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2nd Lt. Cecil John de_Beaurepaire
British Army 13th (Wandsworth) Battalion East Surrey Regiment
from:62 Foxbourne Road, Upper Tooting
In 1914, Cecil at 14 was already 5'11", and had achieved success on the football and cricket fields at a representative level. This enabled him in August 2015 to enlist and he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the 13th (Wandsworth) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment at the age of 15. He was the youngest officer in the British Army for WW1. He did not lie about his age. Cecil's brother, Percival was also a Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment and was wounded.
Cecil should have been in Year 9 at school, instead he managed to survive, and lead fully grown men, for nearly a year at the front (including the Battle of the Ancre during the Somme Offensive) before being wounded in April 1917. He was initially hit by a machine gun, on advancing upon German trenches at Villers-Plouich. We presume that whilst wounded he was also gassed. Overcoming very long odds of gas and gunshot wounds to survive through rear aid centres he was repatriated to England where he spent a year recovering in one of the many hospitals established to receive the 100,000s of wounded.
During this time, he not only managed to nearly memorise the dictionary which gave him a lifelong edge in Scrabble, he also met his wife (and nurse) Gladys. Gladys like many young women throughout the Empire enlisted as a nurse and looked after Cecil during his year in hospital. Gladys was the daughter of William Taylor, Queen's Grand Bargemaster of The Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen and owner of one of England's largest barging businesses at the time. As the story goes, he did not approve of the match between his very eligible daughter and a disabled youth of 18, whose education had ceased at 15. Suffering from the English cold and damp with half a lung, Cecil and Gladys left for Bermuda and ultimately came to Australia. He passed away in 1975.
