Herman Oxley

Bank: Coutts & Co

Place of work: London Strand office

Died: 4 November 1918

Herman Grant Oxley was born in Bexley Heath, Kent, in 1893, the son of George Oxley, a schoolmaster, and his wife Alice. After leaving school he became a bank clerk, and in November 1913 took a job with Coutts & Co in London.

In May 1915 Oxley left his job at the bank to join the Inns of Court London Officers Training Corps. He was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps in August 1915. He later went to France and was wounded at High Wood on 10 July 1916. Upon discharge from hospital he was invalided out of the army, but due to an administrative error was straight away reported as fit for service by a board. Oxley rejoined The King's Royal Rifle Corps, and undertook a Lewis Gun training course at Woolwich.

He returned to France in time for the final great push, and was killed in action on the Sambre Canal, south of Catillon, on 4 November 1918, just a week before the Armistice. He was 25 years old.

Herman Oxley is commemorated on a bank war memorial at Coutts & Co, London 440 Strand.