Captain William Sholto Douglas, R.E.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, P.E., MinstRE
(November 2023)

Figure 1. Captain William Sholto Douglas, R.E.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

Captain
WILLIAM SHOLTO DOUGLAS
Mentioned in Despatches
Royal Engineers
Who died on 14 November 1914, Age 39
Son of Colonel and Mrs. Douglas of Lansdown House, Lansdown, Bath
Remembered with Honour
Boulogne Eastern Cemetery
II. B. 4.

2. FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

William Sholto Douglas was born on 18 September 1875 at St. Peters, Jersey in the Channel Islands. His father was Lieutenant Colonel John Charles Douglas (1842-1926) of the Worcestershire Regiment. His mother was Agnes Douglas, née Bird (1851-1924).

At the time of William’s birth his father was serving in the Worcestershire Regiment as a Captain.[2] William had a prominent uncle serving in the Army; General Sir Charles Whittingham Horsley Douglas, GCB, ADC. He replaced Sir John French as the Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first three months of the Great War of 1914-1918, but he died from strain and overwork without having any meaningful influence on the outcome of the war.

Figure 2. General Sir Charles W.H. Douglas.
(Image courtesy of Print Collector/Getty Images)

William attended Bath College in Somerset.[3] This college was formed in 1892 under the combined names of Bath City Science, Art, and Technical Schools. Its creation arose out of the need to encourage young people to take an interest in the sciences, and for them to be made aware of the technical innovations that were occurring at the end of the 19th century. Douglas may have been one of the first students to enter the college in 1892 at the age of 17. Nothing is known of his earlier education.

De Ruvigny states that Douglas “joined the Royal Engineers as a 2^nd Lieutenant on 22 October 1895.” He does not indicate the source of Douglas’ commission or whether he attended the Royal Military College at Woolwich. Following his commissioning Douglas would have been required to attend the School of Military Engineering (S.M.E) at Chatham.

Figure 3. 18 Second Lieutenants of the Royal Engineers Commissioned in August 1895. Douglas is the young man seated on the ground and holding the puppy.
(Image courtesy of The Sapper magazine)

For professional and technical instruction the School of Military Engineering was divided into subject schools at the time that 2^nd Lieutenant Douglas would have attended. These subject schools are listed here.

The Field Fortifications course lasted for 4 months and 23 days. This course consisted of field and siege engineering, field defence, attack of fortresses, mining construction, demolition of railways and water supply. The Construction course was 6 months and covered building materials, engineering construction, hydraulics, construction of barracks, drainage, manufacture of iron and steel, mining, quarrying and machinery. Next came the Surveying course consisting of five months of technical training in geodesy, astronomy, meteorology, trigonometrical chain and road surveys and use of surveying instruments. One to two months of military topography followed, which included military surveying and sketching and elementary reconnaissance. In the School of Telegraphy, Electric Lighting and Submarine Mining he studied the theory of electricity, use of telegraph instruments, bracing and connecting instruments, making of batteries, firing mines and testing tubes. All of this was accomplished in two months with an additional one month devoted to electric lighting, signalling by flag, lamps and heliograph. The School of Chemistry was a short course of varying length that generally covered practical chemistry, especially relating to limes, concrete and other building materials. Finally, the School of Military Law and Tactics, also a course of varying length, consisted of special lectures in law and tactics as dictated by current military situations. This training at the School of Military Engineering lasted for just under 24 months. Douglas attended the school during 1895 and 1896.

At some point in his training Douglas appeared to have become qualified in telegraphy and field communications. Subsequent postings had him serving with the Royal Engineers Signal Service on more than one occasion.

Monthly Army Lists show that Douglas was posted to Aldershot following his training at the S.M.E. On 22 October 1898 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and was attached to the Egyptian Army.

