Lieutenant Peter William Merton ORME
11th (Service) Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (1st South Down) attached to the Royal Flying Corps

Date of birth: 9th July 1891
Date of death: 7th May 1917

Killed on active service aged 25
Buried at Hove Old Cemetery
He was born at Slinfold in Sussex on the 9th of July 1891 the son of Henry Merton Orme, a gentleman, and Elizabeth Henrietta (nee Browning) of “Claremont”, Sydenham Park Road in South London, later of “Lutwicke”, Bath Road, Worthing in Sussex.

He was educated at The Hall, Sydenham and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1906 to December1908.

On leaving school he was employed as a motor engineer.

Following the outbreak of war he enlisted at Worthing as Private PS/726 in the 19th (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers, University and Public Schools Corps on the 16th of September 1914. At a medical examination which was held on the same day it was recorded that he was five feet ten and a half inches tall, that he weighed 154lbs and that he had a fresh complexion, blue eyes and flaxen hair. He was posted to Woodcote Park, Epsom for training where he was in C Company.

He applied for a commission in the 13th Battalion Royal Fusiliers on the 29th of April 1915 but was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment and transferred to the 11th (Service) Battalion (1st South Down) on the 20th of May 1915 as a Temporary Lieutenant. His application was supported by the Headmaster of the King's School Canterbury. He attended an officer training course at Grafton Academy at Bedford from the 25th of May.

He transferred for training with the Royal Flying Corps, joining them at Reading on the 13th of March 1916. He was posted to 2 Reserve Squadron on the 14th of April 1916 and he learned to fly at the Military School at Brooklands where he obtained his Aero Certificate (number 2894), flying a Maurice Farman Shorthorn aircraft on the 1st of May 1916. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps on the 15th of June 1916 and was promoted to Flying Officer on the 27th of July 1916, joining 10 Reserve Squadron the same day. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of May 1917 and was stationed at Blenheim Barracks at Farnborough in Hampshire.

On the 7th of May 1917, he was seriously injured when his motor cycle was in collision with a car and he died that evening at 2nd General Eastern Military Hospital in Brighton from a fracture to the base of the skull.

On the 8th of May 1917 a telegram was sent from the Officer Commanding Farnborough to Royal Flying Corps Headquarters in London:-

"Regret to inform you that 2nd Lieut. P.W.M. Orme General List seriously injured in motor accident yesterday and now in Brighton General Hospital. Relatives have been informed."

An inquest into his death was held on the 10th of May and he was buried at noon on the 11th of May.
 

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