WW1 - all pages

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL O XFORD AND THE

G REAT W AR

1916

The war was now largely in stalemate both on the Western Front and the Dardanelles with the protagonists facing each other across barren wastes of ‘no-mans land’. Conscription was introduced in March making service for single men compulsory (married men were added in May) and the choice of a regiment was no longer an option as many regiments had already lost too many members especially at officer level. Wilfrid Cowell, whose service to the School’s Common Room had already lasted thirty five years and who was renowned for his ability to multi-task included editing the ‘Chronicle’, which was produced four times a year right through the war. In May 1916 he reported that of the total alumni able to fight - ninety-nine percent were doing so, some as old as sixty and others as young as eighteen (possibly younger); at this time this meant four hundred and twenty in uniform and ‘ as good if not better than peer public schools’. Shortages of food were beginning to affect St. Edward’s as everyone else and the move to self sufficiency was increasing. Hay was being grown on the Sports Field and in the Quad and ‘Wiblin’s Field’ a newly purchased field behind the Chapel was being put to full use for the growing of vegetables. The boys themselves largely tended these as the field hands had all gone to war. As senior boys continued to leave, the turnover of Prefects changed apace, with no less than five Senior Prefects being appointed in 1915/16, one serving ten days only! Correspondence between those in action and the School was prolific throughout the war years and many letters and cards survive in the Archives. There was a strong bond, which had been established during their

time at the School, which now manifested itself in these often stoic, and at the same time tragic, exchanges. The ‘gung-ho’ letters of 1914 had now been replaced by far more realistic descriptions of conditions in the trenches (as far as the Censor allowed), but there was never a hint of self-pity with wounds dismissed as ‘minor’ and conditions as ‘reasonable’ when it was patently obvious they were not. Thirty eight O.S.E. died in this year, twelve during the Somme offensive, which lasted from July to November, Some of the lost had been outstanding students both in the Classroom and on the Sports Field and considered the ‘flower of the crop’ ; four Teddies families had already lost two sons. All these names were added to the wooden memorial panels in the Chapel.

H ENRY H. M AC F ARLANE NORTHCOTE 17 J ANUARY 1916

W ILFRED H ERBERT M ARSHALL NORTH-COX 2 M ARCH 1916

M AURICE E DMUND KING 15 M ARCH 1916

L ESLIE J AMES D ENMAN STANDEN 18 M ARCH 1916

C HARLES E DWARD R IDGEWAY BRIDSON 4 A PRIL 1916

L ESLIE J OHN E.C. FAIRWEATHER 19 M ARCH 1916

ROLL OF HONOUR