Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 5

B OER W AR (1900 - 1902)

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

N AME ALFRED EYTON SPURLING (S GT )

L EFT SES 1896

R OLL N UMBER 870

S ET / H OUSE D

A RRIVE SES 1894

D IED 18:11:1901

W HERE ROODEPORT, SOUTH AFRICA S ERVING WITH GORRINGE’S SCOUTS

A GE 22

Buried Aliwal North Cemetery, Eastern Cape, South Africa Remembered The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Brass Plaque and stained glass window)

Born 1880, the son of an Oxfordshire family, he attended the Dragon School before going onto SES. He was at the School only two years. He ‘was a boy of slight frame with health none too good’ (Chronicle). Leaving School, he left for South Africa in 1896 to study farming so was on the spot when war broke out. He enlisted in the Protectorate Regiment and was present at the Siege of Mafeking, during which he managed to smuggle out letters to both his old schools describing the dire conditions. During the siege he contracted Malaria but refused to leave the trenches and go into the hospital. After the siege was lifted, he returned to England, visited both schools and showed the boys various momentous including shell cases, stamps and the “Mafeking Mail” the local newspaper. He shunned any applause - ‘he was modest as he was brave’ (Chronicle). He returned to South Africa in 1901 and joined Colonel Gorringe’s Scouts. He was promoted rapidly and recommended by Lord Kitchener for his bravery. In November at Roddeport, Cape Colony the Scouts were cornered and the commanding officer shot dead. Spurling took over command ‘keeping the Boers at bay’ until just before the relief column arrived, when he was killed in action. Spurling was the first OSE lost in a major war.