Captain, 4th Battalion Manchester Regiment, attached 17th Battalion.
Died 25th April 1918, age 21.
Buried at Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Belgium.
Student of engineering.
Donald was the second son of Christian Frederick and Janet Somerville Budenberg. His father was an engineer having gained a BSc. in 1883 and MSc. in 1887 from Owen’s College and a keen grower and exhibitioner of carnations. Donald was born on 13th July 1896 at Marple and attended Clifton College, Bristol. In 1914 he appears to have entered Manchester University to study engineering, but some records note him as being at Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined one of the University Officer Training Corps in October 1914 and left a year later when he was commissioned with the Manchester Regiment. He went to France in January 1917, rose to the rank of Captain and was killed on 25th April 1918 near Voormezeele, Ypres while leading a counter attack during the German Spring Offensive. He left effects worth £301 14s 3d to his father and his gravestone is inscribed “A Very Gentle Perfect Knight”.
Owing to their German name the family found themselves under scrutiny during the war. In February 1915 his father’s firm, Messrs. Schaffer & Budenberg, was prosecuted for breach of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 1914. In a complex hearing much of the issue seemed to revolve around dates of letters to the parent company which was German and when they had been sent in relation to the date the the law was introduced. It seemed that the firm had not been aware of the proclamation until a few days after it was made, but as soon as they knew of the change in the law the firm had ceased to communicate with the parent and two directors who were German were replaced. Mr C.F. Budenberg’s father had been naturalised as a British subject in 1856 and he considered himself and his firm to be English with no desire to trade with Germany. The judge ordered the payment of fines and costs on a number of, but not all, the summonses that had been brought before him.