Roger James CHOLMELEY

Roger Cholmeley was born on 4 January 1872 in Swaby, England. His parents were Rev. James and Flora Sophia (née MacLeane) Cholmeley. He taught at Scotch from 1909 to 1910 as a classics teacher. His obituary in The Scotch Collegian of 1920 called him the ‘Senior Classical Master’. It mentioned too that ‘his keenness in Cadet affairs, particularly in the School Signalling Corps, will be still fresh in the memories of the boys of his time.’.

Roger was a schoolteacher, university lecturer and librarian before enlisting in late 1915 in the United Kingdom. He served in the Cheshire Regiment with the rank of Captain.

Roger died on 16 August 1919 at St. Petersburg, Russia. He was 47 years of age.

Service record

An Oxford-educated Englishman, Roger Cholmeley had served in British forces in the Boer War and held a commission as an officer in the Territorials (British reserve forces) before becoming the Senior Classics Master at Scotch College. He then became a lecturer in Greek and a Librarian at the newly founded University of Queensland.

In World War I he left Queensland for the United Kingdom in August 1915. He rose to the rank of Captain with the Cheshire Regiment. In September the London Gazette announced that he had won a Military Cross (see citation below). His citation praised his ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as Brigade Intelligence Officer.’ His work included studying the enemy’s trench system, fearlessly collecting information and volunteering for every patrol or raid.

He died serving with British forces against the Bolsheviks in North Russia in 1919. He drowned after being washed overboard while overhauling machine guns that were needed at daybreak the following day. The Scotch Collegian had only sketchy details about his military career, but was surely not exaggerating unduly when it asserted that ‘inside a frail body he had the heart of a great man, and that fear was an unknown word to him.’

Roger Cholmeley has no known grave, but is commemorated at the Archangel Memorial, Leningradskaya Oblast, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Photographs and Documents:

Photo of Roger Cholmeley, lecturer in Classics at the University of Queensland. From the University of Queensland website: http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:223336

Citation for Roger Cholmeley’s Military Cross

Sources:

1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
2. Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
3. Mishura Scotch Database
4. Scotch Collegian 1920
5. Supplement to the London Gazette, 17 September 1917, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30287/supplement/9565.