A £3,000 annual bursary has been created to help Wandsworth’s young athletes take part in overseas sporting competitions.

The initiative is designed to create a permanent reminder of the sacrifices of the borough’s young men who signed up to serve their country in the First World War.

Enable Leisure and Culture, in conjunction with Wandsworth Council, have set up the bursary and announced today it will be named after Reginald Twyford who was born in Roehampton and killed in northern France in 1916, aged only 15.

Many youngsters like Reginald Twyford were attracted by the opportunity to travel overseas for the first time and the new bursary will likewise promote overseas travel, but in the positive context of competitive sport.

Launching the Twyford Bursary, Enable Leisure and Culture’s Managing Director, Paul McCue, who is also the borough’s Armed Forces Advisor, said: “This is such a worthwhile way of commemorating the sacrifices and losses of the First World War and there is no better name to choose than that of Private Reginald Twyford.

“As a borough, we are firmly committed to supporting our armed forces, especially our local Reserve units, but to encourage understanding among nations via sport can only help to avoid conflict.”

The Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Leslie McDonnell, is the Borough’s Armed Forces Champion and, with other councillors at their own expense, has visited Twyford’s military grave in France.

He said: “This is a really fitting and poignant tribute to Reginald Twyford and all those young men who sacrificed their lives in the First World War. It is important that this young man is not forgotten and his memory will live on through the bursary which will offer fantastic opportunities to young people to achieve their sporting potential. ”

Reginald Albert Twyford was born 8 February 1901 at 8 High Street, Roehampton; his father was John Twyford and his mother Elizabeth, née Collins. His father was a gardener and the family later moved to Merton Road, Wandsworth. In 1915 Reginald concealed his true age when he was among the first to volunteer, at the age of just 14, for his local ‘Pals’ battalion, the13th (Service) Battalion (Wandsworth), The East Surrey Regiment.

The battalion was raised from local men by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Alderman (later Sir) Archibald Dawnay. Reginald was only the 64th of more than 1,000 volunteers to come forward. After a year’s training in Wandsworth and in south-west Surrey and Hampshire, the Wandsworth Pals were sent to the Western Front in northern France, arriving in France on June 4, 1916 and moving into front-line positions on July 11, 1916. Reginald was four years short of the British Army's requirement to attain the age of 19 for overseas service. Reginald was killed only 28 days after reaching the forward positions. In November 2011 a Wandsworth Council green plaque was unveiled on the site of Reginald’s birth in Roehampton High Street, SW15.

Awards of the bursary will be recommended by the Active Wandsworth Advisory Group and administered by Enable Leisure and Sport, as part of the Active Wandsworth grants programme. For further details of how to apply for the bursary, visit www.enablelc.org/sports-grants