Remembering Charles Whitley killed WW1 Arras 11 April 1917

Remembering Captain Charles Whitley, 7th KRRC, brother of Paignton Zoo founder Herbert Whitley, who was killed at Arras,  11 April 1917.

The Battle for Arras finished today 100 years ago on the 16th May 1917.

Hibers cemetery, where Herbert’s brother Charles Whitley is buried, on the brow of the hill to the left of the cross of sacrifice (Image; CWGC website)

A mistake in blogpost scheduling meant this did not go out on the 11th April on the centenary anniversary as intended.

Captain Charles Whitley, 7th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Military  Cross, died aged 28 on 11th April 1917 during the Battle for Arras (9 April – 16 May 1917).

He is buried at  Grave Reference C. 15, Hibers Trench Cemetery, France.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/31605/HIBERS%20TRENCH%20CEMETERY,%20WANCOURT

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website lists him as born at Halewood, Liverpool and as the Son of the late Mr. Edward Whitley and Elizabeth Eleanor Whitley, of Primley, Paignton, Devon.

His headstone personal inscription is a Bible verse chosen by his mother:  “I  thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians Chapter 1 Verse 3”

KRRC soldiers are buried alongside their Captain Charles Whitley at Hivers Trench Cemetery, Jersey. Surrounding cemeteries at Wancourt and the Arras memorial bear more names of Whitley’s fellow KRRC soldiers.

There are several websites which describe Charles Whitley including portraits, obituaries and pictures of his headstone:

http://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/hawarden-memorial/hawarden-sodliers-2/charles-whitley/

In the 1911 census, Charles Whitley aged 22  was  living as the Joint Owner and Occupier of “Weatherstones”, Windle Hill, Neston, Cheshire.  The other Joint Owner and Occupier was Edmund Page.

Both Charles and Edmund were engaged in a similar  type of stock breeding venture as his brothers Herbert and William in their farming and stock ventures in Devon. Charles was partnered with Page in   “a special and scientific line in farming and cattle breeding” (Hawarden Parish magazine, memorial service / obituary 1917 shown in the Flintshire War Memorials website.)

Looking at the portraits of Charles and brother Herbert you can see a strong family resemblance.

The Battle of Arras

For 38 days the Battle of Arras saw the highest average daily casualty rates of any British offensive in a First World War Battle. Over 300,000 soldiers were killed or wounded on the British, Allied and opposing German side.

From 9th April to the 16th May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front.

At first it seemed like success, the British and Allied army achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, surpassing the record set by the French Sixth Army on the first day of the Battle of The Somme 1 July 1916, which went so badly wrong for the British Army. This British advance slowed in the next few days, the period when Charles Whitley was killed, as the German defences recovered.

The Battle of Arras soon became a costly stalemate of trench warfare for both sides.

By the end of the Battle of Arras on May the British Third and First armies had suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th Army 125,000 casualties. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917)

Several zoo keepers from London Zoo and other zoos were also killed in this same 1917 period and Arras battle. No doubt many of the various Whitley family’s farm and estate workers in Wales and Devon also served and some died.

ZSL London Zoo librarian Henry Peavot

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/21/remembering-zsl-london-zoo-librarian-henry-peavot-killed-ww1-21-april-1917/

ZSL London Zoo Gardener Robert Jones

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/robert-jones-london-zoo-gardener-killed-battle-of-arras-april-1917-ww1/

J.L. Jennison of Belle Vue Zoo

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/05/03/remembering-j-l-jennison-of-the-belle-vue-zoo-jennison-family-died-ww1-3rd-may-2017/

Ralph Stamp of Belle Vue Zoo https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/remembering-ralph-stamp-of-belle-vue-zoo-manchester-died-23-april-1917-ww1/

Charles’ brother Herbert Whitley, a keen zoologist and gardener,  established his Zoological Gardens at Primley, Paignton, Devon in 1923 partly as a Botanic Garden.

Many Botanic garden staff were killed in WW1 including during the Battle of Arras..

