Decorations and Awards: Distinguished Service Order Died: 5th November 1917 Age: 41 Malcolm Robertson Pocock, son of Mrs. Pocock, of Dunstable, was born 17th May, 1876. He entered [Victoria] College in 1886 and passed into Sandhurst in 1892. He was in the Cricket XI and Football XV in his last two years. Having been gazetted to the 28th Punjabis, he …
Continue readingCaptain Robert Colvill-Jones M.C.
Awards and Decorations: Military Cross Died: 4th November 1918 Age: 22 Robert Colvill-Jones was the eldest son of R Colvill-Jones. He and his two brothers entered College in January 1911, and remained till midsummer in the following year when the family returned to the Argentine. Robert was barely eighteen when he came over with a large number of other young …
Continue readingCaptain Herbert Frank Brownton Ryley
Died: 2nd November 1914 Age: 36 Herbert Frank Brownton Ryley, son of Major F Ryley, of Claremont Court, Jersey, was born 11th September, 1878. He entered [Victoria College] in 1889 and left at the end of the same year. Later he went to Rugby, and on leaving school went into the Army through the Militia, becoming Second Lieutenant in The …
Continue readingMajor Fleetwood George Campbell Ross
Died: 2nd November 1914 Age: 45 Fleetwood George Campbell Ross, son of Colonel G Campbell Ross, of Bayfields, Headley, Hants, was born 18th March, 1869. He entered [Victoria College] in 1886 and left in 1887, getting his colours for football. In 1890 he was gazetted to the Wiltshire Regiment from the Militia and two years later was appointed to the …
Continue readingConflict Archaelogy – soldiers’ identity tags
This is a short piece which I wrote for a conflict archaeology course about identity tags as memory objects relating to a recent modern conflict. The First World War identity tags are my grandfather’s . To describe them, I would start by saying that each British and Empire soldier had two tags. These tags could be made of metal or …
Continue readingOne hundred years on at Passchendaele – ZERO HOUR
In 2017, the weather has been wet and the night air has had a chill to it. Having got up early, I headed out of Ypres north-eastwards towards Passchendaele and ZERO HOUR. Making my way along the small roads which crisscross the fields which were the battlefield, it is only too apparent that this place is wet! Even with working …
Continue readingMajor Edward Hingston
Died: 28 Mach 1915 Age: 44 Edward Hingston, youngest son of Mrs. Hingston, of Upper King’s Cliff, Jersey, was born 3rd November 1870. He entered College in 1882, leaving in 1886. In the following year, he passed into Woolwich, and two years later obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers. He did three years of duty in India, and held …
Continue reading2nd Lieutenant Arthur Berteau Grellier
Died: 27 March 1917 Age: 19 Arthur Berteau Grellier, son of Albert Francis Grellier (OV 1875-1879), was born at St. Helier, 28th March 1898. He entered College in 1910, leaving in 1915. During his four or five happy years of school life he developed talents for Mechanical Drawing, Mapping and Mathematics. He was a first-rate bugler in the OTC. He …
Continue reading2nd Lieutenant Henry Thomas Bayard Smith
Died: 25 March 1918 Age: 20 Henry Thomas Bayard Smith, born 9th September 1897, was the son of Major WH Smith, Army Ordnance Department, of Victoria Crescent, Jersey. He entered in 1913 and remained for two years. In 1915, he passed second for Assistant Clerkships in the Royal Navy, and was for a time on HMS Shannon. Not feeling however …
Continue readingLieutenant Robert Hamilton Poynder
Died: 24 March 1918 Age: 22 Robert Hamilton Poynder, son of the Reverend A Poynder, Incumbent of St. Paul’s, Jersey, was born at South Lyncombe, Bath, 23rd October, 1895. He was educated at Glengarth and Dean Close, Schools at Cheltenham until his parents came to Jersey, when he entered College, remaining for two years, 1910-1912. After a year’s private tuition …
Continue readingLieutenant John Genge
Died: 24 March 1918 Age: 33 John Genge, son of John Pope Genge, of Halkett Place, Jersey, was born 13th January 1885. He entered College in 1896 and remained for three years. He then went out to Canada, and at the beginning of the war volunteered for service and joined the Canadian Mounted Rifles. After service in France he was …
Continue readingCaptain Maurice William Campbell Sprott, M.C.
