Acting Captain DENISON ALLEN GYE
Piper’s Field, Chilbolton Avenue, Winchester (house no longer stands)
15th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
Killed in action, France, 28 February 1917
Family Background
Denison Allen Gye was born in Kensington, west London, in 1882, the first son of Percy and Sarah Gye. Percy Gye, a barrister and later County Court judge, had been born in London in 1845. His wife was born Sarah Sant in London on 9 June 1856. Both of Percy’s parents were from wealthy backgrounds. His father, Frederick, was the proprietor of the Royal Station Opera in London while his mother, Elizabeth (née Allen), was the daughter of an artist.
Percy and Sarah Gye married in 1880. On the 1881 Census they were recorded living in Kensington and employing three servants. Following the birth of Denison, the couple had two more children. A second son, James Addison, was born on 18 July 1886 and a daughter, Sylvia, on 2 August 1890. Both were born in London.
The family cannot be found on the 1891 Census, possibly because they were abroad. By 1901, however, they were living at Abbey Hill, Worthy Road, Winchester, where they employed five servants. Denison, who had been educated at Charterhouse School, near Guildford, Surrey, was 19 years old and single. He had no occupation at the time. By the 1911 Census, the Gyes were living at Piper’s Field, Chilbolton Avenue, Winchester. Denison, however, was not recorded as being there. Percy Gye died in the house in 1916, aged 70. The property no longer stands.
Great War Records
Denison appears to have enlisted in August 1914, shortly after the start of the Great War. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Zion Mule Corps, part of the Army Service Corps. At some stage, however, he transferred to the 15th Brigade, the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) which had been formed in Leamington, Warwickshire, in January 1915. Denison’s uncle, Lionel Gye, served in the same unit during the war.
The 15th Brigade, RHA came under the orders of 29th Division and first saw action at Gallipoli in 1915. After landing at Cape Helles on 25 April, the Brigade took part in the capture of Sedd-el-Bahr (26 April), the First, Second and Third Battles of Krithia (28 April, 6-8 May and 4 June respectively), the Battle of Gully Ravine (28 June-2 July) and the Battle of Krithia Vineyard (6-13 August). The Brigade remained on the Gallipoli peninsula until it was evacuated on the night of 7-8 January 1916.
It is not known whether Denison was with 15th Brigade during its time in Gallipoli – the Army record which gives details of his 1914-15 Star shows him with the Zion Mule Corps, so it is likely that he switched units later.
After Gallipoli, 15th Brigade, RHA moved to Suez and then, in March 1916, to France. As part of VIII Corps in the British Fourth Army, it fought at the Battle of Albert on 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Somme Offensive. Denison Gye was almost certainly with 15th Brigade by this stage and he appears to have come through the Somme campaign unscathed.
However, Denison was killed in action at Combles, some eight miles south of the town of Bapaume, in the Somme valley, on 28 February 1917. His death, at the age of 34 or 35, is somewhat puzzling: Combles had been captured by British and French forces the previous September and should have been a comparatively quiet area in February 1917.
Family after the Great War
At the time of his death, Denison had reached the rank of Acting Captain. Probate records show that he left £1798 15s 3d.
Denison’s brother James served with the Royal Flying Corps (the Royal Air Force from April 1918) during the Great War and survived. He went on to marry in Switzerland in the early 1920s and in the 1939 National Register he and his wife Olive were living in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, with James working as a translator.
In the same year, Denison’s mother Sarah and sister Sylvia were living in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. It is not known when they died.
Medals and Memorials for Denison Allen Gye.
Guards Cemetery, Combles, Somme, France
Acting Captain Denison Allen Gye was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He was buried at Guards Cemetery (above), Combles, Somme, France (GR. I. D. 2) with Christian symbolism on his headstone. Denison is mentioned on the memorials at St Matthew’s and St Paul’s churches, Winchester.