2ND LIEUT. DAVID LYNDSAY STRANACH GASKELL, 16TH BATTN. THE WELCH REGT. DIED JANUARY 12TH, 1916, NEAR ST. VENANT, FROM WOUNDS RECEIVED AT BOMB PRACTICE ON JANUARY 11TH. AGED 22. At the School 1908—11 (Manor House). Lyndsay Gaskell was the only son of Mr. James S. Gaskell, M.Inst.C.E., 17, Victoria Street, Westminster, and of Mrs. Gaskell, Epsom. He came to Tonbridge from Kent House School, Eastbourne, in May, 1908, and left from the Lower Sixth July, 1911, having been in his last year in the XL, a House Praepostor and a 2nd Corporal in the O.T.C. On leaving School he was articled to the firm of Messrs. Beale & Co., Westminster, solicitors to the Midland Railway Company, and was reading for his final examination when war broke out. The head of the firm, in a letter expressing his sorrow and sympathy, wrote:— " As time went on I was more and more impressed with the progress he was making here. He seemed to have just those qualities that a solicitor needs, a combination of diligence and application and clear and honest thinking, and all my recent plans for the future conduct of our office included the idea that he would have worked with us permanently, if we were lucky enough to induce him to do so." Further testimony to the great promise he had shown was borne by another partner and by the head of the Conveyancing Department, under whom he had worked for eighteen months. He joined the H.A.C. early in August, 1914, and went out to France as a private in the 2nd Company of the Ist Battn. in September, 1914, and was promoted to be Lance-Corporal July 9th, 1915. He had been gazetted to a commission in the 16th Battn. (Cardiff City) of the Welch Regt., dated May 20th, 1915, but was detained with the H.A.C. at the Front till the middle of July. He then returned to England and joined his new Regiment and went out again to France with the 16th Welch on December 4th, 1915. On January 11th he was instructing a bombing party at Robecq, a village on the La Bassee Canal, near St. Venant. As the result of a defective fuse a bomb exploded prematurely in the hand of one of the men, killing one man, wounding four and mortally wounding 2nd Lieut. Gaskell in the head. He became unconscious immediately and remained so for the few hours that he lived. He was buried in a cemetery at St. Venant. His Colonel wrote of him :— "From the moment he joined us he set a standard of conduct that was of the greatest value in the Battalion. A more willing, honest and straightforward lad never breathed. He was beloved by all and trusted by the officer commanding his company and by myself equally as much as by the men of his platoon.' He further quotes an instance of 2nd Lieut. Gaskell's promptitude and sound example on the occasion of a serious accident that occurred at bomb practice before they left for the front. His Company Commander also bears testimony to the way in which he quickly won the affection of all, and by his exceptional keenness with his Platoon earned the appreciation of himself and of the senior officers. " He did," he says, " such a lot of work in a quiet way." His CO. and cousin, Lieut.-Colonel Frank Hill Gaskell, an Old Malvernian, died of wounds on May 17th, 1916.