Craies, William Octavius, son of Constantine Craies (qv); b. 3 Nov. 1912; adm. Sept. 1926 (G); left July 1931; Univ. Coll. Lond. 1931-3; family firm of furniture manufacturers 1934-61; Financial Times 1964-7; librarian Min. of Agriculture Central Library 1968-7; d. 1 June 1992.
Craies, Constantine, son of William Feilden Craies, of Kensington. barrister-at-law, by Euterpe, daughter of Constantine A. Ionides, of Hove, Sussex; b. March 25, 1882; adm. from Winchester College April 23, 1896 (R); left April 1899; founded in 1907 the gramophone business of Craies and Stavridi, Bunhill Row, London; served during Great War I as Officer Interpreter at Salonica; was Capt. when demob.; mentioned in despatches L. G. June 11, 1918; author of The United States of the World : m. 1st Oct. 26, 1907, Barbara, daughter of Octavius Valieri, of London; 2nd May 5, 1945, Hester Rosamond, younger daughter of James Parsons, barrister-at-law, of London.
Cragg-Hamilton, Derek, son of Sydney Charles Cragg-Hamilton and Edith, d. of Abel Simner of Friog, Merioneth; b. 3 Apr. 1909; adm. Sept. 1922 (A); left July 1927; adm. a solicitor Nov. 1932, practised in London; 2nd Lieut. 92 Bde RA (TA) Sept. 1927, Lieut. Sept. 1930, Capt. May 1934, temp. Maj. Jan. 1939; killed in action Dunkirk May 1940.
Derek Cragg-Hamilton was born at Ravenscourt Park, London on the 3rd of April 1909 the only son of Sydney Charles Cragg-Hamilton, an actor, and Edith Emily Marguerite (nee Simner) Cragg-Hamilton of 77, Hamlet Gardens, South Hammersmith, later of Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire. He was christened at St Peter’s Church, Hammersmith on the 12th of June 1909. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from September 1922 to July 1927 where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1926. He was appointed as a Monitor in April 1926 and as Head of Ashburnham in September 1926. On leaving school he studied law and he qualified as a solicitor in November 1932. He practised at Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London. He served as Hon. Secretary of The Old Westminster Boat Club in 1929 and 1930 and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Old Westminsters in 1932.
He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 92 (5th London) Field Brigade in the Territorial Army on the 25th of September 1927 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 25th of September 1930. He was promoted to Captain on the 10th of May 1934 and to Major in January 1939. He was appointed as the commanding officer of 365 Battery.
On the 31st of May 1940, 92 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery was positioned to the west of Bulskamp where it was defending the perimeter of the evacuation area around Dunkirk when German counter battery fire began falling on the Headquarters of 365 Battery. Derek Cragg-Hamilton and four gunners were killed during the exchange of fire.
The Middlesex Chronicle wrote: - “Many of the older residents will remember the cherry, happy personality of this fine, upstanding soldier who was 6ft 6 1/2 ins. in height.”
The Elizabethan wrote: - “The death of Major Derek Cragg-Hamilton, R.A., T.A., during the retirement to Dunkirk, has brought sadness to many, for he had many friends. In the law, which he chose as his profession, in the Territorials, which he joined as a recreation and a duty, and among Westminsters of all ages who shared with him a common affection for the School he was equally popular, and the directness and simplicity of his character won him general respect. Derek Cragg-Hamilton was the son of the late Sydney Charles Cragg-Hamilton. He was born on 3rd April, 1909, and in 1922 entered Westminster as a day boy up Ashburnham. Although his subsequent career showed that he had good critical abilities and the power of mastering detail, he travelled up the School but slowly. He was never one to whom success came easily. Success came because he worked for it, and it was a tribute to the solid qualities of his character when, in his last year at Westminster, he was appointed head of his house, although still only in the Shell. He left in 1927, and for the next five years underwent the arduous and sometimes dreary training necessary to become a solicitor. Most of his Westminster friends and contemporaries had gone to either Oxford or Cambridge, and he may perhaps have felt some natural regret that he was no longer with them, sharing their fresh interests and pleasures. If he did, he kept his feelings to himself and he threw himself wholeheartedly into his new work. At this time also began the connexion with the Territorials, which in the end took him to France early last September and last May to Belgium. He was gazetted 2nd Lieut., 92nd Brigade, R.A., T.A., in 1927, and was promoted Lieutenant in 1930. Captain in 1934, and Major last year. He was an enthusiastic soldier, and he was always keen to get any boys who had recently left the School into his battery, with the result that the foundress was toasted last November 17th in at least one mess in northern France. His ability as a lawyer received a tribute in a notice in The Times, and this is not the place to recapitulate it. While his Westminster friends realized that he was efficient at his job, they did not perhaps realize how much his judgment was respected and how much he might have achieved had not his career been suddenly cut short. But no one who came in contact with him could have remained unaware for long of his enthusiasm for the School and his devotion to its interests. His work on the War Memorial Committee and on successive Committees of the Westminster Ball brought him into touch with a very large number of Old Westminsters; and because some of the masters were privileged to count him as their friend, his views on the School did not remain static as the point which they had reached when he ceased to be a member of it, but moved forward with every phase of its development. He was, indeed, one of the very few people to whom one could "talk Westminster" with the complete assurance that his opinion would be based not only on sympathy and understanding, but also on knowledge of where the School's true interests lay. To Watermen of the last twelve years he was a familiar figure. Although never a first-class oar himself, he was an immensely hard worker in a boat and a good judge of a crew. He followed the fortunes of the School eight with keenness, and his appearances at Putney or at Henley were welcomed with delight. It was characteristic of him that when, a few years ago, he had followed a School eight down to Westminster in the launch and a minor crisis had occurred because one of the crew had been taken ill, he should have stepped into the boat and, although quite untrained, should have rowed back to Putney. It was characteristic, too, that when home on leave for a short time last December, one of his first actions should have been to come round to Westminster to find out how the School was getting on in exile, and in particular what chances there were of carrying on rowing at Lancing. In him Westminster loses a loyal friend, and his mother, to whom we offer our deep sympathy, a devoted son.”
