Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
Major. Alexander Malins Lafone VC.
British Army Middlesex Hussars
from:Knockholt, Kent
(d.27th Oct 1917)
Major Alexander Malins Lafone VC served with the Middlesex Hussars during WW1 and was killed in action on the 27th October 1917, age 47. He is buried in Beersheba War Cemetery, Beersheba, Israel. Alexander was the son of Henry and Lucy Lafone, of Court Lodge, Knockholt, Kent.
An extract from "The London Gazette" (No. 30433), dated 14th Dec., 1917, records the following:-
For most conspicuous bravery, leadership, and self-sacrifice when holding a position for over seven hours against vastly superior enemy forces. All this time the enemy were shelling his position heavily, making it very difficult to see. In one attack, when the enemy cavalry charged his flank, he drove them back with heavy losses. In another charge they left fifteen casualties within twenty yards of his trench, one man, who reached the trench, being bayoneted by Major Lafone himself. When all his men, with the exception of three, had been hit and the trench which he was holding was so full of wounded that it was difficult to move and fire, he ordered those who could walk to move to a trench slightly in the rear, and from his own position maintained a most heroic resistance. When finally surrounded and charged by the enemy, he stepped into the open and continued to fight until he was mortally wounded and fell unconscious. His cheerfulness and courage were a splendid inspiration to his men, and by his leadership and devotion he was enabled to maintain his position, which he had been ordered to hold at all costs.
