Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 201

W ORLD W AR II

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

Name DAVID WIMBORNE KEITH (Signalman)

Lef SES 1941

Roll Number 3082 Died 30:06:1943

Set / House B

Arrive SES 1936

Where NORTH AFRICA Serving with 2nd W/T ROYAL CORPS OF SIGNALS

Age 21

Buried Bone War Cemetery, Annaba, Algeria Remembered Bone Cemetery War, Annaba Memorial and The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial

Born Wimborne, Dorset 1922, the elder of two SES brothers, sons of a clergyman, both of whom were lost in the war. He was a School Prefect, School Rowing VIII 1940/1, Scholar, Hon Sec Musical Society, School Play, Choir, Sergeant OTC, Classical VIth Form. He came to the School as a Scholar from the Cathedral Choir School, the ninth child of a family who lost five sons in total during the war. ‘He showed in all that he did that unselfishness and versatility that is bred in large and happy families. He was a boy with ability and vocation. At the School he attained two Distinctions in the Higher Certificate and a Classical Exhibition to Merton College, Oxford, which unfortunately he was never able to take up. At the outbreak of war he joined The Royal Corps of Signals, never ambitious for authority and did not seek a commission’ (Chronicle). In 1941 he joined the 2 W/T Company, Royal Corps of Signals in 1941 as a Signalman. His natural abilities quickly made him a trainer of his fellow signalmen. He was killed in a motor accident in Tunisia, in which he was a passenger in a military vehicle which collided with another on the wrong side of the road. He died from head injuries received.