Roll of Honour - Sussex

Lieutenant, 7th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Killed in action 22 May 1915. Born 23 December 1881. Buried in BROWN'S ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, FESTUBERT, Pas de Calais, France. Plot III. Row B. Grave 17. See also Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey.

Warne, William Millar. b. 23 Dec., 1881. (Weekites); Left C.Q., 1899. Royal Coll. of Science, London.-Analytical Chemist.

W. M. Warne, Esq., Abergele, Felppham, Bognor.

Extract from Bond of Sacrifice: Officers Died in the Great War 1914-1916, volume 2, page 493-494:

LIEUTENANT (temp.) WILLIAM MILLAR WARNE, ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY, of Duchi - n - wai, Barnham, Sussex, was the second son of the late Edward Warne, and was born at Forest Hill on the 24th December, 1881.

He was educated at Charterhouse, and received his commission as temporary Lieutenant on the 11th December, 1914. He was killed in action in France on the 22nd May, 1915.

His Commanding Officer wrote: "I was wounded, and directly he heard it he went off at once to find me and see what he could do for me. On his way he was hit by a shell—he had to face a tremendous cannonading—and I knew nothing until I was being brought back half an hour ago and found him lying in the path. You know that he was my orderly officer." And in a later letter: "You understand that it was entirely his loyalty to me that caused his death; I had been wounded down at the observing station, which was being very heavily shelled and a message had been sent up without my knowledge to say so. I sent through at once to say that no one was to come down, knowing that they would have to come through an inferno of bursting shells to get to me, but I knew he would come, and—may I say it—I hoped be would, as there was no other officer with me. My wound had been roughly bound up by a soldier, and I wanted some one to come and help me in. I knew he would come —I had only known him a few days, but I knew that he was a man who would face anything if he thought he was wanted or could do any good, and he knew that I should be wanting him. My Adjutant tells me he started off immediately the message came in.. . . He must have died at once—he cannot have suffered, as he was found almost immediately afterwards. I suppose he had told you that he had been appointed as my orderly officer; he had only been with us a short time, but the time had been quite long enough for him to gain my complete confidence and my thorough liking."

The Adjutant wrote to Lieutenant Warne's widow: " Your poor husband had only been with us about ten days or so, and was really assisting me in my duties as Adjutant to the Brigade. He did give me tremendous assistance too, and during the short time I knew him we became groat friends. . . . Your husband was laid to rest close to the guns of one of our batteries, and in a very nice place. One could not have had a finer death than his. He was sitting at the telephone with me when a message came in to say that our Colonel bad been wounded, and your husband at once got on to a bicycle and went to his assistance. He didn't reach the Colonel, poor fellow."

Lieutenant Warne married Harriet, daughter of William Hunter, and left one daughter, Marion, born in February, 1908.

Extract from England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1915:

WARNE William Millar of Duchi-n-Wai Barnham near Bognor Sussex died 22 May 1915 in France Probate London 10 August to Harriet Warne widow and Thomas Francis Leadbitter esquire. Effects £4533 1s. 8d.

Extract from Chichester Observer - Wednesday 7 February 1917, page 1:

A MEMORIAL WINDOW : EASTERGATE .—
A memorial window has recently been dedicated by the Vicar, the Rev. W. D. Yoward, at the Eastergate Parish Church, in honour of a former resident, Lieutenant William Millar Warne. R.G.A., who was killed in action at Ncuve Chapelle in August 1915. The dedication ceremony was of a private character, only members of the deceased officer's family attending. The window shows two figures, representing Faith and Fortitude, with an inscription below.

Extract from Chichester Observer - Wednesday 7 February 1917, page 1, and roughly the same in West Sussex Gazette - Thursday 17 June 1915, page 9:

Lieutenant William Millar Warne, Duchi-a-Wai, Barnham, was killed in action on May 22 at the age of 33. He had lived at Barnham for about eight years, and as a mining engineer spent much time abroad in West Africa and India. As a big game hunter he had had many adventures. After the war broke out he obtained a commission and was gazetted to the R.G.A. in December. Two months later he went out to France.

EASTERGATE WAR MEMORIAL