Alan Stevenson

Alan was born in 1887 at Blackpool to Reverend William and Annie J. Stevenson. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Manchester Grammar School (Sept. 1902 – July 1904). He came to Manchester University in 1904 with a Grammar School scholarship, was awarded a B.A. in Classics in 1907 and returned to complete an M.A. in 1910. He went on to hold assistant master posts at Sandbach Grammar School and Duke’s School, Alnwick, Northumberland (and possibly in Inverness too).

Alan enlisted in August 1914 and was gazetted in November that year. He took part in the fighting at Gallipoli in 1915 and the evacuation from Suvla Bay. After a short illness in hospital in Malta he was sent to Egypt and then France. He rose to the rank of captain and was killed in late September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme while commanding “B” company of the 9th Battalion in an attack which saw them capture the third line of their objectives with heavy losses in casualties. Alan was shot while directing the consolidation of the position. The colonel wrote:  “Your son’s death is a great loss to his battalion. I had recommended him for a commission in the regular army some time previously. Personally, I have the very highest opinion of him as a soldier, and think he would have done well anywhere. He will be very much missed by his brother officers and by the men in his Company, of whom he was always thinking.” A Professor Conway remembered him as “one of the most lovable of pupils, and his early loss will be mourned by all who had felt, in work or at play, the charm of his sunny companionship”.