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Private Frank Harold May ROBERTSON 5th Battalion
Canadian Infantry Force Died of sickness 12th April 1915 Age 21 St Omer Cemetery, France Pupil
1904-1905 Local boy Frank Robertson was the second of four sons to Adderbury surgeon James Robertson and his Brazilian wife
Lilian. The family originally lived at Hill House in Adderbury. He was born on the 6th May 1894 and the
family then moved to 1, Perham Road, West Kensington, London. I have been unable to discover how Frank ended up living in Canada, but he was an engineer by trade. He enlisted
into the Canadian Infantry 5th Battalion on the 24th September 1914, as Private 12616. He was unmarried at the time
of his enlistment, and was described as being 5'8" tall, of medium build, with black hair and a significant scar
on his left leg below the knee. The 5th
Battalion embarked for France in early 1915, and was in training in France when Robertson contracted cerebro-spinal meningitis
and died at the base hospital in Saint Omer at the age of 21.
 2nd Lieutenant
Robert Ellis CUNLIFFE 2nd
Battalion The Royal Berkshire Regiment Killed in Action 9th May 1915 Commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium
Pupil 1906-1910 Robert Ellis
Cunliffe was born in Calcutta, India in 1895 to Agnes and Arthur Cunliffe. He was shown on the 1901 census as living
at 14-16 Loscelles Terrace, Eastbourne, in the care of Florence Mellish, whose occupation was listed as "carer of Indian
children". Having left the school Cunliffe headed for
London where he had a job working as a bank clerk for Parr's Bank, and he resided at 31, Marmosa Road, Honour Oak, South
London. He enlisrted into the Territorial Army on the 17th June 1913, as Private 1560 the 16th Battalion the County
of London Regiment (the school archives state he enlisted into the Queen's Westminsters). He was 5'9" tall
and of average build and was declared fit for service in the Infantry despite his extremely poor eyesight. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the 2nd Battalion
The Royal Berkshire Regiment on the 26th September 1914. At this time the 2nd Battalion where on their way back from active
service in India, and they arrived back in England on the 22nd October 1914. The regiment was transferred to Winchester
where it became part of 25th Brigade, 8th Division and the regiment embarked for France on the 5th November 1914. Cunliffe's medal index card shows that he landed in France
around this time, and therefore it seems likely that he joined the regiment in England. The Battalion was in action on the 9th May 1915, at the Battle of Aubers Ridge and it
seems in all likelihood that Cunliffe was killed along with 20 other officers from his regiment. The attack was a disasater,
being fought on the same battlefield as the fighting at Neuve Chappelle earlier in the year. The British suffered over
11,000 casualties in 24 hours, and the offensive was susepended after only one day. The Royal Berkshire Regiment alone
suffered over 240 casualties in May 1915. His commanding officer wrote to his parents saying: "The machine gun and shrapnel fire was very heavy
and I am sure there is little doubt that your son was killed that day. Capt Nugent who commanded your sons company last
saw him when he started over our own breastwork, and I can find no one who saw him afterwards. He kust have advanced
at the head of platoon part of the way to the German trench and been killed there. Your son fell like many other officers
of the Brigade gallantly leading his men against the enemy. Only four out of twenty four officers survived." Cunliffe's body was never found and he is commemorated on
the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing. He was 21 years old when he died. He
is commemorated on a memorial in All Souls Church, Eastbourne.
Captain
Charles Nugent died on the 19th November 1918 and is buried at Valenciennes Communal Cemetery.
  2nd Lieutenant
Francis Edmund Langton RIDDLE 2nd Battalion The Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Killed in Action 16th May 1915 Commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, France Pupil 1903-1911
Francis Riddle was a local boy, being the second surviving son of the
Vicar of Tadmarton the Reverend Arthur Riddle and was born in June 1893. The 1901 census shows Francis living at the
address with a half sister Annie and his half brother Gerald. He was a pupil at the school between 1903 and 1911
and appears to have been an excellent sportsman, having won the Sports Championship in both 1910 and 1911. On the 1st July 1913, Riddle was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the
Special Reserve of officers in the The Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He worked much of his time as the
Assistant Recruiting Officer for Oxford and on the outbreak of War he was enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion
OBLI. He went to France in October 1914 and appears to have spent several months working as the Quarter Master for the
regiment in Reserve. The Battalion went
into action on the 15th May 1915 during the Battle of Festubert, and Riddle seems to have been called up as a replacement
early on the morning of the 16th May, arriving around 8am. The Battalion went into attack against the heavily defended
German lines opposite Richebourg L'Avoué at around 08.45. Riddle was reported as having been killed almost
immediately. He died at the age
of 21 having been in the trenches for less than an hour. He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial to the Missing in France and also on the stone war cross in Tadmarton.
