Rodolph Algernon (“John”) Perssé

• Matriculated: 1912

• Born: 12 May 1892

• Died: 1 January 1915

• Regiment: King’s Royal Rifle Corps

• Grave/Memorial: Le Touret Military Cemetery: Memorial Panel 44

Family background

b. 12 May 1892, Creg Clare, Ardrahan, Roxborough, Loughrea, Co. Galway. Only son of Robert Algernon Perssé, JP (1845–1911) and the Hon. Mrs Eleanor Laura Jane Perssé (née Gough) (1854–1935) (m. 1886), the one surviving daughter of George Stephens Gough, the 2^nd Viscount Gough (1815–95), Creg Clare, Ardrahan, Roxborough, Co. Galway.

 

Parents and antecedents

The Persse family, a branch of the Northumberland Percys, were part of the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland and first received grants of land in Co. Galway and Co. Roscommon in the 1670s: these included Roxborough, a 6,000-acre estate. The family became particularly well known for its interest in sport, especially field sports such as hunting: Burton Persse (1746–1831) founded the Galway Blazers, one of the best-known fox-hunting packs in the three kingdoms; a Burton R.P. Persse (d. 1885) was its Master for 30 years; one of Rodolph’s uncles was Master in the early years of the twentieth century; Atty [Henry Seymour] Persse (1869–1960) trained Tetrarch, voted Britain’s greatest two-year-old of the twentieth century. The Persse family were prominent members of Galway society: Rodolph’s father was High Sheriff of Galway in 1885 and his youngest sister, Isabella Augusta Persse (1852–1932), became Lady Gregory, the dramatist who, with the poet W.B. Yeats (1865–1939), co-founded Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1902. In 1840, Rodolph’s grandfather, Dudley Persse (1802–78), acquired Nun’s Island Distillery on a small island in the fork of the River Corrib and turned it into a woollen factory. But when wool became less profitable, the buildings became a distillery once more – A.S. Persse Ltd – and made the family’s fortune through the production of fine Irish whiskey (c.400,000 gallons per year by the late nineteenth century, much for export). Over-taxation of Irish whiskey in the first two decades of the twentieth century reduced the distillery’s profitability and it closed in 1913, despite the quality of its product. The buildings now form part of the local university.

Perssé’s mother was the one surviving daughter of George Stephens Gough, the 2^nd Viscount Gough (1815–95), Creg Clare, Ardrahan, Roxborough, Co. Galway.

 

Siblings and their families

Brother of:

(1) Olive Nora (1887–after 1940, probably in Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]);

(2) Daphne Gertrude (1889–1960) (later Newbold after her marriage [1924] to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Joseph Newbold, R.E. [1881–1946]), one son.

Olive Nora never married, but after being a society beauty in Dublin, Washington and London, where she lived in the mid-1920s at 4, King’s House, King’s Rd, Chelsea, she became involved in farming in Southern Rhodesia.

During World War One, Daphne worked for the French Red Cross, and her husband eventually became Managing Director of Guinness.

 

Education

Perssé attended The Evelyns School, Colham Green, Hillingdon, Uxbridge, Middlesex, whose Headmaster was Godfrey Thomas Worsley (1842–1920) from c.1899 to 1905; cf. C.A. Gold, R.P. Stanhope, E.G. Worsley, F.W.T. Clerke, T.G. Rawstorne, J.F. Worsley. He was then at Eton College from 1905 to 1911, where he was a long-distance runner, played cricket for the College at Lord’s in July 1911, and became a member of “Pop”, Eton’s élite society. As he intended to go into the Army, he was a keen member of Eton Officers’ Training Corps for four years and two terms, took the Cadet Efficiency Qualification four times, and acquired the Certificate ‘A’ in November 1910. After leaving Eton in summer 1911, he spent three months at the Royal Military College (Sandhurst), where he was made a Sergeant, but decided, after that one term (1911–12), to come to Magdalen instead and prepare for the Sudan Civil Service. He then matriculated as a Commoner on 15 October 1912, having taken Responsions in Trinity Term 1912. Although he took the Greek and Latin Literature component of the First Public Examination (Plato, Cicero and Tacitus) in Trinity Term 1913, he sat no more examinations after that and left at the end of Trinity Term 1914 without taking a degree. A “thorough sportsman”, a fine all-round athlete and a first-rate shot, he did well in the Freshmen’s Sports of 1913, played in the University’s Freshmen’s Cricket Match of 1913, won the “Magdalen Grind”, rode in the Inter-Varsity Point-to-Point, and was Whip to the New College and Magdalen Beagles. In his obituary, Thomas Herbert Warren described him as “clever, daring, high-spirited, a thorough ‘Galway lad’”, a “typical Irishman, a typical Etonian, and a typical Magdalen man”. When making his will, he gave his address as Creg Clare, Ardrahan, Roxborough, Co. Galway.

