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Lieutenant, 18th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Cecil was the elder of the two sons of Thomas Cecil (a stockbroker) and Margaret Curwen, of 13 Lindfield Gardens, Hampstead, London.

He was educated at Rugby School (1903 to 1908). He then went up to Caius College, Cambridge. After taking his degree he spent a year in an accountant’s office, and then joined his father in business.

In October 1914, he enlisted in the Inns of Court OTC, rising from private to sergeant, and in February 1915, he received a commission in the 15th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps and was gazetted lieutenant in the following May. Having taken courses in field-engineering and explosives, and in bombing, he took an active share for a year in the work of his battalion; but in February 1916, he was transferred to the 18th Battalion, with which he went out to France in May as bombing officer.

He was given a company 48 hours before the serious action in which he lost his life. During a pause in the advance he turned aside to bind up the wounds of a brother officer and dragged him to comparative safety, after another officer had already been killed in a like attempt. Returning to his men, he again led them in the attack and shortly afterwards fell shot through the heart.

Cecil Curwen died on 15th September 1916, aged 27, during an attack towards Flers.

No letters were received from his superior officers, for most, if not all, of them, were killed on the same day.

His captain in the Inns of Court OTC wrote,

'…He was one of the best men we ever had in the Company, and I am sure he made an excellent Officer…'

Later a memorial cross was raised in Delville Wood Cemetery to the officers and men of the 18th Battalion, KRRC killed in the fighting. During the post-war cemetery concentrations work the area around the cross was searched but no bodies were found.