Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 102

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 JAMES HENRY SKENE (Lt)

Lef SES 1891

Roll Number 744 Died 14:7:1916

Set / House -

Arrive SES 1890

Where RICHEBOURG, SOMME, FRANCE Serving with 4TH, ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT

Age 39

Buried Loos Cemetery Remembered The Loos Memorial, Dorking Museum, The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial Born 1877 in Hammersmith, London, he was at St. Edward’s a little over a year and very little is known of his time spent at the School, except that he was a fine musician. He left while in the Shell Form. He was very musical from an early age and by 1905 was performing as a concert pianist in such establishments as Leighton House, The Albert Hall, The Queen’s Hall (under Henry Wood) and most notably he was the accompanist to Isadora Duncan, the famous dancer of the time, during her various concerts and tours, including to Russia in 1913. In 1914 he enlisted in the 5th (Service) Battalion as a Private in Royal Berkshire Regiment, rising to the rank of Acting Sergeant. He received four months training to become an officer and was commissioned as a (Temporary) Second Lieutenant in April 1915. He now joined the 2/4th Battalion and went to France. They immediately saw action with three men being killed on their first day. In July during fierce fighting in the Somme Offensive, Skene was taken prisoner, then immediately traded back as he was recognised by his captors as the great pianist from Vienna! Skene, wanting no special treatment, volunteered to go back into the trenches and was killed in action shortly afterwards near Richebourg, in the midst of the on-going Somme campaign.