Stanley David Victor Dover was born in Moreton, near Thame, on the 28th February 1898, the third son of Charles and Harriet Dover (nee Hall). He was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Thame on 2nd April 1898. His father was a publican at the Bell Inn in Moreton.

By 1911 the family had moved to the Rising Sun in the High Street in Thame, and Stanley had become a telegraph messenger boy for the Post Office.

In 1916 when Stanley reached the age of 18 he was called up to join the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, becoming ivate 27221. He was posted to serve with the 5th Battalion in France, most likely part of the 320 strong reinforcing draft the battalion received in early September after the battalions losses at Delville Wood.

The battalion was soon in action again on the Somme, when the 14th Division, with whom they were serving, took part in the Battle of Flers Coucelette, losing over 4,500 men. The remainder of 1916 was relatively uneventful in trenches in front of Arras.

However this was the lull before the storm. Stanley and George Crook, also from Thame, would have been involved in actions from the start of the Battle of Arras in April 1917, but on the 3rd May, during the first day of the Third Battle of the Scarpe they were posted missing, later presumed dead.

27221 Private Stanley David Victor Dover, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, France. He is remembered in Thame, on the town war memorial and also on the memorial boards for St Mary’s church and All Saints church.