Category Archives: The Fallen

John White Ferguson

19150607_Ferguson,JWJohn White Ferguson was the second son of John Ferguson, a well-known yacht builder. As with many scholars he was a keen debater, advocating for both compulsory Greek and compulsory military service! He showed sporting ability from the start, winning the quarter mile and hundred yards at his first Athletic Sports competition. He became a keen cricketer whilst at Westminster and played for the school’s 1st XI, as well as for the King’s Scholars own team. As a footballer his kicking was described as being ‘particularly fine’ in The Elizabethan. His work kicking and tackling was ‘admirable’ in the Charterhouse match of 1908 – although clearly not quite enough to save the game which was lost 4-0.

Upon leaving the school he was apprenticed to his father in the shipbuilding trade. In April 1913 he joined the Clyde Division of the Navy. On the outbreak of war he took part in the siege of Antwerp and received a Distinguished Conduct Medal. In March of 1915 he was transferred to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action in the aftermath of the 3rd Battle of Krithia on 4th June 1915.

A fellow officer, D.W. Cassie, wrote to the family after the death:

‘I got his, or most of his, official papers and maps. I wanted to get his ring and cigarette case to send home to you but the danger was too great for me to wait and it couldn’t be done. The Hood Battalion is now practically at an end. We have only three officers and 120 men left now, so we no longer count, but before I close I should like to say that I, nor anyone in the Battalion can pay enough tribute to Johnnie’s bravery and gallantry, he died in action, he led his men. …. I am on my way now to Alexandria in charge of 350 Turkish prisoners. It was been given me as a sort of rest after that terrible action.‘

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Richard Edward John Thomson

Richard Edward John Thomson was in Rigaud’s House from 1906 until 1909. He was interested in a military career from an early stage and joined the school’s Officer Training Corps, taking part in shooting competitions – with mixed success. He left the school after passing his Woolwich qualifying examination and in 1910 joined the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the Indian Army in 1912 as a Double Company Officer for the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs. With this regiment he saw active service at Nowshera and Lorala before joining the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in September 1914. He was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle on 18th May 1915.

The same day, just a few hundred metres away, Lieutenant John Smyth of the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, led ten volunteers on a perilous mission to supply bombs to the front line. Lieutenant Smyth conveyed a supply of 96 bombs to within 20 yards of the enemy’s position over exceptionally dangerous ground, after the attempts of two other parties had failed. Lieutenant Smyth succeeded in taking the bombs to the desired position with the aid of two of his men (the other eight having been killed or wounded), and to effect his purpose he had to swim a stream, being exposed the whole time to howitzer, shrapnel, machine-gun and rifle fire. Smyth was awarded the Victoria Cross, Lance-Naik Mangal Singh the Indian Order of Merit, and every sepoy in the party the Indian Distinguished Service Medal.

Speaking at the 500th Birthday Anniversary of Guru Nanak at Grosvenor House in Park Lane in December, 1969 the then Brigadier the Rt. Hon. Sir John Smythe, Bt. V.C. made the following speech:

56 years ago I joined the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs in Loralai, Baluchistan and at once became embued with the teachings and the life of Guru Nanak. The Sikh Gurus, the Sikh religion, the Gurdwara, the Granth Sahib became part of my life. The British and Sikh officers of the Regiment were convinced that religion was an important factor in the make-up of a good soldier and we fostered that in every way possible.

Many thanks to Souchez Historic Committee who pay tribute to soldiers – such as Richard Edward John Thomson – who are buried in their village, for the supply of the photograph above.

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Royston Cecil Gamage du Plessis Le Blond

Royston Le Blond was born in 1887 in Norbiton, Kingston Upon Thames. In the 1901 census he is recorded as being a scholar at the Abbey School, Brackley Road, Beckenham, Kent. He was clearly very academically able and joined Westminster as a King’s Scholar in 1901. He left the school for Trinity College with the Triplett Scholarship in 1906.

Le Blond made the most of his time at school, taking part in Football, Cricket and Athletics as well as debating, taking part in the school’s Scientific Society and performing in the Latin Play. He became particularly exercised on the topic of speed limits, which was debated by the school society in 1906, and gave a speech with which many present day motorists would sympathise!:

‘Police-traps were a shameful abuse of justice ; they were often inaccurate and so unfair, and did no good to anyone except the policemen themselves, who were rewarded for every victim they caught—a temptation to neglect their proper duties for this lucrative method of business—and to the municipal councils, who reaped an excellent harvest from the fines’

He went on to add that he hoped:

‘the new Government would soon adopt the moderate and sensible system in vogue in France, where the speed limit was eighteen and a-half miles per hour and was strictly enforced in towns only’

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Le Blond staring as Syrus in The Adelphi, 1905

It is perhaps unsurprising that given his love of argument he opted for law as a profession, and was admitted to Inner Temple in 1909. He joined the 12th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade as 2nd Lieutenant in September 1914 and by January 1915 had been promoted to temporary Captain. He died in Camp at Salisbury on 17th May following an operation. He was buried at the Brompton Cemetery, London and there is also a brass memorial plaque for him at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Orton Waterville, Peterborough. The inscription reads as follows:

