It has been brought to our notice that The London Gazette earlier this month listed two more of our Old Boys who have been awarded the DSO: Major George Stack (RE) and Major Frederick St J Tyrwhitt (1^st Worcs).

George was mentioned in despatches on January 1st 1916 and has now been awarded the DSO “for consistently good work in the front line during the past six months. This officer has proved himself quite above the average in his powers of organising work and seeing it pushed through. He has been indefatigable in his exertions and never spares himself. All day and every day and most nights he is at work in and behind the front line. He is absolutely fearless. He gets all work entrusted to him done with the minimum of friction to all concerned.”

We were delighted to get a letter from George last month:

Major George Stack

“I never forget that I am an OD… I’m afraid I don’t shine as a scribe and a magazine article would be quite beyond my powers.”

George was only at the OPS for a year, during which time he gained a Scholarship to Westminster School, chiefly for his Mathematics.  Even if an article is beyond him (which I doubt) there is nothing wrong with his letter-writing!

He is now heading for the East:

“We are now about to be transferred to another sphere of activity, though I don’t know for certain which. Everyone here is full of beans and confidence – the nearer you are to the front line trenches, the more cheerful you find everybody.”

We do not as yet know the circumstances in which Major Frederick Tyrwhitt* won his DSO, but we can at least record it as the fifth won thus far, in addition to Jack Smyth‘s VC.

(* brother of Major Nathaniel Tyrwhitt, whose death we reported in December, and a cousin of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt)