=BANKS, GEORGE EDWARD=, Stoker, P.O., 287551, H.M.S. Pathfinder; lost when that ship was sunk by a mine, about 20 miles off the East Coast, 5 Sept. 1914.
=BANKS, PERCY D’AGUILAR=, Capt., Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides, attd. 57th Wildes Rifles, only _s._ of Col. Samuel Henry O’Brien Banks, of 9, Eaton Place, Brighton, by his wife, Katherine Rosa, dau. of the Rev. John Burton D’Aguilar, late Senr. Chaplain of H.M. Forces; _b._ Bath, 9 May, 1885; educ. St. Peter’s, Weston, and Cheltenham College and Sandhurst; gazetted 2nd Lieut. 2nd Battn. Wiltshire Regt., 10 Oct. 1903; joined 16 Nov. following, and left for India to join the 1st battn. in April, 1904. He was appointed to the Guides the following year; promoted Lieut. 10 Jan. 1906, and Capt. 10 Oct. 1912. He was A.D.C. to the Hon. A. D. Younghusband, C.S.I., Commissioner in Sind during the visit of the King, then Prince of Wales, to India in 1906, and afterwards served as transport officer with the Chitral Relief Force in Aug. 1907. He was killed 26 April, 1915, during the second Battle of Ypres only 50 yards from the German lines; _unm._ On this day Wilde’s Rifles were in the front line of the Ferozepore Brigade. Capt. Banks’ double company guides formed centre, and he, the only English officer, led them. The position to be assaulted was an extremely strong one, and the assaulting force laboured under heavy disadvantages. It had been impossible to reconnoitre the ground in a satisfactory manner, and little was known of the exact position of the German line beyond the fact that it was somewhere on the opposite ridge about 1,500 yards distance. The ground was devoid of cover, and rose slightly for the first 500 yards, then dipped and ended in a gradual upward slope towards the German position which commanded the whole line of advance. On crossing the first ridge the regt. came under an absolute tornado of fire of every description--shrapnel, machine-gun, rifle, and, last but not least, high explosive shells filled with asphyxiating gas. From this point onwards the men began to fall rapidly, but still the gallant regt. pushed on. The murderous nature of the fire can be gauged by the fact that when the bottom of the slope was reached, at a point some 900 yards from the start, the Commanding Officer, Major Willams, and four of his colleagues had been severely wounded. Still the attack was pressed to a point about 80 yards from the German trenches. Here Major Duhan, Capt. Mackie and Capt. Banks were all killed, as were also two of the Indian officers. Capt. Banks’ orderly, a Sikh named Bhan Singh, had been severely wounded in the face early in the action. In spite of this he insisted in following Capt. Banks till he was killed. As soon as darkness set in, in the face of the appalling fire, and severely wounded as he was, his one thought was to bring back the body of his officer. Weak as he was from loss of blood, he staggered along carrying the body until he fell from exhaustion. They were both brought in, and Capt. Banks was buried near a farm house two miles north-east of Ypres. For this act of devotion and gallantry Bhan Singh received the Indian D.S.M. and later a Russian decoration. Col. Egerton wrote: “We were all very fond of him in the Guides, and he had a great many other friends besides who will feel his loss very keenly I am sure. His men were also very fond of him, and were following him bravely when he fell. His name was, of course, brought to notice by Col. Gray, and I was proud and glad to endorse his mention, and I know that it was passed on by the next higher authority, the Divisional Commander.” A brother officer also wrote: “Many of the Eusafzai Pathans who were with him, and actually in the advance in which he was killed, are back here wounded or invalided, and I have spoken to many of them, the Subadar, one Afzal Khan, in particular. The very genuine love they had for him and their admiration for his great personal pluck and power as a leader is apparent in everything they say about him, and the Subadar broke down altogether when telling me of him. He says that not the smallest detail relating to the men’s comfort was overlooked, and that in fact they really had a father to command them. I’ve never seen any native express such genuine sorrow at the loss of one of their sahibs.” Capt. Banks was mentioned for conspicuous bravery in F.M. Sir John (now Lord) French’s despatch of Jan. 1, 1916. He was a good all-round athlete and sportsman. At Cheltenham he won the school rackets and fives, and he was in the eleven both there and at Sandhurst. After making a score of 131 for the Somerset Colts, he played for the Somerset County Eleven. He also played cricket for the Army against the Rest at Lahore in 1904. A fine polo player, he twice in 1913 led the Guides to victory, and also the same year took part in a tour in Germany, playing for the Frankfurt team, which won three events--the Challenge Cup, Champion Cup, and Ladies’ Cup.