IN GLORIAM DEI MAIOREM
ET IN MEMORIUM
ROYSTON CECIL GAMAGE DU PLESSIS LE BLOND
NATI AD XXVI KAL APR MDCCCLXXXVII MORTUI AD XVII MAI MCMXV
SCHOLARIS WESTMONASTERIENSIS
COLL SANCT TRIN APUD CANTAB PENSIONARII
ARTIUM BACCALAUREI
INTER ADVOCATOS TEMPLI INTERIOSIS ADMISSI
A PUERO POETARUM
ET ARTIUM ERUDITORIUM STUDIOSISSIMUS
INGENIO BONO ET AMABILI INDOLE
OMNIUM ANIMOS SIBI CONCILIAVIT
BELLO INGENTI
A BRITANNIS CONTRA GERMANOS SUSCEPTO
HIC STATIM SE PATRIAE
LAETUS LIBENSQUE OBTULIT
ET ECENTURIONE CITO FACTUS TRIBUNIS
12TH BATTALION THE RIFLE BRIGADE
MORTE NIMIS IMMATURA OBIIT
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Edmund Parker

Edmund Parker was in Rigaud’s House from 1907 until 1910. He decided to follow a career as an accountant andtook the Preliminary examination in November 1910, aged just 17. He was articled toCyril Hooper of Goodricke, Cotman, Hooper, Phipps & Co. in January 1911 and passed the Intermediate examination in November 1913. Upon the outbreak of war, Parker, along with many other articled clerks working for his firm volunteered for service. 18 members of the firm had joined up by early 1915.

Edmund joined the 1/5th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), and made his way to France with the battalion on 5th November 1914.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) have published letters written by Edmund to his boss, Cyril Hooper. In March 1915 he wrote about daily life: ‘Each of the four companies does three days at a time [in the trenches]. Then we go to a large town for three days’ rest, including a bath; then three days in farms just behind the trenches, from which we supply parties to take up stuff to the trenches, and also to work there; after this three days in the village just behind, and then up to the trenches and so on.’

Edmund spent Christmas Day 1914 in the trenches and wrote that there was ‘a perfect truce and could stroll about as we liked.’

The ICAEW finish tell the rest of the story:

The last published letter from Edmund, dated 7 May 1915, described a lucky escape for Edmund and his brother (who had just come out with the draft from England). Edmund learnt that German forces had launched a violent attack on the line they had retired from, using much gas and shelling the empty trenches heavily. Sadly, by the time of publication Edmund was already dead.

Shell Trap Farm
Shell Trap Farm

He was killed in action on 13 May 1915. On this day, the battalion suffered the heaviest bombardment of the war to date and experienced very heavy casualties. Two platoons of the London Rifle Brigade alone were wiped out by intense shelling of their location at Shell Trap Farm, where shells had been observed falling at a rate of over a hundred per minute. The London Rifle Brigade had begun the day just 278 strong, having lost most of its men in the earlier fighting, but by evening a further 91 men had gone. Shortly before his death Edmund had been promoted to lance-corporal and he had been advised to apply for a commission. Lance Corporal Edmund Parker’s name is recorded on the Menin Gate in Ypres. His name also appears on the war memorial in the church of St. Peters in Myddle, Shropshire, on his firm’s Roll of Honour, on the war memorial at Chartered Accountants’ Hall and of course our own memorial up school.

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Cecil Henry Viney

Cecil Henry Viney was in Grant’s House 1905-1907 and left school to pursue a career as a painter. He was a student at the Royal Academy Painting Schools up until the war, but sadly none of his work survives. On the outbreak of war he obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the Northants Regiment. He went out to the Western front in March 1915 and was killed in action at Fromelles, France on 9th May, 1915. He was one of three Old Westminsters to die that day in the Battle of Aubers Ridge, part of a series of conflicts that took place that spring over the strategic town of Ypres.

This battle was an unmitigated disaster for the British army. No ground was won and no tactical advantage gained.

View of the Battle of Aubers Ridge, attack on Fromelles. During the bombardment at 5:20am, 9th May 1915. Smoke is rising from the German lines.
View of the Battle of Aubers Ridge, attack on Fromelles. During the bombardment at 5:20am, 9th May 1915. Smoke is rising from the German lines. (┬® IWM (Q 51624)
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Ralph Davison

19150509_Davison,R

While he was at Westminster School between 1908 and 1912, Ralph Davison was a keen swimmer, cricketer and footballer. He also took part in the school’s Officers Training Corps, where he was Cadet Lance-Corporal.

After leaving school, he entered an engineer’s office, but in January 1914 he joined the Northamptonshire Regiment. He was attached to the 1st Battalion and went out to the western front in August 1914.

He fought and was wounded at the first battle of Ypres in Nov. 1914. He recovered, however, returned to the front line and was promoted from Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant on the 22nd of March 1915. He was killed in the disastrous attempt to take Aubers Ridge during the combined Anglo-French offensive in the Second Battle of Artois. His younger brother, who had followed him into Rigaud’s house, was still at the school at the time of his death.

