Lance Corporal 849 Cecil LAPWORTH

1st/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Died of wounds in France and Flanders, 18th December 1915, age 23

Buried Louvencourt Military Cemetery, Somme, France. Grave Ref: 1.C.22

Awarded 1915 Star, British War and Victory Medals

Son of Bermard William and Harriet (nee Nixon) Lapworth

Brother of Private 1620 Bernard William Lapworth

Links to Relevant Information

CWGC Page for L/Cpl Lapworth

Louvencourt Military Cemetery

Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Other Information

1892 his birth was registered in the first quarter, Nuneaton

1901 Census living at 12 Pool Bank Street, Nuneaton with his parents, siblings and grandmother. His father was employed as a Railway Ticket Examiner

1911 Census living at 48 Edward Street, Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton with his parents and siblings. He was employed as a Railway engine cleaner. His father was employed as a Railway ticket inspector.

24th December 1915 his death was reported, at length, in the Nuneaton Obsever

29th December 1915, this notice was in the Birmingham Daily Gazette:

NUNEATON HERO

Private Wykes, of Nuneaton, a comrade of Corporal Lapworth, who was recently killed at the front, has just returned home for a few days leave. He has bought Corporal Lapworth’s dying message home to the latter’s mother. When Lapworth had been shot, just before he died he exclaimed when he was picked up: “Death and glory, boys; remember me to mother.” He then died, and Wykes picked him up and subsequently helped to bury him.

29th December 1915 a similar notice was in the Hinckley Echo:

NUNEATON TERRITORIAL’S LAST MESSAGE.

Private Algie Wykes, of Victoria-street, Nuneaton, a comrade of Corporal Lapworth, who has just been killed at the front, is at present home on a few days leave. He was close by Corporal Lapworth when the latter received his fatal wound, and helped to pick him up and subsequently bury him. Pte Wykes says that when Lapworth was picked up he exclaimed with his last breath, “Death and Glory, boys; remember me to mother.”

The same message was in the Atherstone News and Herald, Coleshill Chronicle and other newspapers across England.