Lieutenant Charles Gardner Rought

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Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)

Lieutenant Charles Gardner Rought

Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), British Army - 1914 - 1918.

Prior to the First World War, he was a world class oarsman and a member of successful teams of fours and eights - that included my great uncle, Bruce Logan - from the Thames Rowing Club.

Charles was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England on the 16th October, 1884. He was the oldest son, of three girls and three boys. It would appear that both Philip and Arthur both served during the war, as well.

THE LATE LT. CHARLES GARDNER ROUGHT

The tragically sudden death of Lt. Charles Gardner Rought, Queen's Regt., is a great loss to those now concerned in the restoration of rowing. This brilliant oarsman, one of the stalwarts of the Thames R.C. from 1908 until the war, had been a prisoner in Germany since December 1914, until repatriated last year, and to this doubtless may be ascribed the seizure which had a fatal termination at his home in Surbiton on January 31st, in his thirty-fifth year.

Educated at Clifton College, Rought first rowed for Bristol Ariel R.C., and was in a winning eight at Reading in 1906. Joining the Thames R.C. the following year, when he was thought so little of as to be discarded from the second eight, he confounded all critics in 1908, being in winning senior fours and eights at all the principal regattas on the Thames, and at Amsterdam. In that year he also won his junior sculls.

With J. Beresford (bow), K. Vernon (2), and Bruce Logan (stroke), Rought was in a Thames R.C. four that after brilliant victories in the Steward's (Henley) in 1909 and 1911, was chosen to represent England at the last Olympic Regatta, at Stockholm in 1912, but in the final a German (Ludwigshafen) beat them. It is but fair to say that the English were badly boated.

In 1911 Rought and Logan (at bow) made a sensational dead-heat in the Goblets (Henley) against J. Beresford and A. Hamilton Cloutte, another Thames R.C. pair. A toss decided who should row in the final, Rought losing, but in the very next year the same pairs reached the final, Rought and Logan winning by a length and a quarter.

Rought was also a good Rugby football player.

He enlisted in the Artist's on August 3rd, 1914 and in November of that year gained a commission in the Queen's.

(From the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News - Saturday 08 February 1919 - Source)

DEATH OF A FAMOUS OARSMAN.

Lieutenant Charles Gardner Rought, the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment, who died suddenly at his residence at Surbiton on Saturday, was one of the finest oarsmen on the Thames during the period immediately before the war.

He was educated at Clifton College, and rowed for Bristol Ariel R.C. in 1906. In 1907 he came to London and joined the Thames R.C. In the autumn of that year he started training in a coxswainless four, which, by assiduous practice, developed into a first-class crew, possessing pace, watermanship, and skill.

In their first season they won all the senior four races on the river except at Henley, where to beat the Thames men Magdalen (Oxford) had to cover the course in the record time of 7min. 28sec. Next year Thames turned the tables on Magdalen, and they won the Stewards again in 1911.

Lieutenant Rought rowed four times in the Thames eight for the Grand at Henley between 1908 and 1913, and he assisted his club to win the senior eights at many of the up-river regattas. In 1911 he entered for the Goblets at Henley with Bruce Logan as partner, and they rowed a remarkable dead-heat with another Thames R.C. pair (Beresford and Cloutte) in the record time of 8min. 8sec. The crews tossed to decide which should go into the next round, and Cloutte won. By a curious coincidence, the same crews qualified for the final of the Goblets in 1912, and Lieutenant Rought and his partner won.

He was very popular with rowing men everywhere. He joined the Artists' Rifles on August 4, 1914, but was given a commission in the Queen's Regiment within a few weeks. Before the end of the year he was in France, and was taken prisoner on December 14, 1914, and remained in Germany for nearly four years.

The Westminster Gazette - February 4, 1919- Page 3 (Source)

DECLARATION OF WAR AND ENLISTMENT

England Declares War

Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. The declaration was a result of German refusal to remove troops from neutral Belgium. In 1839 the United Kingdom, France, and Prussia (the predecessor of the German Empire) had signed the Treaty of London which guaranteed Belgium's sovereignty. (Wikipedia)

Charles Gardner Rought Enlists

On the eve of the declaration of war, Charles Gardner Rought, a month shy of his 30th birthday, enlisted in the Artists Rifles Volunteer Battalion based in London.

Artists Rifles

Following the formation of the Territorial Force, the Artists Rifles was one of 26 volunteer battalions in the London and Middlesex areas that combined to form the new London Regiment. It became the 28th (County of London) Battalion of The London Regiment on 1 April 1908.

