Ronald Caws

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work:  London office

Died: 31 July 1917

Ronald Newton Caws was born at Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 6 August 1889, the youngest son of Silas Newton Caws, a master mariner, and his wife Margaret Jane.

Two of Caws' elder brothers went into banking, working for Capital & Counties Bank, but when the time came for Caws to begin his career, he went instead to National Provincial Bank of England, starting as apprentice in its Totnes branch in March 1906, aged 16. In 1911 he passed the final examination of the Institute of Bankers, and in the same year was transferred to Brighton branch. In April 1913 he moved to the bank's London office.

Caws joined the army on 14 August 1914, ten days after the outbreak of the First World War. He initially joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Private, but in November was temporarily commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment. His battalion went out to France in August 1915, and Caws remained on active service in France for the next two years. In October 1915 he was appointed Lieutenant, and then in January 1916 - antedated to the previous September - he became a Captain. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Somme.

Captain Caws died in France on 31 July 1917, a few days before his 28th birthday.

Ronald Caws is commemorated on a bank war memorial held at NatWest Group Archives.