Biography:
Derek Edward Lewis Venn Baumer was born 15 December 1910, the son of Lewis Baumer, an artist on the staff of Punch, who also produced illustrations for Jerome K Jerome's humorous magazine, The Idler. His mother, Edith, was the daughter of Canon Henry Venn. The family lived at 5 Greville Place, Kilburn.
Derek came to Winchester College as a Scholar from Ovingdean Hall, Brighton in September 1910. He shot for the School at Bisley and was Captain of Shooting in 1915. In 1914 he was elected to a Classical Scholarship at New College, Oxford, and on leaving Winchester the following August was gazetted direct to the R.F.A.
He went out to France at the beginning of January 1916 to join the 86th Battery. He died on 21 October 1917, near Langemarck, of wounds sustained a few hours earlier, while running to the assistance of some of his men who had been buried by the burst of a shell.
Baumer's commanding officer wrote to his parents that 'His death in an effort to save others was in full accord with the sterling manner in which he always fulfilled his duties. Your son was one of my best subalterns and an officer of the best type. Under fire he was always cool and proved of the greatest assistance to me during the recent battles...... we shall miss him terribly'.