Rhubarb 2019

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

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A R C H I V E S

Left: Guy Gibson (centre) leads fellow Dambusters out of Buckingham Palace after being awarded their medals in June 1943. Centre: The 1942 House PT Competition in the Quad. Overseeing the event is CSM Merry, well-remembered by all of that era! These sporting House competitions, held annually in the summer term, were taken extremely seriously and winning the cups was all important. Right: Teddies pupils fruit picking in 1943 at Ross-on-Wye. Every summer there were at least three such voluntary camps, all in the West Country, supervised by the School. They helped the war effort and the hard-pressed farmers, and also gave the boys a holiday and pocket money!

grammar and terminology seem a little odd today after 80 odd years. Descriptions of school life, so completely different to today, probably make it sound very harsh, very disciplined, very traditional, very macho though with a huge sense of camaraderie, team work and patriotism. The School seemed to breed a whole generation of highly motivated, strong, loyal and nationalistic young men who were not always too good at obeying rules and regulations but were committed to getting results and being winners. No one seemed to doubt their Christian beliefs – nowhere have I found a single complaint of the numerous Chapel services that they had to attend every day. A very eminent OSE recently said to me that the School, over the years, had been guilty of ‘banging on’ about Guy Gibson and Douglas Bader to the exclusion of many other OSE who have never warranted a mention. Hopefully this book will put that balance right – over 790 OSE are mentioned by name, many with their very significant

exploits recorded, probably for the first time. The book title is a direct quote from The Reverend Leslie Styler, School Chaplain, Member of the Common Room 1931-47,

Housemaster of Sing’s 1940-7, Editor of the Chronicle 1940-7, taken from the School Magazine December 1941. Chris Nathan (G, 1954-1957)

School contingent at the ‘Save the Soldier’ Parade in Oxford in 1943. The Corps was called the Junior Training Corps during the war and always supplied a contingent, sometimes with a band, to these public parades. Due to lack of petrol they marched there and back along the Woodstock Road.