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WORLD WAR ONE

The Men Who Died

WORLD WAR ONE

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Major Vickers (himself wounded) wrote to Trevor's mother:

‘It is with feelings of intense sorrow I write to acquaint you of the manner of your son's death. He was in my company, where he was beloved by his fellow officers and men of his platoon. On the 20th we were holding the line. The enemy shelled us, and had done so for several days heavily. The boy was killed instantaneously by a large piece of a shell which must have burst near to him. Your son died at his post as an officer and a brave gentleman. He was buried in the trench and a wooden cross, made as well as we were able, marks the spot.’

Major Cochran wrote:

‘I would like you to know that your son's death was instantaneous. He was in the trenches with his platoon during a very intensive bombardment, and had been up and down and along the trench all the morning, encouraging and rallying his men; and it was while doing this that he was struck by a shell. We all miss him very much, and I personally was very much attached to him and greatly admired his pluck and cheerfulness under all conditions.’

Second Lieutenant William Francis Trevor Dixon

Sherwood Foresters (Notts. and Derby) Regiment, 15th

Battalion

Killed in Action July 20th 1916, aged 18

Commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, Picardie, France

Trevor was born in 1897, to George Hutton Dixon and his wife Gwenllian Blanche, nee Joseph, and had a brother, Donald, two years older. His father was a commercial traveller and his mother a school mistress. His father died later in 1897 and in 1901, Trevor, aged three, Donald five, and Gwenllian, a widow, lived with Grandparents, four aunts and one uncle at 100, The Struet. In 1911, they lived at 3, Usk Side Brecon. Gwenllian, still a widow, with Trevor lived with her father; her mother had died.

Donald, not with the family was at Worksop College in Nottingham. He had previously attended Mount Street school in Brecon. He promoted the Scout Movement in Brecon and was instrumental in setting up the first troop in the town. He was also a keen athlete and cricketer. He was the grandson of Police Superintendent John Joseph and was well known in the town. Gwenllian remarried in 1912 to Ernest Goslin and moved with her husband to Enfield in Middlesex, where the notice of Trevor's death was sent.

He volunteered as early as he could and was commissioned in the Sherwood Foresters in 1915 and was in the front line for about three months. On July 20th he was instantaneously killed in action whilst leading his men, and giving an inspiring example of coolness under fire and devotion to duty. He had gone through the bombing course and become very proficient, and was employed as a leader of bombing parties.