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May 1915 before he transferred to the East Surrey Regiment as a second lieutenant, and then volunteered for the Machine Gun Corps, and was promoted to lieutenant. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.

In March of 1916 his sister Gertrude died and Douglas was able to attend her funeral. Four months later he attended the funeral of the husband of his sister, May, Sergeant Thomas Hodson at St David’s Churchyard in Llanfaes, Brecon. Thomas, who had been serving with the South Wales Borderers when severely wounded in the battle of the Aisne in 1914, which eventually caused his death.

Douglas was home again from the front in April 1917 acting as best man at the wedding of a friend, Private W. D. Vaughan and Gertrude Watkins, both from Brecon. Douglas married Edith Elizabeth Hutchings in Llangattock on 11 February 1918. Edith had been working at Douglas’s regimental canteen at Grantham.

In June 1918 his elder brother Albert²⁷, a sergeant in the South Wales Borderers was killed in France; his other brothers Maurice and Harry were also serving there. They both had settled in Canada, but joined up as soon as the war broke out, and came over with a Canadian contingent.

________________________

See previous record

Lieutenant Douglas Gordon Webster MC

South Wales Borderers attached to Machine Gun Corps, 21st

Battalion

Killed in action September 29th, 1918, aged 26

Buried in Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

Douglas was born on November 25th,1891, the third son of George, an army pensioner, and Ellen Webster living at the Brecon Barracks. George was a canteen steward, having previously served with the South Wales Borderers. Douglas was baptised in Brecon in St Mary’s Church on March 18th, 1892. At the time he had six older sisters, Ellen Eugenie, Gertrude, Vida, May, Gladys and Kate and two older brothers Harry George and Albert and by 1895, a younger brother Maurice. Vida died in 1898. By 1901 the family had moved to 88, The Watton, Brecon. Douglas attended Pendre and Brecon County Schools and, at fifteen, became a railway clerk in Brecon in 1907 with a salary of six shillings per week. Douglas was a prominent player for the town football club.

In 1911 he had moved to Carlisle, still working as a clerk for the Railway, but his salary had advanced to £55 per year. The family were now running the Prince of Wales Inn at 91, The Watton in Brecon. In 1912 his father died.

Douglas was with the local Territorial Force before the war and was mobilised with them in August 1914, initially with the Brecknockshire Battalion South Wales Borderers, as a corporal in Aden and Mhow, India in 1915 under Colonel Lord Glanusk. He was home on leave in