Roger D’Arcy Whittaker

Rank: Captain

Regiment: Canadian Expeditionary Force / 13th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment

Mother: Mrs Edith Frances Whittaker

 Address: Rock St Michael, Hastings

Other Info: An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 5th August 1916 reads: “It is with great sadness that we announce that there seems to be little doubt that Captain and Adjutant Roger D’Arcy Whittaker, who was reported missing, fell on the 30th June. Mrs Whittaker has received many letters of sympathy from the officers of the gallant man’s regiment, in which they speak of high prise of him.

In a letter received from Colonel Spurrell, he says that: – He put his whole heart into his work, and thereby gained the respect of every officer and man in the regiment, and I might equally say of the Brigade, for Major Neville Lytton writes this morning: ‘Your old friend Whittaker was supremely courageous. He was wounded rather badly, and he went to have his wound dressed, then returned to his men, or tried to do so. Could you transmit to his people this expression of my admiration of the gallant fellow’. Your son’s loss is a bitter blow to all who knew him.

It is believed that he fell side by side with Captain Humble-Crofts, shot probably by machine gun bullet while leading his men.”

According to CWGC, Roger is remembered at the Loos Memorial, panel 69 to 73.

Captain Whittaker joined the CEF at the beginning of the war, his records can be searched for free by searching here.

Published: August 1916

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