George Geoffrey Needham was one of 14 Oundelians killed in the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign of 1915.

He was born in the Werneth area of Oldham near Manchester on 8th July 1895 and came up to School House in May 1907. He became Head of House under Sanderson and left Oundle at Christmas 1913, just months before the outbreak of the war. In February 1914, he entered Sandhurst, quickly rising to the rank of cadet-sergeant. In October 1914 he was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and was sent out to the Dardanelles. He was wounded in May 1915 and was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry in operations south of the village of Krithia. He died of wounds on 22nd August and was buried in Hill 10 Cemetery, close to where he fell.

After his death, at the age of 20, George Needham was promoted full Lieutenant.

His Company Commander wrote to his grieving parents. “Your son was in my company, and during the short time I saw him in the Peninsula, he made himself a name, in and out of the Regiment, for dash and cheery humour.”

His Commanding Officer from his training days back in England wrote simply: “He had every quality that makes a good officer.”

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John Egremont Thimbleby was born in Spilsby in Lincolnshire on 12th March 1889. He was the second son in the family and came to Oundle and Laxton House in September 1902, leaving in December 1906, having been a member of the XV. He then took up his farther and grandfather’s profession and qualified as a solicitor. He joined up in the autumn of 1914 and became a Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment.

It is possible that John Thimbleby never saw active service as his unit was part of a so-called second line division, which was held in reserve and first saw action in 1916 in Ireland, when they helped to quell the Easter Rising.

He died aged 26, not as a result of enemy fire but because of a motor cycle accident near St Albans, on 28th August 1915. He had recently been appointed Machine Gun Officer, and his Colonel described him as “a splendid officer and worshipped by his men”.

He was buried in the cemetery of his home town, Spilsby in Lincolnshire.

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2nd Lieutenant Robert Charles Bragg was born on 25th November 1892 in Adelaide Australia where his father was professor of mathematics and physics at Adelaide University. He came to Dryden House in May 1909, already 16 years old and stayed until December 1911. He was Head of House in his last year, was a member of the Rugby XV and was Captain of Boating.

He went up to Trinity College Cambridge in 1911 but left the next year.

In November 1912, he joined a territorial regiment called King Edward’s Horse, which had seen service in the British Empire. When war broke out, he joined the Royal Field Artillery and was sent to Gallipoli in 1915. On 6th September, his parents received two telegrams. The first: “Regret to inform you that 2nd Lieutenant R C Bragg, Royal Field Artillery was dangerously wounded 1st September. Further news will be telegraphed as soon as received.” The second telegram confirmed his parents’ fears: “Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lieutenant R C Bragg died of wounds at sea on 2nd September.”

Apparently Bragg and a colleague were censoring letters home in their dugout when they were hit by a shell. As chance would have it, Bragg lost both legs, while his colleague, Ellison escaped with a slight wound on his elbow.

Robert Bragg was buried at sea and is now remembered on the Helles Memorial.
A few weeks after his death, his father and older brother Lawrence shared a Nobel Prize for Physics.

His Housemaster, Llewellyn Jones, who had retired from Oundle to North Wales by this date, wrote of Robert Bragg in glowing terms: “Bob was one of the most loveable boys I ever had in Dryden and I had the warmest regard for him. He had all the extra virility of the colonial combined with the refinement of the English gentleman.”

Headmaster Sanderson wrote to Robert Bragg’s parents in these terms on 12th September 1915:

“The blows are falling with terrific force. We in schools are losing all the best of our old boys. We are distressed to see in the papers today that your dear boy has passed away. I trust that he was spared much suffering. A fine boy he was, who would have done good work in the world.”

Robert Charles Bragg was 22 years old at the time of his death.

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Basil Montgomery Coates was killed south of Ypres by a sniper, whilst going to the aid of a wounded colleague.

He was born on 16th September 1893 in Cambridge where his father was the bursar of Queens’ College. He was educated at The Perse School and came to New House, in Oundle in 1910 and left just two years later. He went up to Queens’ Cambridge in September 1912, months after the sudden death of his father, to study medicine and won a place on the University Athletics team which won the International Cup. On the outbreak of war, he received a commission in the Rifle Brigade from the University OTC. He went out to France in the early summer of 1915 and was killed in Flanders, just a few weeks later on 7th September.

His Colonel wrote: “He was out patrolling with a corporal, crawling about in the crops when he was seen by the enemy and killed. He will be an irreparable loss to the battalion, as he was our best scout and absolutely fearless.”

