Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 7

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

N AME GEORGE HOWARD BICKLEY (C APT )

L EFT SES 1911

R OLL N UMBER 1229 D IED 4:10:1917

S ET / H OUSE A

A RRIVE SES 1906

W HERE WESTHOEK, YPRES, BELGIUM S ERVING WITH 237 COY, MACHINE GUN CORPS

A GE 25

Buried Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeck, West Flanders, Belgium Remembered

Tyne Cot Memorial, Ypres, Belgium, Lyme Regis Church, Devon Memorial, Sandy Park War Memorial and The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque)

Born 1892 in Lyme Regis, George Bickley had a most distinguished time at the School, rising to Head Boy in 1910; he was a member of the School Cricket XI from 1906-11 (Captain in 1910 and 11) scoring a century in 1911 against St. John’s College Oxford and in the same year made no less than 227 runs in the Final of the Senior Tutor’s Cup (an SES Record). He was also a member of the School’s Rugby Football XV 1908-10 (Captain in 1910); an outstanding athlete winning and breaking records for various events, both field and track during his time at the School. In 1911 he went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge and qualified for medicine in his BA of 1914. While at the Varsity he played rugby football twice for the University (no Blue) and later for The Harlequins RFC and Exeter & Devon. When war was declared he immediately enlisted in the 11th Devonshire Regiment, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in August 1914. He was seconded to the Machine Gun Corps in September 1915 and was promoted to Lieutenant. Invalided home in January 1916 with ‘Trench Foot’. Promoted to Captain 1917. He was killed at Westhoek, Ypres placing his machine gun positions and was in the act of taking a message from an orderly when a large shell burst close by, killing Bickley and three others near him. The ‘Chronicle’ stated that he was ‘a very marked personality in the School life of his day’. He is included in The Cloisters Stone Memorial at SES.