Raoul ‘Dick’ Sergent (1889-1924)

We have to record with sincere grief the death of Dick Sergent, at Lons le Saunier, Jura, France on Thursday 4th December, aged 35.

His death, following within a year of his brother, Victor Sergent, seems particularly sad, as they were fine athletes, both of whom had gone safely through the war, and both have died suddenly so soon after it.

Although half French, Dick was born in England and therefore a British subject. Whilst his brothers joined the French Army, Dick joined the British forces and in 1915 he was sent to Mudros, then Suvla Bay (Dardanelles) and Imbros. He wrote a capital account of his experiences in the final withdrawal from the peninsula in January 1916.

In 1917 he obtained a commission, and was Lieutenant RNVR in the anti-submarine department at the Admiralty, under an Old Dragon, who is now Admiral WW Fisher.

After the war he trained as an electrical engineer, but his various jobs did not work out and when his brother Victor started a motor-bus business in the Jura, Dick joined him as a partner. This was May 1923 and then when Victor caught broncho-pneumonia and died last December, Dick carried on alone. In the course of the year that followed Dick worked himself to the bone; he was enormously strong, but his strength could not last forever. He was persuaded to employ an under-manager.

It is a cruel irony of fate that when the under-manager arrived and Dick was showing him the ropes, he (Dick) collapsed suddenly at his wheel and died. He leaves a widow and two children – a girl of four and a boy of two.

I think Dick’s greatest pleasure in life was to come down to the School in summer and use the bathing-place for some of his wonderful dives. I have seen him many times do a dive off the top board – a run and a leap into the air, legs thrown forward up to the moon, body bent round with a jerk, and finish up in a dive. Another of his stunts was a long-arm balance on the top board, followed by a double somersault into the water. He must have broken himself many times practising these and many other fancy dives, but he was a ‘tough nut.’

Dick had a most unselfish character and generous heart. His death leaves a gap in our hearts which will never be filled.