St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 8 / Celebrations

Below: Gaudy, 1904.

Right: Jubilee lunch in Big School, 1913.

Gaudy speeches, 1953.

Summer Gaudy fell into abeyance in 1915 due to World War I, as Warden Ferguson felt it wrong to hold parties while so many young men were dying. There were in fact no Gaudies in the summer between 1916 and 1928, and prize-giving, which had become associated with the event, also ceased, though there was a small prize-giving in 1928 when Warden Kendall handed out the prizes. Meanwhile, the Commemoration day of 1923 marked the 50th anniversary of the move to Summertown and the 60th of the School’s existence, and Hill provides much information about the event. On Saturday, 9 December, the OSE defeated Radley at rugby football, after which a large gathering of parents and OSE went to the Warden’s House for tea and later 69 sat down to the OSE dinner at the Clarendon Hotel in Oxford. The event continued through Sunday and Monday, on which day the Dean of Winchester, attended by the Provost of Lancing and Wardens Ferguson and Simeon, laid the foundation stone for the Memorial Buildings (later to become Tilly’s), using the same trowel and mallet used by Chamberlain for the School’s first main buildings and by Bishop Mackarness for the Chapel. In the lower part of the stone was a glass container with the lists of the term, The Times of 10 December 1923 and

the December Chronicle . After lunch the OSE were defeated by the School in a rugby match and that night Cowell presented A Midsummer Night’s Dream , using the main doors of the Dining Hall for the majority of the entrances and exits. Puck was played by Laurence Olivier. The following day was given to an Inspection of the OTC. In 1929 the Summer Gaudy was re-introduced, with prizes, a garden party, and an evening entertainment. The event, on 15 June, was very similar to present Gaudies, with tea for 1,000 in the Quad and a concert. Cyril Allington, Headmaster of Eton College, gave the prizes. 1933 was used as a Jubilee celebration of the move to Summertown. The Summer Gaudy lasted two days. This included a PT display and prize-giving on Saturday and the cricket match on Friday, during which the Pavilion was formally opened by Sir Russell Bencraft, OSE, a medical doctor but known as a great cricketer and cricket administrator. There were Diamond Jubilee Dinners in London and at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford – which had been built by the same architect as the School’s principal original buildings, William Wilkinson. The Gaudy of June 1946, a year after the end of the Second World War, was memorable both for a record 105 diners at the London Dinner and because Douglas Bader was in the chair. The photograph of a c .1950 Gaudy shows that there was no marquee in the Quad and women were still wearing hats for such an event. In 1953 the Gaudy celebrations were brought forward into May to precede the special Exeat due to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

played in the winter and the cricket match in the summer, to coincide with Commem and Gaudy respectively. It was not until 2005 that the word ‘Commemoration’ or ‘Commem’ was replaced by the ‘Special Gaudies’ – held for groups of OSE at various times of year, sometimes in the autumn. The form of the Gaudy in 1888 was not too unlike that of today, though some aspects of the entertainment clearly show a blatant disregard for ‘health and safety’. This is how Desmond Hill records the programme of events in his 1962 History of St Edward’s : 8am Choral Eucharist. 12.00 Service and Sermon. 1pm Luncheon and Speeches in Big School. 3pm Assault-at-Arms (at which the Instructor ‘did some amusing things with the sword, such as chopping a potato in half on a boy’s neck, etc.’).

with lush foliage in the centre and empty of buildings at the south-east corner. However, the earliest major Gaudy for which we have a variety of photographs was that of 1913. This particular Gaudy celebrated 50 years since the School was founded and the Bishop of London preached at the event. It included a lunch, of which there is a wonderful photograph (top) , showing the women in impressive hats and many people crammed into Big School. The Oxford Times said that 400 sat down to the meal both here and in the Dining Hall and we have included a reproduction of an invitation to the event (above) . Kenneth Grahame proposed the health of Simeon, who was present as an honoured guest, and here is how the Oxford Journal recorded the speech: ‘He spoke of him as possessing in the days of his Wardenship all the qualities needed for the execution of the task he set himself – youth, enthusiasm, personal charm, a great single-minded devotion to his work, and that magnetic quality by which one attached the allegiance and secured the co-operation of men and women, and even of boys.’ Warden Ferguson, about to take over from Warden Sing in the following Autumn Term, said in his speech that he ‘owed St Edward’s a debt for teaching him many things about his profession. There was an atmosphere about the place which gripped everyone who came in contact with it.’ Wardens Sing, Ferguson and Hobson attended the event.

Simeon laying the foundation stonefortheMemorialBuildings (Tilly’s), in 1923.

Aquatic performances in the Swimming Bath. Followed by Music and Refreshment in the Quad (weather permitting).

Tea followed ‘at the usual time in the Library’. 8pm Evening Chapel.

We have a rare photograph of a Gaudy of 1904 taken from one of what are now Apsley windows (above) , showing the Quad

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