2ND LIEUT. HENRY JEPHSON HILARY, 17TH BRIGADE R.F.A. DIED JUNE 3RD, 1917, OF WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION AT MONCHY-LE-PREUX ON JUNE 2ND. AGED 41. At the School 1887—94 (Day Boy). 2nd Lieut. H. J. Hilary was the eldest son of Mr. Henry Hilary of Manor Grove, Tonbridge, Senior Mathematical Master of Tonbridge School for 37 years, from 1870 to 1907, and of the late Mrs. H. Hilary, who was a sister of four Old Tonbridgians, R. J. Jephson (D.B. 1866— 69), a Surveyor in Canada ; J. P. J. Jephson (D.B. 1866—73; Judd Exhib., Football XIIL, 1891—92, Scholar of Queens' Coll. Cambridge), Barrister and Solicitor, Calgary, Canada; C. D. H. J. Jephson (D.B. 1866—75; Football XIII., 1873—4), R. Irish Constabulary, Resident Magistrate, Ireland, since 1899; and A. J. M. Jephson (D.B. 1869—74), who accompanied Stanley's Expedition by the Congo to relieve Emin Pasha on the sources of the Nile, 1887, and who died in 1908. Capt. E. J. Jephson, Norfolk Regt. (D.B. 1899—1904), who was killed in action on September 15th, 1916, was the eldest son of another of H. J. Hilary's uncles, the late Capt. T. F. Jephson, P. & O. Company's Service, who was not an O.T. The second son, T.O.J. Hilary (D.B. 1890—98), served as a Private in the R.A.M.C. from quite early in the War, and obtained a temporary commission in the 6th Royal West Kents in 1918, but relinquished it a few months later on account of ill health. The youngest, R. J. Hilary (D.B. 1906— 12),was elected to the Judd Scholarship and a Foundation Scholarship in June, 1907, and was in the XI. 1910—12. He won the Greek Iambics Prize, 1910—12, the Latin Prose, 1911—12, and the Greek Prose, 1912, and was bracketed with W. S. Douglas for the Sixth Form Prize, 1912. He had gained a Judd Exhibition of £75 in 1911, and a Classical Scholarship at St. John's College, Cambridge, where also he was in the XI. and took a First Class in the Classical Tripos (Pt. i.) in 1914. He obtained a commission in The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), June 26th, 1915, and was somewhat severely wounded in the shoulder, near Oostaverne, on June 9th, 1917, whilst serving with the 8th Battn. He was promoted Lieutenant July 1st, 1917, and going out again, to the 7th Battn., in August, 1918, took part in the final ofltensive. H. J. Hilary entered the School in May, 1887, gained the Judd Scholarship and a Foundation Scholarship in August, 1888, was in the Sixth Form 1890—94 and in the XI. in 1892 and 1894, an attack of mumps preventing his playing in 1893. In 1894 he won the Greek Prose Prize, the 2nd Judd Exhibition for Classics and the Lampard Exhibition, and had also been elected a Classical Exhibitioner and Sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a First Class in the Classical Tripos in 1897, and took his degree in that year. For several years he was engaged in various work in different parts, including tutorial work in America, In 1903 he went to Calcutta as Junior Secretary to the East Indian Railway, In 1904 he was also given the Secretaryship of the Indian Railways Conference, and in 1906 was appointed Secretary to the Port Commissioners of Calcutta and Assistant to the Vice- Chairman of the Port Trust. He succeeded Sir Frederick Dumayne as Vice-Chairman in 1913 and was also in the same year made a member of the Bengal Legislative Council. In 1905 he had married Isobel Mary, second daughter of the late John Hay Grant and the late Mrs. J, H. Grant, formerly of Riverdale, Tonbridge, and leaves a widow and three children, two sons and a daughter. In 1916 he applied for leave and came home with his wife and children. Immediately on his arrival in England, he applied at the War Office for a commission in the Artillery, having served for some time in the Calcutta Volunteer Artillery, He was promised the commission if he could obtain permission to accept it from the Government of India. This he obtained by cable, joined an R.A. Cadet unit on June 9th, and after going through courses at St. John's Wood, Shoeburyness and Forest Row, was sent to France in December, 1916. His Brigade was engaged in much severe fighting and suffered heavily both earlier in the year at Sailly-Sallisel and at Easter time, when they were congratulated by the Divisional Commander for their services in the Battles of Arras, and also in the many counter-attacks made by the enemy in May. On June 2nd, 1917, whilst on duty with his Battery he