Westminster School and the First World War

William Horace Vere Nelson

William Nelson was the only son of Peter and Gertrude Nelson, of Mayfair. He was born on the 11^th November 1895 and was admitted to the school as a King’s Scholar on the 23^rd September 1909.

William was a member of the debating society. On one occasion, he opposed the building of a Channel Tunnel: he “very properly dealt with the matter from a military standpoint, and thrilled the society with blood-curdling calculations as regards military matters” [27 November 1913]. And on Thursday 12^th February 1914, he seconded the motion “that in the opinion of this House the risk to human life involved in exploring uninhabitable countries is not justifiable”, arguing that “there was no reason why anyone should want to go to the South Pole again now that it had been discovered. He ÔÇª argued that the fact that these regions were inhabited in the past was of very little interest to most people, and they were not likely to be habitable again for a very long time”.

William was strong academically; when he left the school in 1914, he was awarded a Triplett Exhibition for three years, a value of ┬ú20. He was also a keen sportsman, coming second in the 1914 One Mile Open Challenge Cup and competing in school gymnastics. “W.H.V. Nelson is a good gymnast and was last year very nearly good enough to represent the School. On this occasion [Inter-House Gymnastic Competition, 23 March 1914] he was a little below his usual form and made several unexpected mistakes.”

In the September after he left the school, William joined the 11^th Battalion Sherwood Foresters as a 2^nd Lieutenant. He became Lieutenant in July the following year and was attached to the 10^th Battalion.

In November 1915, he went out to the western front where he was wounded twice. He died on the 8^th July 1916 of wounds he had received in action at Fricourt, Somme.

Posted in Debating Society, The Fallen | Tagged King's Scholar | 4 Comments

Frank Street

Frank Street attended Westminster School as a Queen’s Scholar from 1884-1889. Street was a talented sportsman at school and beyond. He played Association Football for Oxford, captaining the team in 1893. He also played cricket for Essex in 1897 and 1898. On leaving university he decided to be a teacher, working at Bury St. Edmunds School, Forest School and finally settling at Uppingham from 1900.

On 22^nd April 1911 he married, at the age of 40, Marian Greenhill. On the outbreak of war he was faced with a difficult decision. Should he remain as a teacher and stay at Uppingham with his wife, or join up? In spite of being four years over the enlistment age, he decided it was his duty to go to war. He joined the 18th (Service) Battallion Royal Fusiliers in September 1914.

He had risen to the rank of Lieutenant when he led the men of the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers over the top at Mash Valley near Ovillers on the Somme on 7^th July 1916. They captured two German lines but as Street was clearing woodland and trenches between them, he was shot by a sniper.

The Uppingham School magazine included a moving epitaph:

The loss of Frank Street is one that cannot be repaired. Street was the best type of man we cannot afford to lose — the unselfish Englishman.

So fine an athlete might have been allowed some conscious pride in his prowess; but love of skill, keenness for a side, were the only instincts that inspired Street. In school…boys learnt to know and admire the same examples.

Never morose, never touchy, his humour ever ready, typical English, free from ‘swank’ of any kind. These were the reasons why he was so universally popular”

He achieved excellence from a high sense of duty; and the claims of his duty he had recognised long before the outbreak of war made them dawn upon the minds of present day patriots. His failings, if such they can be called, were modesty and the lack of personal ambition…[but] for him we feel no regrets; his life was fine, and his death a brave Englishman’s.

…Before the advance, he kept his men in hand under a heavy shell fire. We know the sort of encouragement he would have given, and almost seem to hear the words…

…Never a braver soldier fell, never was mourned a dearer friend…at the school from which he flew to arms his noble name will never die.

Street’s body was never found. His name is on memorials at Thiepval, Westminster School and St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Uppingham.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged 18th (Service) Battallion Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, Queen's Scholar, Uppingham | Leave a comment

Gordon Frederick Noble Wilkinson

Gordon Wilkinson was born to Robert and Kate Wilkinson of Croydon on the 20^th September 1892. By the time he arrived at Westminster as a member of Homeboarder’s House in 1906, his elder brother Robert Pelham Wilkinson had already left the school and gone on to be a member of the London Stock Exchange.

Gordon was a keen sportsman. He was good at the High Jump: in 1907 he came third, reaching 4ft 7 ins. And he won both of the senior swimming races in July 1909 at St. George’s Baths, in his final year at the school.

In August 1914, he enlisted in the 10^th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and later became 2^nd Lieutenant in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. By the end of June 1916, the British held the village Mametz, near Albert. On the 1^st July — the first day of the Battle of the Somme — the British attacked the German line at Fricourt. Fricourt was captured on the 2^nd July, and around 100 prisoners were taken. After the battle, the British troops cleared away the debris.

