Military History

Theatre of War	Bravery Medals	Commonwealth War Grave or Memorial
France and Flanders	Military Cross and Bar	Pozieres Memorial
Arrived in Theatre	War Medals	SWFHS Area Memorials
7 Nov 1914	1914 Star, British War & Victory Medals	Kineton
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted	Other Service Information
German Spring Offensive	5 Sep 1914 in London	Commissioned to 2nd Lt on 4 Sep 1915
		1 Jan 1918 - Promoted to Captain
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
Arvillers	Pte 2026 1st/4th Seaforth Highlanders

Military Cross and Bar

• Given MC for Bravery in the Field at Cambrai in November 1917
• Given Bar to the MC for Bravery in the Field in 1918

Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)           

The Battalion report on operations from 20th March to 2nd April 1918 contains the following information about 28 Mar 1918, the day that Roderic is recorded as being killed in action. In Front of Arvillers. At 7:30am on March 28th orders were received that the French would relieve the battalion during the morning.

At about 9:00am the enemy commenced a heavy bombardment on our line and also the village of Arvillers , and about 9:45 launched a very heavy attack on our front. This attack was beaten off with very heavy losses to the enemy and his barrage came back and bombarded our line for another half hour. The enemy then attacked again but by this time the Garrison was reduced considerably and it was there that Col. Walsh wrote a message to 60^th Brigade that he could not keep he's part of the line intact unless reinforcements were sent, but he would hold on to the last.

At about 11.00am the order to retire was received and the brigade concentrated by a tall chimney just east of Hangest. The brigade was reformed rapidly and battalions marched to Fresnoy-en-Chaussee. From here the battalion marched with the rest of the brigade to a large wood later known as Rifle Wood, where they spent the night with Outposts on the road". END