St Edward's School Oxford and the Great War 1914-1918

W HOLE -S CHOOL PHOTOGRAPH 1899 This was the last surviving such picture taken until 1920; it is not known for certain whether any such grouping ever sat between these two dates - reasons unknown. This photograph is interesting as almost every boy and several teachers would have fought in the Great War and many died. The Reverend Thomas Hudson, the School’s third Warden, sits in the centre and was half way through his tenure - four of his five sons, all educated at the School, would serve in the war with two killed in action. On Hudson’s left sits Wilfrid Cowell and two future Wardens are seated at the right hand end (John Sing) and sixth from the right (William Ferguson). The all powerful School Prefects are arrayed behind the Warden; Clement Leadley-Brown is immediately behind Hudson and Cowell, now in his sixth term as Senior Prefect having been appointed at the age of seventeen, a rare occurrence in itself.