The Reverend Kenneth Alfred Latter MC was in the Murray, arriving at College in 1911 on the same day as fellow Lodge member Ernest Northen, and was a College Prefect in 1916, and unsurprisingly went straight from Wellington to Woolwich, and in February 1917 was commissioned into the Gunners.
He was thrown straight into the thick of it, serving with 310 Brigade RFA.
“Major R. C. Foot has Kindly furnished [the unit war diary with] the following notes of the experiences of the 310th Brigade:
On the 27th [August] we were in action by Mametz Wood and Bazentin Wood. Here we fired a barrage for an attack on the Longueval-Guillemont area that morning. The 28th saw us in action at Ginchy covering the advance on Morval, which proved rather a difficult place to take. Here Latter behaved very gallantly under heavy shelling, for which he was subsequently awarded the MC. I had some very nice shooting from here on some infantry dragging light trench mortars; I hit two teams and counted 12 dead and all three mortars left there next day. We remained at Ginchy two days, and on the 30th went into action at Morval. From this position we covered the advance on Sailly Saillisel Ridge, which was taken on September 1st.
Headquarters went to Le Trechon on the 7th [September], the advanced infantry having on that day reached a line about 5000 yards east of Obies. D/310 came under heavy shell fire during one of its advances, and Lieuts. W. P. Holt and K. A. Latter were badly wounded.”1
His MC Citation reads:
“When ordered to reconnoitre for a gun position for an advance, he found the enemy in possession of the area, and sweeping all approaches with machine-gun fire. He successfully marked a position, although he was at times in the open within 300 yards of the hostile machine guns. Later, in command of a detached section of his battery, he displayed great gallantry and initiative, moving to and fro several times from his section to the main battery position for orders, in preference to sending runners from his men.”2
He retired from the army in 1929 due to ill health, after five years on the HP List. He took to farming in the Weald around Sevenoaks and took holy orders, and at the start of the next war was at St Augustines Preston in East Sussex.
He joined the Lodge in 1936 and became Worshipful Master in 1942, becoming only the second Worshipful Master, following the sad passing of the the Grand Master HRH the Duke of Connaught & Strathearn to the Grand Lodge above. Latter had been initiated into Knole Lodge No 1414 in Kent. He joined several lodges, including Comrades Lodge No 2976 in Essex, North Star Lodge No 3927 in London, and Agricola Lodge No 4501 in Kent.
He became a Provincial Grand Chaplain in both Kent and Somerset.
He was a member of the Rag.
- War Services of the 62nd West Riding Divisional Artillery by A.T. Anderson
- London Gazette