, a quote from psalm 36 verse 9, “IN THY LIGHT WE SHALL SEE LIGHT.”

Twice wounded prior to his demise 2nd Lieutenant Thorp was the recipient of the Military Cross, 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Collingwood Forster Thorp made an application on behalf of his late brother for the 1914 Star.

All monies due to the late 2nd Lieutenant Thorp from the Army were paid to his half- brother and executer Mr. Thomas Alder Thorp Esq. probate granted to same, May 27th 1918, effects in the sum of £1950 4 shillings 9 pence.

Collingwood Forster Thorp served during WW1 as Temporary Lieutenant, rising to the rank of Temporary Captain, serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers, East Yorkshire Regiment and the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He survived the conflict, as did his youngest brother Temporary 2nd Lieutenant Reginald Pearce Thorp Army Service Corps, Harold Target Thorp may have served with the Royal Army Medical Corps. Their cousin 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Tudor Thorp was killed in action in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele, August 16th 1917.

The Reverend William Tudor Thorp died, November 11th 1919 at Charlton Hall, Northumberland and was interred in the family grave within St. Michael Churchyard, Alnwick, Northumberland with his mother Elizabeth Jane Thorp nee Tudor (April 12th 1813-March 2nd 1890), joined by his son in 1945, Thomas Alder Thorp.

In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace

Robert Oakley Vavasour Thorp is remembered in Berwick on  B25.21 , in Ellingham on  E20.01 and E20.04, in the Northumberland Fusiliers Roll of Honour page 8 and in the Alnwick Gazette Almanack.