Basic Details
Surname
Dease
Forenames
Maurice James
Gender
Male
Information stated on memorial
War
First World War (1914-1918)
Served or died
Died
Honours
VC
Notes
One of the first British officer battle casualties of the war and the first posthumous recipient of the VC of the war.
Primary Service
As stated on memorial
Unit (Primary - Stated)
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Rank / Title (Primary - Stated)
Lieut.
Our References
Service (Primary - Our reference)
British Army
Unit (Primary - Our reference)
The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
Rank / Title (Primary - Our reference)
Lieutenant
Death and Burial details
Country of death
Belgium
Town of death
Mons
Year of death
1914
Month of death
August
Day of death
23
Age at death
24
Manner of death as stated
An extract from "The London Gazette," dated 16th Nov., 1914. records the following:- "Though two or
Manner of death reference
Other
Personal Details
Birthplace
Gaulstown, Coole, County Westmeath, Ireland,
Relationships
Son of Edmund F. and Katherine M. Dease, of Levington, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
Biography
Birth: Sep. 28, 1889 Victoria Cross Recipient, participant in the earliest action to recognized in World War I, and the first man to receive the award posthumously in that war. Born in Gaulstown, Coole, County Westmeath, Ireland, Dease attended Stonyhurst College (a secondary school which numbered seven holders of the VC among its graduates), then the Army College at Wimbledon and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers in 1910 and promoted to full lieutenant in 1912. His battalion was in the first deployment to Europe after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, arriving in Le Havre on the 13th of August, 1914, and finding itself facing the Germans across the Cond