Ralph Davison was remembered in the June edition The Elizabethan:

We are sure that the whole House tenders its most sincere sympathies to Davison, on the death of his brother R. Davison (Old Rigaudite) who was killed in action on Sunday, May 9. We must also congratulate Davison on being made a School Monitor. A brother Officer wrote: – ‘He was killed gallantly leading his mean in the attack on the German trenches. Out here he always behaved with the greatest pluck. I remember him especially in Ypres in November, when we were so hard pressed.’

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Maurice Day

The Royal Berkshire Regiment in the Ypres Salient, Spring 1915
The Royal Berkshire Regiment in the Ypres Salient, Spring 1915

Maurice Day was a pupil in Ashburnham House between 1906 and 1909. Upon leaving school hewas articled to an architect, and was just out of his articles when the war began. He enlisted in the 28th Battalion of the London Regiment (Artists’ Rifles) and went out to the Western Front in the autumn of 1914 to oversee the Officer Training Corps. The Artists Rifles was an extremely popular unit for volunteers. Due to the large number that joined it was formed into three sub-battalions in 1914, and recruitment was eventually restricted by recommendation from existing members of the battalion. He was promoted to the role of Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion ofPrincess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire) Regiment in March 1915 moving to serve on the front line.

As with the two other Old Westminsters killed on 9th May, Day died in action at the Battle of Aubers Ridge, France.

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William Blencowe Wells Durrant

William Blencowe Wells Durrant was the only son ofFrederick Chester Wells Durrant the Attorney-General of the Bahamas, West Indies. Durrant was clearly very academically gifted – he joined the school as a King’s Scholar in 1908 and obtained a Classical Scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1913.

19150508_Durrant,WBW

He was less gifted on the football pitch – indeed his first appearance in the annual football match between the scholars and the Town Boys was rather disastrous. Playing in goal, he managed to allow the opposition to score five times! One of the goals was particularly unfortunate, initially hitting the post but then rebounding off Durrant (who had fallen down trying to save it) and landing straight into the net.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given his father’s occupation, Durrant particularly excelled in public speaking. He was a stalwart of the school debating society and spoke in a style described as ‘fluent but rambling’. He also appeared in the Latin Play two years running, playing female parts both times. A reviewer commented that ‘his movements were far too masculineand strenuous, and he wielded his fan with morevigour than grace.’

On the outbreak of war Durrant left Cambridge and took a commission in the Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action near Ypres on 8th May 1915.

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Guy Proudfoot Cooke

19150502_Cooke,GP
Thought to be an image of Guy Proudfoot Cooke from a collection of photographs belonging to Thomas Otto Hartshorn, Able Bodied Seaman

Guy Proudfoot Cooke was at Westminster School for a relatively short period of time having joined Ashburnham House in 1909 from Uppingham School. His father was a solicitor and at the age of 16 he left the school to enter his father’s office. He was articled to him in March, 1913 and in the same month signed up as aRoyal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

On the outbreak of war he was called up and as a leading seaman took part in the operations at Antwerp in October, 1914. He was promoted to the rank of Sub-Lieutenant in the Nelson Battalion that winter and in the following year went out as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force to attack the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The forces landed on 25th April but struggled to get a hold on the peninsula. What happened next is recorded inThe Despatch of General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force:

 

‘On the night of May 2nd a bold effort was made to seize a commanding knoll [known as Baby 700] in front of the centre of the line. The enemy’s enfilading machine guns were too scientifically posted, and 800 men were lost without advantage beyond the infliction of a corresponding loss to the enemy.’

Guy Proudfoot wasreported missing the following morning but it seems clear that he was killed in action in this battle. His body was never recovered. His 1914 Star,a campaign medal for service in France or Belgium between 5 August and 22 November 1914, was issued to his father in June 1919.

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Sidney Herbert Foster Muriel

19150430_Muriel,SHFSidney Herbert FosterMurielwas the only son of the Rev. William Carter Muriel, Vicar of Fulham, and was at the School from 1891 to 1894. He was in Homeboarders house and a good fullback on the house’s football team, receiving half pinks. He went through Sandhurst, and obtained his first commission early in 1898 in the 1st Border Regiment. He served in the South African War, was wounded at Ladysmith, and mentioned in dispatches, and obtained the Queen’s Medal with four clasps and the King’s Medal with two clasps. He served as Adjutant of his Battalion, and obtained his Company in 1909.

His Battalion sailed from Avonmouth on 17th March 1915 and landed at Cape Helles between 25th and 27th April 1915. They found themselves indangerous conditions, beneath high, well-fortified cliffs. The maintained a foothold on the peninsular at the cost of significant loss of life.

Muriel waskilled in action at Sedd-el-Bahr, a small village with an Ottoman castle on a promontory on the Gallipoli peninsular. He is the only Westminster pupil to have been buried there; the other 5 pupils who died in the campaign are commemorated on the Helles Pont Memorial.

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