Gilbert Robert Mitchell-Innes was born on the 27th February 1895 in Bournemouth, Hampshire. He was the only son of Edward Alfred Mitchell-Innes, K.C., and Annie Barbara Laycock, of ‘Churchill’, Hemel Hempstead. He had one older sister, Josephine and three younger sisters, Norma Margaret, Rhoda Frederic and the youngest, Elizabeth.

Gilbert came from a wealthy family which was prominent in the social and political life of Hemel Hempstead. His father Edward was a Barrister and King’s Counsel and a member of both the Borough and County Councils. He sat on the Joint Hospital Board and was Mayor and Bailiff of the town between 1911 and 1913. He was a JP and a Deputy Lieutenant for Hertfordshire. His commitment extended to his military service, a territorial with the 2nd (Hertfordshire) Battalion of the Bedfords, and went on to serve in the Great War, rising to the rank of Major.

The family lived at ‘Churchill’, formerly known as ‘The Heath’, leaving it in 1932 after Edward’s death. It is remembered by older Hemel Hempsteadians as the site of the Churchill swimming baths, opened in 1939. The house was demolished in 1960 and the location where it stood is now the site of the town leisure centre.

Gilbert was educated at Eton College which he left in 1912 when he entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He left Sandhurst on the outbreak of war in August 1914 and received his first commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 19th (Queen Alexandra’s Own Royal) Hussars.

At the start of the War the regiment had been split into three squadrons, A, B and C. These were attached to the 5th, 4th and 6th Infantry Divisions respectively, as divisional cavalry squadrons. All three divisions moved to France with the British Expeditionary Force in August and September 1914, and saw action in the Battle of Le Cateau, the Retreat from Mons, the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne and the Battle of Armentières. In April 1915 the three Squadrons returned, and the regiment was reformed and placed under the command of 9th Cavalry Brigade in 1st Cavalry Division.

From August to December 1914 Gilbert was at Hounslow and in November of that year he was promoted temporarily Lieutenant with ‘A’ Squadron. He went to join his regiment in France and disembarked there on the 5th February 1915. He soon saw action at the Second Battle of Ypres in spring 1915, fighting in the Battle of St Julien in April and the Battle of Frezenberg in May.

It was on the final day of the Battle of Frezenberg that Gilbert was mortally wounded. The 19th Hussars had been called up to support a centre attack and had to dig themselves into a wet ditch exposed to galling fire. During this operation Gilbert was hit, while superintending the work. It was reported that he behaved with "conspicuous courage setting a fine example of pluck and endurance to his men”.

Gilbert died of the effects of his injuries two days later on 15th May 1915. His death was reported in the Hemel Gazette shortly afterwards. Two years after his death his parents presented a lectern in his memory to St John the Evangelist Church in Boxmoor where he is also commemorated on a memorial plaque.

Gilbert is Remembered with Honour at Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium: Plot: I. E. 9. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his father Edward, reads: “FROM GLORY TO GLORY”

He was 20 years old when he died.

Gilbert was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.