Botanic gardeners, naturalists and scientists killed at Arras 

Charles Beswick of  Kew Gardens and Fota

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/remembering-charles-beswick-of-kew-gardens-and-fota-died-ww1-22-april-1917/

F.T. Pursell of Kew Gardens

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/remembering-f-t-pursell-kew-gardens-ww1-died-4-april-1917/

Fred Honey of Kew Gardens

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/remembering-frederick-honey-of-kew-gardens-died-ww1-17-april-1917/

Munro Briggs Scott of Kew Gardens Herbarium

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/remembering-munro-briggs-scott-of-kew-gardens-herbarium-killed-12-april-2017-ww1/

Australian herpetologist Dene Barrett Fry

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/remembering-zoologist-dene-b-fry-aif-fellow-linnaean-society-nsw-died-arras-1917-ww1/

Many of these men who have no known grave are remembered on The Arras Memorial, maintained by the CWGC

http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/82700/ARRAS%20MEMORIAL 

CWGC have also produced an interesting online booklet about the Battle of Arras, including mention of poet Edward Thomas killed on its opening day. http://blog.cwgc.org/arras-intro/

Herbert Whitley, trademark cigarette in mouth (Image source: Paignton Zoo website)

One wonders what might have happened if Herbert Whitley had been fit enough to fight?

Herbert Whitley was lucky in someways to have had poor enough eyesight to fail an army medical, likewise his brother William was unable to serve, having severely damaged his leg in a riding accident years before. Their contribution to the war effort would be as estate owners, animal breeders and farmers, then a reserved occupation.

‘What If’ History?

Captain Charles Whitley served on the Western Front, gaining a Military Cross for gallantry before being killed in 1917.

If Herbert had been fit to serve, this could well have been his story. A What If? history that would see no Paignton Zoo opened, no Slapton Ley nature reserve was preserved for the nation from inappropriate development and ultimately no Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT) was formed on Whitley’s death in 1955.

Read more at:

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2014/08/28/war-and-the-whitleys-para-medics-peacocks-and-paignton-zoo/

Remembering Charles Whitley, the men of the 7th King’s Royal Rifle Corps and the many casualties of the Battle of Arras on both sides, 100 years on from this 38 day battle ended, 16 May 1917 / 2017. 

Thankfully there is now a lull in the casualty lists amongst zoo and gardens staff until August 1917 when the Third Battle of Ypres in Belgium known as Passchendaele dragged on bloodily into the harsh muddy winter months from 31 July – 10 November 1917 (3 months and 6 days) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_

Blog posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens Project, Newquay Zoo.

Remembering J. L. Jennison of The Belle Vue Zoo Jennison family died WW1 3rd May 2017

J. L. Jennison photograph (copied with thanks from Yorkshire Indexers)

 

Remembering James Leonard Jennison, part of the Jennison family who ran Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, Manchester, who died 3rd May 1917 in the Vimy / Arras battles.

http://www.yorkshireindexers.info/wiki/index.php?title=JENNISON,_James_Leonard

Second Lieutenant  J. L. Jennison served with  the 15th Service  Battalion  (1st Leeds) (West Yorkshire Regiment) The Prince of Wales Own (The Leeds Pals).

James was the only son of James and Pauline Jennison (nee Mould) of Belle Vue, Manchester.

James  entered Rugby  School in 1909. He was awarded a Scholarship 1910, and obtained a Mechanical Science Scholarship at Trinity College Cambridge, in 1914. He left School in April 1915  and spent  some months with Messrs. A. V. Roe & Co., Aeroplane Manufacturers.

He received his Officers’ Commission in January, 1916.

“After nine months’ service in France, during which he was recommended for a decoration for the capture, almost single-handed, of a German field gun, he was reported “Missing” in a small local attack at Gavrelle, Vimy Ridge, and later was presumed to have been killed in that action, on May 3rd, 1917, Aged 20 …

The gun that Jennison captured was sent to Leeds as a war trophy.”

From Jennison’s Yorkshire Indexers website entry

“Terrible indeed had been the losses of the 15th Battalion” on 3rd May 1917 (see postscript from their War Diary / Regimental History).

Second Lieutenant James Leonard Jennison  has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to The Missing.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1574425/JENNISON,%20JAMES%20LEONARD

James Leonard Jennison was the son of James Jennison, one of the two Jennison brothers who owned Belle Vue Zoo.

His father James died later that year (1917), possibly hastened by this family loss. His cousin Norman, son of Angelo Jennison, also died on active service in Italy, 1918.

James Leonard Jennison and Ralph Stamp of Belle Vue Zoo are remembered on the Arras Memorial Wall amongst thousands of missing men with no known garves from this 1917 battle. (Image Source: CWGC)

 

Two of the ‘next generation’ died in WW1, members of the founding Jennison family who might have gone on to run Belle Vue Zoo,   along with 17 other zoo gardens staff.

