Selected Biographies

Cutler, Richard Westropp – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 18.3.1921.  Parents: Roy Victor Cutler (Architect) [see below for details] and Evelyn Westropp of Long Melford.  Family Connections: Grandson of Charles Henry Westropp [b1869] and Alice Maud Westropp [née Smee] [b1870].  Home: Melford Place, Long Melford (1939).  Married: Pauline Guiton.  Service Record: Richard enlisted in May 1940 as a Class F Reservist N^o.1251521 with the Royal Air Force.  Died: Long Melford on 1.2.2011.[1]

Cutler, Roy Victor [MBE, MC] – Born: Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia on 30.9.1892.  Parents: Charles Frederick Cutler and Elizabeth Selina [née Cornish].  Family Connections: Son-in-Law of Charles Henry Westropp [b1869] and Alice Maud Westropp [née Smee] [b1870].  Home: Melford Place, Long Melford [1917], Windmill Cottage, Queens Road, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Hampshire [1986].  Occupation: Architect in Australia [1914], Military Engineer [1914 to 1947].  Married: Evelyn Westropp of Long Melford in 1917 and Gladys W. Harrison [née Jean] in 1936.  Service Record: Roy was commissioned on 26.8.1914 as a Second Lieutenant in 2^nd Field Company Engineers, 1^st Australian Division, promoted Lieutenant with 10^th Field Company on 1.2.1915 and posted to Gallipoli on 25.4.1915 as part of the Australian Imperial Force.   On 26.7.1915 he was promoted to Captain and transferred to 8^th Field Company, 2^nd Australian Division and shortly after awarded the Military Cross:  For conspicuous courage and devotion to duty in mining operations at Russells Top particularly on the following occasions.  On November 10^th, 1915, he crawled along a tunnel and laid and tamped a 15lb charge of guncotton against a Turkish barricade in spite of a heavy hostile fire.  On the same evening he placed a 60lb. charge of guncotton against the face of an underground gallery which was only 12 inches from where the Turks were working on the other side.  On November 12^th, 1915, he, in company with another officer, crawled along a gallery and laid and tamped a 15lb. charge of guncotton against a Turkish sand-bag barricade on the other side of which was a hostile sentry who fired over it continuously.  After spending the first half of 1916 in Egypt commanding 4^th Field Company, he was posted to the Western Front from 9.6.1916 to 11.11.1918.  Roy was Mentioned in Despatches on 11.7.1916 and made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on 4.1.1918, retiring with the rank of Brigadier in 1947.  Died: Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Hampshire on 21.2.1986.[2]

Westropp, Mrs Alice Maud [née Smee] – Born: Chelmsford, Essex on 29.7.1870.  Parents: Frederic Smee (Sheriff’s Officer for Essex) and Eliza [née Seeley].  Family Connections: Mother-in-law of Roy Victor Cutler mbe, mc [b1892] and aunt of Kenneth Neil Finlay [b1899]; also, sister of Florence Seeley Finlay [née Smee] [b1873].  Home: Melford Place, St Marys Street, Long Melford (1901) to [1942].  Married: Charles Henry Westropp in 1894 see biography below.  Service Record: Mrs Westropp was a member of the Sudbury Branch of the British Red Cross in 1916, acted as a canvasser during the recruiting drive in Long Melford in April 1917 and was a founder member and Vice President of the Long Melford Women’s Institute when it was formed in May 1918.  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1942.[3]

Westropp, Charles Henry – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 16.3.1869.  Parents: Henry Westropp (Farmer and Landowner) and Ellen [née Grimwood].  Family Connections: Father-in-law of Roy Victor Cutler mbe, mc [b1892] and uncle of Kenneth Neil Finlay [b1899]; also, brother-in-law of Florence Seeley Finlay [b1873] see entry above.  Home: Melford Place, St Marys Street, Long Melford (1871), Melford Place, St Marys Street, Long Melford (1901) to [1942].  Occupation: Estate Agent (1891), Farmer and Landowner (1901 to 1939).  Married: Alice Maud Smee in 1894.  Service Record: Charles Westropp was a member of the Long Melford Parish Council in 1915 and the Chairman from 1916.  In December 1915 he sat on its Recruiting Sub-Committee and was a founding committee member of the Long Melford Volunteer Training Corps in 1915.  He also acted as the Board of Agriculture’s representative at the Military Service Tribunals at Long Melford and Glemsford throughout the Great War and was a member of West Suffolk’s War Agricultural Committee, Women’s Agricultural Committee, and the Melford War Agricultural Sub-Committee.  When the War Memorial Committee was formed in February 1919, Charles Westropp was asked to join to help make the necessary arrangements and organise the collection of subscriptions.  Died: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire on 27.11.1942.[4]

Notes – [1] Date of birth taken from the 1939 Register, Air Member for Personnel and predecessors: Airmen’s Records [ADM 78/41/1] and date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  [2] Date of birth from Officer’s Record of Service, however an alternative date of 31.10.1892 is quoted on the Graduation List of Officers of the British Army.  Both documents are to be found in his Service Record held at the National Archives of Australia [file ref: B2455].  For notification of marriage see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 3.10.1917.  Thomas is recorded as a Major in the Australian Army, at the baptism of his daughter see Baptism Register 12.10.1918, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  For notification of his Military Cross see London Gazette 3.6.1916, N^o. 29608, for being Mentioned in Despatches see London Gazette 11.7.1916, N^o. 29664 and for his mbe see London Gazette 4.1.1918, N^o. 30460.  See also his Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.  For a fuller account of Roy Cutler’s life see the online biography by Robert Simpson on https://anzac-biographies.com/2017/05/29/cutler-brigadier-roy-victor-mbe-mc-mid/.  [3] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Long Melford.  [4] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Long Melford.  For Training Corps article see Bury Free Press 20.2.1915, Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.3.1915.  Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.