Transcript

of

Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald Wilson Fox [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc.,  vol.  48, (1916), p. 47.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1916 Plymouth meeting. A picture of the brass memorial plaque for Colonel Fox, who commanded the Devonshire Regiment (Territorial Forces) from 1909 to 1913, is available on the War Memorials website. His name also appears on the Whitchurch 1914-18 War Memorial, Devon Heritage website. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Colonel Fox, of Grimstone, Whitchurch, Tavistock, and of the 1-6th Devonshire Regiment, was born in November, 1866. He was the younger son of the late Charles H. Fox and Mrs. Fox, of Shute Leigh, Wellington, Somerset. Colonel Fox, who was a partner in the firm of Messrs. Fox, Fowler and Co., bankers, was well known in the town and district of Tavistock, where he took an active interest in local affairs. He was a county magistrate, and for some years was honorary secretary of the Tavistock and District Agricultural Association. Formerly captain of the Tavistock detachment of the 2nd Devon Volunteers, he afterwards succeeded to the command of the battalion, which under the Territorial Force Act became the 5th Devon Regiment. He retired from the command of this battalion, which he held for some years, and on the outbreak of the present war was appointed to the command of the 6th Devon Regiment, with which he went to India and later to Mesopotamia, where he was killed on the 8th March, 1916.
Colonel Fox married, in 1891, Mabel, third daughter of the late John William Pease, of Pendower.
He became a member of the Devonshire Association in 1914.