 Captain
Reginald Victor RYLANDS Captain
1/7 The Manchester Regiment Killed
in action 29th May 1915 Buried
in Redoubt Cemetery, Gallipoli Pupil
1906-1910
Reginald Victor Rylands was the eldest son of Richard Rylands and his wife Mary, and was born in Stockport, Manchester
on the 9th December 1892. He had a younger brother Harold Bertram who was also a pupil at Bloxham and was killed on
the Somme in 1916. He was a pupil at the school between 1902 and 1906. On leaving Bloxham his education
was completed at Shrewsbury school. He left Shrewsbury before spending some time in Germany, and then at Manchester
University where he studied law, joining his father's law firm Mssr's Boote, Edgar, Grace and Rylands. His father
was a senior lawyer and was a Solicitor of the Supreme Court in Manchester. The military was a large part of Rylands
life, and he served as an officer in the Territorial Force of the Manchester Regiment, becoming a 2nd Lt in May 1910, a Lieutenant
in 1912 and being appointed Captain and Company Commander of the 1/7th Batt Manchester Regiment (TF) in September 1914.
He served some time at the start of the War in Egypt where he was commanding the massively important railway junction at Atbara.
The Battalion also served in Sudan, before taking part in the fighting at Gallipoli in May 1915. The Battalion
landed at V Beach (site of the famous beaching of the River Clyde) and progressed in land. This area was dominated by
high cliffs to the north and the fort at Kilitbatir to the south. The battalion was not involved in any major actions
during this time, rather it was involved in the peice meal skirmishes that characterised this theatre of war. He was
killed on the night of the 29th May 1915, leading an attack against the Turkish lines. The adjutant of the Regiment
wrote: "On the night of the 28-29 May B and D Companies were ordered to
advance and dig ourselves in about 200 yards in front of the enemy. We crept to within about 200 yards of the enemy
when suddenly the moon came out, which was not to our advantage.. Your son was on the extreme left of our advance, commanding
half the company when news came through that he had been hit in the shoulder. A sergeant went to him and gave him water,
but the bullet must have hit something vital and he passed away within 5 minutes." Attempts were made to
retrieve his body, but his body remained lying in No Mans Land for three days until the enemy had been controlled enough to
allow safe retrieval. Several men were killed whilst trying to recover him. He was eventually buried just behind
the lines with a cross made from a sniper shattered trench perescope. He is buried in Redoubt Cemetery, Gallipoli, and
was 23 when he died.
 Private
Lionel Arthur HARRIS 9th
Battalion The Royal Warwickshire Regiment Died of Wounds 16th May 1915 Commemorated
on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli Pupil
1906-1909
Lionel Harris was born in 1896 in Newbury and was the son of Ernest and Marion Harris. His father ran the Blacksmith,
Forge and general store in small village of Cold Ash, near Thatcham. The school archives suggest that Lionel was the
youngest of 4 sons, however the 1901 census shows he had a younger brother Paul, and makes no mention of older siblings...once
again the vagueries of research! Despite extensive efforts I have been unable to find any information about his military
service, other than he was a Private in the 9th Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He died of wounds in Gallipoli
on the 16th March 1915 and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial to the Missing.
  Sergeant
Morris Howard WILKINS City
of London Yeomanry Killed in
Action 21st August 1915 Buried
Green Hill Cemetery, Gallipoli Pupil 1904-1906 Morris
Wilkins was born in Ravenshead, Kent the 4th child to Edward and Ellen Wilkins. His father was an Insurance Broker and
he had three older sisters Dorothy, Cecily and Mary, and a younger brother Leopold. The family lived at 46 Sydenham Road,
Croydon. Morris was a pupil at the school
between 1904-1906 but I have been unable to find out what he did on leaving the school, other than he was working in London.
He appear to have been of some means as he played Polo at the Blackheath Polo Club. Around 1911 he joined the City of London Yeomanry Rough Riders, the
1/1st London Yeomanry, formed in 1901. The Yeomanry served with distinction during the War from 1914 through to 1918.
In the Gallipoli campaign the Yeomanry were forced to abandon their precious horses and fight on foot as infantry soldiers. On the 21st August 1915, the dismounted cavalrymen
found themselves launched into the attack at the Battle of Scimitar Hill. The battle did not go well for the British
and the 2nd Mounted Division were called into battle at around 5pm. Marching inland from Suvla across the dry bed of
a salt lake, the advance was soon cut down by accurate and prolonged machine gun fire as it approached Anafarta and Green
Hill. The British lost 5300 men on the
21st August including Morris Wilkins, who was wounded near to Hill 70 and died of his wounds. He is buried in Green
Hill Cemetery, Gallipoli. He was 25 years old.
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