Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

17th June 1916.  Cecil Draper,  F Social, 1908.  Lt, 1st Bn, Middlesex Regt.  Killed in action in an unknown engagement in France.  He left school in 1910 to attend Sandhurst.

Cecil Draper’s stepfather, Frederick Wells, also a Radleian, also died on active service on the Western Front. Both are recorded on the War Memorial. Cecil’s mother, Frederick’s widow, was widowed three times before she was 45, and was left to bring up five sons. The family did not send photos for the War Memorial albums.

 

Aged 22

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Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

The grave of Thornton Boyd at Lijssenthoek. Photographed for 'Marching in Memory' for Combat Stress, July 2015

The grave of Thornton Boyd at Lijssenthoek. Photographed for ‘Marching in Memory’ for Combat Stress, July 2015

Today we remember …

5th June 1916.  Thornton Boyd,  E Social, 1905.  Corporal, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Canadian Expeditionary Force.  Died of wounds received in action at Zilleheke in the Battle of Mount Sorrel.

 

Thornton Boyd was born in Canada at Bobcaygeon, Ontario. He left Radley in 1908 to return to Canada where he studied engineering at McGill University in Montreal. He graduated in 1912.

He joined up as a Private with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, in August 1915, arriving on the Western Front in February 1916.

Aged 26

Thornton Boyd, Corporal, Princess Patricia's Canadian LI, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Died of wounds 5 June 1916

Thornton Boyd, Corporal, Princess Patricia’s Canadian LI, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Died of wounds 5 June 1916

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

31st May 1916.  Harold Gore-Browne, G Social, 1899.  Assistant Paymaster, HMS Invincible,  Royal Navy.

Died on HMS Invincible during the Battle of Jutland.Harold Gore-Browne was the grandson of the Bishop of Winchester.   He joined the Navy pay corps immediately upon leaving school in 1904. At the time of the Battle of Jutland, he was serving as Secretary to Rear Admiral Horace Hood on his flagship, HMS Invincible.

The destruction of HMS Invincible

The vanguards of the battlefleets, made up of battlecruisers and smaller ships, collided just before 18.00. The German fleet, possessing better gunnery and range-finding equipment, had the better of the early exchanges. Hood’s squadron was heavily engaged, Invincible facing the combined batteries of SMS Lutzow and SMS Derfflinger. The combination of the two ships proved too tough for Hood’s flagship however, and a shell from Derfflinger penetrated the “Q” turret of Invincible.

This resulted in a catastrophic explosion from the ship’s magazine, which blew the ship into two halves which sank separately. Of Invincible‍ ’​s 1,021 crew, there were just six survivors, pulled from the water by attendant destroyers. Hood and his staff were not amongst them.

None of the bodies were recovered and they remain in the wreckage of HMS Invincible at the bottom of the North Sea. The wreck is now a protected War Grave.

Aged 30

Harold Gore-Brown, Asst Paymaster, HMS Invincible, Royal Navy. Died in the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916

Harold Gore-Brown, Asst Paymaster, HMS Invincible, Royal Navy. Died in the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

The grave of Charles Hind at Cabaret Rouge Cemetery. Photographed for 'Marching in Memory' for Combat Stress, July 2015

The grave of Charles Hind at Cabaret Rouge Cemetery. Photographed for ‘Marching in Memory’ for Combat Stress, July 2015

Today we remember …

30th May 1916.  Charles Hind,  B Social, 1907.  Lt, 2nd Bn, South Staffordshire Regt.  Killed in action in an unknown engagement in France.
At Radley he was Head of B Social and Captain of Cricket.  After leaving school he planned to become a doctor. As a medical student he had almost completed two years’ study at Pembroke College, Cambridge, when the war began. He took a commission in the South Staffords, and throughout 1915 he had commanded a brigade grenade company in France. He was mentioned in despatches. 

Aged 22

Charles Hind, Lt, 2nd Bn South Staffordshire Regt. kia 19 May 1916

Charles Hind, Lt, 2nd Bn South Staffordshire Regt. kia 19 May 1916

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1
The grave of Charles Ellerton at Ecoivres Cemetery. Photographed for 'Marching in Memory' for Combat Stress, July 2015

The grave of Charles Ellerton at Ecoivres Cemetery. Photographed for ‘Marching in Memory’ for Combat Stress, July 2015

Today we remember …

19th May  1916.  Charles Ellerton. Don.  Capt, 10th Bn, Cheshire Regt.  Killed in action during preparations for the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Charles Ellerton was born in Cheshire in 1884. He was a Scholar of Jesus College, Oxford, who came to teach at Radley early in 1914. He signed up almost immediately war broke out in 1914.Extract from a letter received from an Officer at the Front re Captain C. F. Ellerton: ‘He died at the head of a party of his company charging the enemy. It was an act of unnecessary bravery, as it was only a small party and he might have detailed it to a subaltern. I was told by a witness that he saved the life of one boy who was going to be bayoneted, by rushing in front and throwing a bomb at the Germans. He was at first badly wounded and refused to be carried away, ordering the stretcher bearers to save themselves. Immediately afterwards he was killed.’‘I saw his grave this afternoon. He is buried in the little cemetery in the wood at Mount St. Eloi. He was just reported missing, because it was not until the next night that it was possible to recover his body.’

The schoolboys he taught at Radley remembered him as ‘Though only here for a comparatively short time he made his influence felt in many ways here – on the “Rugger-field,” in “school,” and with the “recruits,” and there are many to whom the news of his death came as a real grief.’

Aged 32

 Memorial1

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

6th April 1916.  Leslie Inman. F Social, 1903.   2nd Lt, Wiltshire Regt.  Leslie Yardley Inman served with the Royal Scots.  He was attached to the Wiltshire Regiment, serving in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) when he died of wounds received in the Relief of Kut-al-Amara.  At Radley, he played soccer for the Firsts. In 1906, he was Captain of Cricket. He was Head of F Social. After school, he went to Hertford College, Oxford, and then went to work for the London Stock Exchange. He joined the Public School and University Corps soon after the outbreak of war.  He received a commission in the Royal Scots in May, 1915, and left England in the following October. He served in the Gallipoli campaign, before being sent on to Mesopotamia..  There is no photo of him in the War Memorial albums. He is shown here in the Warden & Prefects group photo of 1906Aged 27

Leslie Inman, Prefect, Radley College, 1906

Leslie Inman, Prefect, Radley College, 1906

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

20th March 1916.  Noel Gibbs, A Social, 1899.  Trooper, East African Mounted Rifles, East African Forces.   Killed by a sniper at Kahe Road, German East Africa (now Tanzania).  After school, he went out to East Africa where he became a farmer/rancher.

LATEST NEWS. The Radley trip to Gehandu High School in Tanzania in July 2016 visited Noel Gibbs’s grave at Moshi on our behalf.  At the graveside

Noel Gibbs, Trooper, East African Mounted Rifles, East African Forces. Killed by a sniper, 19 March 1916

Noel Gibbs, Trooper, East African Mounted Rifles, East African Forces. Killed by a sniper, 20 March 1916