Thank you to Jane Anthony for the following research.
Ronald Howard Glover was the younger son of John Howard Glover, Shipowner, and Ella Howard his wife, of Steele’s Road, Hampstead, and The Aldermoor, Holmbury St. Mary.
He entered Rugby School in 1911, and took a great interest in music and art and in the architectural work of the Natural History Society. He won the Modern Languages Exhibition when he left in 1915, and went for one term to Balliol College, Oxford. He was for a short time in his father’s office in London in the early spring of 1916, and went as a Cadet to Exeter in April.
Receiving his Commission in July 1916, he went to France in February 1917, and served with a Battery of the 8th Brigade, R.F.A., first on the Somme, and then in the Wytschaete District. He was subsequently attached to X Trench Mortar Battery, the 19th Division.
During the heavy fighting round Ypres towards the end of September, he was mortally wounded by a shell near St. Eloi, and died a few hours later at a Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul on September 25th, 1917, aged 20. He was buried at Bailleul.
The Oxford Magazine of November 2nd, 1917, contained the following:
“Full of spirits and enterprise, interested in all kinds of political and social questions, he enjoyed intensely even war-time Oxford, and looked forward to returning after the War. No military training could subdue his spirits, for there was a strong character beneath them, and during his few months in France they served him admirably.”
The General Commanding the Artillery of the Division wrote “Your boy is a great loss to me. He was always keen and cheerful, and everyone liked him.”
A brother Officer in his Battery wrote ” No one was more alive and interested in his work than he was, especially in the men he had to do with ; he liked talking with them and about them. It was certainly a pleasure to talk with him because of his very lively interest in everything and everybody. I shall always remember his first joining the Battery, because he had hardly been with us a day when he had to go out on patrol one night with the Infantry to see if the Boche was retiring. He did remarkably well, especially for one so new to the Front.”
The above information is taken from the obituaries of Ronald Glover from Rugby School and Balliol College Oxford.
| Son of | John and Ella Howard Glover of The Aldermoor, Holmbury St. Mary | |
| Regiment | X. 19th Trench Mortar Battery. Royal Field Artillery | |
| Date of Death | 25th September 1917 | |
| Place of Death | France | |
| Cause of Death | Killed in Action | |
| Age | 20 | |
| Cemetery | Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France |
