CLASS OF 1918

James Watkins Gill, Jr., died from heart exhaustion while swimming at Seabright, N. J., August 30. He had gone into the surf with friends, and being an expert swimmer had gone out beyond them. On his return he was caught in a strong undertow, and the effort to face this was evidently too great a strain upon his heart, for he threw up his hands, and in the judgment of physicians who tried in vain to resuscitate him must have died instantly.

The only child of James Watkins and Nannie (Kirk) Gill, he was, born in Steubenville, Ohio, November 18, 1895. In his boyhood his health was delicate and needed special care. He attended St. Luke's School near Philadelphia for five years, and there prepared for college and gained a good' measure of physical strength." At Dartmouth he was among the most popular members of his class.

Near the close of junior year he was one of the company who volunteered from College for the American Ambulance Service and sailed for France in May. He served to the close of the war, and the quality of his service is evidenced by the fact that he received the Croix de Guerre and five citations for valor. After the armistice he remained in Paris for some time as assistant to Henry D. Sleeper of Boston, who had charge of the ambulance field service. In May he returned home, and in July went to New York to enter the employ of the Federal Export Corporation. On the Monday following his death he was to have received promotion.

Gill was a communicant of the Episcopal church. A long notice of his death in a local paper shows him to have been regarded very highly in his home town as a young man of fine qualities and great promise.