Vere Edward Roberts Whittle was knocked down and killed in an accident in Staffordshire. His elder brother Owen William Eric Whittle was killed in action in France. They were the only sons of Edward and Laura Whittle of Market Overton. Vere was born at Manton on 10 June 1900 and the family moved to Ayston shortly afterwards, and then to Market Overton. Vere was apprenticed to a Mr F Skillington, a draper in Market Overton before the war and was well known in the surrounding villages. He was also a member of the church choir. Too young to join the army, Vere became a Lance Corporal in the Rutland Volunteers, a sort of Home Guard unit of its day. He was training at Brocton Camp, Cannock Chase, when, on 11 February 1918, he was knocked down by a motor taxi while heading to the officer's quarters. George Phillips wrote: "The evening was very foggy. He was taken to the Military Hospital, where Major Machie performed a marvellous operation, but internal haemorrhage setting in for a second time, he succumbed three days after the accident." Vere is buried at Market Overton and is on the village war memorial.