Selected Biographies

Westropp, Mrs Alice Maud [née Smee] – Born: Chelmsford, Essex on 29.7.1870.[1]  Parents: Frederic Smee (Sheriff’s Officer for Essex) and Eliza [née Seeley].  Family Connections: Mother-in-law of Roy Victor Cutler [b1892]; also, sister of Florence Seeley Finlay [née Smee] [b1873] and aunt of Kenneth Neil Finlay [b1899].  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.

Westropp, Charles Henry – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 16.3.1869.[2]  Parents: Henry Westropp (Farmer and Landowner of 304 acres employing 10 men and 5 boys) and Ellen [née Grimwood].  Family Connections: Father-in-law of Roy Victor Cutler [b1892]; also, uncle of Kenneth Neil Finlay [b1899] and brother-in-law of Florence Seeley Finlay [b1873].  Home: Melford Place Farm, St Marys Street, Long Melford (1871), The School House, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (1881), Smallbridge Hall, Bures St Mary, Suffolk (1891), Melford Place Farm, 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.[3]  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]

Related Biographies

 Cutler, Richard Westropp – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 18.3.1921.[5]  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.[6]  Died: Long Melford on 1.2.2011.[7]

Cutler, Roy Victor [MBE, MC] – Born: Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia on 30.9.1892.[8]  Parents: Charles Frederick Cutler and Elizabeth Selina [née Cornish].  Family Connections: Father to Richard Westropp Cutler [b1921] and father-in-law of Raife Morgan Oliver [b1915]; also, 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[9] 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 despite 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.[10]  Died: Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Hampshire on 21.2.1986.[11]

Oliver, Raife ‘Bill’ Morgan – Born: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 1.7.1915.[12]  Parents: Sydney Morgan Oliver and Elizabeth [née Hitchcock].  Family Connections: Son-in-law of Roy Victor Cutler [b1892] and brother-in-law of Richard Westropp Cutler [b1921].  Home: The Grindle Paddock, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk [1915 to 1942], Little Hall, Liston, Essex [1963].  Married: Nancy Evelyn Cutler of Melford Place, Long Melford in 1940.  Service Record: Raife was a member of the Territorial Royal Artillery as N^o.861912 from 1936 to 1937.  On 8.5.1939 he enlisted as Officer Cadet N^o.90901 with 5^th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, receiving a Second Lieutenant’s commission in June 1939, later raised to the rank of Captain before being posted to Singapore as part of 18^th Infantry Division’s 54^th Infantry Brigade.  Following the Fall of Singapore, he was forced to surrender to the Japanese with the rest of the island garrison on 15.2.1942 and was held variously at Prisoner of War Camps at Chung Kai, Wa-Tai Kin, Boncow, Kamburi and Nonpladuk in Thailand.  These bases formed part of a string of slave labour camps for the construction of the infamous ‘Death Railway’.  Captain Oliver was liberated September 1945.[13]  Died: Liston, Essex on 22.7.1963.[14]

Notes – [1] 1939 Register.  [2] 1939 Register.  [3] For Training Corps article see Bury Free Press 20.2.1915, Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.3.1915.  [4] National Probate Calendar.  [5] 1939 Register.  [6] Air Member for Personnel and predecessors: Airmen’s Records [ADM 78/41/1].  [7] National Probate Calendar.  [8] 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]. [9] For notification of marriage see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 3.10.1917. [10] Roy 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].  [11] 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/.  [12] Date of birth taken from his POW Record.  [13] Bury Free Press 1.7.1939, Japanese Index Cards of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, Second World War, 1942-1945 [WO 345/39], War Office: Directorate of Military Intelligence: Liberated Prisoner of War Interrogation Questionnaires, 1945-1946 [WO 344/395/1].  [14] National Probate Calendar.