Monthly Archives: October 2015

The Geography of the Western Front

On Saturday, October 3o, Capt. H. A. Wootton delivered to a large and appreciative audience a most interesting lecture on ‘The Geography of the Western Front.’ He dealt with the front in sections, illustrating his remarks by diagrams on the blackboard, and gave us many illuminating details about places with such familiar names as Ypres, Hooge, Hill 6o, &c. Since the maps formed an integral part of his discourse, it is impossible to report his lecture at length, and we hope that this will be a suitable punishment for those who let slip the opportunity of hearing Capt. Wootton.

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Hugh Barby Crowe

19151028_Crowe,HBHugh Barby Crowe was born in 1894 to Percy and Annie Crowe and was sent to Westminster in 1907. Unlike his Rigaudite uncles George and Harold Allen, who were at the school before him, Hugh was up Grant’s.

He quickly established himself a reputation as a talented singer and gave a solo performance of Stevens’s setting of ‘Sigh no more, Ladies’ at the Election Term Concert up School in May 1908, which “showed the audience what a great variety of beautiful boys’ voices there is at Westminster”.

When he left school to go to Cambridge, he joined a thriving and close-knit community of Old Westminsters at Trinity College. They would contribute a termly letter for the House magazine the Grantite Review, and in Play 1912 the author wrote that “Mr H. B. Crowe has already shed glory upon the revival of “Water” at Westminster by having been tried for the Trial VIII’s; he is about to wrestle with his “Little-Go” [The Little-Go was a nickname for the exams that new students would sit shortly after matriculating].

In Election 1914, the editor of the Grantite Review noted that “owing to the absence of our Oxford and Cambridge Grantite correspondents on military duties, it has been impossible to receive any correspondence from them whatsoever”. Crowe had left university in May 1912 to join the 1st Battalion City of London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) as 2nd Lieutenant.

He rose to Lieutenant on 1st January 1914, and later became A.D.C. to Lord Lucan commanding the 1st London Infantry Brigade. On the 16th of September, Hugh became 2nd Lieutenant 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, but was attached to the 5th Battalion at Dover until he joined his own Battalion on the Western Front in November 1914. He was promoted to Lieutenant the following February.

It was only two months before he was invalided home from Ypres with concussion, and the Grantite Review recalls that he “came to see us when he was convalescent, like the good Grantite he was”. On his recovery, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion and went out to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on August 14th 1915.

Hugh was acting as Military Conducting Officer on HMS Hythe, when she was involved in a collision with HMS Sarnia. They had been sailing off the coast of Gallipoli without lights to avoid attracting attention. The ship sank in ten minutes and 154 men — including Hugh Barby Crowe — were drowned.

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Charles Thomas Bruce

Charles Thomas Bruce was the eldest son of the late Hon. Thomas Charles Bruce, M.P. attended the School as a member of Homeboarders House from June 1876 to March 1880. He was a nephew of Lady Augusta Stanley, and lived at the Deanery. He was attached to Sir Henry Drummond Wolff’s mission to Constantinople and Egypt, 1885-6. On his return he married Edith Mary Parker in 1897 and they had a child together around 10 months after their wedding. Sadly Edith died in 1912 and Bruce married for a second time in 1914 to Gwendolen Mary Speir. In the war he commanded a field hospital in Flanders, where he contracted the enteric fever which killed him.

Enteric fever is now more commonly known as typhoid and still kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year. Work began to develop a vaccine against the disease in the 19th Century. A British bacteriologist Almroth Edward Wright created an effective vaccine which was first used successfully in the Boer War in the 1890s. On the outbreak of the First World War, Wright convinced the army to produce 10 million vaccines for troops sent to the Western Front, undoubtedly saving hundreds of thousands of lives. The British Army was the only combatant at the outbreak of the war to have its troops fully immunized against the bacterium. For the first time, their casualties due to combat exceeded those from disease. Unfortunately Bruce, as the commander of field hospital rather than a soldier, must have not received the vaccine.

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A Doctor operates in a Field Hospital in the First World War
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The War should not prevent the performance of the Latin Play

The House met on Thursday, October 21, to discuss the motion that ‘ In the opinion of this House the War should not prevent the performance of the Play.’

The Proposer (Mr. MEYER) said that the Play being one of the School’s most treasured institutions should certainly not be stopped. He saw no reason why we should not have some diversion, andit is good for us to be cheered up every now and then. Terence’s plays certainly were not frivolous. The working and acting of the Play would be very much more difficult when none of those taking part in it had ever seen a play.

The Opposer (the SECRETARY) said that the Play was stopped in the first year of the Crimea, which was far less important than this war. If the Play was not frivolous, the epilogue most certainly was. We could not possibly have a play without the epilogue. Other public schools had given up many of their most treasured institutions. If other schools give up theirs, why shouldn’t we give up ours ? If theatres were stopped owing to the war, numbers of people would be thrown out of work, whereas the Westminster Play, as Mr. Meyer had said, was entirely run by the School, and consequently no one would be thrown out of work if we did not have it.

