Algernon Hyde Villiers was born on 1 February 1886 at 55, Cadogan Place, London, SW1, the youngest son of the five children of the Right Honourable Sir Francis Hyde Villiers, PC, CB, GCMG, GCVO (1852-1925) and Lady Virginia Katherine Villiers née Smith (1853-1937). The birth of Algernon Villiers was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1886 in the Chelsea registration district, Middlesex (now Greater London) and on 15 March 1886 he was baptised in Holy Trinity Church, Upper Chelsea, where the baptismal register confirms the family were residing at 55 Cadogan Place and that his father was a clerk in the Foreign Office.
Magdalen College's 'Slow Dusk' project, our picture source, gives much detail of the life this man, but for some unknown reason (as at 2024) claims his date of death to have been 28 November 1917, whilst all other contemporaneous records show his death occurring on 23 November 1917. The Internet Archive website makes available his Letters and Papers published in 1919.
In the 1891 census he is shown as aged 5 years, living at 103 Sloane Street, Chelsea, with his parents and his four siblings: Dorothy Villiers (1879-1942); Eric Hyde Villiers (1881-1964); Gerald Hyde Villers (1882-1953) and Margery Mildred Villiers (1890-1981), together with a governess, a butler, a lady's maid, a cook, a nurse, a nursemaid, a housemaid and a kitchen-maid. His father continued to be described as a clerk in the Foreign Office.
From c.1893 to 1900 he attended St Andrew’s School, Southborough, Kent and from 1900 to 1902 he was a scholar at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire, where he was shown as a pupil in the 1901 census. He went up to Magdalen College at Oxford University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts on 24 January 1909.
In the autumn of 1910 he travelled in the United States of America. After the tour, which included a hunting expedition in Wyoming, he entered the office of Messrs James Capel & Co., stockbrokers in the City of London and was elected as a broker at the London Stock Exchange. Electoral registers in 1910 show him renting, unfurnished at £1 per week, two rooms on the 1st floor at the back and third floor at the back at 5 Tedworth Square, Chelsea, London, from a Mrs Dorothy Keith Fraser of the same address. In the 1911 census he is shown as one of three boarders residing in a 13 roomed property at 1 Oakley Square, London, NW, together with three servants: a cook, a parlour-maid and a housemaid.
On 4 October 1911 he married Beatrix Elinor Paul (1890-1978) in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, where in the marriage register he is described as a bachelor and a gentleman residing at The Foreign Office, Whitehall, London, whilst his wife was shown as a spinster living at Cherry Orchard, Forest Row, her father being Herbert Woodfield Paul, a Civil Service Commissioner. Their son, Charles English Hyde Villiers (1912-1992), was born on 14 August 1912 and their daughter, Mary Theresa Villiers (1917-1984), was born on 16 September 1917. Electoral registers in 1915 show him listed at 56 Draycott Place, Chelsea.
On 1 September 1914 he enlisted as a Trooper in the 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry, a cavalry regiment (Territorial Force) that had been formed on the outbreak of war and was attached to their No.3 Troop. His service number was 1719 and he entered Egypt later that month. On 8 April 1915 he was commissioned into The Lothians and Border Horse, a Territorial Force cavalry regiment. He was later attached to No.121 Company of the Machine Gun Corps and at midday on 23 November 1917, while moving between his guns in order to direct their fire onto isolated enemy posts, he was hit in the head by a sniper and killed in action, aged 31 years. As he has no known grave his commemorated on Panel 1 of the The Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, 1 Rue de Malet, Louverval, 62147 Doignies, France.
Probate records confirm his address to have been 56 Draycott Place, Chelsea and that when probate was granted on 9 March 1918 to his father-in-law, his estate totalled £4,699-18s-9d. His army effects of £130-5s-10d were sent to his father-in-law on 4 May 1918 who was also sent his £5-0s-0d war gratuity on 6 December 1919. On 20 June 1922 his posthumously awarded 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal 1914-1918 and Victory Medal were sent to his widow (who had remarried and was now Mrs Walter Gibbs) at Stanstead Lodge, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire.
He is shown as 'A. H. VILLIERS' on the Stock Exchange WW1 memorial at the Stock Exchange Building, Paternoster Square, Rose Street, London, EC4 and is also recorded on the WW1 memorial plaque in Holy Trinity Church, Lewes Road, Forest Row, RH18 5AF. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the Brook's Club War Memorial located on the south wall of inner hall of Brook's Club, 60 St James's Street, London, SW1A 1LN, on the Scottish National War Memorial website and on the A Street Near You website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
