Captain John Rowley Lunell Heyland 9th Gurkha Rifles was killed whilst directing his men’s fire during the Battle of near Neuve Chapelle on 11 March 1915.
He was the eldest of four brothers serving with the Army, all of whom attended Wellington College. His brother Arthur Heyland, attached to the 2nd Gurkha Rifles was also killed in the same sector in May 1915 and is commemorated on the nearby Le Touret Memorial. The other two brothers were wounded in the war.
John was son of Captain John Rowley Kyffyn Lloyd Heyland RA and Mary Beatrice Heyland. He went to Wellington College from 1898. He was in the Orange and a fine sportsman. He was in the XV and the VIII. He was credited with being part of a small group with Marsh that turned around the fortunes of his House.
He went to Sandhurst in 1903 and continued his sporting prowess, getting his colours in the XV and shooting in the VIII before commissioning and joining the Indian Army. He spent a year attached to the Royal Sussex before being gazetted to the 9th Gurkha Rifles in 1906.
He was award the MC in 1914 for his services in the field. He was serving as Adjutant on the Battalion at Neuve Chapelle.
He was initiated into Siwalik Lodge No 2939 in July 1912, the same Lodge as Marsh, his fellow Gurkha and OW Marsh, being passed and raised later the same year. Siwalik was a lodge at Dehra Dun on the NW Frontier with a strong military constituency. It became Lodge Siwalik Dr. Durga Prasad No 62 on the formation of the United Grand Lodge of India on 24 November 1961.
