Syrett, AM

2nd Lieutenant Alfred Montague Syrett

Monty was born on March 23^rd 1888, the youngest of five children born to a solicitor, also named Alfred Syrett, and his wife, Florence. He began his education at Sussex House School in Anerley before coming to the College in September 1902. He had originally been intending to go in into the legal profession but from a young age he displayed a particular proclivity for music, and left Dulwich in the summer of 1904 in order to go over to the continent and continue his musical education. After periods spent in Paris, Germany, and Romania, he returned to England, where he became a vocalist and occasional actor.

The declaration of war led him to enlist for military service, at first as a member of the Artists Rifles, before later being granted a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Throughout his time in the army he still sang on a regular, informal, basis, something which many of those who served with him were glad of, saying that it “cheered [them] on many an occasion when [they] needed amusement very much”. On May 4^th 1917 he was leading his men in an assault at Bullecourt, and had almost reached German lines, when he was shot just above the heart by a sniper and killed instantly.