11 of our Old Boys fell in 1917. The Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele, two brutal and unrelenting conflicts, took our boys in clusters. In April 1917 we lost three men: 2nd Lieut. Thomas Yandle, 2nd Lieut. Lewis Albert Edward Sam Bilton and Private George Winton Powell.

The bodies of both 2nd Lieut. Thomas Yandle and Private George Winton Powell were never found and they are Remembered with Honour on the Arras Memorial. Powell’s family suffered months of hoping their son would be accounted for but no trace was ever found. He was 19 years old.  2nd Lieut. Lewis Bilton was shot as he came out of the staff tent. He had been frustrated that it had taken so long to get to the front. He felt a need to ‘avenge his schoolfellows’ who had already been taken and had been desperate to see action.

In July 1917, Serjeant Percy Alfred Clode was killed whilst helping a wounded comrade to safety. He left a widow and a one year old son.