LIEUT. STUART MILNER RAWSON, 20TH BATTN. (3RD P.S.) ROYAL FUSILLERS (CITY OF LONDON REGT.). KILLED IN ACTION AT HIGH WOOD, JULY 20TH, 1916. AGED 24. At the School 1905—9 (School House). Lieut. S. M. Rawson was the youngest son of the late Mr. Edward Greswell Rawson, of the Madras Civil Service, and of Mrs. Rawson, formerly of 155, Shooter's Hill Road, Blackheath. After three years at Stratheden House, Blackheath, he went in 1902 to Mr. Hollins' School, The Grange, Eastbourne. Coming to Tonbridge in September, 1905, he left in July, 1909, from the Engineering Sixth, having been in the O.T.C. Electrical Engineering was to be his profession, so be joined the Central Technical College, South Kensington, and having passed all the examinations, received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering in July, 1912. In the same year he was taken into the firm of Sir Alexander Kennedy and Jenkin, the well-known electrical engineers, and from there went to the B.T.H. works at Rugby to complete his practical training. He was at Rugby when war broke out, and at once enlisted in the 20th Battn. (3rd Public Schools) of the Royal Fusillers. Devoted to his work and training, he was equally devoted to sport and games and was, moreover, a keen musician and composed and set to music many of the Battalion's marching songs. He rapidly made his mark and was gazetted Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in his own Battalion March 20th, 1915, and promoted to Lieutenant January 24th, 1916. His Battalion had gone to the Front in September, 1915, and was soon afterwards in the trenches, where they saw a good deal of fighting. In the Battle of the Somme the Battalion was heavily engaged and suffered severely, and on July 20th, 1916, in one of the woods in which the most desperate fighting took place, he was instantaneously killed by a tiny fragment of shell that pierced his heart. His Company Commander, writing to his mother, after telling of his Company's heavy losses, continued :— " Nothing has affected me so much as losing dear old Stuart, who had been with me so long. You do not need me to tell you of his unfailing cheeriness and generosity, but you cannot realise what a splendid officer he was. He was always so thoroughly reliable and efficient. There was no need to give him detailed instructions nor to worry how the work was being done. One merely indicated one's desires to him and the thing was done promptly and efficiently and with the greatest good humour. His men loved him as we officers did, and would do anything for him. Before the attack Rawson was the cheeriest of the lot, and went into action with full confidence of success and full of jests. In the wood he did wonders in rallying the men and consolidating the position. About mid-day he came to my dug-out to tell me that he was holding the line with a handful of men and that the enemy looked as though they were going to attack. Typical of the man that, where others would have rushed to me with an excited and exaggerated tale, Rawson treated the whole affair lightly and yet gave me an exact account of how matters stood. I promised him reinforcements and asked him to stay down in my dug-out until the shelling had slackened down, but in his usual cheery way he said, " No thanks, I must get along back to the men. We'll pull through all right. Cheery-o, old man." Then, just as he got to the top of the steps he was hit by an exploding shell." Another officer wrote: " Always cheerful under the most trying circumstances, he was adored by, and devoted to, his men. No one set his men a finer example of courage in the face of the enemy.