Biography:
Herbert Cecil May was born 9 January 1899, the younger son of Nathaniel Alfred and Eugenie Angela May, of Wetherby Gardens, London.
He came to Winchester College from Copthorne School with a Headmaster's nomination in September 1912 and was in H House, Bramston's. Herbert won the German Prize and devoted much time to literature and the piano, church music in particular appealing to him. Had he lived, he would have gone up to New College, Oxford, to study Jurisprudence.
Before leaving school in the summer of 1917, he tried to join the Royal Flying Corps but was rejected for defective sight and applied for a commission in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He underwent a period of training with a Cadet Corps at Gailes, and left for France in September 1918. He fell at Villers Farm, near Ypres, on 29 September, his first day in action, and is buried in Grave V.C 19 in the Zantvoorde British Cemetery.