Cecil Wedgwood
Born(1863-03-28)28 March 1863
Barlaston, Staffordshire, England[1]
Died3 July 1916(1916-07-03) (aged 53)
La Boiselle, France
Buried
Bapaume Post Military Cemetery
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
RankMajor
Commands held7th (Service) Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment
Battles/warsSecond Boer War
First World War
*Battle of the Somme

Major Cecil Wedgwood, DSO (28 March 1863 – 3 July 1916) was a British soldier and partner in the Wedgwood pottery firm. He was the first Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent.[2][3]

Wedgwood was the only son of Godfrey Wedgwood and his first wife Mary Jane Jackson Hawkshaw, (daughter of the great civil engineer Sir John Hawkshaw, and the poet Ann Hawkshaw) who died shortly after he was born. He was the great-great-grandson of the potter Josiah Wedgwood.

Wedgwood became a partner in the firm in 1884 with his uncle Laurence Wedgwood and later his cousin Francis Hamilton Wedgwood. He married Lucie Gibson in 1888, and they had two daughters, one of whom married a brother of the Wedgwood pottery designer Daisy Makeig-Jones;

  • Phoebe Sylvia Wedgwood (1893–1972) remained unmarried.
  • Doris Audrey Wedgwood (1894–1968) married Thomas Geoffrey Rowland Makeig-Jones in 1928.

Wedgwood was commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th (Militia) Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment in 1883. He was promoted to captain on 9 May 1887. The battalion was embodied after the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, and he left Queenstown for South Africa on the SS Kildonan Castle with other men of the battalion in March 1900.[4] Promoted to major on 12 September 1900, he served as Station Commandant in South Africa. After the end of hostilities he returned home in June 1902,[5] and resigned from his commission the following month.[6] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the October 1902 South African Honours list for his services during the war.[7]

He was the first Mayor of the Federated County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 and 1911.

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he raised the 7th Battalion,[8] North Staffordshire Regiment. He was killed at the La Boiselle during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. His body was found and identified by James Leather, a 21-year-old bandsman and stretcher bearer. He is buried at the Bapaume Post Military Cemetery in Albert, Somme.

He was succeeded as chairman and managing director of Wedgwood by his cousin Francis Hamilton Wedgwood.

References

  1. ↑ "Cecil Wedgwood". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  2. ↑ A sociological history of the city of Stoke-on-Trent - Page 224 Ernest James Dalzell Warrillow - 1960 "So at forty-eight years of age, Major Cecil Wedgwood became the first Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent. Born at Hem Heath, Trentham, he was the son of Mr. Godfrey Wedgwood, but due to the early death of his mother, spent much of his early life at ..."
  3. ↑ 'WEDGWOOD, Major Cecil', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 24 May 2013
  4. ↑ "The War in South Africa - Embarcation of Troops". The Times. No. 36087. London. 12 March 1900. p. 7.
  5. ↑ "The War - Officers returning home". The Times. No. 36774. London. 22 May 1902. p. 8.
  6. ↑ "No. 27457". The London Gazette. 25 July 1902. p. 4742.
  7. ↑ "No. 27490". The London Gazette. 31 October 1902. p. 6906.
  8. ↑ Wedgewood made peace medal stating 7th battalion.
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