Alexis de Gunzburg

Second Lieutenant Baron Alexis George de Gunzburg was a French-born officer of the British Army who died during First World War. Although born in France, he was of Russian nationality, and became a British subject in August 1914.
He was born on 6 May 1887, in Paris, the son of Salomon David and Henriette Ernestine de Gunzburg (née Goldschmidt), of Kamenetz and Paris, respectively.Ancestry.com. UK, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, 1914-1919 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. His father was considered the leader of Russia's Jewish community,The Times (39467), p. 9: "Baron David Günzburg". 28 December 1910. while his great-grandfather had been ennobled by the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt after representing him in the Russian court.Nathans, Benjamin (2002), Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia, p. 43. This ennoblement came at a time of extensive marginalisation of Jews in Tsarist Russia, illustrated prominently by the Pale of Settlement. 
With relatives in Britain, which included the Dowager Countess of Desart,The Bond of Sacrifice; A Biographical Record of all British Officers who fell in the Great War, pp. 108-9. de Gunzburg studied in England, at Eton, from 1901 to 1904. At the outbreak of war, he was a partner in the stockbrokers Basil Montgomery, FitzGerald & Co., but he was intent on joining the British Army.Murland, Jerry (2010), Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery, p. 63. His ambition to enlist prompted him to apply for naturalization, which was approved on 19 August 1914.The London Gazette (28892), p. 7030. 4 September 1914, thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2016. He had already been commissioned on the 15th, in the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars,The London Gazette (28894), p. 7100. 8 September 1914, thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2016. and sent to join the 3rd Cavalry Division in Ludgershall. His commissioning was apparently considered premature, as de Gunzburg had to be sent back to London on being found not to be a British national. His application was expedited, due in no large part to an approving note from Henry Moore, 10th Earl of Drogheda, who also invoked Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
After his naturalization was approved, de Gunzburg, fluent in French and German, joined the Royal Horse Guards on attachment as an interpreter and galloper. In this capacity, he was considered to be a non-combatant officer and received no formal military training.Murland, Jerry (2010), Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery, p. 74. With his regiment, de Gunzburg landed in Belgium in early October 1914. In his obituaries, it was remarked that on a single occasion de Gunzburg left his trench to recover a doctor and had attended to a wounded Lord Alastair Innes-Ker. He died on 6 November, during the First Battle of Ypres. Fellow officers recounted that throughout the day he had been delivering messages across the battlefield, an act which "Bond of Sacrifice" wrote led to his death. In that obituary, it was stated that with three officers, who were referred to as a 'Fire Brigade', de Gunzburg delivered a message to the Royal Horse Guards ordering the regiment to support an attack on Zillebeke. They had proceeded to their destination on foot, running across exposed ground for some two hundred yards under fire. Contemporary accounts differ, however, on the circumstances of de Gunzburg's death. His "Bond of Sacrifice" obituary states that he was shot down on the return journey, but the regimental war diary and Captain Arthur Foster say he was shot dead with his regimental colonel, Gordon Wilson.Murland, Jerry (2010), Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery.
His body was recovered days later and was buried on the 10th in Zillebeke Churchyard, with Colonel Wilson, Major Dawnay, and Captain Wyndham. After the war, a private tomb was placed at his grave. The-then Imperial War Graves Commission chose not to replace it, along with a nearby memorial for Lieutenant John Lee-Steere, with a uniform headstone.Murland, Jerry (2010), Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery, p. 23. His mother, the Baroness de Gunzburg, later paid for the installation of two bells for the local church, named Alexis and Catharina. They were rang out for the first time on the eve of the village fair in 1924.Murland, Jerry (2010), Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery, p. 20. The choice of bells was made on the suggestion of the village's mayor, Gaston de Vinck, who had been asked how de Gunzburg should be commemorated.Klok Alexis (Dutch), wo1.be. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
==Notes==
Category:1887 births
Category:1914 deaths
Category:French military personnel
Category:British military personnel
Category:British Army
Category:British people of Jewish descent
Category:British people of Russian descent
Category:British people of French descent
Category:Buried in Belgium
Category:Second Lieutenants