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.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/10818980