You can read more about them and the damaged Belle Vue Zoo war memorial in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/remembering-the-lost-ww1-staff-of-belle-vue-zoo-manchester/

Belle Vue Zoo in Gorton, Manchester  closed in 1977/78. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Vue_Zoological_Gardens

http://gortonphilipsparkcemetrywargrave.weebly.com/belle-vue-war-memorial.html

James Leonard Jennison and collegaues at Belle Vue Zoo and the Leeds Pals, remembered 100 years on, 3rd May 1917/ 2017.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.

 

 

Postscript: 15th battalion War Diary / History (Page 65 – The-West-Yorkshire-Regiment-in-the-War-1914-1918-Volume-II)

 Zero ” hour was 3-45 a.m. on the 3rd May 1917.

The 15th West Yorkshires (Lieut.-Colonel S. C. Taylor) numbered only 547 officers, N.C.O.’s and men when the battle opened, the battalion having to attack on a frontage of 250 yards from l.I.a. 9.9 to C.25 .a.6 .6.

“D” was right front Company with” A ” in support and ” B” left front Company with ” C” in support.

Each company went over in two waves of single line.

Battle Headquarters of the battalion were in the Cemetery, south of Gavrelle.

About 2 o’clock on the morning of 3rd the enemy appeared nervous and put down a very heavy bombardment on Gavrelle and its environments. For three-quarters of an hour he continued to plaster the village and the neighbourhood with shells of

all calibre, but all was quiet just prior to ” Zero. “

At 3-45 a.m. the British barrage opened and the troops at once went forward to the attack.

Up to 5-30 a.m. no information reached Battalion Battle Headquarters of what had happened in the front line …

at that hour wounded men began to dribble in, and from these it was learned that the first objective, an irregular line running through Gavrelle Trench, the Windmill and Windmill Trench, had been captured.

The attack had swept on towards the second objective, the line of Gavrelle and Windmill Support Trenches, but had been beaten back, and finally had had to abandon the first objective.

Definite news was, however, unavailable, and finally Colonel Taylor closed his Battle Headquarters, sent all his papers back and, with runners, signallers and all Battalion Headquarters’ Staff, manned the front-line parapet. Heavy fire was then opened on groups of the enemy’s infantry, who could be seen retiring, seemingly from trench to trench, over the top. All stragglers were collected and organised, and about 7-30 a.m. eighty men were available for the front line. But touch had been lost with flanking battalions on right and left; the trenches were therefore blocked and bombing parties stationed on each flank.

The Battalion Diary states that: “At this period it was quite evident what had happened. The battalion had got forward all right, and had driven back the enemy, but having no supports had lost all driving power, and the enemy, realising this, had turned on them and commenced organising to counter-attack.” The enemy, about 400 strong, could be seen advancing in extended order  but an S.O.S. was sent up and the artillery soon broke up the threatened attack.

In answer to the C.O’s appeal to Brigade Headquarters for assistance, a platoon of K.O.Y.L.I. and two companies of D.L.1. were sent up, and these were used to reinforce the left flank of the 15th West Yorkshires, that flank being out of touch with the right of the 18th Battalion. Touch had, however, been obtained on the right

with the K.O.S.B.

About 8 p.m. the enemy opened a heavy bombardment, but the night was fairly quiet.

Terrible indeed had been the losses of the 15th Battalion.

Only three officers returned and reported to Battalion Headquarters,

and of these two had broken arms and the third was slightly wounded.

Capt. R. M. S. Blease and Capt. G. S. King, Lieut. D. Robinson,

Second-Lieuts. W. H. Jackson, F. W. Scholes, J. S. Thomas, A. S.

Parkin, J. L. Jennison, J . W. Lisle and A. T. Peek were killed;

Second-Lieuts. R. S. Tate and A. H. Riley were reported missing.

The total officer casualties was fifteen.

In other ranks the battalion had lost fifteen killed, 122 wounded and 262 missing, though during the night and early morning of 4th May 1917 a number of slightly wounded men crawled in from No Man’s Land.

