On 13 April 1915, he was killed in action near Laventie, three weeks after arriving in France. He was shot by a sniper. He was initially buried in France, but permission was granted by King George V for his body to be brought back to the United Kingdom. Nine days after his death, his body was disinterred and re-buried in the churchyard of St Deiniol's, Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales. Also commemorated on the gravestone is his cousin William Herbert Gladstone, MC, son of Stephen and Annie Gladstone, killed in action in 1918.