Porritt, JFR

Private John Frank Roy Porritt

Roy was born on November 12^th 1899, the eldest child of journalist Arthur Porritt, who was originally from Warrington, and his wife, Madeline. He was for a time a boarder at Woodford House School, in Birchington on the North Kent coast, before coming to Dulwich in September 1913, a path which would repeated within the year by his younger brother, Howard. Roy stayed at the College until the spring of 1916, and in his final year captained his form, the Classical Upper Fourth, at cricket.

In November 1917, upon having reached his eighteenth birthday, he volunteered as a member of the London Scottish Battalion of the London Regiment, with whom he spent the next six months or so undergoing training. In April 1918 he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and went across to France at the end of May, joining the 4^th Army near Amiens in early August. On the afternoon of August 11^th he was sitting in the trench, apparently reading a copy of The Alleynian he had just been sent by his father, when a shell struck, instantly killing Roy and three others. It later transpired that it may well have been a friendly fire incident.