DEWDNEY Clifford Mostyn French

Mentioned in Despatches.  Croix de Guerre (France).

Clifford Dewdney was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1896.  He attended Bromsgrove School from 1910 to 1914, where he was a Sergeant in the O.T.C.  With abilities much above the average, Dewdney was one of those for whom the war might have opened possibilities. He had in 1914 received a nomination to the Bank of England, where from the first he chafed at being restrained from joining up.  Eventually he sacrificed his post, obtained a commission in the Gloucestershire Regiment and found himself Subaltern to a senior O.B. Company Commander who conceived a high opinion of him as a soldier.  He soon obtained promotion and saw much service on the western Front as Captain and Adjutant of his Battalion.  For an Englishman he had an unusual interest in the French language and a decided gift for it; it was appropriate that the Croix de Guerre should have been awarded to him.  He fell in the March 1918 offensive inspiring the men around him by his courage and contempt of danger.  His last words were: “Tell the Colonel I have done my best”.

Source: Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by Philip Bowen and Bromsgrove School at War 1914-19 by David Cross.