Lives of the First World War

He is in evening wear - probably mess kit.

Lieutenant (acting Captain) RCM Mayne, RGA, Mention in Despatches promulgated in London Gazette Supplement dated 27 Nov 1917

Left is Robert Caldwell Maunsell Mayne [known as “Maunsell”] aged 2 in the arms of his mother, Mary Emily Mayne née Caldwell, and beside his baby sister, Helen Elizabeth Mary Mayne, in South India in 1896. Mary Emily Mayne was the wife of Bobby Mayne 1865-1932, Superintendent, Madras Police

Robert Caldwell Maunsell Mayne [known as “Maunsell”] in 1913 as a Cadet at the RMA Woolwich where men were trained for regular commissions in the Artillery and Engineers. Maunsell was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery 12 Sept 1914 just as the Great War started. He served on the Western Front (Sept 1915 – Feb 1917) and on the Italian Front (Apr 1917 – Dec 1918). He received an MID (Nov 1917) and was awarded the Military Cross and the Italian Bronze Medal for Valour (Sep 1918). He disappeared without trace in 1927 leaving a wife and young son

On 19 Feb 1917, on Maunsell Mayne’s return from the Western Front, he married Gwen Annesley Vaughan, daughter of Ernest Llewelyn Vaughan of Eastbourne and the Indian Civil Service. Two months later Maunsell left for the Italian Front where he served nearly two years to the end of the war. This is a post-war Lido picture of the couple

For the two years 1921-22 Maunsell and Gwen lived in this famous street with its Queen Anne buildings, expensive flats, river views and interesting and often eccentric neighbours. It was here that their only son, Peter, was born in August 1922. The following year Maunsell took up the appointment of Adjutant of the Artillery regiment at Tyne and Tees in the north of England. Then in 1925 he went to command a Pack Battery at Bulford on Salisbury Plain, and finally to East Anglia where he disappeared without trace in 1927. He was posted absent without leave in May 1928 and presumed dead in April 1939

9.2 inch Howitzers in action

The Citation for the MILITARY CROSS awarded to Capt. Robert Caldwell Maunsell Mayne, RGA, 1918

To Capt. Robert Caldwell Maunsell Mayne, RGA, in the Italian Campaign: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in carrying out a very difficult registration under heavy shell fire, which enabled the battery to destroy an enemy trench, only a part of which could be seen. He had to cross the open under continual enemy barrage to get to his observation post. He performed fine service”. SUPPLEMENT to the LONDON GAZETTE 16 SEP 1918. 10985

Peter was born in Chelsea, London, 22 Aug 1922. His father disappeared without trace when he was 5. Aged 16 in 1938 Peter was an apprentice seaman on a cargo ship in the Pacific off Portland, Oregon, and after the war was in Paddington, London 1946-48. He next appears in Rhodesia in 1955 and then living at 13 Loughborough Road, Marlborough, Salisbury (later Harare) on the occasion of his second marriage (here in 1965) to Sonia Elizabeth Scott 1935-86. Peter was a fisherman and keen dog show judge (Pekinese) and Chow breeder. The couple died there without issue in 1986-87. [All late information] Meanwhile Peter's mother, Gwen Mayne, had remarried (London 1939) and settled in Capetown, South Africa, where she died in 1977

Italian award made to Captain RC Maunsell Mayne, MC RA, in Sept 1918