LIEUT. ERNEST REGINALD ASTON, HOWE BATTN., R . N . D. KILLED IN ACTION AT BEAUMONT HAMEL, NOVEMBER 13TH, 1916. AGED 22. At the School 1908—11 (Parkside). Lieut. Ernest Reginald Aston was the third son of the late Mr. David Aston, Solicitor, and of Mrs. David Aston, of Hartwell, Branksome Park, Bournemouth, and a second cousin of Mr. R. L. Aston (Sc. 1885—88), Assistant Master since 1892, and Housemaster, Parkside, since 1910. He came to the School in September, 1908, from Hailey School, Bournemouth, and left from the Modern Sixth at Easter, 1911, having been in the 3rd XV. and a Lance-Corporal in the O.T.C., and having won the School Music Prize in the Summer of 1910. On leaving School he had adopted music as his profession, and taken his A.R.C.M. Diploma in 1914 and was continuing his musical studies in London. He had orchestrated a suite of Norwegian Folk-Songs by Grieg, which were played at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, and were much appreciated there. His elder brother, Walter Vincent Aston (P.S. 1907—9), enlisted in the 2nd Public Schools Battn. of the Royal Fusiliers in September, 1914, and received a commission in the following December. He went to France in May, 1916, as a Temporary Lieutenant in the 32nd Battn. of the Royal Fusiliers, was congratulated on his gallant conduct by his Divisional General in September, 1916, and was invalided home in February, 1917. He commanded a Company in different battalions from October, 1916, till March, 1919, with Acting rank of Captain, and then served for eight months with the Army of Occupation in Germany as Temporary Lieutenant, 17th Battn. He was granted the rank of Captain on relinquishing his commission. His younger brother, Raymund Aston (P.S. 1911—14) became a Lieutenant in the 10th Battn. of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was seriously wounded on July 4th, 1916, at La Boisselle. He went out to France once more in July, 1917, and was wounded in both legs, and taken prisoner of war on April 10th, 1918, near Messines. He was repatriated in December, 1918, and was ultimately gazetted as relinquishing his commission " on account of ill health caused by wounds." Lieut. E. R. Aston was gazetted Temporary Sub-Lieutenant R.N.V.R., February 19th, 1915, and after training at the Crystal Palace, Blandford, and Hythe, went with the Howe Battalion to the Near East in the following December, serving in Egypt, Mudros and Stavros as Machine Gun Officer, and being promoted Temporary Lieutenant, April 10th, 1916. In May, 1916, he came with his Division to France, where, after some six months' service, he was instantaneously killed in action on November 13th, 1916, at the capture of Beaumont Hamel in the Battles of the Somme. A brother officer, who had been with him in the Near East and in France, wrote of the greatness of his own sense of loss, and added:— " The Division has lost one of its best Machine Gun Officers. Those who really knew him will miss his cheeriness, which always showed up when conditions were against it." The CO. of his Battalion wrote that he had given his life in the hour of a victory to which he had nobly contributed, and said :— " He died most gallantly on the morning of the 13th, and ever since I assumed command of this Battalion in September your son has been of the greatest possible assistance to me. He was with me till shortly before his death. At all times cool and collected, he set a splendid example to all ranks."