Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 125

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

MASTER

Name LEONARD DAVIES (Capt)

Lef SES 1915

Set / House -

Arrive SES 1911

Roll Number - Died 03:06:1917 Age 29

Where WANCOURT, FRANCE Serving with RIFLE BRIGADE

Buried Wancourt British Cemetery, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France Remembered Bromley War Memorial, St. Edward’s School Cloisters Stone Memorial

Born 1888 in Forest Hill, London, the son of a deceased clergyman, educated at Truro College; he was a teacher at St. Edward’s 1911-15, arriving from Queen’s College, Oxford taking over the Vth Form at first, appointed a Set Tutor from 1911. From February 1913 he shared VIth Form duties with the Warden, before taking sole charge just before the war started. He was a married man. He was a fine oarsman and had stroked his College VIII and also rowed for the Leander Club. He was also a competent musician with a good singing voice. He left the School in 1915 to train for a commission, joined the 5th Battalion, Princes Consort’s Own Rifle Brigade in November 1915 at Crowborough, Sussex. He transferred to the 9th Battalion and left for France in February 1916 and by the end of the year was hospitalised with trench fever, while in charge of a Company. He was promoted to Captain in February 1917 and was killed in action at Wancourt, France commanding a Company. He was in a trench at the time and was hit by a shell fragment and died within an hour. His Commanding Officer wrote ‘He is a great loss to the battalion, whenever anything dangerous had to be done, he always wanted to do it himself ’. The Chronicle’ added ‘It was a heavy blow, felt deeply all over the School, for he was universally popular with old and young alike. A man of the kindest nature, sometimes hidden under a mask of humorous cynicism. He was not a man for whom the life of a soldier had attraction. His final words (to Wilfrid Cowell) were ‘Remember, in any case - I’m glad I went’.