BASIL TEMPEST
9 May 1892 - 25 April 1917
At School 1901 - 1906
2nd Lieut 13th Manchester Regt




The Hulmeian – July 1917
The School and the War
Deaths
Second Lieutenant BASIL TEMPEST, Manchester Regiment, died of wounds received in action on April 25th. He entered the School September, 1901, and left in 1906 to go to the Manchester Grammar School. Before the war he was a student apprentice at Messrs Mather and Platt Limited, for four years,and gained a Manchester University scholarship in 1914. Joining the Manchester University O.T.C., on the outbreak of war, he was gazetted second lieutenant in the following November. He served in France and Macedonia.
Basil was born on 9th May 1892 at Longsight to James (Medical Profession – MRCS, 1897; LRCP London, 1897, surgeon) and Louisa Annie Tempest of 1 Clarendon Road, Whalley Range, Manchester. He was educated at Hulme Grammar School and Manchester Grammar School (1906-1910). In 1910-11 at age 18 he enrolled for 1st Year Engineers Apprenticeship Course. He entered Manchester University as a 22 year-old on 1st October 1914 to study Mechanical Engineering on a £60 a year County Council scholarship with 4 years engineering experience having completed an apprenticeship with Mather and Platt Ltd.
Basil tried to enlist in August 1914, but was forbidden by the education authorities until he had taken up his scholarship. In October 1914 he joined the University Officer Training Corps and was gazetted on 28th January 1915 to the Manchester Regiment, went to France in June 1915, then to Salonika in November that year. On 24th April 1917 he was successful in taking a trench from the Bulgarians, but was killed by a shell early on the morning of 25th April.
Effects worth £327 3s 5d were left to his father.
Manchester Grammar School Magazine - Ulula
Lieutenant Basil Tempest, 13th Battalion, Manchester Regiment (1906-10), killed in action in May,1917, on leaving School passed his Matriculation and entered the service of Messrs. Mather and Platt as student apprentice. In July, 1914, he gained a County Council Scholarship for the University. As soon as the war broke out he enlisted, but was detained by the Authorities for training in the O.T.C. He received his commission in January,1915, went out to France in July, and in the following November to Salonica.
" As the Senior Subaltern in the Company," writes Captain F. J. Taylor, " he had the option of leading the first wave of the attack on the Bulgar lines, and he jumped at the idea immediately. He guided and controlled his men across No Man's Land, and was the first to enter the enemy trenches. For the rest of the night he was in charge of the advanced sentry groups and reconnoitring patrols. Next morning at about 4-15, during a Bulgar counter-attack, he got up on the parapet, walked forward, firing a Very Light, to see how things were. A shell burst close to him, and he was mortally wounded."
CWGC
Rank: Second Lieutenant Date of Death:
25/04/1917 Age: 24 Regiment/Service: Manchester
Regiment 13th Bn. Grave Reference: E.
1117.Cemetery: KARASOULI MILITARY CEMETERY Additional
Information: Son of James and Louisa A. Tempest, of 1, Clarendon
Rd., Whalley Range, Manchester.Bottom of Form
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