The Seconder (The PRESIDENT) said that the Secretary was quite wrong, and that there was a play at the time of the Crimean war. The Play had not been stopped at all in the last century, not even in the Napoleonic wars, except out of compliment to the Royal Family when a prominent member of it had died. He quite agreed that it was not right for us to criticise at this time, and that consequently we could not have an epilogue, but could we not have some sort of commemorative address? There were certain details with regard to the Play that people could not have drummed into them.

Mr. ABRAHAMS said that the sentimental. side of the question could not possibly be neglected. One did not want uproarious laughter nowadays. He gave us a quotation from the Famulus, and said that that was not the sort of thing we wanted at this time. This terrible war, into which all Europe was now plunged, was a far greater calamity than the death of a king. If we stopped the Play for that, surely it was our duty to stop it now. If the actors found that there was only a small audience, it would have a very bad effect upon them.

Mr. HERBERT told us that the newspapers last year, discussing the fact that ‘Westminster was not having its Play, said that it was exceedingly good taste.

The SECRETARY pointed out that it would be no more of a blow to us not to have the Play than it was to Eton and Harrow not to have their usual match at Lord’s.

Mr. OLIVER said that the only reason why the Eton and Harrow match did not take place at Lord’s was that Lord’s was not open.

Mr. SIMPSON suggested that now that we were more settled and in less of a panic we might have the Play again.

The SECRETARY disputed that we were settled and knew where we were.

The PRESIDENT said that we must certainly find out whether various influential Old Westminsters approved or not.

The motion was then put to the vote and carried by 14 votes to 7.

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John Wyndham Hamilton McCulloch

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John was the only son of John Exley McCulloch of Paddington. He was born in December 1894,and arrived up Ashburnham in 1909.

He took part in the debating society. A report in The Elizabethan, notes that “On Thursday, October 19, the House met to discuss the following motion, ‘That in the opinion of this House the advantages of a boarding school are exaggerated.’ÔǪ The Seconder (Mr J.W. McCulloch), dwelt upon the splendid discipline of home life; in a moment of confidence, he gave the Society a glimpse of himself seated over his books in a lonely attic, from which the ‘injusta noverca’ forbade him to stir”.

However, his primary interest at school was sports and his contemporaries said he was a “useful” player. He earned a pink in both Cricket and Football and, in 1913, he played cricket for Middlesex.

On the 4th November 1914, he enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant for the 8th (Service) Battalion Border Regiment, and became Lieutenant the following February. He was serving as a temporary Captain when he was wounded in Flanders on the 20th October 1915.

He died of his injuries at Bailleul the following day.

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George Constantine Paul

19151017_Paul,GC_2 George Paul was born in Belgium. His father, Paul Paul (1865-1937) was an eminent landscape and portrait painter who also painted under the name Politachi. His mother, Marion, died in 1909 when George was just 13 years old. He started at Westminster the following year in Ashburnham House and remained at the school until July 1914.

George Paul played an active part in House life. He was tanned [beaten] by a monitor, McCulloch for ‘coming into upper [the senior boys study] when not properly dressed’. He made up for his misdemeanours by his sporting ability and was awarded house colours and later full pinks. In 1913, thanks to Paul’s help, Ashburnham House managed to win both the inter-house Football and Cricket competitions.

Paul played football for the school, although it was wryly noted in The Elizabethan that he and a contemporary Veitch would never be ‘of much value till they realise that feeding their forwards well is nearly as valuable as robbing their opponents of the ball’. He can’t have been that bad a player as he made it on to the 1st XI during his last year at school, although the report for the season state that ‘he must learn to keep his eye on the ball when he tackles instead of making rather a blind dash for it.’

That summer, following the outbreak of war with Germany, he joined the army. He served in The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He was killed in action at Ypres, Belgium when he was just 19 years old.

(c) Bushey Museum and Art Gallery; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
One of George Paul’s father’s paintings now held by the Bushey Museum and Art Gallery.
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Nicholas George Berwick Lechmere

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The cap badge for the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment

Nicholas was the youngest son of Sir Edmund Lechmere who was MP for Worcestershire. He arrived at the school up Ashburnham in May 1895 and studied modern languages and science, rather than Classics. He left in Election 1897 and four years later he enrolled at RMC Sandhurst.

He became 2nd Lieutenant of the Scots Guards in May 1902, just when the Scots Guards were returning home from the Boer War, but he retired from the army in 1906.

On the 23rd June 1904, Nicholas married Mary Katherine Pegg of Basingstoke, who was the only daughter of Major John Pegg, but she died after only six years of marriage. They had no children.

When war broke out, he re-joined the army as Captain of the 10th Service Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and was attached to the 2nd Battalion. He was sent out to the western front in June 1915.

