Malvern College First World War Casualty

House and time at Malvern: No 6, 1905 - 1909.

Regiment: Worcestershire Regt.
Died: 31 October 1916 aged 25 in France. Killed in action at Delville.
Battle: Battle of the Somme. Cemetery: Thiepval Memorial P 5A/6C

Son of E. V. Surr, San Francisco, U.S.A. b. 1891.
Upper Shell—Lower VI.
Birmingham University; B. Com. (First Class) 1913.
In business (Baldwin's, Ltd.).
Great War, Private Public Schools' Batt. 1914; Lieutenant 5th Worcesters.

'After leaving School he attended Birmingham University and took his degree with honours in commerce. He afterwards entered the works of Baldwin's Ltd., and at the outbreak of war joined the Royal Fusiliers. Later he took a commission in a battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, and went to the front a year ago. He was keenly interested in the Boy Scout movement, being a Scoutmaster for some years. As a boy at school he was distinguished for his kindly and genial courtesy. A short poem written by him not long before his death is published below.' (Malvernian, Dec 1916).

SUNSET.
Those golden entry-ways of cloud
Like islands in a sunset sea
Are gateways, leading from the crowd
Of mortals, to where God must be.

Beyond, unfathomable blue.
From out which peeps one evening star.
Revealing Peace, which men still view
In glimpses only, seen afar.

How many souls have passed that way ;
Gone through the gateways gleaming bright ?
How many angels come each day
To meet there those who seek the Light ?

Men cannot tell, but this they know,
Those clouds must be a trysting-place,
Where wait them, toiling still below.
The souls who early won their race.

R. V. S.
(Killed in action October 1916).