LEICESTER Donovan Nicholas

De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour:
Leicester, Donovan Nicholas, 2nd Lieutenant, 12th (Service) Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment, elder son of James Leicester, of The Vatch House, bear Stroud, co. Gloucester, H.M. Inspector of Schools, by his wife, Constance Mary, dau. Of William Woods; born Clifton, 28 March 1895; educated Magdalen College School, and Hertford College, Oxford, where he was an Exhibitioner in Modern History, and was a member of the University O.T.C.; was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in December 1914; underwent training at the School of Musketry; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from September 1916, where he acted as Signaller and Intelligence Officer, and was killed in action at Fresnoy 9 May, 1917. His Colonel wrote: “He died leading his men on in a counterattack, and by his confident bearing and carelessness of danger did much to rally a very tired company. He was very brave and did not show the slightest sign when shells burst quite close to him that he even thought of them. His men say that he died standing up with a smile upon his face, killed by machine-gun fire at close range. I cannot tell you how the battalion deplores his death. He was my Signalling Officer, and was with me all the morning of the 8th until shortly before his death, and volunteered to help the company going forward, as it was short of officers.”

Donovan Leicester has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on the Arras Memorial.

Also remembered on Oxford University Roll of Service:
Hertford College, Oxford. Matriculated 1914. Member of University OTC prior to 1915.