Victor Alford Manley Lory, born on 3rd August 1897, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1911 as a Foundation Scholar (later a King Edward’s Scholar), having previously attended Ridgeways Private School. He was the third child and only son of Florence and William, Deputy (Medical) Inspector General for the Royal Navy, and the family lived at 3, School Road, Moseley.
At School, Victor was an active member of the School community. He was a Prefect, Cot Fund Controller, Librarian, Secretary of the Literary Society, and Editor of the Chronicle. In one speech at the Literary Society, he “related an unpleasant incident during the collection of tickets at a local railway station. The story tended to show the obnoxious language and democratic principles of railway porters.” In another speech, he “dwelt on the gross selfishness of people who want to obtain all they can out of the country without doing anything for it. He also attacked the territorial system and the government’s naval policy.” He won the Governors’ Prizes for Latin Prose, Latin Verse and Greek Prose in 1915. Victor was a member of the First Class, taught personally by Cary Gilson, and he won a scholarship of £60 to study Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Victor served as a Private Soldier with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He died on 23rd May 1917, aged nineteen, at Budbrooke Barracks, Warwickshire, of wounds presumably received at Ypres. He is buried with his parents in Brandwood End Cemetery, Kings Heath, and is commemorated on the Cambridge War Memorial. The inscription on his headstone reads: “Them Which Sleep In Jesus Will God Bring With Him.” He left his estate of £135 to his father.