Canon William Lummis

William Murrell Lummis
Canon W. M. Lummis
Born	4 June 1886 Coddenham, Suffolk
Died	2 November 1985 (age 99 years)
Nationality	United Kingdom
Other names	Canon William Murrell Lummis
Occupation	soldier, Church of England clergyman
Known for	military historian

Canon William Murrell Lummis MC (4 June 1886 – 2 November 1985) was a British military historian most noted for the research he conducted on the Victoria Cross, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Rorke's Drift.

Born in Coddenham, Suffolk, Lummis was the oldest of seven children born to George Murrell Lummis (1860 – 1912) and Louisa Sparrow (1854 – 1933). After leaving school at the age of 14, Lummis worked as a clerk in a Magistrates' Clerk's Office in his hometown of Coddenham before enlisting, aged 18, in the 11th Hussars as a trooper in 1904. In 1911 he was a Lance Sergeant and became responsible, among many other things, for editing the 11th Hussars regimental journal. At that time he met the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade who had gathered for a reunion. In 1912 he endeavoured to create a complete and accurate roll of the men who had served in the 11th Hussars in the Crimean War.

By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he was Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant, the youngest in the British Army. He served on the Western Front throughout the War, taking part in the Retreat from Mons and seeing action in Flanders. He was commissioned in 1916 and transferred to his county regiment, the Suffolk Regiment, serving with the regiment's second battalion for the remainder of the war. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery on 21–23 August 1918 during the Second Battle of the Somme. He commanded the battalion on 23 October 1918 at its last First World War action, the Battle of the Selle, when it took all its objectives.