Serjeant Robert Henry Vanson and Corporal Archibald John Vanson served together in the 1st (Royal) Dragoons and died on 30 October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres. Sons of Henry and Frances Matilda Vanson, they had grown up in a family whose history connected British India with Canterbury and Maidstone. Today, both are commemorated on Panel 5 of the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. [1][2]
Early Life and Family
Robert, the elder brother, was born in Bangalore, India, on 3 January 1886, according to the principal facts in his family report, and baptised there on 23 January. Archibald, often called Archie, was born in Bangalore on 18 November 1889 and baptised on 5 December. Their parents were Henry Vanson and Frances Matilda Mayes. [1][2]
The baptismal material associated with Robert identifies Henry as a lance-corporal in the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment. By the 1901 census, Henry had become a prison warder, and the family lived at 12 St Martins Terrace, Canterbury. Robert, fifteen, worked as a domestic yard boy; Archie, eleven, was still a child at home. [1][2]
Seven children were recorded in the household. Robert, William, Archie and Samuel had been born in India, while Leonard, Lilly and Frederick were born in Canterbury. The census therefore preserves the family’s transition from overseas military life to a home in Kent. Their parents’ later address, recorded in the brothers’ commemoration details, was 22 Hope Street, Maidstone. [1][2][3]
Robert: Soldier and Newly Married Husband
Robert became a regular cavalry soldier, serving as Serjeant 5336 in the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. His report records military residence in India in 1911, although the transcribed age does not agree with his birth date. His subsequent marriage places him with the regiment’s South African connections shortly before the war. [2]
On 26 February 1914, Robert married Flora Ada Goldsmith at Potchefstroom, South Africa. The Royal Dragoons and 10th Hussars were both stationed at Potchefstroom before returning to Britain and joining 6th Cavalry Brigade in September. Robert’s marriage thus preceded the regiment’s deployment to Europe by only a few months. [2][4]
The family report records no children of the marriage. In the later casualty information, Flora appears as Flora Ada Barrett, formerly Vanson, of 54 Havelock Street, Canterbury. Her changed surname should not be confused with her maiden name, Goldsmith. [2]
Archie’s Entry into the Army
Archie’s surviving militia papers give a particularly vivid glimpse of his youth. On 10 January 1905, aged fifteen, he attested for the 3rd Battalion, The Buffs, as a boy, receiving the number 7449. An errand boy living near Canterbury, he stood 5 feet 2½ inches tall and weighed 102 pounds. His complexion was described as fresh, with brown hair and brown eyes. [1]
He completed initial drill and attended the 1905 training. A subsequent entry records that he joined the South Lancashire Regiment on 18 April 1905. The available material does not establish the complete sequence of his later transfers, but by October 1914 he was Corporal 2601 in the Royal Dragoons, serving alongside Robert. [1]
No wife or children are recorded for Archie. His early papers named his parents, Henry and Fanny, as next of kin. “Fanny” was the familiar form used there for Frances Matilda. [1]
The Royal Dragoons Go to War
The brothers’ medal-index summaries give the same date for entry into the theatre of war: 8 October 1914. This matches the arrival at Ostend of 3rd Cavalry Division, which had embarked from Southampton after assembling at Ludgershall. The Royal Dragoons formed part of its 6th Cavalry Brigade. [1][2][5]
Although cavalry retained a mounted role, the fighting described in the regiment’s October diary involved holding trenches, supporting infantry and defending threatened ground. The division participated in the Antwerp operations and then First Ypres, including the fighting at Langemarck and Gheluvelt. Robert and Archie entered this campaign only weeks before their deaths. [2][5]
Robert and Archie entered the war together on 8 October 1914. Twenty-two days later, both were dead.
Medal-index and casualty details in the family reports.
