Person

Served as a Private with the 16th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (Newcastle Commercials) at Alnwick. Posted to the 30th (Reserve) Battalion. Before embarkation he joined the 27th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (4th Tyneside Irish) in France and was killed in action on 1 July 1916.

In D Company of the 27th Battalion, Captain Falkous was last seen encouraging and helping his men forward when he fell mortally wounded. His batman Private Greaves, also wounded in the same burst, went to his aid but the Captain refused assistance and implored the private to save himself. When Mrs Falkous received the news of her son’s death, she tried to obtain more information, writing several times to the Army Graves
Registration and to the Red Cross. On the 12th of July, Lieutenant Dan O’Hanlon wrote to her,

‘Dear Mrs Falkous,

It is with deep regret I am carrying out Bob’s
wish – he asked me to write you should anything happen + I have been
delaying in the hope that some better news would arrive. But now I
think we must take it that he has lost his life in the cause we are
all fighting for,. + tho it will be poor satisfaction to you, I feel
you ought to know that the last seen of him was while he was leading
+ urging on his men, cheering them with encouraging words + helping
them on until he was seen to drop. We were good pals Bob + I in this
Battalion I shall miss him more than anyone, from the little I knew
of him I can realize how great your loss will be. That God will help
you to bear your grief is my earnest prayer, + if there is any little
thing I can do for you with regards to Bob’s affairs in the Army
please do not fail to call on me.

With deepest sympathy

Believe me to be Yours v sincerely

Dan O’Hanlon.’

Mrs Falkous also received a short note from the the Captain’s batman Private Greaves, stating the circumstances of the Captain’s death and
his own wounding.

Civil Parish: Gateshead

Birth date: 1893

Death date: 1916-Jul-01

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Scarborough (1911 census)
Low Fell 1914

Education: Friends School

Organisation membership: 16th, 26th 30th & 27th Battalions Northumberland Fusiliers.

Employment: Grocer’s apprentice (1911 census)

Military service:

16th, 26th 30th & 27th Battalions Northumberland Fusiliers. 1914 - 1916

Medal(s): War Medal & Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, France
Book of Remembrance, Holy Trinity Church, Church Street East, Sunderland (now closed)
Parish Church of Saint Ignatius the Martyr, Hendon, triptych
Roll of Honour, 16th Northumberland Fusiliers, Cooke Historical Records, Newcastle
Saint Helen’s Church, Belle Vue Bank, Low Fell, plaque

Gender: Male

Contributed by John Sheen