WYLLY, GUY GEORGE EGERTON,
Lieutenant, was born 17 February 1880, at Hobart, Tasmania, son of Major
Edward Arthur Egerton Wylly (109th Regiment and Madras Staff Corps) and
Henrietta Mary, daughter of Robert Clerk, (of West Holme, Somerset, and
Sergeant-at-Arms to the House of Assembly, Hobart, Tasmania). He was
educated at Hutchins' School, Tasmania, and at St Peter's College, Adelaide,
South Australia, and became a Lieutenant in the Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen
on 26 April, 1900, serving in the South African War; was twice wounded, once
slightly and once dangerously; received the Queen's Medal with three clasps,
and was awarded the Victoria Cross [London Gazette, 23 November 1900]: "Guy
G E Wylly, Lieutenant, Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen. On the 1st September
1900, near Warm Bad, Lieutenant Wylly was with the advanced scouts of a
foraging party. They were passing through a narrow gorge, very rocky and
thickly wooded, when the enemy in force suddenly opened fire at short range
from hidden cover, wounding six out of the party of eight, including
Lieutenant Wylly. That officer, seeing that one of his men was badly
wounded in the leg, and that his horse was shot, went back to the man's
assistance, made him take his (Lieutenant Wylly's) horse, and opened fire
from behind a rock to cover the retreat of the others, at the imminent risk
of being cut off himself. Colonel T E Hickman, DSO, considers that, the
gallant conduct of Lieutenant Wylly saved Corporal Brown from being killed
or captured, and that his subsequent action in firing to cover the retreat
was 'instrumental in saving others of his men from death or capture'".
He was gazetted Second Lieutenant, The Royal Berkshire Regiment , dated 19
May 1900; was transferred and gazetted Second Lieutenant, The South
Lancashire Regiment, dated 5 November 1900; joined the 2nd Battalion The
South Lancashire Regiment at Jubbulpore, India, 4 December 1901; was
transferred to the Indian Army and gazetted to the 46th Punjabis 1 October
1902; transferred to the Queen's Own Corps of Guides 11 February 1904. He
was ADC to Lord Kitchener, Commander in Chief in India, from December 1904
to September 1909; officiated as ADC to Lieutenant General Sir James
Willcocks, Commanding the Northern Army, India, September 1915 to February
1916; was nominated to the Staff College, Quetta, in 1914, by Sir O'Moore
Creagh, Commander-in-Chief in India. He was appointed Staff Captain, Mhow
Cavalry Brigade, 11 November 1914; appointed Brigade Major, Mhow Cavalry
Brigade, 15 September 1915; appointed GSO2, 4th Division, BEF, 20 June,
1913; appointed GSO2, 3rd Australian Division, 19 July, 1916; appointed
GSO2, 1st Anzac Corps, in February 1917. Major Wylly was wounded at
Authoille in August 1915; was mentioned in Despatches in June 1916, and June
1917. He had the Delhi Durbar Medal (1911).