The Artists Rifles was a popular unit for volunteers. It had been increased to twelve companies in 1900 and was formed into three sub-battalions in 1914, and recruitment was eventually restricted by recommendation from existing members of the battalion. It particularly attracted recruits from public schools and universities; on this basis, following the outbreak of the First World War, a number of enlisted members of The Artists Rifles were selected to be officers in other units of the 7th Division. 

...

Casualties suffered by both members of this battalion and amongst officers who had trained with The Artists Rifles before being posted to other regiments were 2,003 killed, 3,250 wounded, 533 missing and 286 prisoners of war.


Capture of Lt. Rought During the December 1914 'Truce'

(In his own words from his service record)

I was working until well into the night, with rescue parties. Many of our wounded were lying close up to the enemy lines and we had been unable to get to them. The men in our trenches stood to arms the whole night as we were expecting a counter-attack and just as it was growing light I heard some of them say the enemy were leaving their trenches. I looked over our parapet and saw some Germans bending over our wounded, but almost simultaneously some of our men fired and the Germans disappeared. About an hour later the Germans showed themselves again and our men were told not to fire. Seeing our doctor standing on the parapet and going out, and thinking I should be of help in getting some of the wounded in, (and also that by being in no man’s land I might show our men that the Germans intended letting us bring in our wounded and that they must not fire) I followed the doctor out and, after looking at a few men I found to be dead, heard the Germans calling ‘we are peaceful, we are peaceful, take your comrades’. I [went off] to the right to a point in the German advanced trench where I thought I might find Lieut. Ramsay, who we thought had been wounded the previous evening.

As I got up to the first line which was partly a firing trench and partly a natural ditch cross-wired, I saw a number of our wounded and was just starting to lift a man when a German soldier called ‘Officer?’ I said ‘yes’ and he replied ‘our officer wishes to speak to you’. [The officer said] that our men might take back the wounded but the rifles must be left where they were. This demand I thought quite reasonable and shouted to the men within earshot accordingly. The German officer made one or two further remarks, amongst other things he said, pointing to our dead and wounded, ‘the Englishmen are very brave’. I was now standing close to a sap, running from the advanced trench to the main firing line, and started to move off to lift one of our fellows who was lying close by. Several of our NCOs and men were by this time hard at work amongst Germans, who were also helping to rescue the wounded – but the German officer caught my arm and said I was not to go. For a moment I remonstrated and after saying something in German, the officer said ‘war is war’. I made some remark in which I used the word ‘treachery’, whereupon I was pulled by some soldiers, evidently by command of their officer, into their sap and drawn into their main trench. The officer, holding a revolver to my chest, said that if I repeated my remarks he would shoot me. He cooled somewhat and stated that I must see his commandant and with his permission might return to my own lines, but as I had seen their position he must keep me.

It was now I noticed Lieut. Walmisley and saw the Germans taking his equipment from him. He was about 20 yards distant and they brought him and one or two men and sent us down their trench under escort. As we passed, away to our left we could still see Germans mixed up with our men attending to the wounded in no man’s land. We were harangued by an officer with a red cross band round his arm. Speaking fluent English he said we had fired on the white flag and were to be shot.

According to the 2nd Queen’s diary, it was during the ceasefire that a German sniper picked off Lt Henry Bower of the 1st South Staffords, killing him instantly. Half of his battalion had now moved up into the trenches from which the 2nd Royal Warwickshires had attacked, and Bower – who had himself been wounded during the First Battle of Ypres – was shot while helping bring in the Warwicks’ wounded. The Staffords’ diary times his death at about 8.30 a.m., about the time that Rought and Walmisley were being taken prisoner. The somewhat nervous truce ended not long afterwards.

Baker, Chris. The Truce: The Day the War Stopped . Amberley Publishing. Kindle Edition.

National Archives, WO374/59326, service record of Charles Gardner Rought. The text is from his own notes, explaining the circumstances of his capture. A completely inexperienced soldier, Rought was well-known before the war as a rower of international standard, and was one of the coxed four that won a gold medal for Great Britain at the 1912 Olympic Games. He enlisted into the Artist’s Rifles on 4 August 1914 (the day that war was declared), and was sent to France on 28 October 1914. The 2nd Queen’s war diary describes him as one of four probationary second lieutenants who joined on 13 November. Rought remained in enemy hands until returning to England on 20 November 1918. Second-Lt Edward Atherstone Walmisley was even less experienced, for he only landed in France on 10 December and joined the battalion three days later.

This photo and the following photo are from the Exploring Surrey's Past website. (Source)
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