Francis Drayton DREWITT (1881-1962)

Lieutenant Francis Drayton Drewitt, MC (1881-1962), was a colleague of Cyril Sladden in the 9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

Francis Drewitt was born on 11th May 1881 at Oving, Sussex, the fourth of six children of Charles John Drewitt, a farmer, and his wife, Emily Eager. He was baptized on 16th August 1881 at Oving. The family home was at Drayton House, Oving.

During the First World War, Drewitt was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant from 1st April 1915 in the Worcestershire Regiment. He first went to Mesopotamia in 1916.

Lieutenant Drewitt was awarded the Military Cross on 17th March 1917 for his conduct at Kut earlier in the year: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Although wounded, he continued to supervise the digging of a communication trench in a very exposed position until ordered to cease work. He has previously done fine work.”

A letter of 30th July 1917 from Cyril Sladden gives a description of Drewitt, with whom Cyril was sharing a tent: “We have just got an acquisition in the form of a gramophone, which is a very pleasant thing in these parts. Drewitt had to go down for a short time to Bagdad and managed to get hold of it, more or less on loan for an unstated period. He is a marvel at getting things, having the rare genius a very few people possess in that line. He is properly a stock-jobber on the Exchange, and in years a good deal my senior. He has been with us over a year with two absences for short periods on account of being wounded, and has been given a well-earned Military Cross for coolness and gallantry in action. He is very unlucky in still having only one star, though his name went in some time back for a second, as he has several times commanded a company for short periods. At present I am living in an E.P. tent with him and one other officer so I see a lot of him.”

Francis Drewitt’s profession at the time of the 1939 Register was Stock Jobber; he never married.

Francis Drewitt, whose home was The End House, Green Lane, Godalming, Surrey, died at St Luke’s Hospital, Guildford, on 21st December 1962.