[Illustration: =Percy D’Aguilar Banks.=]
=BANNAN, JAMES CHARLES=, Private, No. 79897, 31st Battn. Canadian Expeditionary Force, _s._ of Joseph Cope Bannan, of Kilkenny, Ireland, ex-Sergt. Royal Irish Constabulary, by his wife, Mary, dau. of Edward McElveny, ex-Insp. M.D. Police; _b._ Kilkenny, 24 Feb. 1894; educ. Model National School there. Went to Canada 10 March, 1913, and after the outbreak of war enlisted at Calgary in Oct. 1914; came over with the 2nd Canadian Contingent; went to France 14 Sept. 1915, and was shot by a sniper 6 Nov. 1915; _unm._
=BANNER, FREDERICK SIDNEY=, Private, No. 2515, 10th Battn. (Liverpool Scottish) The King’s Liverpool Regt. (Gun Section), eldest _s._ of William Banner, of 113, Bridge Road, Litherland, Liverpool, by his wife, Emma, dau. of the late Thomas Oswald Rudge; _b._ Litherland, near Liverpool; educ. at St. Philip’s and afterwards at Seaforth High School; enlisted 1912; killed in action at Ypres, 1 April, 1915; _unm._ Buried in an enclosed burial ground 700 yards west of Verbranden Molen.
=BANNER, JOSIAH=, Private, No. 4138, 3rd Battn. Coldstream Guards, _s._ of William Banner, of Birmingham, Wheelwright, by his wife, Elizabeth, dau. of (--) Herbert; _b._ Birmingham, 29 Oct. 1879; educ. at St. Anne’s Boys’ School, Duddeston, Birmingham; enlisted in the Coldstream Guards, 12 March, 1901, and served in Egypt, Sept. 1906–Jan. 1909, and with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders 1914, and was killed in action at St. Julien, 3 Nov. 1914. He is believed to have been buried in the Rentel Woods, close to St. Julien. He _m._ at Birmingham, 24 April, 1909, Bertha Elizabeth Charlotte Sophia (4, County Terrace, Pears Road, Hounslow), dau. of James Kingston Merrick, of Hounslow, and had two sons, Joseph James, _b._ 29 April, 1910, and William Albert Kingston, _b._ 26 Oct. 1913.
[Illustration: =Josiah Banner.=]
=BANNER, SYDNEY ALFRED=, Private, No. 1501, 13th Battn. Australian Imperial Force, _s._ of Alfred James Banner, of 17, Francis Road, Hay Hill, Birmingham; _b._ Small Heath, Birmingham, 25 Nov. 1893; educ. at the Red Hill Road Board School there; went to Australia; enlisted towards the end of 1914; killed in action at the Dardanelles during a night attack, 2 May, 1915; _unm._
[Illustration: =Sydney Alfred Banner.=]
=BANNERMAN, ORIEL WILLIAM ERSKINE=, Capt., 15th Lancers (Cureton’s Mulatnis), Indian Army, 2nd _s._ of the late Gen. William Bannerman, C.B., 104th Wellesley’s Rifles [great-grandson of Sir Patrick Bannerman, 3rd _s._ of Sir Alexander Bannerman, of Elsick, 1st Bt.], by his wife, Louisa Constance (6, Lansdowne Crescent, Cheltenham), dau. of Robert Goddard, of Monkstown; _b._ Bombay, 13 Dec. 1877; educ. Cheltenham College and Sandhurst; joined the Indian Army, 27 July, 1898, was promoted Lieut. 27 Oct. 1900, and Capt. 27 July, 1907, and from Oct. 1903–07 was A.D.C. to Major-Gen. G. Henry, Divn. Commander at Meerut. He was severely wounded in action at Givenchy, 20 Dec. 1914, and _d._ in hospital at Boulogne, 3 Feb. following. He was buried in the cemetery there. He _m._ at Mussoorie, 14 Sept. 1907, Emilie Henriette, 2nd dau. of the late Capt. Charles Lousada, of Shelburne Hall, Cheltenham; _s.p._
[Illustration: =Oriel William Erskine Bannerman.=]
=BANNING, PERCY STUART=, Capt., 2nd Battn. Royal Munster Fusiliers, only child of Lieut.-Col. Stephen Thomas Banning, of 50, Kensington Mansions, Earl’s Court, LL.D., late Royal Munster Fusiliers, by his wife, Isabel Margaret, dau. of the late Rev. Denis Moriarty; _b._ at Yorktown, co. Surrey, 22 June, 1887; educ. Westward Ho! Bath College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and received his commission in the Munsters, 19 Sept. 1908, being gazetted Lieut. 19 March, 1910, and Capt. (posthumously), 30 Aug. 1914. He went to the front with the first Expeditionary Force as battn. transport officer, and was killed in action at Ypres, Belgium, 4 Nov. 1914, while attached to Sir Douglas Haig’s staff. Capt. Banning was an all-round athlete and a good cross-country runner. While at Sandhurst he won the two miles in the Woolwich and Sandhurst Sports in record time. He was also a first-rate horseman, and won the point-to-point race at the Mounted Infantry School in Jan. 1911. He _m._ 25 March, 1913, Mona Mary, only dau. of the late Alfred Chaplin, of Henfield, Sussex; _s.p._