Lieutenant Douglas served with the Royal Engineers Telegraph Battalion in the Nile Expedition of 1899. He worked on the construction and repair of telegraph lines between Khartoum and Wadi Medani. For his service during this expedition he was awarded the Queen’s Sudan Medal with clasp [SUDAN 1899].[4]

He was next posted to the 5^th Field Company that was serving with the 8^th Division. In March 1899 the division was deployed to South Africa. In May 1900 the division occupied the eastern part of the Orange Free State. On 10 August 1900 Douglas was accidentally injured by an explosion while destroying arms at Harrismith. He was invalided to England and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa medal with clasps [CAPE COLONY] and [WITTEBERGEN].[5] The Wittebergen clasp was awarded to men who served inside a line drawn from Harrismith to Bethlehem, thence to Senekal and Clocolan in the Orange Free State along the Basutoland border, and back to Harrismith.

On 1 October 1901 following his recuperation from his injury, Douglas was appointed a Staff Captain and was employed in the Military Intelligence Division at the War Office.[6] The London Gazette of 20 October 1903 shows him as a Lieutenant (Staff Captain) at Headquarters.

On 21 October 1903 Douglas married Gladys Mary Harrison (1882-1967), the eldest daughter of Thomas Fenwick Harrison, Lord of the Manor and Patron of King’s Walden. The marriage took place in King’s Walden, Hertfordshire.[7]

Douglas was promoted to Captain on 22 October 1904 while he was employed as a Staff Captain with the Military Operations Division at the War Office and he remained in that appointment for all of 1905. During this period he qualified as an Interpreter of Foreign Languages, French in his case.[8]

Mrs. Douglas gave birth to a son, John Willoughby Sholto Douglas, on 17 January 1906. Unfortunately the young boy passed away in 1913. On 14 May 1906 Captain Douglas vacated his appointment as a Staff Captain at Headquarters and was posted to Aldershot.

While at Aldershot, Captain Douglas commanded the 1^st Cable Telegraph Company, part of Army Troops of the Aldershot Command,[9] a unit consisting of 6 Officers and 159 Other Ranks. He remained in this position until July 1910 when he was posted to serve as the Assistant Director of Army Signals of the 2^nd Division in the Aldershot Command.[10] He remained in this position until 1912 when he was selected to attend the Staff College at Camberley.[11]

While Douglas was a student at the Staff College, his young son died on 13 December 1913.[12] Despite the obvious heartache he suffered when his young boy died, Douglas passed the Staff College and was reposted to Aldershot. When leaving the Staff College he was designated a French Interpreter (1^st Class).[13]

On 29 May 1914 Captain Douglas was appointed a General Staff Officer (3^rd Grade) in the Scottish Command, however, there is no information in his service records to indicate that he ever went to Scotland.[14] In August 1914 he received another appointment to the Headquarters Staff of the 7^th Infantry Division, British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.). He did not leave England immediately to join his division but was awaiting orders to do so.

Douglas and his wife appeared to have been good friends with the 7^th Division’s Chaplain, Major E.J. Kennedy and his family. On 4 October 1914, while having tea with the Kennedys, the 7^th Division received orders to “stand by” for deployment to France.

Figure 4. Chaplain Major E.J. Kennedy.
(Image from With the Immortal Seventh Division)

On 6 October 1914, the 7^th Division landed at Zeebrugge and on 16 October Douglas relinquished his position as G.S.O. 3^rd Grade.[15] When he arrived at his new posting the division headquarters was at Ypres preparing for the opening of the First Battle of Ypres, which began on 19 October 1914.