He is buried at Veurne Communal Cemetery Extension Row C, Grave 5.
CRAGGE, RICHARD; b.; adm.; KS; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1618, Westminster Student to 1623; BA 22 Feb 1622/3; ordained; Perpetual Curate, Badsey, Worcs. 1645-61; Perpetual Curate, South and Middle Littleton, Worcs., from c. 1661; lic. to m. Jan 1631/2 Anne Bingham, St. Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, spinster; d. 1666.
Cracknell, Charles George Raphael, only son of Charles Collins, of Pimlico, by Annie Letitia, daughter of George Turner, of London; b. May 5, 1888; adm. Sept. 25, 1902 (G); assumed the surname of Cracknell in lieu of Collins by deed poll June 21, 1915, but was known by the name of Cracknell before leaving school; left Easter 1906; articled to a London firm of accountants; joined the H. A. C. on the outbreak of the war Aug. 4, 1914; went out to the western front with the 1st Batt. Sept. 17, 1914; 2nd Lieut. 24th (Co. of London) Batt. the London Regt. July 3, 1915; Lieut. Nov. 3, 1915; served in France 1914-7; joined the British Expeditionary Force to Palestine in Oct. 1917; d. at Tel-el-Brit. Dec. 29, 1917, of wounds received in the defence of Jerusalem, Dec. 27, 1917; unm.
CRACHERODE, CLAYTON MORDAUNT, son of Col. Mordaunt Cracherode, Governor of Minorca, of Taplow, Bucks., and Mary, sister of Charles Morice (qv); b. 23 Jun 1730; adm. Jun 1737; KS 1742; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1746, matr. 6 Jun 1746, Westminster Student from 24 Dec 1746; BA 1750; MA 1753; ordained priest (Oxford) 25 May 1755; Curate, Binsey, Oxfordshire 1762; did not seek or obtain further religious preferment; spent his life in collecting books, engravings, gems and coins, bequeathed by him to the British Museum; Trustee, British Museum, from 1784; FRS 15 Dec 1785; FSA 8 Mar 1787; member Society of Dilettanti from 1787; left legacies of £1000 each to Christ Church, Oxford, and to the School; d. unm. 5 Apr 1799. Buried in East Cloister, Westminster Abbey. DNB.
By his will dated 9 Apr 1792 (proved 17 Apr 1799), he bequeathed to Westminster School “the sum of £500, the interest to be divided as is done in the case of a benefaction left by my excellent friend Fane Sharpe, Esq. about the year 1771 for the advantage of the King’s Scholars elected to the two Universitities, the management to be under the same trustees”. The fund was subsequently consolidated with the School Exhibition Fund, and the benefaction commemorated by an exhibition known as the Cracherode exhibition.
Cozens-Brooke, John Gilbert Somerset, only son of Ernest Brooke Cozens-Brooke, of Earl's Court, London, by Mabel Emily Florence, daughter of Capt. John William Clayton, of Marylebone; b. Nov. 26, 1893; adm. Jan. 16, 1908 (R); left July 1910; 2nd Lieut. 3rd Batt. (Spec. Res.) Royal Scots Fusiliers April 1, 1912; Lieut. Aug. 15, 1914, attached 1st Batt. on taking out draft from depot to the western front in Sept. 1914; killed whilst scouting near Lille Oct. 18, 1914.
Cozens, Leslie, brother of Frederick Cyril Cozens (q.v.); b. Sept. 20, 1893; adm. April 30, 1908 (A); left July 1911; entered his father's business of tanner and currier at Walsall; 2nd Lieut. 5th Batt. South Staffs Regt. May 2, 1912; Lieut. March 1, 1914; Capt. May 19, 1915; went out to the western front March 3, 1915; d. Oct. 14, 1915, from wounds received in action at the Hohenzollern Redoubt the previous day; unm.
Cozens, Frederick Cyril, son of Frederick Theophilus Cozens, of Walsall, Staffs, by Minnie Gertrude, daughter of Alfred Sydney Smith, of Walsall; b. July 4, 1892; adm. April 30, 1908 (A); left July 1911; Emman. Coll. Camb., matric. Michaelmas 1911; B.A. 1919; M.A., M.B., and B. Ch. 1925; Sub-Lieut. R. N. V. R. March 31, 1918; served as a Surgeon on H. M. S. Sloop Snapdragon during the war in the Mediterranean; St. Bartholomew's Hospital; M.R.C.S. (Eng.) and L.R.C.P. (Lond.) 1921; practised at Herne Bay, Kent; m. Nov. 9, 1920, Jessie McLean, youngest daughter of William Stewart, of Glasgow.
COXETER, RICHMOND; b. ; adm. ; KS 1682. [Perhaps = Richard Coxeter, son of Richard Coxeter, Bampton, Oxfordshire, adm. Middle Temple 25 Jan 1685/6, called to bar 30 Jun 1704] [note Richard Coxeter, Bampton, Oxfordshire, will proved PCC 28 Apr 1741]