King, HA

2nd Lieutenant Henry Arthur King

Toby, a nickname he acquired during his time at Dulwich, was born on November 27^th 1896, the eldest child of a retired Ceylon tea planter, also named Henry King, and his wife, Marion. He came to Dulwich in the spring of 1911, and was a student for the next two years, although a bout of ill-health meant that he spent a not insignificant amount of 1912 in Brussels.

On the outbreak of war in 1914 Toby, who had finished his education at Easter the previous year, enlisted in the Inns of Court O.T.C. He was gazetted to a commission in the Royal Field Artillery in October 1915 and went over to France with his new unit for the first time the following January. He was at first posted to the 122^nd Brigade, near La Bassee, but he spent the next several months serving up and down the line, before spending much of the Somme stationed at Mametz Wood. From there he and his unit were transferred to the Ypres Salient where he was positioned throughout that winter and on into the following summer. He was killed by a shell blast on July 1^st 1917, and lies buried in the Ferme-Olivier Cemetery, just outside Elverdinghe.