John Gilbert Somerset Cozens-Brooke was already a soldier on the outbreak of war, having taken a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in April 1912. He spent only 2 ┬¢years at Westminster in Rigaud’s House before leaving, aged only 16. Perhaps it was always his family’s intention that he should join the army – following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather. Shortly after the outbreak of war he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and attached to the 1st Battalion. The 1st Battalion mobilised for war on 14th August and landed at Havre. They were then involved in a series of battles along the Western Front, including the Battle of Le Cateau, the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Aisne. It was during the Battles of La Bassee and Messines, the finally most northerly phase of the Race to the Sea, that Brooke lost his life. Brooke was conducting reconnaissance work close to Lille when he was killed on 18th October. By the end of the day the line of the Western Front was complete with neither force able to out flank the other. From that point onward only frontal attacks were possible.
Ralph Eyre Tanner was the eldest son of Grant’s Housemaster Ralph Tanner. His younger brother, Lawrence Tanner, went on to teach at Westminster before becoming Westminster Abbey’s Keeper of the Muniments. Our knowledge of Ralph Eyre Tanner’s life and death is largely thanks to Lawrence’s journals and records, which have been serialised online.
As with Major Maitland, Ralph Eyre Tanner was an experienced soldier who had served in India. He had been promoted to the rank of Captain in 1912.
Captain Tanner’s death is recorded in moving terms in The Elizabethan:
‘From an Officer in the Regiment we learn that Captain Tanner was slightly wounded in the leg, and went under heavy fire to help a wounded Prussian Officer who shot at him and missed. Captain Tanner took no notice, but gave the Prussian his own water-bottle and bound up his wounds. He then went back for a stretcher and as he came back the Prussian shot him in the chest.’
Tanner has been married just over a year when he died. His wife, Edith, gave birth to a son, Peter, not long after his death. Peter attended Westminster School in the late 1920s and sent his son to the school in the 1970s.
Letter of condolence sent to Lawrence Tanner by his friend Captain Davidson
An example of The Queen’s South Africa Medal with 5 clasps.
One pervasive image of the First World War is that those who died were young and inexperienced soldiers who signed up following the declaration of war in August 1914. This is certainly the case for many of the fallen, but a lot of theearly casualties in the war were experienced soldiers already serving in the army.
The Hon. Alfred Henry Maitland was a Major of the Cameron Highlanders and has seen action in Sudan and served in the Boer War. Maitland was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with five clasps. He was 41 years old when killed at the Battle of the Aisneleading an attack upon German positions on the Chemin des Dames near Cerny. He was initially reported as ‘wounded and missing’ in The Times on 21st September. It was not until 3 days later that his death was confirmed.
A photograph of a Motorcycle Despatch Rider from the National Library of Scotland.
The Hon. Francis Geoffrey Pearson was the first Old Westminster to lose his life in the First World War. He served as a Motorcycle Despatch Rider and was killed in action at Varreddes, France during the First Battle of the Marne.
The First World War saw many new forms of technology incorporated into warfare. Motorcycle despatch riders were used for the first time by the British Army from the beginning of the war. When the War Office put out the call for riders to volunteer with their own motorcycles in August of 1914 they received over 2,000 applicants. Motorcycles were also purchased by the Army and the Navy and allocated to riders. The recruits would carry messages between the front-line and other sections of the forces. They might also carry out reconnaissance work and act as military police, enforcing discipline amongst the troops. Motorcycles were not reliable at this time and the terrain which needed to be covered was often difficult. Riders could be killed and injured before they came close to the enemy.
We know very little of the life and death of Pearson. He attended the school for just a year when he was 14 and we have no record of his time here in our archive. In his obituary The Elizabethan simply records that he ‘fell in an encounter with Uhlans’. Uhlans were a type of light cavalry regiment, who dressed in a traditional Polish style and carried lances and spears. They saw mounted action in a few of the early battles of the First World War, but it quickly became apparent that they were not suited to the trench warfare of the Western Front and were redeployed, either as “cavalry rifles” or on the Eastern Front. The contrast of a man on a motorcycle facing a soldier on horseback, armed with a spear is arresting. Warfare changed a great deal during the first few weeks of the conflict.
A fellow Motorcycle Despatch Rider, Captain W.H.L. Watson survived to write a lively account of his ‘Adventures‘ in 1914-1915. His account, which includes a chapter on the Battle of the Marne, provides some insight into the experience of the time.
UPDATE – 09/11/2014
Two pupils from the Fifth Form managed to uncover additional information about Pearson online. The following source indicate that Pearson was brutally treated prior to his death. The incident is also mentioned in ‘The German War’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
