St Edward's 150 Years - by Nicola Hunter

St Edward’s: 150 Years

Chapter 2 / Wardens

Below:WardenFerguson,1915.HisWardenship coincided with the Great War. Bottom left: Drawing of Warden Ferguson by Richard Meadows White (B.1914–1919), 1918.

Below: Laying the foundation stone of the Memorial Buildings, 1923, later to become Tilly’s.

Bottom right: H.E. Kendall, c. 1930.

HENRY EWING KENDALL (1888–1963), WARDEN 1925–54

The Revd Henry Ewing Kendall was the longest-serving of our Wardens to date, remaining in post for 29 years. Kendall had been recommended to the committee, which included Sing and Ferguson, that chose the new Warden, by the Headmaster of Shrewsbury School, Canon Sawyer. Kendall had been a pupil at Shrewsbury and later became a Housemaster there. Canon Sawyer said of him that he was ‘thoroughly cultured’ but ‘it is as a personality and a Spiritual Force that he is so outstanding’. He certainly had a strong personality and a great deal of drive, which he used to the enormous advantage of St Edward’s. Kendall was born in Liverpool, the son of a solicitor, and had read History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He had returned to Shrewsbury in 1913 as an Assistant Master and been ordained in 1915. From 1916 to 1919 he served as a Royal Naval Chaplain and was made an OBE, returning to Shrewsbury in 1920. During his time as Warden of St Edward’s he more than doubled the School numbers to 480 boys.

Above:BigSchool, c. 1916. Left: Armoury, c. 1920.

WILLIAM HAROLD FERGUSON (1874–1950), WARDEN 1913–25

From the outset he decided to remove any vestiges of Warden Hudson’s Victorian toughness from the School, intending to give the pupils a better and more fulfilling school life. His heart was very much in the Chapel and he was intent on improving the School’s singing; he composed a number of hymns, including the tune known as ‘Wolvercote’, to which the hymn ‘O Jesus I have promised’ is often sung. Ferguson made many contributions to the School’s facilities: he brought electric light to Big School, the Cloisters and two of the classrooms in 1923, built a Sanatorium in the Chapel garden and the Memorial Buildings, later to be Tilly’s. He also raised the number of pupils, and by 1920 there were 230 boys at St Edward’s. When he left in 1925 he went to be Warden at Radley College for 12 years, and subsequently he was a Governor at St Edward’s, 1939–48.

Below: Common Room 1920. This collection of masters includes Tilly and Macnamara, bothofwhom, inaddition toCowell andSing, hadhouses namedafter them. Back row(left to right): E.T. James, A. Tilly, B.G. Segar (Segar’s was named after Gerry Segar not George Segar, shownhere), RevdB.W. Machin, H.E. Phillips,W.M.W. Shackleton, M.M. Sing, E.R. Roe- Thompson. Seated (left to right): Revd A.R. Watson, B.M. Goldie, W.H.A. Cowell, Warden Ferguson, W.K. Stanton, J.W. Griffiths, Revd A. Macnamara.

One of his early moves, regarded by Hill as ‘the most sweeping alteration that the school, for all its 62 years, had yet experienced’, was to introduce the new House system. The new Houses were: Apsley, with the Warden in charge and G.H. Segar assisting him, Field House, Tilly’s, Cowell’s, Sing’s and Macnamara’s, at that time a boys’ House, of course. Kendall’s Wardenship guided the School through the Second World War with many brilliant improvisations and necessary adjustments. During the war there was food rationing which led to the creation of the St Edward’s School Pig Club run by the Common Room which continued until 1960. When boys returned in September 1939 they found that each House already had its own air-raid shelter,

Revd Ferguson was a personable man born in 1874 and educated at Magdelen College School and Keble College, Oxford. He first came to St Edward’s to teach directly after university but moved on in 1898, was ordained in 1903 and came back to Teddies from Lancing College, as fifth Warden. His arrival coincided with the outbreak of the Great War and when the summer holidays ended he found that several of his Common Room, other School staff, most of the 1st Rugby XV and the majority of his prefects had already enlisted and left for the war. However, the intake of new boys was at a record level and he proved well able to deal with this combination of events. He was extremely musical, coming to the School originally as an Assistant Master and organist, with a good singing voice.

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