(Imperial War Museum, Q 135)

Gordon’s body was never identified, so he is commemorated only on the Thiepval Memorial. Years later, Siegfried Sassoon would ask:

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack-
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, Battle of the Somme, Homeboarders, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Royal Fusiliers | Leave a comment

Gustaf Oscar Roos

Captain Roos was the younger son of Mr. Gustaf Roos of Queen’s Gate Terrace. He was admitted in 1882, became a Queen’s Scholar in 1883. In 1887 left the school and was admitted to Balliol College Oxford where he took a first-class in jurisprudence in 1891. As a law student in London he took a very active part in organising and managing working boys’ clubs in the East End which were managed as a charitable endeavour. He became a solicitor and often worked as a ‘Poor Man’s Solicitor’ at Toynbee Hall. In the Boer War joined Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry. He was twice wounded, severely at the Battle of Spion Kop in 1900, and obtained the King’s Medal and the Queen’s Medal with six clasps. He then remained in Johannesburg practicing once again as a solicitor.

The Elizabethan records that:

He came to England for the war, and though at first refused a commission on the ground of his age obtained it by his importunity. He had boundless energy and great capacity, and was the most unselfish of men. He lived, as he died, for the good of others.

He was killed in action near Serre in the Battle of Somme on 1^st July 1916. ‘A’ Company of the 14th Battalion the York and Lancaster Regiment was under his command and ordered to proceed in file across ‘No Man’s Land’ towards the German trenches. A later report suggests that Roos managed to enter a German trench but was immediately wounded, captured by the German soldiers and taken to a nearby hospital, set up in a church, where he died from his wounds.

He was initially buried in the Fremicourt Communal Cemetery by the German forces in 1916. His body exhumed on 26^th June 1924 for reburial in a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. He was described as ‘a well-developed man with auburn hair and about 5 foot 9 or 10 inches in height, both legs broken, body badly smashed.’

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Oscar Jacob Charles Kohnstamm

Oscar Jacob Charles Kohnstamm, known as Jacob, was the second son of Rudolph and Emily Kohnstamm. He was born on 28th February 1898 and was admitted as a boarder up Grants in Play 1911. He arrived at an uneventful time; the Head of Grants noted that “nothing of importance occurred this term. There does not seem to be much talent either for work or games in the House. But many of the younger people are promising. At least it appears that there will be no big rows this year.”

Jacob seems to have got himself into trouble on a fairly regular basis. He was tanned “for ragging and breaking a window in Hall”, and again for “being out of bed at the Half”. He managed to get his younger brother Geoffrey in trouble too — they were both punished “for being out of his place for prep.”

Jacob was a member of the Junior football team and “would make a very useful forward if he had any pace. At present he is included to wander round the ball, instead of making for the opposing goal.”

Jacob’s elder brother, Norman, was made Head of Grants, but unfortunately came down with scarlet fever in 1914 and was forced to postpone his studies while he recovered. This meant that Jacob left the school in December 1913, over a year before Norman did.

In September 1914, Jacob joined the Inns of Court OTC and became a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion (Extra Reserve) Prince of Wales’s Regiment (North Staffordshire) on the 31st March 1915. He was attached to the Machine Gun Corps in December and was sent to the western front on the 5th February 1916. He was killed in the trenches at Carnoy on the Somme, France on the 29th June 1916.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged Football, Grant's, Machine Gun Corps, Prince of WalesÔÇÖs Regiment (North Staffordshire) | 5 Comments

Eric Hinckes Bird

Eric Hinckes Bird was a member of Rigaud’s House from 1907-1912. After leaving school he went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He obtained a commission just after the outbreak of the war and initially served as a Lieutenant in the City of London Regiment of the 1^st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. He was invalided home after six months on the western front in which his Regiment was involved in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the Battle of Aubers and the action of Bois Grenier. He recovered and returned to active service and subsequently became attached to the Royal Flying Corps as an Observer. He was sent out to France in June 1916.

His aircraft, an FE2b fighter, was returning from a successful bombing raid on Henin Leitard early in the morning of 26^th June. As the aircraft returned home it was attacked by German Fokkers and, along with other allied aircraft, became embroiled in a frenzied fight.

Bird’s pilot, 2^nd Lieutenant Riley made a forced landing near Mazingarbe but the aircraft ran into hidden barbed wire defences, turned over and was wrecked. Riley was thrown on to his head and suffered a severe concussion but he later recovered. Bird was less fortunate receiving a blow to the back, breaking and wrist and dislocating a shoulder and died of his wounds the following day.

German solider Lt. Max Ritter von Mulzer claimed to have caused the aircraft to crash.

Max Ritter von Mulzer pictured in his Fokker aircraft

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged Max Ritter von Mulzer, Rigaud's, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Military College | Leave a comment

Kenneth Harrison Alloa Kellie

Kenneth Harrison Alloa Kellie was born in Maida Vale on 28^th July 1874, the last of seven children. He joined Grant’s House in 1888 and spent five years at the school, before going on to Caius College to read medicine. He enjoyed rowing both at school and at University where he was part of fours and eights and took on some coaching. He was also a freemason and a founder member of the Caius Lodge.

