Roll of Honour 2023

F OREWORD (3)

army Colonels in their number. In large Victorian/Edwardian families there were few options for even the sons of clergy, after the eldest had gone into the church or the family business, others going overseas into missionary work or teaching, so the military life often offered a tempting noble career and even a glamorous, adventurous life as an alternative. While the very first OSE lost were in ‘Empire’ wars, including the Matabele risings and on the Northwest Frontier, the two Boer Wars were a major turning point, when no less than 72 Teddies pupils and OSE volunteered to go out to South Africa to fight, some famously parading around the Quad in full battle dress ‘awaiting the call’. Just what the still largely clerically-based Common Room felt about all this was not recorded. Three OSE died in these wars, and fifteen were so severely wounded they had to return to England for treatment and recuperation. The medal count was nevertheless impressive. Others remained in the forces as regulars and stayed on in South Africa or other parts of the British Empire as soldiers, farmers or even the Colonial Service. In 1905, under pressure from OSE and the pupils themselves, the School reluctantly agreed to a ‘Rifle Club’ which allowed the teaching of target-shooting at the end of the sports fields and some minor drilling. This was the precursor for the first St. Edward’s Cadet Corps which came into being in 1909, encouraged by the government and led by Lord Haldane, who directed that all Public Schools should have an ‘Officers Training Corps (OTC)’, following evidence of a serious lack of good officer material during the Boer Wars. John Bussell and Leonard Cass were the first teachers to run the SES OTC, both sadly lost six years later in the trenches. This at least would give the older boys the chance to learn the basics of soldiering in preparation for what was to come. The Corps was taken seriously and all those over fourteen years, who automatically joined, were supplied with uniforms and a variety of armaments, mostly from a by-gone age by the War Office, which at least looked the part even if they were largely ineffective. Field Days against other schools and even regular troops, inspections, and route marches all over the Oxford countryside became part of the curriculum. When The Great War broke out, a School contingent of forty souls was at their annual camp, this year held at Tidworth, and some immediately returned home to join the colours. In all, an estimated 673 members of the School community would eventually go to war, including pupils, OSE, teachers, and non-teaching staff. The oldest would be Harry Hopton (OSE) who died in service at the age of 60, and the youngest Stephen Richards (Roll 1623) aged just 18 who joined the final stage of the war and would survive. The average age of the OSE killed would be 28 years and the average age of teachers lost would be 34.