William Glynn Charles Gladstone MP
Rank: Lieutenant
Date of Death: 13/04/1915
Age: 29
Regiment/Service: Royal Welsh Fusiliers (1st Bn.)
Cemetery: Hawarden (St. Deiniol) Churchyard
Additional information: Son of William Henry Gladstone and the Hon. Gertrude Gladstone of Hawarden Castle, Flintshire and grandson of the Rt. Hon. W E Gladstone, the former Prime Minister. Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock Burghs since 1911.
Rutherglen Lore information: Kilmarnock Burghs.
Soldier’s Effects information: Mother the Hon. Gertrude Gladstone. Uncles Henry Neville Gladstone and the Rt. Hon. Herbert John Viscount Gladstone.
De Ruvigny’s Roll information: only s. of the late William Henry Gladstone M.P. by his wife the Hon. Gertrude nee Stuart (41 Berkeley Square) 4th dau. Of Charles, 12th and last Lord Blantyre and gdson. of the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, P.C., M.P., the distinguished statesman; b. 41 Berkeley Square, London, 14 July 1885; educ. Eton and New College, Oxford and was President of the Oxford Union in 1907. He succeeded his grandfather in the Hawarden Estates, 19 May 1898 and was assistant Private Secretary to the Lord Lieut. Of Ireland 1909 and an Honorary Attaché to the British Embassy in Washington 1911. In 1911 he entered Parliament as Liberal member for Kilmarnock Burgs and when in the following year made his first speech in Parliament, in seconding the motion for an address in reply to a speech from the Throne, he frankly acknowledged that it was a handicap to bear the name Gladstone, observing: “I feel that every effort is doomed to fall short of the very incautiously be formed by son of one who bears the name that I do.” During the short time he had been a member, however, he had already by his own marked individuality gained the attention of the House and given evidence of abilities which promised a distinguished future. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Custo Rotuloram of Flintshire and President of the County Territorial Association in 1911an d after the outbreak of the war volunteered for Imperial service. He was gazette 2nd. Lieut. To the Royal Welsh Fusiliers 15 Aug 1914 and promoted Lieut. 7 April 1915; went to the Front, 15 March 1915 and was killed in action near Laventie in France on 13 April 1915, being shot dead while in the trenches endeavouring to locate a sniper. A doctor was with him immediately but he never regained consciousness. His body was brought back and interred in the Churchyard at Hawarden 23 April. Writing to his mother from the trenches he said: “You will be wrong if you regret my coming, for I am very glad and proud to have got to the Front. It is not the length of existence that counts, but what is achieved during that existence, however short.”
1891 census information:
Address: Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales.
Father: William H (50) land owner, J.P., born about 1841 in St Martins, London.
Mother: Gertrude (41) born about 1850 in Scotland.
Sister: Evelyn C (9) born about 1882 in St Georges, London.
Sister: Constance G (7) born about 1884 in St Georges, London.
Self: William G C (5) born about 1886 in St Georges, London.
* In 1901 William is a pupil at Eton.