Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 8

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 JOHN BRUCE BLAXLAND (C APT )

L EFT SES 1907

R OLL N UMBER 1202 D IED 24:1:1917

S ET / H OUSE D

A RRIVE SES 1905

W HERE KUT, MESOPOTAMIA

A GE 26

S ERVING WITH 4TH SOUTH WALES BORDERERS

Buried Amara War Cemetery, Kut, Mesopotamia

Remembered Hereford Cathedral War Memorial and The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial

Born in Bebington, Cheshire 1891, the eldest son of a Salop clergymen, while no record survives of any sporting prowess at the School, he did later row for his College VIII and played also for their cricket and rugby teams. His School career appears uneventful although the ‘Chronicle’ notes: ‘Although he was at the School for a very short time, he did more than one year in the VIth Form and showed remarkable ability’. He went up to Birmingham University in 1909, later transferring to Selwyn College Cambridge in 1910, achieving his BA in 1913. He was a member of the University OTC and commissioned on enlisting in the South Wales Borderers in 1914 when war broke out. He served with his regiment in the Gallipoli Campaign from July and December 1915 and was the invalided home (reasons unknown). Early in 1916 he was back in action, but now in Mesopotamia, where he was killed in action in the Second Battle of Kut against the Ottoman forces during the British advance and recapture of that city.