Lt. Col. George Kirkpatrick Ansell

     The January 1916 issue of the American Chess Bulletin had blurb from problemist Comins Mansfield the originally appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger stating, “As I am joining the colors, kindly address all further correspondence to my father in North Devon." 
     During Word War I, Mansfield was gassed in the trenches and temporarily blinded, but he survived to become a genius of the 2-mover. Mansfield (June 14, 1896 – March 27, 1984) was a chess problem composer. He was born in the village of Witheridge, England, the son of Herbert J. Mansfield, a long time correspondence player for Devon. 
     Mansfield was inspired by a 1910 article in the British Chess Magazine that contained chess problems and soon won first prize for a two-mover published in a Plymouth newspaper. For 45 years he was employed by a tobacco company and played OTB in local events with considerable success. 
     Not as fortunate was the much less well-known Lt. Col. George Kirkpatrick Ansell who was killed in the first days of World War I. 
     Born in 1872 near Portsmouth, England Ansell was the son of a soldier and joined the 5th Princess Charlotte of Wales’s Dragoon Guards and served in the South African War and commanded the 5th Dragoon Guards from 1911. 
     Ansell had been a composer and publisher of chess problems before he entered the Army, but after he was in the Army, composing gradually ceased in favor of his love of horses and polo, a game at which he excelled. Ansell also wrote part of the Cavalry Drill Book. 
     Early in the war, Ansell distinguished himself in action at Elouges, Belgium.  August 31, 1914 found Ansell’s men settled for the night in the small village of Nery, France. In the early morning of September 1st, a lost battalion of Germans blundered into them and fighting broke out. 

     Ansell’s unit was sent out to attack on the flank. In order to get a good view of the battle he rode to the top of a nearby hill which made him a target for the Germans. He was shot in the chest and died within 15 minutes, the most senior British officer to be killed up to that time.
     Ansell left behind a young son, Michael, who later joined the same regiment as his father, played polo and rode competitively. In France in March 1940, he was given charge of the 1st Lothians and Border Horse, becoming the British Army's youngest commanding officer. 
     Shortly afterwards, while retreating from the advancing Germans and hiding in a hayloft he was wounded in the hand and eyes by friendly fire when British troops thought he was a German. He was permanently blinded and later all four fingers on his injured left hand were amputated. He then became a prisoner of war and was repatriated from a German POW camp in 1943. 
     Being blind did not curtail his involvement with horses. From his home he became the driving force of British show jumping and equestrianism and helped make it a regular feature on television. 
     Here's one of Ansell's problems that appeared int the Manchester Weekly Times in 1893. White to mate in two moves. The solution can be found HERE.