Another colleague said: “Coates is a tremendous loss to us, there was nothing in the world to frighten him. He was always in very high spirits and very popular with everyone.”

Basil Coates body was never recovered and he is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial, together with over 11,000 other men. He was just 21 years old at the time of his death.

His sister Kathleen Wallace wrote a number of poems about the war, remembering her brother. In Chestnut Sunday she pictures him waking to see the chestnut blossom in Cambridge:

Oh in your dreamless sleeping dear
I know, I know you see me here,
Between the voices and the sun
And petals pattering, one by one.

I never feel you watch me weep,
Nor din of battle breaks your sleep
But I am sure you wake this hour
To see the chestnut trees in flower.

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Noel Campbell Kyrle Money was a professional soldier, the third son of Colonel R E Money and born in India on 6th December 1882. He came to School House in 1897 and left in the summer of 1900, having played for the XI in his final term. He passed through Woolwich and spent seven years in the Royal Garrison Artillery, before being transferred to India with the 22nd Punjabis.

He was home on leave when the war broke out and transferred to the Connaught Rangers the same month and was promoted Major in December 1914. Early in July 1915, his battalion was sent to Gallipoli. Major Noel Money was wounded in the head on 2nd September, was taken down to a hospital ship but never recovered consciousness, dying at sea near the Island of Malta on 7th September. He was buried in the Pieta Military Cemetery on the island.

In 1912, he married Miss Dorothea Stansbury, daughter of Dr Stansbury, formerly Headmaster of Oundle. After his death, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and he was mentioned in dispatches for his gallantry in the Dardanelles operations. Major Noel Campbell Kyrle Money was 32 years old at the time of his death.

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Russell Harry Louis Simmons was the third son of Mrs Stone and stepson of Dr J M Stone of Harwood near Maidenhead in Berkshire. He was born in London on 27th February 1895 and came up to Oundle – Dryden House – in September 1909. He left School just four years later, a year before the outbreak of war.

He was given a commission in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and was transferred to the 2nd Battalion when he was moved to Loos. He was killed on the first day of the battle of Loos whilst taking part in an attack launched from positions near Bois Grenier against fixed German positions. His battalion suffered heavy losses that day. Russell Simmons was one of eight officers killed and five more officers were wounded;  thirty-two other ranks were killed, 143 reported missing and 216 wounded. The next day, the battalion was withdrawn into billets near Fleurbaix.

His Commanding Officer wrote: “He was a very keen soldier, liked by all.”

Russell Harry Louis Simmons has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium, close to where he fell. He was just 20 years old at the time of his death.

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Douglas William Armitage was born in Wolverhampton, the fourth son of Dr J A Armitage, on 8th February 1893. He came to Oundle in 1906 and left in 1912. In his last year he was Head of School as well as Captain of Rugby and of Fives. Of the 1st XV of 1911, all but one joined up and five of the XV would be killed.

From Oundle he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge with an exhibition in Classics. In his second year, he won the College Divinity and Reading prizes and was Secretary of the College Mission.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Public Schools Brigade and after six months was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant to the Royal Sussex Regiment. Early in September 1915, he was sent to France and was appointed reserve machine gun officer. After three weeks of operations on the front line, he was involved in the disastrous Battle of Loos. Last seen fighting with his fists on September 25th 1915, he was never heard of again and his body was never recovered. His name is inscribed on the Loos Memorial in France with the names of over 20,000 officers and men. 

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Joseph Baxter was the second Laxton School boy to be killed in the Great War. He was born on 1st September 1895 in Kettering, the son of Charles and Beatrice Baxter. He entered Laxton School in September 1907 and left four years later.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and held the rank of Lance Serjeant. He was killed on 26 September 1915, the second day of the Battle of Loos, in Northern France, close to the Belgian border. His body was never recovered and his name is inscribed on the Loos Memorial.

His name is also recorded with some 800 others on the Kettering War Memorial and on a stone plaque inside St Andrew's Church Kettering where he had been a member of the Kettering Church Institute.

Joseph Baxter was 20 years old at the time of his death.

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Ezra Howard Carter was born on 11th October 1893, the son of Ezra and Fanny Carter and lived at Lilford, a few miles from Oundle. He joined Laxton School in May 1907 and left in April 1909 sat the age of 15. After leaving school, he became an apprentice probably working on Lord Lilford’s estate alongside his father.

In 1914, he enlisted in Northampton and joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and was killed on 27th September 1915 at the Battle of Loos in France, the day after his school friend Joseph Baxter, who was killed in the same battle.

