Harold Cawley
Harold Thomas Cawley | |
---|---|
Born | Crumpsall | June 12, 1878
Died | September 23, 1915 Gallipoli | (aged 37)
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Barrister, Politician, Soldier |
Political party | Liberal Party |
Captain Harold Thomas Cawley (12 June 1878 – 23 September 1915)[1] was a British barrister, Liberal Party politician and soldier.
Background[edit]
Born at Crumpsall, he was the second son of Frederick Cawley, 1st Baron Cawley and his wife Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith.[2] His younger brother was Oswald Cawley.[2] Cawley was educated at Rugby School and then at New College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts.[3] He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1902 and went to the Northern Circuit, working in Lancashire.[3] Two years later he joined the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Manchester Regiment.[4]
Career[edit]
In 1910, Cawley entered the British House of Commons for Heywood,[1] and a year later he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary Reginald McKenna.[2] On the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he served with his Territorial Force battalion (now the 6th Battalion, Manchester Regiment and became aide de camp to Major-General William Douglas, the officer commanding 42nd (East Lancashire) Division.[4]
Death[edit]
The 42nd Division went to Gallipoli in 1915. During September the Turks exploded a series of mines in front of the British trench known as the 'Gridiron' and damaging its defences. Repairs after one mine on 22 September were covered by a bombing party of 1/6th Battalion Manchester Regiment who held the lip of the crater. The same day the Royal Engineers exploded a counter-mine and the Manchesters rushed the crater and built a barrier across it. Captain Cawley, serving with 1/6th Bn, was killed that night by a Turkish sniper, and the crater became known as 'Cawley's Crater'.[5][6] Before his death, he sent a letter to his father, at that time representative of Prestwich in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[4]
As a Member of Parliament the letter was not subject to military censorship, and it reported the mishandling of the Dardanelles campaign in some detail.[4] Cawley is buried at Lancashire Landing Cemetery in Gallipoli.[7]
It was in memory of Harold and two other sons – Oswald and John – who died in the war that their father endowed a ward at Ancoats Hospital, Manchester, in 1919 at a cost of £10,000.[8]
All three brothers are commemorated on the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall. Harold and Oswald, on Panel 8, are among the 22 MPs that died during World War I to be named on that memorial. John, included on the memorial as the son of an MP, appears on Panel 2 of the memorial.[9][10][11] Harold Cawley is one of 19 MPs who fell in the war who are commemorated by heraldic shields in the Commons Chamber.[12]
A further act of commemoration came with the unveiling in 1932 of a manuscript-style illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons, which includes short biographical accounts of the life and death of the Cawley brothers.[13][14]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Leigh Rayment – British House of Commons". Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b c "ThePeerage – Captain Harold Thomas Cawley". Retrieved 12 December 2006.
- ^ a b Who is Who 1914. London: Adam & Charles Black Ltd. 1914. p. 363.
- ^ a b c d "Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives – Cawley, Harold Thomas". Retrieved 24 June 2009.
- ^ Frederick E. Gibbon, The 42nd East Lancashire Division 1914–1918, London: Country Life, 1920/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, ISBN 1-84342-642-0, p. 53.
- ^ Debrett, John (1918). Arthur G. M. Hesilrige (ed.). Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son. pp. XXIV.
- ^ "Casualty Details: Cawley, Harold Thomas". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ Brockbank, E. M., ed. (1929). The Book of Manchester and Salford Written for the 97th Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association. Manchester: George Falkner. pp. 126–27.
- ^ "Recording Angel memorial Panel 2". Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "Recording Angel memorial Panel 8". Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "List of names on the Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall" (PDF). Recording Angel memorial, Westminster Hall. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "Cawley, Harold". Heraldic shields to MPs, First World War. UK Parliament (www.parliament.uk). Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ "House of Commons War Memorial: Final Volumes Unveiled by The Speaker". The Times. No. 46050. London. 6 February 1932. p. 7.
- ^ Moss-Blundell, Edward Whitaker, ed. (1931). The House of Commons Book of Remembrance 1914–1918. E. Mathews & Marrot.
External links[edit]
- 1878 births
- 1915 deaths
- Alumni of New College, Oxford
- British Army personnel of World War I
- British military personnel killed in World War I
- Cawley family
- English barristers
- Manchester Regiment officers
- Members of the Inner Temple
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- People educated at Rugby School
- UK MPs 1910
- UK MPs 1910–1918
- Younger sons of barons
- 19th-century English lawyers
- Territorial Force officers
- Volunteer Force officers
- Military personnel from Manchester