Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 264

W ORLD W AR II

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

Name ERIC GEORGE THEOPHILUS (Ass Provost Marshal)

Set / House B

Lef SES 1931

Roll Number 2287 Died 25:01:1943

Arrive SES 1927

Where TUNIS, TUNISIA Serving with W ORCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT

Age 30

Buried Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery, Tunisia Remembered The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial

Born Tredegar, Monmouthshire 1913, the elder of two SES brothers, sons of a senior clergyman. He was a House Prefect, member of the School Rowing IV 1931, the Choir, a Corporal in the OTC and the ‘Special’ Form. He went onto Sandhurst in 1931 (which he left early due to financial constraints) and was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment in 1932, he then resigned his commission after passing into The Metropolitan Police College, Hendon in 1935, being part of the first intakes in the newly opened college. Married in 1938. Provost Marshall in the the Territorials with the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1939. When war was declared he rejoined the Worcestershire Regiment as a Second Lieutenant, but due to his past experience, he was now attached to the Military Police Posted to France, he soon got caught up in the retreat on Cherbourg from where he returned to England in 1940. His daughter was born during this period. He was posted to Tunisia in 1942 with his regiment as an Assistant Provost Marshal, where he was Mentioned in Dispatches. In January 1943 after chairing a meeting in Tunis, he set off in a car with four others, which was spotted by enemy aircraft, which opened fire - hitting Theophilus and the driver both so badly wounded that both would eventually eventually die on the operating table.