Ezra Carter has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.
He is also commemorated on the Achurch War Memorial, close to Lilford, alongside 9 other local men killed in the War.

Ezra Carter was 21 years old at the time of his death.

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Lawrence Collier Hatch was the second son of Dr and Mrs FH Hatch of Copsehill, Wimbledon. He was born in Johannesburg on 3rd November 1893 and came to School House at Oundle in January 1907, staying until July 1911.

After Oundle, he went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge.

At the outbreak of the war, he obtained a commission in the Durham Light Infantry and he was sent to France in September 1915, holding the rank of Lieutenant. He was killed just a week after his arrival on 27th September 1915 on the third day of the disastrous Battle of Loos.

The regimental history of the Durham Light Infantry comments on the advance made on 27th September 1915 as follows:
'It was intended to launch another attack, but before 2pm came a spontaneous advance, in which the survivors of the Durham battalions joined forces with the 64th Brigade. Heavily punished in the flank by shrapnel and machine-gun bullets, and unsupported by the British gunners who had not been warned of the attempt, the infantry had no chance of success. The losses of the Durhams were very heavy. In the ranks 277 were lost in the 14th, including Lt Hatchl. In the 15th 450 other ranks were casualties.'

Lawrence Hatch’s elder brother Philip, also a School House boy was killed a year later, leading his men into action.

Lawrence Collier Hatch was 21 years old at the time of his death. He has no known grave.

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Colin Holt Hooper entered Dryden House in September 1907, aged 14. His parents lived in Blackheath in London. After leaving Oundle in 1911, he worked for Messrs R G Shaw and Co and was to have gone out to Calcutta in October 1914 to further his career. Instead, he joined up as soon as the War began and gained a commission with the 20th London Regiment. By March 1915, he was in France.

He was with his battalion through all their engagements but was severely wounded at the Battle of Loos on 25th September 1915 when leading his men into action. When first hit, he remained with his men but he was then hit a second time by an explosive bullet and was found exhausted in a shell-hole where he was helping two other wounded men. He died of his wounds on 28th September aged 22 and was buried at Le Treport Military Cemetery north-east of Dieppe.

He was posthumously promoted to Lieutenant in recognition of his work in the Loos sector before the battle, and was personally complimented by the Brigadier.

The Sergeant of his platoon wrote to his grieving parents in the following terms: “His one thought was always for his men; he could never do enough for us. You must always feel proud of him, he was so brave and fearless, always ready and eager for any dangerous and difficult task.”

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Captain Harold Henry Walton was the second son of Mr and Mrs Edmund Walton of the Manor House, Chilwell, near Nottingham. During the War, Chilwell became the site of National Shell Filling Factory No.6 and on 1st July 1918, it was the scene of tragedy, when an explosion in the factory killed 134 people and injured more than 250 others. It was the worst death toll from a single explosion in British history.

Harold Walton came up to Oundle and Laxton House in September 1908, joining his brother Arthur, where their Housemaster was Sammy Squire. Harold was a promising and enthusiastic member of the Cadet Corps and became a good rifle shot. After leaving Oundle, he was articled to a firm of auctioneers in Nottingham called Walker, Walton and Hanson, where his father was a partner.

Before the War, he joined the Territorial Force called the Notts and Derby Regiment, also known as the Sherwood Forresters. He was promoted to Lieutenant in June 1915 and gazetted to a temporary captaincy shortly before his death on the 13th October 1915, where he led a bombing party attacking the Hohenzollern Redoubt, in the ill-fated Battle of Loos.

He was awarded the Military Cross, for his actions on the night of 30th July 1915 near Ypres. The London Gazette reported the award on 2nd October, just 11 days before his death: “He was heavily bombarded with trench mortars and rifle grenades, several of his men having been killed and buried but by his gallant conduct, he kept his men in hand and held on to his position.”

Harold Walton was also mentioned in a despatch from Field-Marshal Sir John French on 30th November 1915.

His elder brother Arthur Walton also went to Laxton House and served in the same regiment as Harold. Though twice wounded, he survived the War.

A stone plaque to Harold Walton was erected by his grieving father in Beeston Parish Church. Captain Harold Henry Walton was 20 years old at the time of his death.

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Captain Herbert Selwyn Scorer was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs John Norton Scorer of Spilsby in Lincolnshire. He was born in Thorney, near Peterborough on 5th December 1885 and attended Barton School in Wisbech until the age of 16. His name is commemorated on a plaque in Wisbech Church, along with 41 other old boys of Barton School who were killed in the War.

