George Holbrook Eric Vidler was a pupil at Oakham School between 1910 and 1914, when he left to attend the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was the eldest son of George Paxton Vidler and Elsie Mary Vidler, of Bramshaw, Lyndhurst, Hampshire. He served as a Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, 21st Brigade, which took part in an attack on Trones Wood during the Battle of the Somme. The British neeed to capture the wood and the village of Contalmaison in preparation for a much bigger attack planned for a few days later. The Wiltshire's battalion war diary describes how one company headed towards a German position known as Maltzhorn Trench to support the French who had attacked on the brigade's right, while two other companies, supported by an artillery bombardment, fought their way into the southern half of the wood, clearing it of Germans and taking many prisoners. The diary says: "During the evening many counter attacks by small parties of Germans are made from the north. These are all beaten off by the very thin line of men holding the ground taken." At some point during this action George was killed. He does not have a known grave and so is remembered on Pier 13A of the Thiepval Memorial. He is also remembered on the war memorial in Oakham School Chapel.

See where all our Rutland soldiers died during the Battle of the Somme on our interactive map.