George Drought was at the School for only a year before he migrated to Dulwich College, which was near his home. He was in Homeboarders house whilst at the school so the daily commute must have proved taxing. He joined the army after leaving school, obtaining his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery in November 1899. He served in the South African (Boer) War from 1900-1902 and went to the front line again when the First World War broke out.
He died on 14th June from wounds received almost a month earlier in action at Festubert, France on 17th May 1915. He had married a woman named Louise Lockhart and had a son with her, George Richard Smerger Drought. He was not yet 5 years old when his father died. Louise married again in 1917.
His headstone is inscribed:
‘Greater love hath no manthan this that a man lay down his life for his friends’at the Glenealy Parish Church, County Wicklow
His son died fighting the in the Second World War by amachine-gunner trying to capture Floridia, Sicily in 1943. He in turn left behind two sons and a daughter all just a few years old.