Lieutenant Oliver Wakefield of the Household Battalion, who was killed in action on October 12, was a son of Mr E Wakefield (formerly a member of Parliament in New Zealand and nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield). Lieutenant Wakefield was killed in the attack near Poelcapelle. After and awful night, the battalion went over the top, and were advancing with very little opposition. Lieutenant Wakefield and Captain Cazalet were discussing the situation and getting the men together, when a heavy German shell came over. Lieutenant Wakefield remarked “Its got me” and then fell over and never regained consciousness, his steel helmet having been pierced and his head crushed.

His battalion commander writing to Mr Wakefield says;-“ Your son was one of the bravest men I ever met, and a great example to others. We feel his loss enormously, and his men were devoted to him”. His company commander says:-“It was indeed a privilege for me to have in my company, one who in every respect was the personification of the highest type of English gentlemen. As young as I am, I was able to appreciate his exceeding great unselfishness, combined with a tremendous sense of humour”. His Adjutant says:-“ He was quite the straightest person I had ever met, utterly fearless and loved by officers and men alike”. Mr Wakefield has also received a letter of sympathy from the King and Queen.

Lieutenant Wakefield was born in Wellington and received his first education at Wellington College. He served in the Boer War with the C.I.V. and was badly wounded. Returning to civil life, he studied for the church and before the war was three years one of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s commissaries in Western Canada. When the war broke out, he offered his services as a soldier and received his commission in the 7th Hussars, from which he was transferred to the Life Guards, and later to the Household Battalion, which lost 600 men in the battle of Arras, in which Lieutenant Wakefield was wounded. AWMM