Major, Middlesex Regiment
Born: December 19th 1874
Died: March 19th 1918
Age at Death: 43
Invalided from the Army. Died, March 1918.
A donation to the memorial statue has been made in honour of this soldier by Stephen Yiduo Chen (Sc. 2011-2016).
Son of Col. F. H. King of Park House, Wilburton, Arundel.
Roger Frederick Curtis King
Roger King was born on 19 December 1874 in Chatham, Kent. His parents were Lieutenant Colonel Frederick King (Middlesex Regiment) and Jane Durant King who came from one of the many brewing families in Kent. The family, who resided in Walberton near Arundel, also included Roger King’s elder sister Amy King. They were a relatively affluent family as demonstrated by the size of Lt. Colonel Frederick King’s estate on his death in 1896, some £4013, a fairly substantial sum for the period.
Roger King was a pupil at the school, and a member of School House, for only one term, Michaelmas term 1892, but nonetheless was able to make his mark on the sporting field. He is listed as having played in a total of 11 matches for the 1st and 2nd XI football teams, an interesting throwback to an era when Rugby was clearly not the predominant sport at the school. He apparently played as half-back and a left wing and is recorded in the report of one match against Lancing for his ‘resolute play and clever heading’.
After leaving the school he followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Middlesex Regiment and was promoted to the rank of Captain during the Boer War. In 1911 he left the army and became an insurance broker and resided in Victoria Street, London. Shortly thereafter he moved with his widowed mother to farm near Lewes. ON the outbreak of war he re-joined the army and was posted to the 6th battalion, Middlesex regiment, a reserve battalion used for Home Service duties such as guarding Chatham Docks, then a major naval base.
In 1917 it appears that he fell ill and was sent to a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital in Uxbridge, Middlesex where he died on 19 March 1918. The cause of his death was unclear but his length stay in hospital indicates that he must have been seriously ill for some time. He was buried in St Peter’s Churchyard Hamsey, near Lewes, alongside his mother, who had died in June 1915.
Source: LEST WE FORGET PROJECT, Brighton College 2014/15
To mark Remembrance in 2023, members of the Brighton College community visited St Peter’s Churchyard and placed poppies and flowers on Roger’s grave.