Tag Archives: Cape Helles

Edward Hickman Tucker Meeson

Edward Hickman Tucker Meeson was born on 20th December 1877. He was the only son of Frederick and Emily Meeson, of Eastbourne. He was admitted to the school on 24th April 1890 up Rigaud’s.

After leaving the school in 1891, Meeson began training as an engineer. In 1894 there was a note in the Elizabethan congratulating him on passing into the Royal Navy as Engineer-Student. Between 1894 and 1899, he trained at Keyham and became Engineer Lieutenant on the 1st June 1904.

On the 28th December 1908, Meeson married Gladys May Joy, the elder daughter of George Robert Gordon Joy, and they had a daughter, Margaret. By June 1912, Meeson had been promoted to Engineer Lieutenant-Commander.

In 1914, he served on HMS Laurel in the action in the Heligo­land Bight on the 28thAugust, and was present at the sinking of the Blücher during the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915. He was also at the evacuation of both Anzac and Cape Helles. He was promoted to Commander in recognition of his services on board the Laurel, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in 1915.

He sank with his ship, HMS Defence, at the Battle of Horn Reef, off Jutland on the 31st May 1916, at the age of 38. His widow Gladys went to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she remarried 5 years later.

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HMS Defence (IWM)
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Charles Nigel Gordon Walker

Charles Walker was born in Gravesend, Kent and arrived up Rigaud’s in 1905 at the age of 16. He was a half-boarder, and managed to earn himself a tanning in Play 1907 for “ragging [fighting] in the changing room”.

He opted to focus his studies on maths and science, as opposed to the Classics, but it is unknown where he went after leaving the school at Easter 1908.

Charles was 25 when he was made a temporary Lieutenant of the newly formed 10th Service Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment on the 21st of November 1914. He was made an adjutant and attached to the 8th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, which then became part of the 127th Brigade, 42nd East Lancashire Division the following May.

On the 6th of May 1915, Charles was one of the 14,224 who landed at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, where he would have seen action in the attempts to capture the heights around the village of Krithia.

The Battle of Krithia Vinyard, which took place over 6th to the 13th of August 1915. This was an attempt not only to capture ground, but also to divert attention away from Suvla Bay, where a large British landing was to be attempted.

Charles was killed in action on the second day of this battle.

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6th Battalion, Manchester Regiment advancing over open terrain during the Third Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli from the Imperial War Museum’s Collection

 

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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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