The opening phase of the First Battle of Ypres was the Battle of Langemarck from 21 to 24 October 1914. The second phase of the battle was at Gheluvelt on 29 October 1914.[16] The Battle of Langemarck took place after an advance by the German 4^th and 6^th Armies which began on 19 October, as the left flank of the B.E.F. began advancing towards Menin and Roeselare. On 20 October, Langemarck, northeast of Ypres, was held by a French territorial unit and the British IV Corps to the south. British I Corps, under Lieutenant-General Douglas Haig, was due to arrive with orders to attack on 21 October. This day was cloudy and attempts to reconnoiter the German positions during the afternoon had not observed any German troop movements. The arrival of four new German reserve corps was discovered by prisoner statements, wireless interception and the increasing power of German attacks. Five and a half infantry corps were now known to be north of the Lys, along with the four cavalry corps, against a little more than seven British divisions and five allied cavalry divisions. The British attack made early progress but the German 4^th Army began a series of attacks, albeit badly organised and poorly supported. The German 6^th and 4^th Armies attacked from Armentières to Messines and Langemarck. The British IV Corps was attacked around Langemarck, where the 7th Division was able to repulse German attacks and British I Corps was able to make a short advance.

Further north, French cavalry was pushed back to the Yser by the German XXIII Reserve Corps and by nightfall was dug in from the junction with the British at Steenstraat to the vicinity of Diksmuide, the boundary with the Belgian army. The British closed the gap with a small number of reinforcements and on 23 October, the French IX Corps took over the north end of the Ypres salient, relieving I Corps with the 17^th Division. Kortekeer Cabaret was recaptured by the British 1^st Division and the British 2^nd Division was relieved. The following day I Corps was relieved and the British 7^th Division lost Polygon Wood temporarily. The left flank of the 7^th Division was taken over by the 2^nd Division, which joined in the counter-attack of the French IX Corps on the northern flank towards Roeselare and Torhout, as the fighting further north on the Yser impeded German attacks around Ypres. German attacks were made on the right flank of the 7^th Division at Gheluvelt. The British sent the remains of I Corps to reinforce IV Corps. German attacks from 25 to 26 October were made further south against the 7^th Division on the Menin Road and on 26 October part of the line crumbled until reserves were scraped up to block the gap and avoid a rout.[17]

On 28 October, as the German 4^th Army attacks bogged down, General Falkenhayn responded to the costly failures of the 4^th and 6^th Armies by ordering the armies to conduct holding attacks while a new force, Armeegruppe Fabeck, was assembled from XV Corps, the II Bavarian Corps, the 26^th Division and the 6^th Bavarian Reserve Division, under the XIII Corps headquarters. The Armeegruppe was rushed up to Deûlémont and Werviq, the boundary between the 6^th and 4^th Armies, to attack towards Ypres and Poperinge. Strict economies were imposed on the 6^th Army formations further south, to provide artillery ammunition for 250 heavy guns supporting an attack to the northwest, between Gheluvelt and Messines. The XV Corps was to attack on the right flank, south of the Menin–Ypres road to the Comines–Ypres canal and the main effort was to come from there to Garde Dieu by the II Bavarian Corps, flanked by the 26^th Division.

On 29 October, attacks by the XXVII Reserve Corps began against British I Corps north of the Menin Road, at dawn, in thick fog. By nightfall, the Gheluvelt crossroads had been lost and 600 British prisoners taken. French attacks further north, by the British 17^th Division, 18^thDivision and 31^st Division recaptured Bixschoote and Kortekeer Cabaret. Advances by Armeegruppe Fabeck to the southwest against I Corps and the dismounted Cavalry Corps further south, came to within about two miles of Ypres along the Menin road and brought the town into range of German artillery. On 30 October, German attacks by the 54^th Reserve Division and the 30^th Division, on the left flank of the B.E.F. at Gheluvelt, were repulsed but the British were pushed out of Zandvoorde, Hollebeke and Hollebeke Château as German attacks on a line from Messines to Wytschaete and St Yves were repulsed. The British rallied opposite Zandvoorde with French reinforcements and "Bulfin's Force" a command improvised from a motley formation of troops. The B.E.F. had many casualties and used all its reserves but the French IX Corps sent its last three battalions and retrieved the situation in the I Corps sector. On 31 October, German attacks near Gheluvelt broke through until a counter-attack by the 2nd Worcestershire restored the situation.[18]

The First Battle of Ypres was described in The Times of 16 December 1914 as follows:[19]

The full story of the gallantry shown by British troops which we publish below, with the detailed official narrative of events in Flanders which accompanies them, give some indication of the fine work which has been done by the Seventh Infantry and Third Cavalry Divisions.

