Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 70

W ORLD W AR O NE (1914 - 1918) INCLUDING THOSE WHO DIED LATER AS A RESULT OF THIS WAR

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name HOWARD ST.JOHN JEFFERSON (Lance Corp)

Lef SES 1910

Roll Number 1278 Died 05:09:1915

Set / House B

Arrive SES 1907

Where GALLIPOLI Serving with CITY OF LONDON YEOMANRY

Age 21

Buried Helles Memorial Cemetery, Canakkale, Gallipoli, Turkey Remembered Helles Memorial, Turkey, The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial Born 1894 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the elder of two SES brothers, both of American origin. He overcame initial hurdles of different countries and traditions to excel at St. Edward’s. He was a member of the Rugby Football XV of 1910, the Rowing IV and VIII 1909 and 1910, a first rate athlete and swimmer. ‘He grew in the ways of an English school, and he succeeded in doing so and became popular and distinguished himself, chiefly on the river and as a swimmer’ (Chronicle). On the outbreak of war, despite being an American citizen, he volunteered for the City of London Yeomanry as a Private in the South of France in November 1914 and was used as a stretcher-bearer to begin with. Later he joined the Yeomanry’s Rough Riders to see more action and was sent to the Dardanelles. There in September 1915 he was hit by ‘unexpected shrapnel in an unusual place, amongst the stretcher bearers, killing one and wounding two’. Jefferson was the one lost and he died quite painlessly an hour and a half afterwards. ‘He had no pain from his five wounds. He was a fine friend, a fine man and a fine soldier’ (his Senior Officer). ‘His cheerful courage and the energy which worked him until he dropped’ (Another army colleague). ‘He was the second OSE to die in the Gallipoli Campaign and personally known to the present generation of SES boys at the School’ (Chronicle).