Died in action aged 35
Buried at Grangegorman Military Cemetery in Republic of Ireland Grave Ref RC (Officers’ Section). Formerly buried in Dublin Castle Grounds, Co. Dublin.
Basil Henry was the son of Major William Worlsey-Worswick of Normanton Hall, Leicestershire.
Lieutenant Worswick joined the 2nd King Edward's Horse in August, 1914. when it was first formed, and served with it continuously until the day of his death. He left with the regiment for France on 4 May, and served in the trenches as a trooper, until he was offered his commission by the Colonel. He returned to England to take up his commission at the end of September 1915 and was gazetted on 2 October 1915.
When the Irish Rebellion broke out he was stationed with the 2nd King Edward's Horse at the Curragh, and the unanimous testimony of his brother officers and friends is that he had no sympathy or association of any kind with ’The Sinn Finers’.
“He was shot by British Troops, members of the Dublin Fusiliers, in Guinness’s Brewery on Friday, 28 April 1916, there was no public investigation into the circumstance attending the death of Lieut. Worswick.”
from British Soldiers KIA website
“On the night of 29 April 1916, a picket of the 5th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers stationed within the Guinness Brewery arrested and then shot dead William John Rice and Algernon Lucas. The same night, in a separate incident, Cecil Dockeray, and Basil Worswick were shot. Lucas and Worswick were officers in the King Edward's Horse. Dockeray and Rice were employees at the brewery. The four men were killed while carrying out routine inspections of the premises. CQMS Robert Flood, commander of the picket and who ordered the executions was court-martialled, charged with the murders of Rice and Lucas but was acquitted, claiming in his defence that he believed the four to be members of Sinn Fein and that his picket was too small to guard the four prisoners.”
Wikipedia
“Second-Lieut Pinfield’s body was wrapped in a winding sheet and hastily buried in a temporary grave in the grounds of Dublin Castle along with dozens of other soldiers who died that week. Some of the soldiers who died were English and some were Irishmen who had joined the British army.
“Families came to Dublin Castle in May 1916 to reclaim the bodies and funerals were arranged. Bodies which were not claimed were given military funerals and reinterred in the British military cemetery at Blackhorse Avenue, Grangegorman. The bodies however of Second-Lieut Pinfield – and four other officers – were neither claimed nor taken to Grangegorman.
“Their “temporary” graves were discovered, by chance, 46 years later in May 1962 on a patch of waste ground near Dublin Castle. Granite slabs recorded the names, regiments and dates of death for Second-Lieut Pinfield and four other officers: Godfrey Hunter (26), Algernon Lucas, (37), Phillip Addison (20) and Basil Worsley-Worswick (35).
“The bodies were exhumed and taken to Grangegorman for reburial on 17 May 1963. A question remains as to why they were not claimed nor given proper military funerals in 1916.
“The episode is especially odd given the British army’s reputation for meticulous record- keeping and tradition of honouring its war dead. Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin, described the story as “baffling and very unusual”. The British embassy in Dublin said it had no records relating to the discovery of the graves in 1962 and that any documents which might exist would have been sent to the public records office in London.”
Irish Times 12 July 2011
Basil Henry Worsley-Worswick of the Isthmian Club Piccadilly second-lieutenant 2nd King Edwards Horse died 29 April 1916 at Dublin Ireland Administration (with Will limited). Probate was granted on 28 July to John Philip Munter esquire attorney of Christopher Worsley-Worswick (who appears to have been a younger brother) effects £11,886. 8 7d.