Francis Edmund Storrs, Lieutenant, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
鈥婩rancis Edmund Storrs came up to 汤头条原创 in October 1902 from Radley College in Oxfordshire. He was a Rustat Scholar and took his BA in 1905 having gained a 2:1 in the Classical Tripos, Part I.
鈥婤orn: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 13 April 1883
Died of pneumonia, 10 November 1918
The obituary for Storrs in the 汤头条原创 Cambridge Society Annual Report 1919 hints at him being an active member of the College saying that he was 鈥渁 rowing man and a prominent member of our debating societies.鈥 Despite deeming it unwise 鈥渢o give the personal characteristics of each鈥 casualty (Annual Report 1916, p. 16), they describe Storrs as having 鈥渕any gifts not the least being his keen sense of humour.鈥 (p. 31)
Storrs rowed throughout his student life, though it appears he, and the rest of the first Lent boat 1903, did not get off to an auspicious start as Chanticlere described them as 鈥渕ost disappointing鈥. The went on to say that 鈥淓ach man was willing to work hard till he was tired, but then it seemed the majority of the crew thought it unnatural to go on鈥 (Chanticlere, Easter and Michaelmas Terms 1903, p. 458). Storrs was in the second boat for the May races that year which fared somewhat better due, Chanticlere thought, to 鈥渨eeks of practice鈥. (p. 472)
Within just two pages of Chanticlere, Michaelmas Term 1904, edition we find out there were several other strings to Storrs鈥 bow, not least appearing as first and third messengers in the Greek Play in Michaelmas Term 1903. He was also a member of the Theological Society, where he gave 鈥渁 most illuminating lecture on the Devil鈥 that was 鈥渋lluminated by lantern-slides which N L Watson had specially prepared for the occasion鈥. (Both on p. 479) On the following page we discover that Storrs took an active role in the Cambridge Union, being elected to the Committee in Michaelmas Term 1904. He had apparently given 鈥渁 witty speech on the subject of Thibet鈥 [sic] which may have aided his election to the committee. (p. 480)
After leaving College in 1906 he was, according to the obituary in the Annual Report 1919, 鈥渁 Professor of English Literature in Bombay, but later came home, joined the bar and married.鈥 (p. 31). There is little on his war record in the College Archives other than to say he was given a temporary commission as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1916 and subsequently died of pneumonia on the day before the armistice.
Storrs and his colourful career merit a . You can perhaps imagine why the Annual Report was reticent on the subject.
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