2310 Pte Ronald Ashley Ottewill, 10th Bn, Middx Regt

2310 Private Ronald Ashley Ottewill of the 10th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, died of dysentry in India on the 7th January 1915.

He enlisted with the 10th Middlesex at Stamford Brook on the 3rd September 1914. His surviving attestation papers note that he was living at 27 Silver Crescent, Gunnersbury and that he died at Barrackpore (Calcutta, West Bengal). He was 20 years old when he joined up, and stood just five feet and three inches tall. His physical development and vision are recorded as "good".

Surviving papers record that Ronald was the son of Ashley and Ellen Ottewill of 35 Uplands Road, Hornsey, and the brother of George, Leslie, May, Violet and Olive Ottewill. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his surname as OTTEWELL and notes that he was buried in Barrackpore New Cemetery and commemorated on the Madras Memorial in Chennai. Today, the cemetery is in ruins and has been vandalised over many years and it would appear unlikely that if it still exists, Ronald's grave is identifiable.

Ronald, who'd taken the imperial service obligation in September 1914, sailed for India on the 29th October. He'd been in khaki for less than two months, but the 10th Middlesex and other Territorial Force battalions like them were needed to free up regular battalions in some of the British Empire's far-flung outposts.

Ronald Ottewill was entitled to the British War Medal and this would have been sent to his father after the war.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, WO 363)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War