He was killed in action, aged 34, while attempting to capture the Hohenzollern Redoubt, near Loos

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Leslie Cozens

19151014_Cozens,LeslieLeslie Cozens, known as “Tim” to his friends, was in Ashburnham House from 1908-1911. He was also educated at Malvern and Cherbourg. On leaving school he was employed at his father’s leather works at Hatherton Street in Walsall, and played cricket and golf. He was commissioned into the 5th South Staffords in 1912, eventually being promoted to the rank of Captain in the field in May 1915, taking over command of “A” Company.

Lieutenant-Colonel Raymer wrote to his father on receiving news of his death:

“On the afternoon of the 13th the battalion attacked the German trenches. Your son was in command of “A” Company, and was lying on the ground with his company, just at my side, when he was hit…I ask you to accept from myself and all his surviving comrades our deepest sympathy with you in your sad loss. He was a keen and fearless officer, and we are very sad at parting with him.”

Leslie Cozens is memorialised at Lichfield Cathedral, where his name was carved into a cover on the font cover by Albert Arthur Kitchen. The close ups below were kindly provided by Kitchen’s great-grandson, Marcus.

Litchfield Cathedral Font Copyright Walwyn: https://www.flickr.com/people/overton_cat/

 

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This House would welcome the revival of Sumptuary Laws

The House met on Thursday, October 14, to discuss the motion that ‘ This House would welcome the revival of Sumptuary Laws.’

The Proposer (Mr. TURBERVILLE) began by defining sumptuary laws ; he said that they limited expenditure in food, furniture, apparel, &c., and had first appeared in Rome during the third century before Christ, but had obtained since in some form or other in all civilised countries. He pointed out that people were failing to economise now, not because they were unwilling, but because they did not realise the pressing need for it ; legislation would help them to realise this need. At the present moment we were doing nothing to prepare ourselves to bear the burden of the great debt which would ensue from the war ; we should merely shift it on to the shoulders of generations to come. Ordinary taxes press hardest on the lower classes, while it is those higher up in the social scale who indulge in reckless expenditure, subversive to the interests of the country and, at the present time, of the world. We had had enough of appealing pamphlets, and it was time that legislation should be introduced. Mr. Turberville has a hesitating delivery and tendency to repeat himself, but he brought out the main points of his case.

The Opposer (Mr. HARROD) said that there were two ways in which sumptuary laws might be introduced. A mild Government might limitexpenditure in certain articles, the number of which would be gradually increased ; this would only turn the attention of the population to articles to which no limit of expenditure was laid down, and the evil would increase ; there were sumptuary laws at Rome, but Rome fell because of her indulgence in luxury. Secondly, a determined Government might prohibit all luxuries at one fell swoop. No Englishman would stand this, we are too jealous of our private life. Some other remedy must be found to limit extravagance. It was absurd to let people possess excessive wealth, and then make laws to prevent them using it. Such steps as the nationalisation of railways and the revision of our laws of inheritance must be taken to ensure an even distribution of wealth. Mr. Harrod made a brief recapitulation of the chief points of his speech, and then sat down ; he speaks well, though his method of delivery is apt to grate on the nerves.

The Seconder (Mr. ELLIS) spoke so fast and so indistinctly that it was almost impossible to gather the drift of his argument. He suggested that such legislation might help to alleviate poverty. As for the impracticability of such measures, he thought the dropping of Mr. Lloyd George’s Bill dealing with drink a disgrace to the nation. Personally he thought sumptuary laws would be welcome.

Mr. GREIG added his theory of the history of sumptuary laws, with special reference to any such legislation obtaining at any time in England. There were sumptuary laws at present in force in the shape of taxes on foodstuffs. After a quotation from Horace he brought his speech to an end.

The PRESIDENT then disputed several of Mr. Harrod’s statements, after which he sat down.

Mr. BRANDON-THOMAS said that nothing would stop a man having drink. If you tried to abolish luxury you would throw thousands of dressmakers and clothworkers out of work. You couldn’t abolish luxury without hurting others.

Mr. HERBERT pointed out that the expense of assessing everybody’s level of luxury would be tremendous.

After a final definition by the VICE-PRESIDENT the motion was put to the vote and lost by 6 votes to 11

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Laurence Anderson

Laurence Anderson was born in Tokyo in 1874. His father, William, was working there as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Imperial Naval Medical College, and was becoming known as a collector of Japanese art. Laurence was six when the family relocated to London, where his father returned to work at St Thomas’s Hospital.

In January 1888, Laurence was admitted to the School as a Homeboarder, and then went on to Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1895. He went into business in Siam for several years before moving to Malacca, Malaysia in January 1911 to take up a position as manager of Devon Estates, which was in the process of acquiring a large piece of land in the Merlimau District.

On the outbreak of war, Laurence returned to Britain to enlist as 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on the 19th September 1914. He was attached to the 1st battalion, and sent to the western front.

Killed in action on 11th October 1915, leaving his wife Eleanor behind. He is buried at Loos-en-Gohelle and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

The Loos memorial and the Dud Corner Cemetery (taken between the wars)
The Loos memorial and the Dud Corner Cemetery (taken between the wars)
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