Geoffrey Watkins Smith - 13th Rifle Brigade, kia 10/7/16

[stiletto_33853]

You wish, what with people reporting posts and trying to look through the forum posts and trying to learn and get on top of this moderating thing.

Andy

[marina]

You'll be brilliant at it! I'll just have to be patient!

Marina

[liverpool annie]

I've been looking every day for a new one Marina ... even before being a Mod took up all his time !!

But that's OK Andy ... I'll be patient too !! .... Christmas is coming ...... a new one would be a nice pressie !!

[marina]

I've been looking every day for a new one Marina ... even before being a Mod took up all his time !!

But that's OK Andy ... I'll be patient too !! .... Christmas is coming ...... a new one would be a nice pressie !!

Good thinking, Annie!

Poor Andy under pressure!

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

Doh!! more pressure,

Will see what I can do in the near future ladies, few more RB memorial books here and there.

Andy

[stiletto_33853]

Shaun,

I have scanned this memorial book, as I do most of the ones I have in my library to save wear on the originals. If you would like me to send you the book on a disc let me know.

Andy

[marina]

Doh!! more pressure,

Will see what I can do in the near future ladies, few more RB memorial books here and there.

Andy

Awww... you're a gem!

Marina

[shaunhullis]

Andy-

That would be very kind. I'm now at Westminster School (17 Dean's Yard, Westminster, London SW1P 3PB), though still researching the Winchester lads.

Let me know if you'd like a contribution for postage/scanning costs - and if there are any Winchester RB's I can give you any gen on.

Shaun

[MBrockway]

..

Captain Geoffrey Watkins Smith, Rifle Brigade, ... was educated at ... Winchester College, of which he was a scholar, and at New College, Oxford, where he as a scholar he took a First Class in the Natural Science Schools, and was subsequently Fellow and Tutor to the time of his death.

..

Shortly after the outbreak of the war he received a commission in the Rifle Brigade, obtaining his company in July 1915, when the battalion went to the front.

..

Andy,

I also have just stumbled across this wonderful thread in the Evelyn Southwell tradition! I shall enjoying reading it in detail at my leisure.

We definitely have a strong Winchester theme here.

New College, Oxford and Winchester College were both founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. Hence Old Boys of Winchester College being known as Wykehamists.

New College and the ancient parts of the school share similar layout and architecture - as well as the motto: Manners makyth Man.

It would be natural for a Wykehamist to go up to New College (though many chose other colleges), and probably also natural for such a man to enlist in either the KRRC or Rifle Brigade back in Winchester for his Great War service.

Just out of interest, are you (or any other Pals) aware of any tradition of Wykehamists joining the Winchester rifles regiments over other alternatives?

Cheers,

Mark

[shaunhullis]

Mark-

There's definitely a Rifles tradition (WinColl CCF is badged Rifles even today). Of the 870 or so Wykehamists who've died in the service of their country since the Crimea, 93 died in battalions of the RB, KRRC or RGJ. That's not counting those who joined those regiments but transferred to units such as the RFC, or those who were posted to other regiments as they became more senior (thus Lt-Col HR Woods DSO, killed in Normandy 1944, was OC 9DLI but was a KRRC officer). I'd estimate that the final figure stands at over 110. In the decorative carvings in Winchester's War Cloister, the badges of the RB and KRRC are displayed more prominently than those of any other regiments.

I'm still working on my database of all Wykehamists who saw active service in WW1 and WW2, so I can't quantify it, but the bias in favour of RB and KRRC service is clear.

Shaun

[MBrockway]

Mark-

There's definitely a Rifles tradition (WinColl CCF is badged Rifles even today). Of the 870 or so Wykehamists who've died in the service of their country since the Crimea, 93 died in battalions of the RB, KRRC or RGJ. That's not counting those who joined those regiments but transferred to units such as the RFC, or those who were posted to other regiments as they became more senior (thus Lt-Col HR Woods DSO, killed in Normandy 1944, was OC 9DLI but was a KRRC officer). I'd estimate that the final figure stands at over 110. In the decorative carvings in Winchester's War Cloister, the badges of the RB and KRRC are displayed more prominently than those of any other regiments.

I'm still working on my database of all Wykehamists who saw active service in WW1 and WW2, so I can't quantify it, but the bias in favour of RB and KRRC service is clear.

Shaun

Thanks for that Shaun - sounds like well over 10% of Wykehamists killed have fallen in the rifles regiments. Clearly there is a definite tradition there.

I'm not a Wykehamist, but I am a New College man. The connection with the rifles regiments in Winchester will obviously be weaker, but it might be interesting to survey for a similar bias from the Fallen of New College. I'll have a look at the Roll of Honour next time I'm at the college.

Cheers,

Mark

[JCRitchie]

Brief biographical details about Gerald Caldwell Siordet:

Gerald Caldwell Siordet

was born in 1885 and educated at Clifton College, Bristol, where he showed early artistic promise by winning several medals from the Royal Drawing Society.

In 1904 he won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, and after graduating he decided to pursue work along artistic lines in London. He worked at the Fine Art Society, the Medici Society, and also at the Victoria and Albert Museum (where he was engaged in cataloguing ivory carvings).

During this time he was engaged as a private tutor to the young Aldous Huxley (after he had been sent home from Eton with an eye condition), in order to prepare him for entry into Balliol College, Oxford

He had also begun work as a freelance critic, publishing articles in the art periodical ‘

The Studio’

, and was influential in securing the important commission for the ‘Stations of the Cross’ in Westminster Cathedral for Eric Gill.

Siordet included a number of well known artists amongst his friends and acquaintances, including Glyn Philpot (see below), John Singer Sargent, Henry Scott Tuke, Eric Gill, and Brian Hatton, and many of them completed portraits of him (most are in private ownership, but three portrait drawings by Hatton are held by the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery).

Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, Siordet joined the Thirteenth Battalion The Rifle Brigade as a Temporary Second Lieutenant. He embarked for France at the end of July 1915, and remained there intermittently engaged in the fighting until the Somme offensive of July 1916. On the 10 July his Battalion was involved in a heroic, but tragically unsupported attack which resulted in half of the Battalion being killed or injured in a little over 2 hours. Siordet was injured and subsequently awarded the Military Cross for ‘conspicuous gallantry during an attack’.

Following three months recuperation back in England he was sent on attachment to join the Sixth Battalion The King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment as a part of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. He arrived to join his regiment at the front line near Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris in January 1917. He was killed leading an attack on the Turkish trenches just 3 weeks later, on 9 February 2017.

He has no known grave, but his name is recorded on the Basra War Memorial, the First World War Memorial in Balliol College Chapel, and the First World War Memorial in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

He was a talented artist and poet - two of his poems were published in ‘The Times’ during the war, and after his death a volume of his poems and drawings was printed for private circulation. The Times republished one of his poems in November 2014 to mark the 100th anniversary of first publication.

Portrait of Gerald Caldwell Siordet by Glyn Philpot, 1916:

http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/glyn-warren-philpot/20744