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1867 Oct 9. Born Hanway Robert Cumming
1889 June 8. Commissioned 2nd Lt into DLI from the Militia.
He served in the Boer War and was present at the Relief of Ladysmith, including the action at Colenso; actions at Vaal Krantz, Pieter’s Hill, and Laing’s Nek (medal with 4 clasps).
1901 Feb 22 M.I.D. London Gazette 22 February and 10 September 1901
1903 Married to Beatrice Taylor
1907 Jun Arrives in USA with his wife . At St Albans, Vermont, United States
1907 Sep 28 Arrives with his wife at US border point at Rouses Point, New York, United State
1914 Aug. The outbreak of the Great War found him GSO2 in India, a post he held until May 1915.
1915 Aug. he became GSO1 of 31st Division,
1915 Dec. He fought in Egypt from December 1915 to February 1916
1916 Apr Transferred to 48th Division as GSO1
1916 Aug 27 He was given command of 2nd Durham Light Infantry on the Western Front.
1916 Nov To command of 91st Brigade, 7th Division. His relationship with his divisional commander, Major-General T H Shoubridge, was difficult as he believed that his divisional commander never allowed sufficient time for attacks to be properly prepared and always asked too much of subordinate formations in the futile search for instant results.
1917 May 15. M.I.D. London Gazette
1917 May.The attacks at Bucquoy in February and Croisilles in April 1917 resulted in his writing very critical reports of his divisional commander. At Bullecourt in May Cumming’s continued disagreement with divisional orders resulted in his being sent home.
1917 Jun 4. D.S.O. London Gazette Lieut.-Colonel [Temporary Brigadier-General], Durham Light Infantry.
France and Belgium from March 1916 to May 1917, and from March to Novemebr 1918 (Despatches twice, Brevet of Colonel, D.S.O., and Legion of Honour 4th class).
1917Aug He was Commandant of the Machine Gun Training School at Grantham. Cumming was a believer in the unified tactical control of heavy machine guns and played a part in the re-organization of machine-guns into battalions under divisional control, a reform which was put into place in the spring of 1918.
1918 Mar 16. 5 days before the German Spring Offensive, Cumming was returned to brigade commander as GOC 110th Brigade, 21st Division, under the more command of David Campbell, who had a high regard for Cumming’s advice. Cumming commanded this brigade for the rest of the war in heavy fighting both in defence and attack. ‘During the last eight months of the war, owing to the scarcity of trained officers, the work of brigadiers was of a most trying nature,’ Campbell later recalled, ‘and it was only men like General Cumming, possessed of health, strength, and indomitable will power, who could possibly have stood the strain.
1918 Dec 20. M.I.D. London Gazette
1921 Mar 5 died age 53
1921 Mar 10. Funeral at Golders Green Crematorium.
1921 Apr 23. Probate to his widow
1929 Mar 12. His widow is in court on forgery charges
1934 Jan 26. More criminal charges against his widow.
1936 An acquittal
1938. Apparently by 1938 she was a pauper inmate of the Thanet workhouse.
1943 The only death I can find is Bearice Cumming in Kensington