Chronicle 687

29 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

censorship being in place, Styler was able to produce amazingly detailed lists of staff and OSE in uniform and, where possible, theatres they were serving in, details of wounded and POWs and lastly, and most tragically, those known to be lost or missing. Like Ferguson in the Great War, Kendall would read out the latest list of the fallen in Chapel every Friday at Evensong throughout the war years, often very emotionally, sometimes with siblings in the congregation. What had not changed at the School was the prevailing close-knit community spirit. Wilfrid Cowell, John Millington Sing and William Ferguson had known all those lost in the Great War. Now, as well as Kendall himself, all seven existing Housemasters were seasoned veterans. The Common Room numbered 27, with an average service time in 1939 of ten years each. Of these, four would enlist and one, Thomas Hankey, would be lost in Burma in 1944; others would join the local Home Guard. This level of continuing service would manifest itself in the emotional eulogies which appeared in the wartime editions of the Chronicle . Every man lost was known and mourned by all. The eventual WWII Teddies contingent totalled 1,627, made up of teachers, staff and OSE – 64% would choose the Army to serve in, 18% the RAF and 15% the Royal and Merchant Navies. The eventual attrition rate in the air services would turn out to be

In the two decades between the end of the Great War and WWII breaking out, much had changed at the School. Reeling from losing 118 OSE and three teachers out of a contingent of 673 in WWI, St Edward’s had grown slowly but steadily under the fifth and sixth Wardens, William Ferguson and Henry Kendall. School pupil numbers had increased from 158 in the Winter Term of 1918 to 392 in the same term in 1939. The estate and building programme had been significantly accelerated, especially since Kendall’s arrival in 1925 and the School’s Cadet Force (OTC) had also been considerably developed and was compulsory for all those over 14 years of age, under the eagle eyes of Sergeant Major Alfred Merry, Regimental Sergeant Major A Brown, and Staff Sergeant ‘Sonny’ Hill, together with teachers who had fought in WWI. This would be especially important now. With war being declared in September 1939, there was no rush to the colours as had happened in the previous war, and schools were told to wait for the call up and continue with their normal curriculum. Those OSE who were already regular servicemen or in the Territorials found themselves immediately in action or training. The Chronicle , edited by the Reverend Leslie Styler, one of the School Chaplains, would prove the major source of information during the war and has been a great resource for later researchers. Despite much stricter

Warden Kendall opens the Memorial Library 1954

three times higher than in the Army, with the Merchant Navy seeing the highest losses of all. The total number of those who would never return was 152 OSE and one teacher, a figure that took some months to verify beyond VJ Day. The most prolific areas of loss for the School would turn out to be in (or over) Central Europe, the Far East, Italy, the Western Desert, Normandy and Dunkirk. The average age would be just over 25 years old.

St Edward's OTC at the annual camp at Tidworth Park, 1937