Biography:
Allen Rhys Griffiths was born in King's Somborne on 15 March 1893, the son of Llewellyn Edward and Bertha Mina Griffiths of Great Abshot, Titchfield (formerly Drayton Park, Longparish).
He came to Winchester College from Horris Hill in September 1906 and was in I House, Turner's. He rowed for his house and in Junior IVs.
On leaving Winchester in 1910, he went to Messrs. Thorneycrofts' works at Woolston but was engaged in tea-planting in Ceylon when war broke out. He returned in December 1914 and in the following March was gazetted to the R.F.A.
Allen went to France early in July 1915 and was killed near Ypres on 9 August of that year. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Wivelsfield in Sussex, where the original gravemarker is now fixed to the wall of the church. There is mystery as to why this is here as the family appear to have had no connection with the village.
Photograph of his headstone: www.flickr.com/photos/harlowirish/8185590405/