BONSER Geoffrey Alwyn Gershom

B.A. St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Captain, R.A.M.C.
Born February 3rd, 1889. Fell in France, September 28th, 1918.
Geoffrey Bonser was the only son of G. Bonser, Esq., of “Kirkstede,” Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.  He entered the School House from Brighton College in September, 1902, in the Fourth Form, and after five years left from the Upper Sixth to enter St. John’s College, Cambridge, in October, 1907.  A boy of distinct literary gifts with a taste for metaphysics, he gave more attention to philosophy and individual reading than to scholarship classwork, studying widely off the beaten track.  He was an essayist of some power, school librarian, and for two years an unusually active editor of the “Vigornian.”  At Cambridge he read Science, and graduated in 1910, passing on to study at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London: M.R.C.S. (1914) and L.R.C.P. (1914).  In January, 1915, he became Casualty Officer at St. Thomas’ Hospital, moving to the Great Eastern Hospital at Cambridge later in the year as Lieutenant, R.A.M.C.  He was quickly promoted Captain in 1916, when he sailed for Egypt, where he worked for two years, attached to the Norfolk Yeomanry.  His letters from Egypt and Palestine were full of interest with vivid descriptions of Gaza, Beersheba and Jerusalem.  In May last he transferred to the French front.  In July he returned on leave and was married to Miss Lilian Prime.  After his short honeymoon he returned to duty near Armentieres, and was killed while ministering to the wounded near Ploegstreet Wood.  So ended a life full of promise and there passed a personality described by one who knew him best as “full of spiritual insight.”  His Colonel writes: “He was a great loss to his Battalion, one of whom nothing was heard except words of praise.”  He wrote of his affection for the Old School as late as July last. His young widow and bereaved father have our deep sympathy.
W. H. C

Source for additional information: The Vigornian, November 1918, No.93, Vol. IX.