He came up to Oundle and Laxton House at the age of 16 in 1901. He rowed and played rugby for the House.

In 1904, he joined the Volunteers (the 5th Lincolnshire Regiment), gained a commission in April 1906 and was promoted Lieutenant in July of that year. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1910. He was a good all-round sportsman and was well known in hunting circles.

He was killed leading his men into action on 13th October 1915, when they attacked one of the strongest points in the German Line - the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

His Commanding Officer wrote: “I have lost in Herbert a great personal friend, while the battalion has lost a brave, loyal and devoted officer, respected and liked by everyone.”

Like the other four Oundelians killed in this futile attack during the Battle of Loos, Herbert Scorer has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

He was 29 years old at the time of his death.

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Donald Ewen was the second son of Mr and Mrs TB Ewen of Blackwell, near Bromsgrove. Born in Edgbaston on 27 June 1887, he entered Sidney House at the age of 14 in 1901. At School, he was prominent on the football field and on the river. Leaving Oundle in 1905, he went up to Birmingham University and studied metallurgy. He gained a BSc degree in 1909 and obtained the prestigious Wiggins and Bowen Research Studentship. Later he was awarded an MSc and in 1911, he joined the metallurgy department of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, where he did valuable research work. Donald Ewen’s academic prowess was confirmed when he exhibited specimens illustrating the behaviour of metals at high temperatures at the Royal Society in London.

Like many of his generation, a sense of duty inspired him to join the Territorial Force as a Reservist. So, in 1913 he joined the 14th Battalion of the London Scottish and volunteered for foreign service as soon as war broke out in 1914. Within weeks he was in France. He was involved in the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914, where his battalion discovered that their rifles were defective and unable to use the magazines they had been issued with. Thus the infantry had to load each bullet singly, seriously reducing their weight of fire.

By early 1915, his increasing deafness, probably brought on by the War, caused him to be made a stretcher bearer for his company and this disability also prevented him from obtaining a commission. He then asked to return to the laboratory, to take charge of optical glass research, an area of work of increasing importance to the British war effort. A telegram was sent by the War Office, ordering his immediate recall to London, but it arrived too late. Donald Ewen was killed in the Battle of Loos on 13th October 1915. At the time of his death, he was helping to bring in a wounded man, close to the German lines.

Donald Ewen was 28 years old at the time of his death.

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Charles Shortland Gray, like Herbert Scorer, was a Captain in the Lincolnshire Regiment when they were both killed at Loos on 13th October 1915. They advanced on the Hohenzollern Redoubt without artillery cover, only to find that the German wire was uncut and they were mown down by German artillery and machine gun fire.

Charles Gray was a Stamford boy, with a younger brother and sister, the son of an ironfounder and JP, also called Charles Gray. He was born on 12th July 1892.
He came up to Crosby House in May 1906 and left in 1909.

The Oundle Memorial Book claims that his body was picked up a fortnight after the battle, lying at the head of his men. He was buried on the battlefield, but now has no known grave and is therefore commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

His Colonel wrote of him: “He fell in the charge, at the head of his men. He was a gallant fellow, loved by everyone.”

His brother John Parnwell Gray, also a Crosby boy, would be killed in action in September 1918.

Charles Shortland Gray was 23 years old at the time of his death.

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Robert Clive Harvey, always known as Clive, was the third son of Colonel and Mrs R Harvey of Rothley, near Leicester and was born on 12th January 1896. He came to The Berrystead in January 1908 and then moved to Crosby House, which he left in July 1912. He then went to Neuchatel in Switzerland to study French and gained a diploma there.

In 1914 he decided to become a missionary but these plans were thwarted by the outbreak of war. In September 1914, aged 18, he obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment and was sent out to France. A year later he was promoted to Lieutenant and was Acting Adjutant and Brigade Intelligence Officer.

On 13th October 1915, during the disastrous Battle of Loos, he was attacking the Hohenzollern Redoubt with his men, when he was killed. That day the 1st to 4th Battalions of the Leicestershire Regiment lost 20 officers and 453 men. Overall, the attack on this strongly held German position on 13th October 1915 cost nearly 4,000 casualties, many of them in the first few minutes of the attack and the assault was a failure.
The 13th October 1915 was the single worst day of the War for Oundelians – five were killed in one afternoon.

Clive Harvey’s Commanding Officer wrote of him: “I cannot think of any occasion when he failed me. He had an absolutely imperturbable coolness under trying conditions, a considerable gift of leadership, and was always thoughtful for his men’s welfare. Officers such as he will always be followed.”

