Gordon Oliver Seers, born on 21st April 1883, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1893, aged 10. He lived with his widowed mother, Emma, and his three sisters at Greenhill Road, Moseley.
Gordon’s academic records reveal him to have been an extremely bright student. He was awarded a Foundation Scholarship in 1901, placing 1st for general work in his class and 5th in French. In the same year, he also won prizes for grammar and classics; a remarkable achievement given that he was a pupil of the Modern School and therefore studied a scientific, rather than classical, curriculum. In his final year, Gordon was in the First Class and studied under the Headmaster, Cary Gilson. Although he did not place highly overall in this class, he was a prize scholar in German. Several of his classmates went on to serve and die in the Great War. He is mentioned in the Chronicle of October 1901 for placing 1st in his class in the School gymnastics competition; however the author remarks that his contribution was “a rather poor performance for so high a class”!
By 1911, Gordon was living with his older sisters in Ealing, London, and was working as a Vice Consul in the Consular Service. His Attestation Papers of 5th September 1914 survive, where he describes himself as a self-employed composer. In 1914, he enlisted as a Private Soldier with the 23rd Battalion, London Regiment, Territorial Force. He fought in France and Flanders from March 1915, but was killed relatively early in his military career at Givenchy on 25th May 1915, aged thirty-two. He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial and he left his estate of £438 to his sister, Ada.