Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 58

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

Name FRANCIS KEATLEY HOLTON (Sec Lt)

Arrive SES 1909

Lef SES 1914

Roll Number 1346 Died 27:10:1917

Set / House C

Where WULVERCHEM, BELGIUM Serving with 1ST MIDDLESEX REGIMENT

Age 21

Buried La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Wolvergem, Belgium Remembered The St. Edward’s Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial

Born 1896 in London, the son of a doctor. Holton had rather an unfortunate time at the School - ‘he was not prominent due to ill-health and over rapid growth’ (Chronicle). He was in the 2nd Rugby Football XV in 1913 and the Upper IVth Form. He had intended to take Holy Orders, but with the advent of The Great War he entered Sandhurst instead in 1915 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment in January 1916. By the end of the year he was in France. In July 1917 he was promoted to Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, attached to the 98th Trench Mortar Battery. Three months later he was killed instantly by fumes when a German shell hit an ammunition dump near him at Wulverchem in Belgium. ‘An admirable soldier, always doing his duty cheerfully and well, and a good comrade’ (His Captain).