 

Remembering Ralph Stamp of Belle Vue Zoo Manchester died 23 April 1917 WW1

The damaged Belle Vue memorial names section, thankfully carved in stone as the statue has been stolen. Image: manchester history.net photo

Remembering Ralph Stamp of Belle Vue Zoo Gardens, Manchester, died WW1

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/remembering-the-lost-ww1-staff-of-belle-vue-zoo-manchester/

Private Ralph William Stamp, 18th battalion, Manchester Regiment, died aged 23, on the 23rd April 1917, and has no known grave, listed on the Arras memorial, the same as J L Jennison.

Arras Memorial (image: CWGC)  

Private Ralph William Stamp was the son of Robert and Jane Stamp of 36 Newton Street, Gorton.

He was killed in The Battle of Arras aged 23 on 23 April 1917, serving as a member of the 18th Battalion of The Manchester Regiment. Stamp has no known grave, so is commemorated on The Arras Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered on the St James Church Gorton war memorial.

He appears to have been on the gardens staff.

Ralph Stamp, Belle Vue Zoo Gardens Manchester, remembered 100 years on from his death, 23 April 1917 / 2017

Blog posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.

 

Remembering Munro Briggs Scott of Kew Gardens Herbarium killed 12 April 2017 WW1

Munro Briggs Scott of Kew Gardens Herbarium Staff was killed in action  in the Battle for Arras on 12 April 1917.

Munro Briggs Scott, 12 April 1917
2nd Lt. Munro Briggs Scott, 12th Battalion, Royal Scots, died 12 April 1917. Scott is commemorated on Panel Reference Bay 1 and 2 of the Arras Memorial.

 

Scott’s name is one of the first panels on The Arras Memorial at the back here. (Image Source: CWGC)

 

M.B. Scott was  killed in the major Battle of Arras offensive planned for April-May 1917. The Arras Memorial commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and August 1918 and have no known grave.

http://blog.cwgc.org/arras

Munro Briggs Scott of  Kew Botanic Gardens Remembered on the WW1 section Kew Gardens staff memorial (Image Source: Mark Norris, World War Zoo gardens project, Newquay Zoo)

Born in 1889 at East Wemyss, Fife, Scotland, Munro Briggs Scott was on the Herbarium staff at Kew around the outbreak of war.

He joined Kew ‘s local regiment, the East Surrey regiment in February 1916, then the Suffolk Regiment before joining the 13th Royal Scots, later attached to the 12th Battalion Royal Scots as an officer.

Serving first as a Private 18094 in the East Surreys, then Lance Corporal 25909 in the Suffolk Regiment, Munro Briggs Scott was finally gazetted to become an officer on 22 November 1916.

Married in late 1916, he was posted to France on January 9, 1917 and killed by a high explosive HE shell three months later on 12 April 1917 at the Battle of Arras.

The University of Edinburgh alumni site has him listed as:

Buckhaven School. Student of Arts and Science, 1907-14; M.A. 1910; B.Sc. Botanical Expert at Kew Gardens. Royal Scots, Lieut. France. Killed at Arras on 12th April 1917. PI. LXXIII.

http://collections.ed.ac.uk/alumni/record/94755

 

AN OFFICER’S DEATH.—News has been received with feelings of the deepest regret of the death in action of Lieutenant Munro Briggs Scott, of the Royal Scots, who was married in November last to Miss Flora M. Forbes, M.A., daughter Mr John Forbes.

Lieutenant Scott had been wounded and while being attended to by the RAMC was shot dead – presumably by a sniper. Lieutenant Scott, who was a BSc of Edinburgh University and belonged to East Wemyss, had a brilliant scholastic career and thereafter received an important appointment as a botanical expert  at Kew Gardens which he held prior to enlistment.

Printed in the 25 April 1917 edition of  Perthshire Advertiser , Scotland

A slightly different story is told here, relating to how he was wounded, printed in 28 April 1917 – Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian – Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland:

You can read more about Kew Gardeners lost in WW1 on our blogpost here:

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

Munro Briggs Scott remembered 100 years on.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens Project, Newquay Zoo.

Edward Thomas died Arras 9 April 1917 WW1

One famous casualty of the Battle of Arras, fought at Easter, was the talented Country writer and poet Edward Thomas.

