Biography:
Alan George Tritton was born 28 January 1882, the fifth and youngest son of Joseph Herbert Tritton of Lyons Hall, Great Leighs, Essex and Lucy Jane Tritton, the daughter of Henry Abel Smith, a banker.
Alan came to Winchester College from Cheam School in January 1895 and was in D House, Fearon's, under Mr Kensington. In his last year he was a Commoner Prefect and in Sixth Book.
He left Winchester in the summer of 1899 for RMC Sandhurst and was gazetted to the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards in 1900, shortly after the outbreak of the South African War. He was sent to the Cape in 1901 in command of the Coldstream Company of the Guards Mounted Infantry and subsequently acted as Adjutant to the 3rd Battalion in Egypt, and later as ADC to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command.
Tritton went to France with the 3rd Battalion in the original British Expeditionary Force, in command of 4 Company, Coldstream Guards. His second-in-command was fellow Wykehamist, Captain Stephen John Burton (C 1896-1900, killed in action at Ypres 20 July 1917 - see individual entry). Tritton first saw action at Landrecies on 25/26 August 1914 where another Wykehamist, Lieutenant Robert Cornwallis Maude, Viscount Hawarden (B 1904-1908), was killed (see individual entry). Tritton is mentioned in the War Diary as playing a conspicuous part in the fighting that night. He was wounded on 1 September 1914 at Villers-Cotterets shortly before the Battle of the Marne.
On 22 December the battalion marched to Bethune, moving into trenches at Rue de L'Epubette the following day and Tritton fell in action on 26 December 1914. The war diary gives no information other than the fact of his death. He is buried in grave I.B.11 of Le Touret Military Cemetery, Richebourg-l'Avoue. He was twice mentioned in Despatches, once posthumously.