Second Lieutenant, Royal Engineers
Born: July 13th 1923
Died: August 11th 1944
Age at Death: 21
Killed in Action, August 11th 1944
House Prefect 1941
School Prefect 1942
1st 15 1940-1942
2nd 11 1941
Captain of shooting 1940-1942
Swimming 8 1942
Gavin was born on 13 July 1923 in Kingston, Surrey, to Alan Galbraith, an accountant, and his wife Irene (née Heriot). On leaving the College, where he was Head of House, a member of the 1st XV, captain of the Shooting VIII and an enthusiastic stamp collector and reader, he went to Queens’ College, Cambridge, for six months on a special course in engineering for cadets in the Royal Engineers.
In June 1944 Galbraith was sent to France, where he was killed in the ultimately successful attempt to break out of Normandy, on the very same day that he had written his last letter to his parents. He is buried in La Délivrande War Cemetery.
A letter from his father to Walter Hett slips poignantly, out of force of habit or perhaps a lingering unwillingness to accept reality, into the present tense:
He is so proud of his School and thinks so much of his Head and his other Masters.