2ND LIEUT. GORDON ALICK BRODRICK BIRDWOOD. PRINCE OF WALES'S VOLS., 2ND BATTN. (SOUTH LANCASHIRE REGT.). KILLED IN ACTION AT VAILLY-SUR-AISNE, SEPTEMBER 20TH, 1914. AGED 18 YEARS AND 9 MONTHS. At the School 1910-13 (Hill Side). 2nd Lieut. G.A.B. Birdwood was the third and youngest son of Col. William Spiller Birdwood, late Indian Army, formerly of Tonbridge and now living at Colmer, near Modbury, South Devon, and of the late Mrs. Birdwood, who died in 1910. Col. Birdwood had retired in 1909, after commanding the 110th Mahratta Light Infantry from 1896 to 1904, and in 1914, with the sanction of the Government of India, was General Officer Commanding the Forces of H.H. the Maharajah Gaekwar of Baroda. He applied in vain to be employed on active service in the War, both whilst at Baroda and after he relinquished this appointment, and returned to England in 1917. The eldest son, Capt. Christopher William Brodrick Birdwood, 6th Gurkha Rifles, I.A., was wounded and recommended for the V.C. in the attack on Achi Baba in Gallipoli on June 5th, 1915, and died of his wounds three days later. The second son, Lieut. George Brodrick Birdwood, the Royal Sussex Regiment, had died in India, after an operation in 1910, and their sister died in 1918. G. A. B. Birdwood, having entered the School in September 1910, joined the Army Class in May 1911, and gained a Prize Cadetship at Sandhurst in the summer of 1913. His commission in the South Lancashire Regiment was dated August 15th 1914, and he went out to France with the 2nd Battn. of his Regiment on September 6th. They took part in the Battle of the Aisne, which began on September 12th, and on the 20th he was killed in action whilst gallantly charging with his Platoon a Battery of German machine guns in position at Vailly-sur-Aisne. His body was found riddled with bullets within ten yards of the guns, and he was buried with two other officers by the roadside, about one and a half miles from Vailly. A Captain in his Regiment wrote to his grandfather, Mr. G.J. Sheppard :- " . . . The extreme gallantry of your grandson seems to have been the cause of his very early death. Private Downs, of his company, says :— ' There was a young officer who joined us called Lieut. Birdwood, and he was almost too brave, and as a matter of fact it eventually knocked him over. He led a brilliant charge, and it was mainly due to him that this was successful, and that part of the position was captured. A number of the enemy surrendered to the charge; the Germans turned their Maxim guns on their surrendering comrades, also killing Lieut. Birdwood. He was riddled with bullets, and his death was instantaneous.' " He added:-" I did not know your grandson, and the mention of his name by Private Downs was not suggested by me. His was a purely unbiassed version to an unbiassed listener. Your grandson's death was all too premature, and we can do with many of the same breed."