Biography:
William Kirkpatrick Orford was born 14 May 1895, the eldest son of Lewis Alfred and Frances Elizabeth Orford of Crumpsall, Manchester. His father was a solicitor.
He came to Winchester College from Mr. Buckland's school at Laleham in January 1909 and was in F House, Hawkins'. He played cricket for his house and was a House prefect in his last year. He left Winchester in the summer of 1913 to go to Clare College, Cambridge.
At the outbreak of war he joined the Public Schools Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and received his commission in the 17th Battalion Manchester Regiment in January 1915, going to the front the following November. He was killed at Montauban on 1 July 1916, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, while serving with a trench mortar battery. Three fellow Wykehamists also died in the Montauban attack that day: Lieutenant Gerald Maitland Sproat (College 1906-1912) was also in 17th Manchesters; Lieutenant Wilfred Herbert Everard Nield (H 1904-1910) was with 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment); and Captain Charles Stanley Pearce (C 1907-1913) was serving with 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment - see individual entries.