John Ford Elkington

Lieutenant Colonel John Ford Elkington was a British Army officer. Elkington attended Elizabeth College in Guernsey and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1886. Elkington served with the West African Frontier Force, with British forces in the Second Boer War and in India. In 1914 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of his regiment's 1st battalion. Elkington deployed to France at the start of the First World War with his unit and saw action at the 26 August Battle of Le Cateau during the Great Retreat from Mons. That afternoon the battalion retreated to Saint-Quentin, Aisne where it became mixed with the 2nd battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The men were exhausted and hungry and Elkington was disappointed at finding no onward transport in the town. The Dublins' commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mainwaring, entered into a written agreement with the town's mayor to surrender rather than fight in the streets, though Elkington stated he did not see the agreement. The following day a cavalry major arrived in the town and by threats and encouragement succeeded in marching the men and other stragglers out of the town and away from advancing German forces.