The following order, which accompanied an order issued by General Sir Douglas Haig, published in The Times of November 30, was issued to the Seventh Division by Lieut.-General Sir H.S. Rawlinson:-

In forwarding the attached order by G.O.C. First Corps, I desire to place on record my own high appreciation of the endurance and fine soldierly qualities exhibited by all ranks of the Seventh Division from the time of their landing in Belgium. You have been called to take a conspicuous part in one of the severest struggles in the history of war, and you have had the honour and distinction of contributing in no small measure to the success of our arms and the defeat of the enemy’s plan.[20]

The task which fell to your share inevitably involved heavy losses, but you have at any rate the satisfaction of knowing that the losses you have inflicted upon the enemy have been far heavier.

The Seventh Division have gained for themselves a reputation for stubborn valour and endurance in defence, and I am certain that you will only add to your laurels when the opportunity of advancing to the attack is given you.

Such Army orders are necessarily written in general terms, and are invariably marked by a disciplined self-restraint. It may be of interest, therefore, to give some account of the circumstances in which " the stubborn valour and endurance " of which Sir Henry Rawlinson speaks were displayed. The work of the Seventh Division and the Third Cavalry Division to the date of the issue of this order at about the end of November, was of a kind which strains the mental and physical strength of troops, beyond any other form of operations. The two Divisions were sent to the aid of the Naval Division at Antwerp, and they were landed at Ostend and Zeebrugge about October 6. They occupied the regions of Bruges and Ghent, and they had to suffer the initial disappointment of finding that they arrived too late. Two days later Sir Henry Rawlinson moved his Head-quarters from Bruges to Ostend. The enemy were advancing in great force, and the position of our troops became untenable; indeed, the situation was so serious that the troops which had been detailed for lines of communication at the base were forced to embark again and return to Dunkirk.

The position of the two Divisions from this point onwards was one of grave danger. They were forced by the overwhelming superiority in numbers of the enemy to retire. From Ghent all the way to Ypres it was a desperate rearguard fight. They had to trek across a difficult country without any lines of communication and without a base, holding on doggedly from position to position, notably at Thielt and Roulers, until they took up their final stand before Ypres. What that stand has meant to England will one day be recognized. What it cost these troops, and how they fought, will be recorded in the proudest annals of their regiments. After the deprivations and the tension of being pursued through day and night by an infinitely stronger force, these two Divisions had yet to pass through the worst ordeal of all. It was left to a little force of 30,000 to keep the German Army at bay for some days while the other British Corps were being brought up from the Aisne (the First Corps did not come to their assistance till October 21). Here they hung on like grim death, with almost every man in the trenches holding a line which was of necessity a great deal too long a thin, an exhausted line against which the prime of the German first line troops were hurling themselves with fury. The odds against them were about eight to one, and when once the enemy found the range of a trench, the shells dropped into it from one end to the other with the most terrible effect. Yet the men stood firm and defended Ypres in such a manner that a German officer afterwards described their action as a brilliant feat of arms, and said that they were under the impression that there had been four British Corps against them at this point.

When the two Divisions were afterwards withdrawn from the firing line to refit, it was found that in the Infantry alone, out of the 400 officers who set out from England, there were only forty-four left, and out of 12,000 men only 2,336. So far, little has been published about the work of these Divisions probably because the bulk of the various dispatches is so great. It may be well, therefore, to place on record now an achievement which will one day be reckoned, no doubt, among the finest of the kind in British military history.'

