Victor Marlborough Silvester OBE (25 February 190014 August 1978) was an English dancer, writer, musician and bandleader from the British dance band era. He was a significant figure in the development of ballroom dance during the first half of the 20th century, and his records sold 75 million copies from the 1930s through to the 1980s. Early life Silvester was born the second son of a vicar in Wembley, Middlesex, England. He was educated at Ardingly College, St. John's School, Leatherhead and John Lyon School, Harrow, from all of which he absconded. Silvester claimed that he enlisted in the British Army on 4 September 1916, during the First World War, serving as a private in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and that he lied about his age to the recruiting authorities, stating this as 20 whereas he was only 16. He supposedly took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917, and said he was a member of five execution squads, where deserters were shot. However, the release of his service records in 2000 revealed that he had been discharged from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as underage on 12 September 1916, after just a week of service. However, he immediately joined the First Aid Services (i.e. the Red Cross and St John Ambulance), and served with them in France from 1 October 1916 to June 1917, before transferring to the First British Ambulance Unit For Italy. On 4 September 1917 at Sella di Dol near San Gabriele, while acting as a stretcher bearer to evacuate wounded Italian servicemen during a heavy bombardment by the Austrians and Germans, he was injured in the leg by a shell burst, but refused medical treatment until the other wounded had been attended to. For his gallantry on this occasion he was awarded the Italian Bronze Medal of Military Valour in a decree by the Italian Minister of War dated 30 November 1917. In a letter to Silvester's parents dated 20 September 1917, his Commandant in the First British Ambulance Unit, the noted historian G. M. Trevelyan, wrote: "He is certainly one who will be deservedly loved wherever he goes in life, and he is besides made of sterling stuff." After the war he studied at Worcester College, Oxford for a year. He decided to resume a military career when he was offered a place at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but he