Old Coathamians of World War One

Reginald RAPP



Lieutenant, 7th (Service) Battalion,
Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment).

Born 26 June 1895,
Died 18 June 1915, aged 19 years.

Buried in Rue David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix,
Pas de Calais, France, Grave I.A.21.


Lieutenant Rapp had been commissioned at the start of the War ten months earlier. He is one of 898 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery.



The family of Reginald Rapp had a long association with Coatham Grammar School. Reginald’s father and uncle had been enrolled at the School at its opening in 1869. When Reginald started school in Form I, in January 1904, aged nine, he lived with his parents Thomas William Rapp and Lilian Rapp at ‘Campfield’, 9 Lune Street, Saltburn. The family were noted booksellers and printers in the town and his grandfather was the Postmaster. Reginald stayed at Coatham Grammar School a full 29 terms, achieving significant academic success in all public examinations. At school he was a noted cricketer, he took part in plays and debates and he was a close contemporary of Thomas Heathcock (q.v.). He left in July 1913, aged 18, to follow his older brother Thomas to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, with an Open Scholarship to read History. Both Reginald and Thomas volunteered for the Army in 1914, Thomas surviving with a Military Cross, and later forging a distinguished career as a diplomat, for which he was knighted. Reginald also had two younger sisters, Winifred and Mary, as well as seven cousins living in Saltburn. One of those cousins, Ernest James Rapp, also lost his life on the Western Front in 1917. Both names are on the War Memorial in Saltburn.