He was commissioned in to the Worcestershire Regiment in about 1894.
Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 1st February 1897 and to rank of Captain on the 20th June 1900.
During the Boer War he served with the
Mounted Infantry and was Mentioned-in-Despatches in 1901 (London Gazette
date 10/09/1901).
On the 1st November 1901 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Colonel (temporary
Major-General) R. H. Murray, C.B., C.M.G. at Aldershot Infantry Brigade.
In 1903 Cecil Howard Palmer married Hilda Beatrice Hall at Alton ,
Hampshire.
On the 18th November 1906 he was seconded for service as Adjutant of the 1st
Volunteers Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. In 1908. under Lord
Haldane’s new administration for the Army the 1st Volunteer Battalion
became the 7th Battalions, Territorial Force, and so on the 1st April 1908
Captain Cecil Howard Palmer was appointed Adjutant of the 7th Battalion
Worcestershire Regiment for the remaining period of that appointment.
Lieut.-Colonel C. H. Palmer
(1913)
He was a keen sportsman. He was a first
team member of the Hampshire County Cricket Club (batsman) from 1899 to 1907
and interestingly during 1904 he also played for Worcestershire County
Cricket Club against Oxford University at Worcester, scoring 41 and 75 runs, and in the same season
played three matches for Hampshire County Cricket Club one of which was
against Worcestershire. However, as a regular soldier his county cricket was very restricted.
In 1903 for the Gentlemen of Worcestershire v Gentlemen of Warwickshire at Edgbaston he made 102 and
127 runs.
On the 27th January 1912 he was promoted to the rank of Major and took over
command of the Depot Worcestershire Regiment.
At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, he was appointed to command
the 9th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment and granted the temporary rank
of Lieut.-Colonel on the 19th August 1914 (London Gazette date 02/09/1914). Sailed from Avonmouth on
24th June 1915 and landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, August 1915.
Whilst commanding the 9th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment in Gallipoli
he was killed by a snipers bullet near Hill Q, on the 26th July 1915 (age 42). At the
time of his death his father was the vicar at East Worldham Rectory, Alton,
Hampshire.