Roll of Honour

Captain Ralph Bertram Kite, M. C. (1913)

21 April 1895 – 10 December 1916

Entered College in Michaelmas Term, 1913. A member of the 1st Rugby Football XV, 1913 – 1914. A member of the University Contingent of the Officers’ Training Corps. Attended Sandhurst, 1914.

Commenced service 11 November 1914. Second Lieutenant of the 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 1914. Lieutenant, 1915; Captain, 1916. Served in France. Mentioned in Despatches, 1915. Awarded an M.C., 1916:

For conspicuous gallantry during operations. He did fine work organising the attack, and displayed great coolness and utter disregard of danger. When the bombers holding one of our saps had become casualties, he went at once to the spot, organised the defence, and threw bombs himself.

(‘Supplement to London Gazette”, 20 October 1916)

Wounded at Beaumont Hamel, Battle of the Somme, 13 November 1916; died of wounds, Le Treport, 10 December 1916.

Further information about Capt. R. B. Kite’s life at Keble is available at Letters Home: Eve of the First World War and in a biography by Simon Harris, RBK. A Very Parfit Gentil Knight (Rooke Publishing, 2004). Copies are available from Rooke Publishing, Porch Farm, Clenchwarton, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE34 4AG.