Private Memorial to 2nd Lt K H A Rae 8th Battn The Rifle Brigade, just outside Sanctuary Wood Cemetery near Ypres in Belgium
2nd Lt K H A Rae 8th Battn The Rifle Brigade, was born on 24 May 1889 in Birkenhead, Thomas Keith Hedley Rae was the youngest son of Edward Rae, a stockbroker, and his wife Margaret. He was educated privately because of ill health but went up to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1907 and took 2nd class honours in History in 1912. Rae founded a boys' club in Oxford which continued to flourish long after his death and took great interest in the well-being of the young. After coming down he taught as an Assistant Master at Marlborough College until he volunteered to Together with many Balliol men he was commissioned into the 8th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in 14th (Light) Division and went to France in May 1915. Their first major engagement was at Hooge in late July. Rae commanded a platoon in 'C' Company holding the line at Hooge Crater. Following a violent barrage early in the morning "there was a sudden hissing sound and a bright crimson glare over the crater turned the whole scene red" wrote 2/Lt G V Carey later, "As I looked I saw three or four distinct jets of flame - like a line of power hoses spreading fire not water - shoot across my fire " This was the first use of 'liquid fire', or flame-throwers, and it wrought carnage among 'C' Company. 2/Lt Rae was last seen burnt and bleeding, standing on his parapet firing at the attackers. He has no known grave. After the War Rae's family came to an arrangement with Baron de Vinck, owner of the land, and erected a Celtic Cross on the spot where he was last seen. Of Belgian blue stone it has a rectangular base in two stepped courses surmounted by a plinth block and cross, and it is, in fact, a replica of the memorial at Marlborough to the Assistant Masters who fell in the War. It was moved to its new site in June 1966
Size: 3579px × 4771px
Location: Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, nr Ieper, Belgium
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1914-18, 2nd, belgium, brigade, front, great, lt, memorial, military, private, rae, remembrance, rifle, war, western, world, ypres
