Longford Loftus Welman

Story:
Longford Loftus Welman was born in Longford, Ireland, on 5 May 1894 the son of Herbert Loftus Welman (Major retd.) and Annie Harriet Welman (nee Burrows).  He however spent a lot of his very early life with the family at Halkyn Castle, Halkyn, Holywell, Flintshire, Wales.  The 1911 Census shows him as a boarder pupil at Shaftesbury Grammar School, Shaftesbury, Dorset.   He enlisted on 3 Sep 1913 and joined the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant.   He served in France and Flanders and rose to the rank of Captain (Acting Major).  He was awarded the Military Cross for Distinguished Services according to an announcement in the London Gazette on 16 Sep 1918.   At the end of hostilities he was also awarded the Victory and British War Medals as well as the 1914/15 Star. He appears on a list of Old Boys living in London or suburbs in the February 1922 edition of the Shaftesbury Grammar School magazine. He remained in the Army being based at various locations during later years.  He had married Gladys Conquest in Paris, France, on 9 Nov 1917.  Longford died whilst still a Major with the Royal (The Queen's) Surrey Regiment on 3 Jul 1944 at the Royal Masonic Hospital, Hammersmith, London, and was buried at the Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking, Surrey.   One of his brothers, Capt. Noel Yvon Loftus Welman, was killed in action in France on 25 Sep 1915.