Tanner, WA

Rifleman William Arthur Tanner

Born on May 12^th 1888, William was the eldest of the three children of a solicitor, also named William Tanner, and his wife, Fanny, all three of whom went on to attend the College. He was the first to start at Dulwich, in April 1902, and was a student for the next three years. He left in the summer of 1905, whilst a member of the Modern Lower Fifth, at which point his brother, Thomas, was already at the College, and the other, Charles, would go on to join that September. After Dulwich he went into the tea trade and spent the next decade working in the London office of a firm run by his uncle.

In November 1915 William enlisted in the London Rifle Brigade and went out to France for the first time with his unit in May 1916. Not long afterwards he was wounded and as a result spent a short period of time convalescing back in England, returning to France that October. On April 12^th 1917 he was killed in action during the Battle of Arras. Both of his brothers would fall on the Western Front, Charles that November, and Thomas in September 1918.