DOUGLAS WILLIAM ARTHUR NICHOLLS
Born: 1896, Westleton, Suffolk.
Died: 10th April 1917; 21; KiA – Tilloy- les-Mofflaines, Arras.
Enlistment Date: 7th December 1914.
Date of Entry Therein: 27th October 1915 – France.
Obtained a Commission as 2nd Lieutenant on the 7th December 1914, in the Suffolk Regiment. Promoted – Captain – January 1917.
Wounded – Battle of the Somme, near Ovilliers – 3rd July 1916.
Rank: Captain
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 7th Battalion.
Medals Awarded: Victory, British War & 1915 Star + Military Cross – For conspicuous bravery during an assault when he showed great coolness under heavy machine-gun fire in correcting by compass bearings the direction of an assaulting wave which would had lost its way in the darkness. He was wounded later when rallying his men to lead them forward again.
25th August 1916 – Gazette issue 8464 Military Cross: for Distinguished Service
Memorial Reference:
Bay 4,
Pas de Calais,
France.
CENSUS
1901 Vicarage, Westleton, Suffolk.
Douglas was 5 years old and living with his parents & siblings.
Francis Hamilton Nicholls, 46, CofE Clergyman, born Islington, London.
Annie Garland Nicholls (nee Phillips), 40, born Falkland Islands.
Dorothy Jessie Nicholls, 13, born Westleton, Suffolk.
Hedley Francis Nicholls, 10, born Westleton.
Philip Claude Nicholls, 7, born Westleton.
1 governess, 1 nurse & 1 general domestic servant.
1911 St. Mary at the Quay Vicarage, Foundation Street, Ipswich.
Douglas was 15 years old and living with parents & brothers.
Francis, 56, a Clergyman – Established Church.
Annie, 50.
Bernard Cecil Hamilton Nicholls, 21, University Student.
Hedley, 20, an Engineers Apprentice.
Philip, 17.
2 servants.
Douglas attended Ipswich School – entered September 1906 and was placed in Form I. He was made Prefect in June 1913, and Captain and Head Prefect and Editor of the School magazine from September 1913, till he left in July 1914. He joined the School O.T.C. 1909, and attained the rank of Col.-Sergeant. Attended camp 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914. Certificate “A” in 1912. Member of the Literary & Dramatic Society since 1911. Deputy Vice-President September 1913. Inter-Science 1913. In the previous December he won a Williams Exhibition for Natural Science at Balliol College, Oxford, but owing to the war never actually took up residence.
On the 27th February 1922, Douglas’s medals were sent to his father the Rev. Francis Hamilton Nicholls, of St. Mary’s Quay, Ipswich.
Douglas is also remembered on the Chapel war memorial at Ipswich School, and at St. Mary at the Quay Church, Ipswich, and Chapel Passage West Wall, Balliol College, Oxford.
& Chapel Passage West Wall, Balliol College, Oxford.
Suffolk Regiment, 7th Battalion:
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