ALAN ERNEST SWEETING (1911-1916 : 20), Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, was the only child of Mr & Mrs H Sweeting, of Whittier Place, Wednesfield.  He entered the school with a scholarship and was placed in the Remove, from which he rose to the Upper Sixth and the office of Prefect.  He was a boy of remarkably amiable disposition, diligent in his studies, serene in his outlook, sincere in his many friendships, and possessed of great moral strength.  Acknowledging a heavy debt to the school, he sought to repay it by zealous work and loyal service.  He accepted his duties as a Prefect with full consciousness of the responsibility involved and in the same spirit he brought to his work as Sergeant in the O.T.C., determination to serve the contingent with the full measure of his gifts.  His skill at musketry was shown by his winning the Wyatt Edgell Cup in both 1915 and 1916.  His military career began in the Artist Rifles in February 1917.  In July he was transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and a month later he received his commission as Second Lieutenant.  After training at Reading, Thetford, London Colney and Turnberry, he went to France in January 1918, as a pilot scout with the 1st Squadron of the R.F.C., based at Bailleul.  During a German offensive at Easter 1918, he was wounded by shrapnel but continued in action until his ammunition was exhausted and then succeeded in taking his machine safely back to the aerodrome.  Sixteen weeks in hospital at Anstey Grange followed and then came promotion to full Lieutenancy in the Royal Air Force and appointment to the Wireless Experimental Establishment at Biggin Hill, Kent.  For eleven months Sweeting was stationed here, learning with avidity and instructing with enthusiasm.  He had been chosen as one of those who were to give a demonstration in wireless telephony to the House of Commons last summer, and on August 2nd he was testing a machine for use in the display.  Through a cause that it has been impossible to explain, his aeroplane got out of control when only some 30 feet from the ground, and crashed, and Sweeting was instantaneously killed.  In him was lost "a splendid officer in every respect, a great gentleman, a highly skilled pilot”,  the most loving and loved of sons, and one of whom the school may well be proud.  One of his last actions was to send a donation of £10 to the School War Memorial.