Notes
Gordon Lawrence Revnell was born in Dover on 28 January 1916, the fourth and youngest son of the Reverend Arthur Revnell OBE and Lily (née Barker). He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath from 1929 to 1933, where he was a member of the Cricket XI and a keen actor in the school’s productions. After leaving school he was prevented from going to university by ill-health and initially worked as a school master.
Gordon Revnell entered Worcester College on 13 October 1939, aged 23, but left in the summer of 1940 to join the army. He subsequently qualified for a pass degree (wartime) and his BA was conferred on 24 July 1943.
Gordon Revnell was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 31 May 1941. On 5 July 1944 he was attached to the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and joined them at Bas de Mouen in Normandy, where he was appointed as a platoon commander with A Company. Lieutenant Gordon Revnell was killed in action on the night of 23 July 1944 after A Company ran into an ambush of German Panzer Grenadiers. He was 28 years old.
Gordon Revnell is commemorated on the Bayeux Memorial and on the war memorials at Kingswood School and Worcester College, Oxford.