The London Gazette of 20 January 1915 indicates that Douglas was promoted Major on 30 October 1914, but it also stated, “since died of wounds.” This would seem to indicate that he never actually received the promotion. His Medal Index Card (M.I.C.) to be shown in a later section of this narrative, shows his rank as Capt, ~~Major~~, apparently indicating that he never received the promotion.

On 31 October 1914 the Battle of Gheluvelt ended and on 2 November 1914 Captain Douglas was badly wounded at Ypres, probably from artillery fire on or near the division headquarters. The following day he was replaced as G.S.O. 3^rd Grade at the division headquarters. He was evacuated from the field as a result of his wounds and died in Boulogne on 14 November. He was buried at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, Plot II, Row B, Grave 1.

Figure 5. The Gravestone of William Sholto Douglas, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Find a Grave)

On 14 January Douglas received a Mention in the Despatches (M.I.D.) of Sir John French and this Mention was gazetted on 17 February 1915.[21] On 22 June 1915 this M.I.D. appeared in the London Gazette.

The probate of Douglas’ Will took place in London on 12 April 1916. His effects went to Eustace Alick Mortimore, Esquire in the amount of £5483, 2 Shillings and 1 pence (about $532,000 US in 2023 currency).[22]

For his service during the Great War of 1914-1918, Captain Douglas was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal with M.I.D. oak leaf.

Figure 8. The Medals That Would Have Been Awarded to Captain Douglas.
(Image from the author’s collection)

NOTE: The medals above and the Memorial Plaque below are not those of Captain Douglas. They are shown here for illustrative purposes only.

Figure 10. The Medal Index Card of Captain William Sholto Douglas, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

The card indicates that he was serving as G.S.O. 3^rd Grade on the General Staff of the 7^th Division while he was in France and indicates that he was wounded. It notes his rank as Captain, with the rank of Major lined through. There appears to be some confusion as to whether Douglas was entitled to the 1914 Star; however, his father applied for the Star on 27 July 1918 and he received it.

Figure 11. Captain Douglas’ Mention in Despatches Card.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com)

Captain William Sholto Douglas was a gallant officer with a distinguished career ahead of him before his unfortunate demise at Ypres. He had been in the forefront of the development of the Royal Engineers Signals Service as an officer in the newly formed Telegraph Battalion, as the commander of a Cable Telegraph Company and as an Assistant Director of Army Signals in an infantry division. He also had some valuable experience as a staff officer in the Military Intelligence Division and the Military Operations Division at the War Office.

Like many other officers of the 7^th Division in Flanders, he was involved in some of the heaviest fighting during the first two months of the Great War. Although he probably was serving at the division’s headquarters during the First Battle of Ypres, the headquarters probably came under heavy fire during the German offensive operations at Gheluvelt and he was severely wounded. His service during the war lasted for only 103 days and only 40 days from the date that he went to France and Flanders and the date of his death at Boulogne.

[1] Commonwealth War Graves Commission Memorial.

[2] John Charles Douglas was commissioned an Ensign in the 29^th (Worcester) Regiment of Foot on 3 July 1860. He was promoted Lieutenant, 7 November 1862; Captain, 25 April 1865; Brevet Major, 1 October 1877; Major, 29 January 1879; Lieutenant Colonel, 2 March 1883.

[3] De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919.

[4] Royal Engineers Medal Roll book.

[6] London Gazette, 10 December 1901.

[7] De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919.

[8] The Royal Engineers List, 1905.

[9] The Royal Engineers List, 1910.

[11] The Royal Engineers List, 1912.

[12] De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919.

[13] The Monthly Army List, April 1915.

[14] The London Gazette, 5 June 1914.

[15] The London Gazette, 31 October 1914.

[16] The Long, Long Trail.

[17] Wikipedia: First Battle of Ypres.

[19] KENNEDY, E.J. With the Immortal Seventh Division.

[20] The German plan to reach Calais.

[21] De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919 and Mention in Despatches Index Card.

[22] Probate Calendar, 1916.