Lives of the First World War

2nd Lieut. Frank Dean Withers, M.C. 8th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. F.D. Withers entered the school in 1905 as a Junior County Scholar, and remained for six years, at the end of which he passed the Inter. B. Sc. of London University and proceeded to the University College, Reading, for the Education and Final Science Courses. His chief pastimes at school and college were on the football field or river, but he was also a keen member of the Rifle Club, and later, of the O.T.C. Soon after the outbreak of war, he applied for a commission, but, expecting to be kept waiting, he joined the Public School Corps at Epsom. He was a private for only two days, however, and was very happy in being gazetted to the County regiment. He proceeded to the front in October, 1915, with a draft, and found the battalion re-formed after Loos, stationed in and near Armentières. Very soon he was appointed sniping and general intelligence officer, which provided him with much interesting and dangerous work, culminating in the leadership of a trench raid in December last, for which he was awarded the Military Cross. This was in the very early days of such “stunts”, and one of his college friends was greatly surprised to hear of it first at a lecture on “How to do it” at the staff college. The months in the trenches were clouded, however, by some tragedies which were to him very personal blows. He was close to A.S. Marsh when he fell, and on another occasion his colonel fell dead in his arms while they were examining the wire entanglements. During the spring of 1916, Withers was comparatively free from fighting. He spent a week or so at the Base Hospital as a suspected case of enteric fever, and subsequently came home on leave and visited the School and Buckingham Palace among other places. On returning, he found the battalion in a new place, which we can now say was a mile or two north of Albert. Letters from him became scarcer and it was evident from the tone of them that a big event was looming up. This, of course, proved to be the advance on the Somme. The battalion was out of the trenches and into the awful storm of machine gun bullets quite early on July 1st, led by A Company. The captain was very quickly fatally wounded, and the command then devolved upon Withers. Unhappily, he was hit by a bullet in the temple and killed instantly. It has since transpired that Withers was offered a ticket home to train for the Flying Corps just before the advance, but he asked to postpone his acceptance until “afterwards.” Perhaps the key-note to his character is found in the numbers of letters from his colleagues of school, college and war days, in which he is referred to as “my best friend.” He was also a great friend to his men, and a brother officer writes of him, “There was no officer who was loved more than your son, and he was acknowledged to be the pluckiest man here.”

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