Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 202

W ORLD W AR II

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

Name GEOFFREY BROWNLOWWIGNEY KEITH (Lt)

Lef SES 1942

Roll Number 3240 Died 01:11:1943

Set / House B

Arrive SES 1937

Where 1ST BATTLE OF MONTE CASSINO Serving with 6TH, GORDON HIGHLANDERS

Age 20

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

Born Wimborne, Dorset 1923, the younger of two SES brothers, both lost in this war, sons of a clergyman from Dorset. He lost a further three (non OSE) elder brothers in the war also. He was the School’s Senior Prefect 1942, an Exhibitioner, in the Classical VIth From on leaving, a member of the Rugby Football XV 1941, 2nd Rowing VIII 1941, 2nd Shooting VIII, Athletics team, Senior Sacristan, Editor of the ‘Chronicle’ Hon Sec of the Kenneth Grahame Society/The Arts Society/Musical Society/Literary Society, and the Field Club. President of the Debating Society., in the Choir, and an Under Officer in the OTC. He went up to Merton College, Oxford briefly, but was soon called up. He joined the Rifle Brigade as a Rifleman in 1941, then gained a commission in the 6th Gordon Highlanders and was a Lieutenant when he was posted to Italy in 1943. There he was killed in action during the First Battle of Cassino, leading a charge against an embedded enemy, although already wounded twice. He was buried in the Cassino War Cemetery, then later moved to the Bone Cemetery in Algeria next to his OSE brother killed five months earlier.