Cecil Ernest Dando

Gunner, Border Regiment

Cecil Ernest Dando was a student at Alleyn's and lived with his mother and father, Ernest and Kate, and his younger sister, Irene, at 19 Tarbert Road, East Dulwich during this time. He joined the war effort at the age of 19 and was attached to the Royal Field Artillery in October 1916. After a brief period with the RFA, he was transferred to the Border Regiment after more battalions were created in 1915. Cecil served as a Gunner with the Border Regiment on the Western Front and saw action in France and Flanders during his time overseas. In 1917, he was serving with the Border Regiment in Flanders during the British operations on the Ancre. These operations lasted from January 1917 until March 1917 and saw the British keep up constant pressure on the German forces in the area in an attempt to force a withdrawal. It was during these operations that Cecil went missing in action on February 3rd 1917 at Le Transloy. He was never found and was later presumed to have been killed. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.