The Battle of Arras is being commemorated by centenary events hosted by the Commonwealth War Graves commission. http://blog.cwgc.org/arras/

He was killed “by shellfire” (see the Wikipedia entry)  at Easter during the first day of the Battle of Arras 9 April 1917, two years after writing this Easter poem:

In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Edward Thomas

since discovering his writing as a schoolboy, I have greatly admired Edward Thomas’ prose writings and travel journals, walking across Edwardian England. This rich prose then tumbled into or was restrained into verse, famously his nature and railway poem Adlestrop and probably my favourite, As the Team’s Head Brass (see link below)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57207

Simple, symbolic, restrained, melancholy, echoing with loss and words not said, I find “As The Teams Head Brass” almost a poem of the Forties or WWII  like the poem group by Henry Reed which includes “Naming Of Parts”.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/57203#about

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_(poet)

Pick out one of his poems today, enjoy it and read it in his memory.

Edward Thomas was one of  a generation of writers including Ivor Gurney and more famous poets whose lives were ended or greatly affected by the First World War. As with all of them, who knows what fine nature writing they may have gone on to produce, but for disruption, depression and death caused by the war.

It is more than 25 years since I visited the Dymock area associated with Thomas and other prewar writers:

http://www.dymockpoets.org.uk/Thomas.htm

Edward Thomas – Celebrated and remembered 100 years on from the day of his death 9 April 1917.

Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens Project 9 April 2017.

Robert Jones London Zoo Gardener killed Battle of Arras April 1917 WW1

Autumn colours behind the ZSL war memorial, London Zoo, November 2010 (Photo: Kate Oliver, ZSL Education)

09.04.1917 Robert Jones 9 Royal Fusiliers ZSL Gardener.

As Listed on the ZSL London Zoo WW1 Staff War Memorial

There are two current possibilities for this name, awaiting research:

Private GS/60595 Robert Jones, 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers

This Robert Jones was born in Islington or Highgate, Middlesex around 1881 and was married to Bertha Lewin of Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon around 1905 / 1906 in Camden / Highgate.

He was formerly listed as 23358 6th Middlesex Regiment, having enlisted in Harringay and been resident in Highgate. On the 1901 census he is listed as a Gardener (not domestic) and in 1911 as a Nursery Gardener.

On the CWGC website he is listed as the husband of Bertha Jones of 22 Caxton Street, Little Bowden, Market Harborough. This Robert Jones died of wounds on 7 April 1917 (two days different from the ZSL dates on the war memorial plaque) and is buried in Faubourg D’Amiens cemetery in Arras. His headstone (photographed on the TWGPP website) bears the family inscription from his wife reads: “Thou art not far from us who love thee well”

Robert Jones ZSL Gardener lies buried at Faubourg D’Amiens CWGC Cemetery, which is  surrounded by some of the names on the Arras Memorial including ZSL Librarian Henry G.J. Peavot. (Image source: CWGC)

The other Robert Jones possibility with the same date as the ZSL war memorial plaque is Robert Jones 472712, 1st / 12th Btn. London Regiment (The Rangers), aged 31 buried in Individual grave A2 , Gouy-en Artois Cemetery, killed or died of wounds on the first day of the Battle of Arras 1917. The CWGC lists him as the brother of Mrs. Clara Shafer, of 37, Cornwallis Rd., Walthamstow, London. He was born in 1886 in Grays, Essex and enlisted in Plaistow. He appears on the 1911 census not to have been a gardener but a coal porter in a gas works.

This coal porter seems less likely to be the ‘Robert Jones ZSL gardener’ but without surviving service or pension papers for either one that I have found so far, even the ZSL staff record cards give few clues as to which one is the ZSL Gardener.

Both deserve to be remembered.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/remembering-lost-wartime-staff-of-zsl-london-zoo-in-ww1/

 

Names of the fallen ZSL staff from the First World War, ZSL war memorial, London Zoo, 2010 – name plaques since replaced or restored.

For more about the Battle of Arras and the Centenary

http://blog.cwgc.org/arras/

ZSL Gardener Robert Jones was not the only April 1917 casualty from London Zoo. Two weeks later, the ZSL Librarian would be killed at Arras.

21.4.1917 Henry George Jesse Peavot, Honourable Artillery Company, ZSL Librarian

B Co. 1st Btn, Honourable Artillery Company, aged 35.

Killed during Battle of Arras period, No known grave, listed on Arras Memorial. Married.

Henry George Jesse Peavot, a 35 year old ZSL Librarian served in B Company, 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company and died on 21st April 1917.

He has no known grave and his name is listed amongst the 35,000 missing men listed on the Arras Memorial alone.