was very badly wounded in the head by a splinter of shell, which broke through his steel helmet and fractured the skull. He died at the Casualty Clearing Station next day without having recovered consciousness, and was buried on June 4th in the Cemetery of the Hospital at Duisans, the General and two of his Staff being present, as well as the CO. and Adjutant of his Brigade. The Adjutant wrote :— "The whole Brigade has felt his loss. There was no one for whom we all felt greater affection out here." The Chaplain said :— " From the very first he was in the very highest degree liked and respected by all. I used thoroughly to enjoy talking with him about Cambridge and the Classics. He will never be forgotten here. I admired him greatly." An Artillery Officer of about his own age who was with him as a cadet at St. John's Wood, writing to Mrs. H. J. Hilary, said:— " I was privileged to go all through the course with your husband and I feel myself that I have lost a very valued and gallant friend. The only consolation is that he died as I am sure he would have had it. He was imbued with a stronger and finer patriotism than any man I ever met and his sacrifice was not altogether wasted, if only for the fine example he set to the younger men at St. John's Wood. I certainly should not think my life had been wasted if I could think that I had had so good an influence as your husband had on the very many men he knew and by whom he was held in deep admiration amongst our fellow cadets at St. John's Wood. You and your children at least have the consolation of the memory of a brave and very fine man." A young Subaltern of his Battery wrote:— " His cheerfulness and tremendous enthusiasm acted as a wonderful tonic to us after a very trying winter. He was always the first to volunteer to go up to the Observation Post, and never by any chance allowed himself to be late for even the least important parade." His Commanding Officer wrote :— " I , who had learned in these few months to love and respect him, can only act as the mouthpiece of the few of us still left with the Brigade in tendering you our deep sympathy. I know nothing to equal the splendour of the last few months of his life. To give up a great position to accept a junior position as a soldier, far below that to which his talents entitled him ; to master what was, to him, a novel work, full of difficulties and intricacies; to accept with unfailing cheerfulness the sufferings and the hardships and the dangers of a subaltern's life ; to have been an example as a soldier to us all—all this, and more, was pre-eminent in him, and will live in our memories." The following appeared in The Statesman, published in Calcutta, June 12th, 1917 :— " We announce with much regret the death of Mr. H. J. Hilary, the Vice-Chairman of the Calcutta Port Trust. Mr. Hilary, it will be remembered, took leave a year ago, in order to go on active service, and he has now succumbed to wounds. A heroic death has completed the noble self-sacrifice which led him to exchange a great position in the commercial world of India for the battlefields of France. The records of this war contain many glorious examples of such devoted patriotism, and Mr. Hilary would have been the last to claim any special merit for himself. Nevertheless, for those who knew him and the work which lay before him, much sadness mingles with the admiration which they feel for the career thus prematurely ended. He had gained at a comparatively early age a post of much honour and responsibility. A vast scheme for the improvement of the Port of Calcutta had been settled after considerable controversy, and in its execution Mr. Hilary's grasp of the affairs of the port, his sound judgment and administrative ability would have been invaluable. He bade fair to earn a high reputation and to receive every recognition which the Government and the commercial community could bestow. All these prospects of usefulness and dignity he gave up for a commission in the Royal Field Artillery, because he thought he could thus best serve his country. While such a gallant spirit breathes among Englishmen there need be no fear for the future of the British Empire." Many letters and references in the Indian papers bore striking testimony to the great importance of the position he had won " by sheer ability," and to the respect and affection with which he was regarded alike by those in authority and by the natives.