[5] On his leaving St Olave's, however, the family's finances ruled out any ambition to attend Emmanuel College himself, and so he took employment with a firm of marine insurance brokers.

[11] He was a good student if not brilliant, and one of the most popular members of his class;[13][5]: 13-14 Brown called him "a little different from the boys who come up each year as Freshmen, more gentle, perhaps, and more self-controlled."

[1] Though on arrival he had told reporters that he played soccer and tennis, and wanted to learn baseball and American football,[11] his participation in organized athletics was limited to class crew.

"[note 4] Graduating cum laude in English[20] in June 1915, he was selected to compose both the Class Poem and the Baccalaurete Hymn.

[6] His poem was "a stirring lyric adjuring all Harvard men in the present crisis of civilization [i.e. World War I] to stand for their historic ideals of freedom":[21] His hymn reflected similar themes: Speaking to the Alumni Association immediately after receiving his diploma he said, "I have had four years here full to the brim of happiness and ever-increasing joy ...

[33] Lionel was shot in the chest on 25 September 1916 at Lesboeufs during the Battle of the Somme[34]: 125 [35] but after a long convalescence he returned to combat in June 1917, as company commander.

[5] By March 1918 Lionel Harvard was commander of Number One Company, designated the King's Company‍—‌as Brown put it, "a high honor for a lieutenant, and usually a fatal one".

[5]: 16  On the morning of 30 March 1918 he was killed by a minenwerfer shell[34] near Arras during the German spring offensive, just before a promotion to captain became effective.

[note 5] In his 1923 Commence­ment address, Lowell related a letter written by a British Army officer seeking advice on preparing his sons for Harvard College.

[note 6] There was discussion of arranging for Lionel's son John Peter to follow his father to Harvard,[13] but after he attended the school's tercentenary celebration as a guest in September 1936, Time reported that he would likely continue his education in England.

[note 7] As a major in the Royal Artillery during World War II he survived imprisonment by the Japanese after being captured in the Battle of Singapore.