Biography of Captain James Harold Cuthbert 1876-1915

On 21st July 1876 Captain James Harold Cuthbert was born to Sidney Cuthbert (age 25) at Melster, Pietermaritzburg, Natal.

On 9th June 1882 [his father] Sidney Cuthbert (age 31) died.

On 15th February 1902. Lieutenant James Cuthbert (age 25) was discharged from hospital for work duties after recovering from being dangerously ill with enteric fever.

20th March 1902. Lieutenant J.H. Cuthbert (age 25) was now on the S.S. Roslin Castle, which left Cape Town for England as dangerously ill with Enteric Fever.

On 24th September 1903 Captain James Harold Cuthbert (age 27) and Anne Dorothy Byng (age 22) were married. She the daughter of Francis Edmund Cecil Byng 5th Earl Strafford (age 68) and Emily Georgina Kerr Countess Strafford (age 56).

On 31st January 1907 [his wife] Anne Dorothy Byng (age 26) was accidentally shot and killed by her husband Captain James Harold Cuthbert (age 30) when he slipped whilst out on a pheasaant shoot at their home Beaufront Castle, Hexham [Map].

On 12th October 1908 Captain James Harold Cuthbert (age 32) and Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh were married.

In 1910 [his daughter] Vida Cuthbert Baroness Darcy was born to Captain James Harold Cuthbert (age 33).

In 1911 Captain James Harold Cuthbert (age 34) was appointed High Sheriff of Northumberland.

After 27th September 1915. The Reverend Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, wrote in the Hexham Parish Magazine "All our deepest sympathies are with [his former wife] Mrs Cuthbert in her time of Trial. All who knew Captain Cuthbert (deceased) knew that he would be heroic in the war wherever heroism was expected. It would be no surprise to us to learn that when last seen he was leading his men with stick in hand. As adjutant of the Irish Guards in England he was beloved by officers and men. Mr [John], Kipling (deceased) and Mr Lawrence Straker were subalterns under him, and Mr [John], Kipling would be with when last seen. When Captain Cuthbert went to France it was with the old colours of South Africa, where he received his D.S.O. It was he, in association with his uncle General Gerald Cuthbert, who had so much to do officially with the laying-up of the colours of the Scots Guards in Hexham Abbey in 1910.. . He was a man of alert brain, of lithe activity, of original thought, of strictest honour, and was endowed with the highest sense of duty. He was a gallant gentleman."

After 27th September 1915. St John Lee Church, Hexham [Map]. Monument to Captain James Harold Cuthbert (deceased),

Northern Echo. 4th October 1915. News has reached Hexham that Captain J. Harold Cuthbert (deceased), D.S.O., of Beaufront Castle, is reported as wounded and missing. Captain Cuthbert, who won his D.S.O. in the South African War, was on the reserve of officers, and after the commencement of the war, re-joined the army, and was for some time adjutant to the Irish Guards in London. He, however, was attached to his old regiment-the Scots Guards-when they went out to the Front. Captain Cuthbert is a son-in-law of Mr John C. Straker, of the Leazes, Hexham, and has filled the office of High Sheriff of his county.

Belfast News. 6th October 1915. Captain J. H. Cuthbert (deceased), D.S.O., Beaufrout Castle, Northumberland (wounded and missing), is a son-in-law of the Earl of Strafford through his marriage with the late Lady Dorothy Byng whose sister, Lady Joan Byng, is the widow of Captain Honourable A. E. S. Mulholland, Irish Guards, eldest son of Lord Dunleath, Ballywalter, County Down, who was killed in action last year.

Newcastle Journal. 5th November 1915. Captain Cuthbert was killed at the Battle of Loos, whilst leading the Right Flank Company of which he was in command. He and a few men managed to reach Puits 14, along with a Second Lieutenant Crabbe and half a dozen Grenadiers, later reinforced by a platoon of the 3rd Grenadier Guards under Lieutenant Ayres-Ritchie. But under the intense enfilading fire from Hill 70 and Bois Hugo forest they had to pull back. A general retirement followed. The War Diary... shortly before 5pm the men in and beyond the PUITS commenced to retire, and fell back into and through CHALK PIT WOOD in some confusion. The C.O. and [the] Adjutant went forward through the wood to clear up the situation, and while going through the wood Capt. and [the] Adjutant the Honourable T. Vessey was wounded and carried away.

On 8th July 1920 Robert Strutt 4th Baron Rayleigh (age 44) and [his former wife] Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh were married. She by marriage Baroness Rayleigh of Terling Place in Essex.

In 1980 [his former wife] Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh died.