 

“It is difficult to convey an impression of the peculiar charm which endeared him to young and old alike. Besides all that was most characteristically Irish in his appearance or disposition, there was in his complex character a lovable waywardness and independence combined with intensely deep feelings usually suppressed. It is not surprising to hear that ‘he never flinched or wavered in his most gallant spirit,’ that ‘his fearlessness and pluck were of the greatest value to his men,’ or, shall we add, that ‘the Eton Chronicle was sent out to him every week at his special request’.”

 

Military and war service

A prominent member of the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps from 3 December 1912 to Summer 1914, Perssé spent two weeks in March/April 1914 on attachment to the 3^rd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own), having been made an acting Second Lieutenant in that Regiment on 25 February 1914. On 26 August 1914, after leaving Magdalen, he was confirmed in that rank in the Regiment’s 6^th (Reserve) Battalion which had been formed at Winchester on the outbreak of war and rapidly moved to Sheerness – where Perssé joined it. But he was then transferred to the 2^nd Battalion, the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, part of 2^nd Brigade, 1^st Division, which had been formed at Blackdown on 4 August and sent to France eight days later, arriving at Le Havre on 13 August 1914. The Brigade was involved in the Battle of the Aisne, particularly the attack on Troyon, near Vendresse, just south of the Chemin des Dames. Here, on 14 September, it seized the high ground and then, over the next four days, lost 1,232 men killed, wounded and missing: in the 2^nd Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps alone, all the officers were casualties. Perssé disembarked in France on 16 October as part of the Battalion’s reinforcements and became a subaltern in 1 Company. He then took part in the action at Cuinchy (see A. Graham Menzies), where, on 31 December, a detachment of the 2^nd Battalion had captured an exposed position in the trenches near La Bassée, only to be driven out again by concentrated German fire from Minenwerfer (mine launchers – short-range mortars), shrapnel and machine-guns. When an immediate attempt to retake the trenches failed, 1 Company was ordered to retake them early on the morning of 1 January 1915: this time the counter-attack succeeded, but the position could not be held because of its exposure to enemy fire, and the whole force was ordered back to their trenches. Perssé’s platoon in 1 Company had been on the right of the line and he was leading it in the early morning counter-attack when, like Graham Menzies, he was killed in action, aged 22, along with about 80 other members of the Brigade during the futile action. His Commanding Officer had “already submitted his name for his gallant behaviour near Ypres”, but after his death he was mentioned in dispatches in Sir John French’s Dispatch of 14 January 1915, where his Commanding Officer described him as a “splendid, brave, cool officer” and “an exceptionally gallant boy” (London Gazette, no. 29,072 [16 January 1915], p. 1,666). And in a Christmas letter of 5 January 1915 to Joseph William (“Joe”) Horne (1892–1962), a Magdalen friend and contemporary who had become a Native Commissioner in Northern Rhodesia, Edward the Prince of Wales, who was a member of Sir John French’s Staff in France and who had been a “v. gt.” friend of “John” Perssé’s at Magdalen, declared that having done “wonders out here”, Perssé had not been far off the Victoria Cross for his part in the action. The Prince also remarked that Magdalen had done “awfully well in the way of supplying officers” – “there is hardly a man not under arms” – and expressed his regret at the deaths to date of five members of Magdalen, of whom two had been occupants of 48, High St: P.V. Heath, H.R. Inigo-Jones, W.G. Houldsworth, A. Graham Menzies and Perssé (the figure was actually 11, not counting E.M.R. Stadler): “It’s all v. terrible but it can’t be helped.” Perssé’s obituarist at Eton wrote:

It is difficult to convey an impression of the peculiar charm which endeared him to young and old alike. Besides all that was most characteristically Irish in his appearance or disposition, there was in his complex character a lovable waywardness and independence combined with intensely deep feelings usually suppressed. It is not surprising to hear that “he never flinched or wavered in his most gallant spirit,” that “his fearlessness and pluck were of the greatest value to his men,” or, shall we add, that “the [Eton] Chronicle was sent out to him every week at his special request.”

His body could not be recovered at first, but when it was discovered it was buried at Cuinchy, near La Bassée, near the trenches between the Cambrin–La Bassée road and the railway embankment; he now has no known grave. He is commemorated on Panel 44 of Le Touret Memorial (Le Touret Military Cemetery). He left £176 2s 6d to his mother.

 

 

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

 

Printed sources:

[Thomas Herbert Warren], ‘Oxford’s Sacrifice’ [obituary], The Oxford Magazine, 33, no. 9 (22 January 1915), p. 145.

[Anon.], ‘Rodolph Algernon Perssé’ [obituary], The Eton College Chronicle, no. 1,527 (28 January 1915), p. 716.

[Anon.], ‘Fallen Officers’ [obituary], The Times, no. 40,781 (18 February 1915), p. 4.

Butler and Hare, v (1932), pp. 71–2.

Clutterbuck, ii (2002), pp. 370–1.

 

Archival sources:

OUA: OT 4/2

OUA: UR 2/1/80.

IWM: Special Miscellaneous A8.

WO95/1267.

WO339/21266.