Tags
Cable Street Mills, Compton Road, Garrick Street, Graiseley Secondary School, Higher Grade School, Ipswich, log books, Merridale Cemetery, Royal Flying Corps, University of Birmingham, William Bevon, Wolverhampton Municipal Science and Technical School
One of our readers has shared the following story about her relative:
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The archives has a School Logbook record from Graiseley School, written by Samuel Horatio William Bevon. He writes about his absence from school due to the death of his son, Lieutenant William Victor Bevon BSc. on November 17th 1917.
William Victor Bevon attended the Wolverhampton Higher Grade School, and Wolverhampton Municipal Science and Technical School in Garrick Street, where he was “Chief Student” of his year. (Birmingham Daily Post 19/11/17). He went on to The University of Birmingham where he Graduated with a degree in Engineering in Summer 1916. Sir Oliver Lodge, Vice Chancellor and Principle, described him as, “A brilliant student, one of the best we have had.”
He joined the Royal Flying Corps, and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, then Lieutenant, in the Special Reserve of Officers, working at the RFC Orfordness Experimental Station. (The Aeroplane 4/10/16 p590). The research there was to help to give the pilots scientific and technical advantage in the war.
He died of Cardiac Failure following illness, at Ipswich Military Hospital, aged 24. He is buried at Wolverhampton Merridale Cemetery, plot 11805.
He was remembered on War Memorials at Wolverhampton Higher Grade School, Cable Street Mills (his brother Herbert Bevon who was seriously injured, but survived, is also named) and on the Compton Road Memorial, and The University of Birmingham Memorial.
His grave was marked with a granite slab with engraving and a kerb. The family visited the cemetery to mark his centenary of his death.