Unit Context: Gheluvelt and Klein Zillebeke
The brothers died during the Battle of Gheluvelt, the phase of First Ypres fought from 29 to 31 October 1914. The Royal Dragoons were then helping defend the southern approaches to Ypres as German attacks placed the cavalry front under intense pressure. [5][6]
The war-diary account reproduced in Robert’s report describes the regiment moving forward on 29 October to support the 7th Division in a counter-attack near Gheluvelt, before returning to bivouac at Klein Zillebeke. The following day it again moved into supporting trenches. Reports arrived that the Zandvoorde line had been lost and that squadrons had been cut off. [2]
That wider crisis is independently documented: on 30 October, German forces captured Zandvoorde after a heavy bombardment, driving the front of 3rd Cavalry Division back towards the Klein Zillebeke ridge. The brothers’ regiment was therefore fighting amid a dangerous withdrawal and efforts to establish another defensive line, rather than participating in a conventional cavalry charge. [2][6]
The regimental account describes attacks by artillery and infantry around a château, the gradual retirement of “A” Squadron, and the withdrawal of a machine gun by hand. By late afternoon, “B” and “C” Squadrons occupied a second line in front of Klein Zillebeke. The thinness of the position and an exposed flank made the situation critical; relief by the Grenadier Guards followed after midnight. [2]
Circumstances of Their Deaths
The diary summary names both Sergeant Vanson and Corporal Vanson among the regiment’s dead on 30 October. Robert’s record classifies him as killed in action. Archie’s principal facts describe him as having died of wounds, while the diary summary and family notices describe him as killed. The material establishes the common date, but does not resolve that difference in classification. [1][2]
Nor does it establish that the brothers fell together, in the same squadron or during one incident. They shared a regiment, a battlefield and a date of death; a more precise reconstruction would require evidence not present in these reports. Robert was twenty-eight. Archie’s recorded birth date makes him twenty-four, although some commemorative sources give his age as twenty-six. [1][2][7]
Commemoration and Family Loss
Neither brother has a known grave. Both are commemorated on Panel 5 of the Menin Gate, Ypres, where their names preserve their regimental connection as well as their family relationship. The reports’ references to death “in France” should be read alongside the battlefield geography: the fighting around Klein Zillebeke and Ypres was in Belgium. [1][2][8]
Their medal-index summaries record the 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal. Robert’s effects account also records payments to his widow, including a later war gratuity. As with several other passages in the reports, inconsistent transcriptions of personal names caution against reproducing every administrative detail without consulting the originals. [1][2]
“We think of them in silence … But ever in our aching hearts / Their memory still we keep.”
Their parents’ remembrance notice, Kent Messenger & Gravesend Telegraph, 3 November 1917.
Legacy
Henry and Frances remembered their sons together in newspaper notices in 1916 and 1917. These notices are the strongest surviving expression of the family’s double bereavement: two sons, different in age and rank, lost on the same day. Robert also left Flora, his wife of only eight months. [1][2]
Their shared biography restores the men behind adjacent casualty entries: Robert, the elder brother and newly married serjeant; Archie, the former errand boy who entered the militia at fifteen. Their brotherhood links childhood in an Army family, life in Canterbury and service in the Royal Dragoons with the grief preserved by their parents and their names at Ypres. [1][2]
Sources and Further Reading
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Serjeant Robert Henry Vanson.
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Corporal Archibald John Vanson.
- The Long, Long Trail: 3rd Cavalry Division — deployment, engagements and brigade organisation.
- Remembering the Fallen: Zandvoorde Churchyard — historical account of the German breakthrough on 30 October 1914.
- Imperial War Museums, Lives of the First World War: Archibald John Vanson — family photographs and Menin Gate panel images.
- John Bickersteth, History of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 1914–1919 — further reading on the brothers’ brigade.
- Individual Report for Archibald John Vanson and Individual Report for Robert Henry Vanson, supplied family-history compilations — census, militia, medal and casualty material; regimental diary summary; and local remembrance notices from the Maidstone Telegraph and Kent Messenger & Gravesend Telegraph.
Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Archibald-John-Vanson.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/27aff798-df0b-4f9a-80ca-639c7a4dfe08/Individual-Report-for-Archibald-John-Vanson.pdf
[2] Individual-Report-for-Robert-Henry-Vanson.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/fd76b1ba-b56a-46a4-b8c9-5e9c25357baf/Individual-Report-for-Robert-Henry-Vanson.pdf
[3] Corporal Archibald John Vanson (1889-1914) – Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12033717/archibald-john-vanson
[4] 6th Cavalry Brigade (United Kingdom) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Cavalry_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)
[5] 3rd Cavalry Division – The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/3rd-cavalry-division/
[6] Zandvoorde Churchyard – Remembering the Fallen https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/zandvoorde-churchyard.html
[7] Archibald John Vanson – Every One Remembered https://www.everyoneremembered.org/profiles/soldier/1627381/
[8] Life story: Archibald John Vanson | Lives of the First World War https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4547939
[9] Corporal Archibald John Vanson | War Casualty Details 1627381 … https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1627381/archibald-john-vanson/
[10] 3rd Cavalry Division (United Kingdom) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Cavalry_Division_(United_Kingdom)
[11] Serjeant Robert Henry Vanson 1st (Royal) Dragoons. Died … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/1627383/Serjeant-Robert-Henry-Vanson
[12] Serjeant Robert Henry Vanson (1886-1914) – Find a Grave Memorial https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12033719/robert_henry-vanson
[13] History of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 1914-1919 – Archive.org https://archive.org/download/historyof6thcav00bick/historyof6thcav00bick.pdf
[14] Zandvoorde Churchyard https://www.theypressalient.com/post/zandvoorde-churchyard
[15] 3 CAVALRY DIVISION Headquarters, Branches and Services … https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/3-cavalry-division-headquarters-branches-and-services-general-staff-appendices-to-1141-11-october-1914-30-november-1914-first-world-war-war-diary-wo95-1142-1/
[16] Search British Army WW1 Casualties as Reported in The Times https://uk.forceswarrecords.com/publication/1411/uk-the-times-index-of-casualties-1914
[17] Private William Cliff 1st (Royal) Dragoons. Died Friday 30 … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/1607030/Private-William-Cliff
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