Like many of these zoo staff, Peavot was married; his widow Maud or Maude Pravot as far as I can discover never remarried and lived to mourn his loss for almost seven decades until 1985. They had one child. Previously a ZSL typist, Maude kept in touch with ZSL for many years, a file of personal correspondence in the ZSL Archive appears to continue from 1917 to about 1932 and is likely to be pension related.

The legacy of absence and injury from the First world war is still ongoing or at least within our working and living memory, in families and professions such as zoo keeping across Europe.

Remembering zoologist Dene Barrett Fry Linnean Society NSW died Arras 1917 WW1

Dene Barrett Fry –  Fellow of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales Australia and Zoologist and demonstrator in Zoology at the University of Sydney – was killed fighting at the Battle of Arras 9 April 1917.

The Linnean Society of New South Wales Australia  published a Roll of Honour of serving members. Two were killed – H. Stephens (6 listed amongst Australian forces on the CWGC website) and  D. B. Fry.

D.B. Fry is buried to the right of the cross of sacrifice in Beaumetz Crossraods cemetery. (Image: http://www.cwgc.org)

Private Dene Barrett Fry, 4992, 3rd Battalion Australian Infantry AIF died on 9th April 1917 and is buried in plot E5, Beaumetz Cross Roads Cemetery, Beaumetz-les-Cambrai, France.

This cemetery which contains around 50 other Australian AIF casualties was begun by fighting units in March 1917.

Fry is listed on the CWGC website as the son of Arthur and Caroline F. Fry of Denegully, Northcote Road, Lindfield, New South Wales, Australia.

There is a short tribute to him in the Proceedings of The Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1920 (Volume XLV):

One of our promising junior members killed in action in France 4 April 1917, aged 23, was the first of our Soldier-members to fall. He was a rising young biologist of great promise, elected a member in 1913. his training began at the Australian Museum as a cadet in 1908 where he remained until 1914. When the war broke out, he was a student at the University and a Demonstrator in Zoology, but he gave up his university work in order to enlist , joining the Army Medical Corps in May 1915.
After two voyages in a hospital ship, he transferred to the Infantry, qualifying for the post of Lieutenant. But as there was no vacancy available, he left for the Front with reinforcements as Sergeant. After some time spent at Salisbury Plains, his regiment was sent to France where he took part in several engagements.

His last contribution to science was a paper printed in the 1916 proceedings, as well as ten other notes or papers about reptiles or amphibians published in journals before his death.

Studio portrait of 4992 Private (Pte) Dene Barrett Fry, AAMC, of Lewisham, NSW. Source Australian National War Memorial

The Australian National War Memorial  has this entry for him and a studio portrait of 4992 Private (Pte) Dene Barrett Fry, AAMC (Australian Army Medical Corps) of Lewisham, NSW.

https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1730923/

4992 Private Dene Barrett Fry AAMC

A demonstrator in Zoology at the University of Sydney, and son of the first female graduate of the University, he initially served in the Australian Army Medical Corps.

After one trip on Hospital Ship Karoola he transferred to Infantry and trained at Duntroon. He was allocated to the 3rd Battalion and embarked from Sydney with the 19th Reinforcements aboard HMAT Wiltshire (A18) on 22 August 1916.

Pte Fry served on the Western Front; he was killed in action on 9 April 1917, aged 23. Pte Fry is buried at the Beaumetz Cross Road Cemetery, Beaumetz-les-Cambrai, France. (ANWM)

Sadly Dene was not the only casualty in his family in WW1.

His brother 1340 Pte Alan Fraser Fry, 13th Battalion was wounded on 13 August and died on 14 August 1916 and his uncle Major James Whiteside Fraser McManamey, 19th Battalion, also a graduate of the University of Sydney, was killed in action at Gallipoli on 5 September 1915.  (source: ANWM)

A touching family photo album picture as a child  and letter from  Fry can be seen here online, obviously treasured by his mother and father:

http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/explore/dene-fry-killed-france-9-april-1917-aged-23-12-years

http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/explore/dene-fry-letter-1915-1917

He is pictured here with his brother Alan Fraser Fry https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/306355

Dene Barratt Fry, lost zoologist, and other members of the Australian forces at the Battle of Arras 1917 – Remembered.  

Members or Fellows of the Linnean Society FLS  lost in WW1 are remembered here:

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/lost-fellows-the-linnean-society-roll-of-honour-1914-1918/

Blogposted on 9th April 2017 by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.