Robert Clive Harvey has no known grave and his name is inscribed on the Loos Memorial, alongside seven other fellow Oundelians, two of whom were also in Crosby House.

He was just 19 years old at the time of his death.

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Joseph Hugh Turner Brocklebank was not killed at the Front but aboard the troopship HMS Mercian in the Mediterranean. The ship was heading for Gallipoli with 500 troopers from the Lincolnshire Yeomanry aboard, including Oundelian Joseph Brocklebank. Not far from Gibraltar, on the afternoon of 3rd November 1915, the Mercian was apparently shelled by a German U-boat (U38) which had run out of torpedoes. The troopship (in fact a converted cargo ship) had no guns but it survived when the U-boat suddenly dived and disappeared.

However, 23 men including Joseph Brocklebank were killed in the U-boat attack and, contrary to the later story, they were buried in Oran in North Africa and not at sea. The Laxtonian Magazine wrongly claimed that Joseph Brocklebank had drowned, assuming that this must have been his fate since he died at sea.

He was the only son of a farmer, another Joseph Brocklebank, and lived in the Lincolnshire village of Carlton-Le-Moorland, not far from Newark. He was born there on 3rd March 1891 and came up to Oundle and Grafton House in May 1906, leaving in December 1907 at the age of 16. In the 4th Form he won a workshops prize.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and in October 1915, they set sail for the Middle East.

Joseph Hugh Turner Brocklebank, who died on 3rd November 1915 is commemorated on a new Lychgate which was built outside the church in his home village of Carlton Le Moorland in Lincolnshire. His name is also on the Helles Memorial in Gallipoli, even though he never fought there.

His grieving father later contributed 5 guineas towards the building of the new School Chapel. Joseph Brocklebank was 24 years old at the time of his death.

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Hugh James Pearson Hopkinson was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs FI Hopkinson of Hull and London. He was born in Devonshire on 7th July 1892.

He came to Oundle and Sidney House in 1906 and left three years later. He was keen on games and played for the Cricket XI in his last year. After leaving school, he was articled to his father, who was chief engineer in building the Hull Joint Dock, which was completed in 1914. While there, Hugh Hopkinson played for the Hull and East Riding Football Team. The Laxtonian Magazine of 1909 reported that Hugh Hopkinson “is often to be seen with a very black face driving locos on the Hull and Barnsley main line”.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Engineers and in 1915 was sent out to Gallipoli.
On the night of 5th November 1915 he was superintending the laying of wire entanglements in front of the trenches and was shot while bandaging a wounded man. He died on the way to the dressing station.

He is now buried in Hill 10 Cemetery south-west of Azmak, close to where he fell. Hugh James Pearson Hopkinson was 23 years old at the time of his death.

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John Armitage Hartley was born in Halifax, Yorkshire in 1893, the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Edward Hartley. After private school in Hunstanton, he came up to Dryden House in 1908 for the Sixth Form staying until 1910.

With his keen interest in science, no doubt nurtured by his Oundle experience, he worked in the manufacture of boilers back in Halifax. He joined the Halifax Territorials before the war, where his father was the commander. At the outbreak of war, in August 1914, he joined the 4th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant.

He was sent to France on 17th June 1915 and was killed from gas poisoning at Boezinge, near Ypres in Belgium on 19th December that year. Although he was killed in action, those drawing up the School’s Memorial Book clearly did not know this, they merely recorded him as having enlisted. However, this error was rectified by the time the new School Chapel was built, because John Hartley’s name appears on the Chapel’s memorial tablets.

John Armitage Hartley was 22 years old at the time of his death.

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John Broadwood Atkinson was the third son of Joseph and Anne Atkinson of Annaghmore, Portadown in Ireland. He was born in Summer Island House in the village of Loughgall in Northern Ireland on 1st October 1894 but lost his mother when he was only two years old.

He came up to Oundle (Grafton House) in 1909 and left at the end of the Lent term in 1913. He was a keen member of the Officers’ Training Corps, being Section Commander for his house. He also sang bass in the Chapel Choir and took singing lessons. He was a member of the army class and in his last year 1913, a House Prefect in Mr Norbury’s Grafton House.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers and was sent with them to Gallipoli. He was wounded in the landing at Suvla Bay on 6th August 1915 and was moved to Alexandria in Egypt. There, enteric fever took hold and he died on Christmas Eve 1915, aged just 21.

He was buried in the Chatby Military and War Memorial Cemetery in Alexandria. At the time of his death, he had been appointed temporary Captain.

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