Arthur Leigh Collett, B.A., had left King’s for Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, but at once forsook his work at Oxford and enlisted in the Imperial Army. He served in France as a Lieutenant with the 8th Gloucesters, and in the autumn of 1915, in the Battle of Messines Ridge he was reported missing and later believed killed. Others from his Battalion reported missing at the same time were later reported as prisoners of war in Germany. There is little doubt that Collett fought gallantly facing the odds and choosing to meet death rather than to cease for a moment, while life lasted, from striving for the ideals of justice and righteousness.
A. B. C. Hilbert was one of the most popular students and one of the best athletes at King’s. Enlisting with the Cycle Corps he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service on reaching England. In July, 1917, he wrote: “I am at present resting after a twenty-two weeks’ illness due to a little ducking I got in the North Sea. I am flying again in August.” In October came the news that he had fallen a second time in the North Sea, and now there he rests with many other gallant sons of Britain.
Of the others who enlisted with him in the Cycle Corps, Turnbull and McCormick rest in soldiers’ graves in Flanders; Crawford died in hospital ere he saw the foe; Foster and Parlee are back with us at King’s, and though Parlee has lost a leg, his breast is adorned with that proud emblem of bravery, the Distinguished Conduct Medal; Brittain has recovered from his serious wounds and is serving the King of Peace; Harley, Hallett and the rest are giving the same good account of themselves that they always gave as loyal sons of King’s.
George Stewart Burchell was one of that little band who enlisted together with the 193rd Battalion, Nova Scotia Highland Brigade, and joined the 85th Battalion in France. He was one of the most promising of the younger sons of King’s, a clever, manly, gentlemanly young fellow. He fought for the cause of liberty and right and now rests in a soldier’s grave in France.
In the records of the King’s College Advance Movement is the entry, “George Stewart Burchell, killed at the Front, his pay at his request, $100.” May King’s never cease to honor the memory of this loyal and gallant son.
W. B. Ernst enlisted as a private in the 193rd Battalion, rose to the rank of Captain in the 85th Battalion, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar. Ernst has not rested on his laurels, and since his return here has shown that in the field of scholarship, too, he will take no second place, and has captured the Rhodes Scholarship from the Province of Nova Scotia. King’s will ever have reason to be proud of the records of Ernst, so affectionately known as “Bill.”
Of others whom King’s will always delight to honor may be mentioned Capt. D. L. Teed, M.C., and Gunner L. Wilkinson, who fell gallantly serving their guns, Lieut. W. E. Warburton, D.CM., rewarded for his bravery in the Dardanelles, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E. Willets, D.S.O., the gallant and popular Commanding Officer of the R.C.R. in France, and now commanding the famous “Princess Pats,” Cecil Blanchard, M.M., who was too young to enlist except as a bugler, but not too young to show that he came of loyal fighting stock; and the Campbell brothers, six of whom saw active service, and two of whom, Colin and Kenneth, lie “out there,” somewhere in France.
Though these records are brief and unworthy may they suffice to show that the true spirit of King’s still lives in her sons, and that they, as of old, have upheld nobly her best traditions and realized in some measure her ideals of service,
“DEO, LEGI, REGI, GREGI.”