Awards and Decorations: Military Cross Died: 21 March 1918 Master at Victoria College Maurice William Campbell Sprott was the elder son of the Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand. Educated in New Zealand, he took his degree at the Victoria University with First Class Honours. He came to England in 1906, and entering Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduated in 1910 with a Second …
Continue reading2nd Lieutenant Laurence Bosdet Hibbs
Died: 21 March 1916 Age: 21 Laurence Bosdet Hibbs, son of James Hibbs, of Rouge Boullion, Jersey, was born 2nd June 1894. He was a chorister of Winchester Cathedral until his voice broke, when he entered Victoria College, in September 1908. He won the King’s History Prize in 1911, and two years later obtained a Channel Islands Scholarship for Modern …
Continue readingCaptain Cecil Philip George Gordon
Died: 24 March 1918 Age: 24 Cecil Philip George Gordon, son of Colonel PCH Gordon, CMG, RAMC, of 6, Ralegh Avenue, Jersey, was born 27th August 1893. Entering College in 1904, he remained for three years and then went on to Blundell’s. At the beginning of the War he was in Canada, and returning to England immediately to join up …
Continue reading2nd Lieutenant Gerald Mauger
Died: 20 March 1918 Age: 25 Gerald Mauger, younger brother of George Ernest Mauger, was born 27th September 1893. He entered College in 1903 and remained for four years. For some years, he was a clerk in the Capital and Counties Bank at Guernsey. He twice offered himself for service, and on the second occasion was accepted and served for …
Continue readingLieutenant Edward Michael Hopton
Died: 17 March 1916 Age: 31 Edward Michael Hopton, the son of Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Hopton, KCB, a former Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey, was born 16th September, 1884. He entered College in 1895, remaining for two years, and then went on to Bradfield. He took up farming in Herefordshire (his native county) and was especially interested in Hereford cattle and in …
Continue readingLieutenant John Houghton Stewart
Died: 15 March 1915 Age: 19 John Houghton Stewart, born 19th November, 1895, was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel GP Stewart, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and grandson of Colonel Sir James Godfray, QADC, and of Sir John M Stewart, Bart., County Tyrone. He entered College in September 1905, and in 1908 went on to Bradfield, passing from the ArmyHouse into Sandhurst …
Continue readingPrivate George Ernest Mauger
Died: 15 Marc 1916 Age: 26 George Ernest Mauger, elder son of Clarence George Mauger, of Jersey, was born 4th November, 1888. He entered College in 1898 and remained for six years. On leaving school he went into the Civil Service, but later obtained an appointment in the Capital and Counties Bank at Headquarters. On the outbreak of war, he …
Continue readingLieutenant Donald Franklyn Hubert
Died: 14 March 1917 Age: 21 Donald Franklyn Hubert, eldest surviving son of HJ Hubert, of Jersey, Music Master at the College, was born 4th October, 1895. He entered College in September 1905 and remained for eight years. Popular With everyone, and familiarly known as “Bobbie,” he became, distinguished in many ways – as Head Prefect, Colour-Sergeant of the OTC, …
Continue readingCaptain Nigel Choveaux
Died: 14 March 1917 Age: 27 Nigel Choveaux, younger son of L.N. Choveaux, entered College with his brother in 1899 and remained for nine years. The family were living at The Homestead, College Hill, a circumstance which gave Nigel an exceptional opportunity of developing his aptitude for games. He was in the Football and Cricket Xl’s of 1905, 1906, 1907 …
Continue readingCaptain Herbert Power
Died: 12 March 1915 Age: 28 Herbert Power, son of Colonel FE Power, The Northamptonshire Regiment, was born 14th March, 1886. He was at College for one year, from 1895 to 1896, his father’s regiment being stationed at Jersey, and then went to Colet Court and St. Paul’s. In 1904 he passed into Sandhurst and on passing out was gazetted …
Continue reading2nd Lieutenant John Hewitt Sutton Moxly
Died: 12 March 1915 Age: 23 John Hewitt Sutton Moxly, born 27th December, 1891, was the elder son of the Reverend JHS Moxly, of 8, Stopford Road, St Helier, Jersey. Entering in 1906, he gained the King’s Gold Medal for Classics in 1909, the King’s History Prize in 1910, and in the latter year went up to Oxford with a …
Continue readingPortuguese WW1 Cemetery at Richebourg, France
Despite Portuguese territory in East Africa being threatened by the Germans early in the war, Portugal did not enter World War One until 1916. This followed the seizure of German ships and internment of their crews in Portuguese ports at the request of the British, when Germany then declared war on Portugal. Portugal agreed to send an expeditionary force of some 55,000 men to France …
Continue readingThe Book of Remembrance of the Great War, Victoria College
I have had a copy of the Book of Remembrance on my bookshelf for a number of years and have always found the descriptions of the Old Victorians, as well as masters from the College, who lost their lives in the First World War fascinating. Of the 126 named, whilst many were their twenties and thirties when they died, there …
Continue readingMy grandfather at the Battle of Courcelette 100 years ago
My interest in the Battle of Courcelette is that my grandfather, Josué Emile Dorey, was a Corporal in the 27th Battalion, 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Canadian Division, who with the 3rd Canadian Division had been assigned the objective of capturing Courcelette. My grandfather, from a Jersey (St. Martin) farming family, but not the eldest son and therefore not …
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