Captain Edward George LANGDALE (1902)

1/5th Battalion, Royal Leicestershire Regiment
Born 27 January 1883 in Kensington, London
Killed in action 13 October 1915, aged 32
Commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France. Also commemorated in Oakham School Chapel and on Oakham’s town war memorial.

Edward Langdale was the son of Frederick William Langdale and Ada Maria, née Jones, of 17 Earl's Court Square, London. He was married to Dora Janet, née Barnett, on 6 August 1914; they had a daughter.

He was educated privately, and at Eastbourne College where he captained the cricket XI in 1900 and 1901. He rowed for Merton at the Henley Regatta. After University he taught at King Edward VII School Sheffield, and at Oakham School, Rutland, between 1912 and 1914.

At the outbreak of war he was Officer Commanding the Oakham School Officer Training Corps. He joined the Leicestershire Regiment (Territorials) and was commissioned as Lieutenant on 5 August 1914. He sailed to France on 22 February 1915. Later that year he was Mentioned in Dispatches.

He was killed in action while leading an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, during the Battle of Loos, on 13 October 1915. An account written by one of the other soldiers who took part in the action reads:

By the time they reached the front line the company commander (Captain Langdale) was leading them himself. Walking along with his pipe in his mouth, Capt. Langdale might have been at a Field Day, as he calmly signalled his right platoon to keep up in line, with "Keep it up, Oakham" as they crossed our trench. The line was kept, and so perfectly that many of the stragglers who had come back turned and went forward again with them. But once more as they were reaching the German front line came that deadly machine gun fire, and their gallant commander was one of the first to fall, killed with a bullet in the head.