Lawrence Edmund Rowntree (4 March 1895 – 25 November 1917) was a British soldier killed during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was the only son of

John Wilhelm Rowntree John Wilhelm Rowntree (4 September 1868 – 9 March 1905) was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and Quaker religious activist and reformer.ODNB article by Edward H. Milligan, ‘Rowntree, John Wilhelm (1868–1905)�accessed 20 Janua ...

of the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

Rowntree family and Constance Naish, and grandson of Joseph Rowntree. Born in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and having grown up in Scalby, Rowntree was educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school ...

, and began to study medicine at King's College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1913. On the outbreak of the First World War Rowntree volunteered for the

Friends' Ambulance Unit The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914–1919, 1939–1946 and 1946 ...

in 1914, being deployed in October to

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

as an orderly and driver. He brought his grandfather's car from Britain to Europe, converting it into an ambulance. In April 1915, he criticised French stretcher-bearers for their cruelty, reporting that he had seen four of them "drop a wounded man off a stretcher from shoulder height, and laugh". He also wrote that men in the hospital sheds were in straw beds "thick with dirt, blood and septic dressings" from their previous occupants. In May, he wrote of his struggles with

shell shock Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...

and his emotions:

when anyone closed a door or took his boots off, we arose and slew him... you don't mind the thought of being wounded, you don't mind the thought of deathmuch, but there is that great black fear sitting there, and making you feel the lowest of miserable worms.

Rowntree was injured and sent to England to heal, writing up his journal in 1916. Despite his family's pacifist beliefs, he later decided to fight as a soldier (declining to register as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

under the

Military Service Act 1916 The Military Service Act 1916 was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom during the First World War to impose conscription in Great Britain, but not in Ireland or any other country around the world. The Act The Bill which became ...

), telling his mother in a letter that he had been "feeling a call". He joined the

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

in 1916, and was injured in the buttocks. He was then commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

into the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

in 1917 and was killed in the

Ypres Salient The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War. Ypres district Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. ...

on 25 November 1917, several weeks after the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (german: link=no, Dritte Flandernschlacht; french: link=no, Troisième Bataille des Flandres; nl, Derde Slag om Ieper), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele (), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by t ...

had ended. Rowntree was buried in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery in

Vlamertinge Vlamertinge is a village in the Belgian province of West Flanders and a borough of the city of Ypres. The village center of Vlamertinge lies just outside the city center of Ypres, along the main road N38 to the nearby town of Poperinge. In additi ...

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

, Belgium. The headstone bears the inscription ''Only Son of J.W. Rowntree, Scaley "I believe in the life everlasting"'' His grandfather,

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, spoke of his death for years after, calling him "my dear Lawrie". Rowntree's letters to his mother Constance, 1901–1917, are deposited at the

Borthwick Institute for Archives The Borthwick Institute for Archives is the specialist archive service of the University of York, York, England. It is one of the biggest archive repositories outside London. The Borthwick was founded in 1953 as The Borthwick Institute of Histori ...

in York, having been found by his great-niece. In 2017, a century after his death, an exhibition of his journal and theatrical performances of his life were held at

York Castle Museum York Castle Museum is a museum located in York, North Yorkshire, England, on the site of York Castle, which was originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068. The museum itself was founded by John L. Kirk in 1938, and is housed in prison bu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowntree, Lawrence 1895 births 1917 deaths People educated at Bootham School

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

British military personnel killed in World War I 20th-century British philanthropists Military personnel from York People from the Borough of Scarborough 20th-century English businesspeople People associated with the Friends' Ambulance Unit British Army personnel of World War I Royal Tank Regiment soldiers Royal Field Artillery officers