Payne, H

2nd Lieutenant Harold Payne

Harold was born on April 29^th 1889 in Bromley, the youngest of seven children, of whom three were boys, of building contractor Douglas Payne and his wife, Mary. He joined Dulwich in September 1903, fourteen years after his elder brother, Douglas. Having been a pupil for just under three years he left in the spring of 1906 and went on to take up a position as a clerk with the London County and Westminster Bank. This was a position he was to remain in for several years, although he did also sign up as a reservist in the East Kent Mounted Rifles Yeomanry during this period.

In August 1914 Harold and his regiment were mobilised, although for the next year they were still stationed in England, before being posted to Gallipoli in September 1915. After being part of the evacuation at the end of that year he spent most of 1916 serving in Egypt, during which time he was promoted to Sergeant. In February 1917 he returned to England to take up a commission, ultimately being gazetted to the Royal Field Artillery that July. In October he was sent to the Western Front for the first time, attached to C Battery of the 93^rd Army Brigade, and within a month had been mentioned in despatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. On November 30^th however, before even news of his commendation had been published in London, he was dead, killed by a German shell strike near Cambrai.