Ralph Dominic Gamble

Captain Ralph Dominic Gamble MC was born in Simla, India in 1897. The second child and the only son of Sir Reginald Arthur Gamble.

His grandfather had been Dominic Jacotin Gamble, a veteran of the Crimean War and campaigns in New Zealand. Eventually he had become the Director of Military Education prior to his death in 1887.

His sister married Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson.

Ralph was educated in England at Summer Fields, a prep school in Oxford 1906 - 1912 and as a King's Scholar at Eton College 1912 - 1916. There he was one of the top academics at the school despite the fact that he was far more interested in games. He was talented at cricket, all of the school variations of football, as well as at Eton Fives.

On leaving school he joined the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Having served through the Battle of the Somme and then Cambrai he was promoted to the rank of Captain. He was leading his Company when he was killed in action near Moyenville on 22 August 1918. There was heavy shelling in the area and he was killed instantly. Of two Lieutenants accompanying one was killed early on and the other had already been severely wounded. Following his death the Officer commanding the 2nd Guards Brigade put him forward for the Distinguished Service Order.

Eventually, in 1919 Gamble was instead awarded the Military Cross for leading his company into heavy fog and taking a position without the tanks allocated to support him during the action that cost him his life.