Tag Archives: Oxford

Kenneth Overend Howard Smith-Howard

Kenneth Smith-Howard was born on Christmas Day 1892 to George Howard Smith-Howard, a wholesale stationer, of Clapham Common, and his wife Emma Susan Laura, daughter of Henry Overend Wilson, of London.

His elder brother, Henry Wilfrid Howard Smith-Howard, had already completed his time at the school, so Kenneth was following in Henry’s footsteps when he arrived up Ashburnham in 1906. Whilst at the school, he studied on the Classical side and when he left the school in 1911 to go to Pembroke College, Oxford, he intended to take holy orders.

In May 1915, Henry, who was articled to a solicitor at the time, joined the Inns of Court OTC and the following August, Kenneth had joined the same OTC. However, by this time Henry had moved on to the 4th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, with whom he went out to Egypt in January 1916.

On the 1st June 1916, Kenneth was made 2nd Lieutenant with the 10th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, and went out with them to the western front on 13th July. He was involved in the Battle of the Somme, but was killed in action near Bapaume on the 18th of October 1916. His brother Henry was wounded in the war, but survived and eventually went on to become a practicing solicitor in London.

Kenneth’s return in the Oxford University Roll of Service notes that his Commanding Officer said “he was splendid”:

 

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Cecil Hurst-Brown

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Cecil was born in Bayswater, the middle son of William Hurst-Brown, a stockbroker, and his wife Ethel Mary Dredge Newbury Coles.

He was an active sportsman: a double pink whilst at school and then secretary of the University Association Football Club whilst at Christ Church, Oxford. He played cricket whilst at Westminster, gaining a place on the 1st XI and averaging 14.60 and 19.00 in the 1912 and 1913 seasons.

 

Upon the outbreak of war he left university and joined the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. On 16 December 1914, he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, and was posted to the 2nd Battalion, which he joined in France on 7th June 1915. He died on 26th September 1915, having been wounded in action the previous day.

His younger brother, 2nd Lieutenant Dudley Hurst-Brown, 129th Battery R.F.A was wounded on 13 June 1915, and died two days later. A family historian said of Cecil’s death that “he was the second of two brothers killed within three months of each other. It sent my wife’s great grandmother [Cecil’s mother, Ethel] insane with grief – she spent the rest of her life in and out of mental hospitals – thus two casualties became three – very sad.”

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Kenneth Desmond Murray

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KennethMurray was a King’s Scholar from 1905 until 1911. He threw himself into every aspect of school life. He was an active sportsman who played on the school’s football and cricket teams as well as competing in fives and athletics competitions for his house. He debated, edited the school magazine, The Elizabethan, in 1910 and shared the prize for Orations in 1911 for his recitation of Song of Deborah. He starred in the Latin Play in 1909 where as Micio ‘he managed the long and trying soliloquy that begins the play with much skill, and he was at all times an excellent foil to Deme’. The chance of a leading role in the 1910 performance was snatched from him when the play was cancelled due to the death of Edward VII.

Murray was elected head to Christ Church, Oxford in July 1911 and made a promising start to his degree, receiving a 1st Class in his Classics Mods. The outbreak of war meant that he failed to finish his qualification, leaving to serve in the 9th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment in December 1914. He went out to the Western Front in August and as killed barely a month later at the Battle of Loos.

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