Sapper Geoffrey MELLOR (1936)

558 Field Company, Royal Engineers
Born 15 April 1917 in Macclesfield, Cheshire
Died 14 February 1940, aged 22
Buried at Macclesfield Cemetery, Cheshire.

Geoffrey Mellor was the son of Charles William and Eliza, née Poole, of Macclesfield.

Educated at The King's School in Macclesfield, he was an Exhibitioner in Modern History at Merton.

Before the war he was an articled clerk with Hansford & Hansford in Macclesfield, and is commemorated on the Roll of Honour held by the Library of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He died in a military hospital at Melton Mowbray, barely three weeks after being called up.

His former Headmaster at The King’s School, addressing the school, said:

I can think of no more striking commentary on the utter and ghastly futility of war … that the first fellow from this school to die on military service and as a consequence of war was Geoffrey Mellor, the quiet, fragile student who probably never intentionally harmed anyone in his life and to whom the idea of violence was stupid, detestable, and utterly repugnant