Neville George COMPTON (1894-1916)

2nd Lieutenant Neville George Compton (1894-1916) was a colleague of Cyril Sladden in the 9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

Neville Compton was born in 1894 at Glenholme, Muswell Hill Road, Muswell, Hill, London, the youngest of three children of Richard Webb Compton, a clerk in the General Post Office, and his wife, Louisa. He was baptized on 4th April 1894 at St James, Muswell Hill. At the time of the 1901 census, the family lived at 44 Kenilworth Road, Ealing.

Neville was educated at Whitgift School, Haling Park, South Croydon. In October 1912, he commenced training as a dentist with the Royal Dental Hospital, London. Whilst a student, he was a member of the University of London Officer Training Corps.

During the First World War, Compton obtained a commission with the 9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment on 23rd February and went to Gallipoli in October 1915 when he would have first met Cyril Sladden. From there he went with the Battalion to Egypt and thence to Mesopotamia.

In a letter of 22nd January 1916, Cyril described his fellow officers: “Just junior to him [Davies] is Compton, who came from England on the same boat. He is a quiet fellow, not brilliant but quite competent and pleasant enough to get on with. He has half completed his training in dentistry and is very keen on that profession and medicine and surgery generally. He comes from Surrey, somewhere out beyond Croydon.”

In April 1916, the 9th Battalion was engaged in the campaign to relieve the British garrison besieged by the Turks in the city of Kut-al-Amara on the River Tigris in Mesopotamia. 2nd Lieutenant Compton was killed in action on 20th April 1916. The University of London OTC Roll of the Fallen recorded: “killed instantly by a shot in the head in an attack on an enemy trench on 20th April 1916; buried at Beit Aieesa, near the Tigris.” The Commonwealth Graves Commission gives no burial place but says that his name is recorded on the Basra Memorial.