Wilfred Wallace Douglas Donaldson was born in Hornsey on 19th March 1893 and baptised at St Mary’s Church, Hornsey on 4th June 1893. Wilfred joined the school in September 1905, aged 12. He had previously attended Highlands School. His father, George, was a Mercantile Clerk for a shipbroker and the family lived at various addresses in Empress Avenue, Cavendish Gardens and Cranbrook Park in the Ilford area. Wilfred had two brothers and two sisters and the family employed a 14 year old domestic servant, Jessie, in 1901.
Wilfred is recorded, alongside one of his younger brothers, George, on the first Roll of Honour (in the Christmas 1914 school magazine). It gives their regiment as ‘London Scottish.’ Wilfred initially joined the 14th London Regiment (Service Number 2561) and was posted to France in April 1915. However, by the time of his death, he was serving as a second lieutenant with the 4th Royal Scots Fusiliers in Palestine. He died of his wounds on 19th April 1917 and was buried in the Deir El Belah War Cemetery in the Gaza Strip.
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.