He undertook further studies in Paris, New York and Boston. He married in 1901 and the couple had a child, Charles, in 1902. The baby only lived for a short time and the marriage remained childless. It must have been very difficult for Kellie, who specialised in paediatric medicine, working as a doctor at the Victoria Hospital for Children and the Belgrave Hospital for Children. He also had his own practice in Cavendish Square.

In 1914 at the start of the war, Kenneth was still in private practice and served as a special constable for a while. He was gazetted a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in April 1915 and sailed for France on the 12th May, attached to the Guards Brigade. According to his masonic obituary, he was promoted Captain in April 1916 on joining the Canadian Contingent as second senior Medical Officer. He went to serve in the 104th Field Ambulance at Derancourt, near Albert and was killed on the 25th June 1916. In his will, he left ┬ú1000 to the Belgrave Hospital for Children.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged Belgrave Hospital for Children, Caius College, Freemason, Guards Brigade, Royal Army Medical Corps | Leave a comment

Matthew Arden Phillimore

Matthew Phillimore was born on the 17^th March 1896. He was the younger son of George Grenville Phillimore. He was admitted to the school as a King’s Scholar in September 1909.

Matthew and his elder brother Henry were the latest in a long line of Phillimores to attend the school — over 25 members of the family across 5 generations were pupils at Westminster. Members of the Phillimore family were still actively involved in school life. Matthew’s father, for example, was involved with the publication of The Elizabethan. The school was also awarding the Phillimore Translation Prize and the Phillimore Essay Prize.

In 1912, both Matthew and his brother Henry took part in the Latin Play, Famulus. The write-up in The Elizabethan reviews the performance of each:

“Mr. M. A. PHILLIMORE made a capital Dorus. He quaked with terror, said aye or no as required of him and, in general, had such an air of terrified idiocy as rendered him irresistibly comic.”

“Mr. H. A. G. PHILLIMORE as Sophrona was suitably, old and feeble, though his gait suggested rather temporary lameness in one foot than perpetual infirmity.”

At the end of his time at the school, Matthew was elected to an exhibition at Christ Church, Oxford. He matriculated in Michaelmas 1914, but he was there for just six months before joining the army on 23^rd April 1915. He became a 2^nd Lieutenant for the 11^th (Service) Battalion of the Essex Regiment, which was billeted in Brighton, and was attached to the 9^th Regiment.

In the February of 1915, eight companies of Royal Engineers were created to dig mines below the front line, and to detect and destroy enemy mines. Matthew was attached to one of these tunnelling companies and he went out to the western front in October 1915.

Matthew Phillimore was killed in action near B├®thune on the 25^th June 1916. His parents gave a processional cross to the Church of St John the Baptist, Shedfield in his memory. His brother Henry was wounded in 1917, but survived the war and went on to become a preparatory schoolteacher in Abingdon.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged Christ Church, Essex Regiment, King's Scholar, Royal Engineers, The Latin Play | Leave a comment

Arthur William Hammans

Arthur William Hammans was born on the 31st of August 1846 and arrived at the school in September 1860. Two years after finishing school, Arthur enlisted as Ensign in the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot on the 18th December 1866. He rose to Lieutenant in September 1869, became Captain when the regiment was merged into the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in 1881, and was promoted again to Major in 1887.

On 23 Oct 1889 Arthur married Mary Josephine Wagner, who was the eldest daughter of John Wagner, of St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. He was serving in Burma in 1892 when their first son, Arthur John Spencer was born on Neilghenny Hill, India. Their second son, Alexander William, was born in 1895 in London, a year after Arthur had retired from active service. According to the census records, the family was still based in London in 1911.

Both sons had followed in their father’s footsteps and were serving with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry upon the outbreak of war. The elder son, by then Major Arthur John Spencer Hammans, served at the front with the 1st Battalion from the beginning. He was awarded the Military Cross on 10th March 1915 “for gallantry and coolness on 16 December 1914 after filling in a trench 100 yards from the enemy during which he spent three hours under heavy fire.” The younger son, Alexander William, had also been serving in the 1st Battalion at the outbreak of war, but was transferred to the 6th, which was stationed at home, where he was responsible for training new recruits.

Not to be outdone by his boys, Arthur William was re-employed by the army as Recruiting Officer at the new official recruitment station that was set up in June 1915 in the back yard of The Park Hotel, Bletchley.

But disaster struck the family in July 1915, when Alexander William was seriously injured. He had been out in France training 60 bomb throwers. On his first day in the trenches, he was testing a new type of bomb — which exploded unexpectedly, blowing off Alexander’s right hand and injuring both of his legs. Arthur left Bletchley to join his son in France. However, when Alexander began to recover, Arthur returned to his recruiting work after only five days.

The job was intense, and made more stressful when a fire broke out at the Recruiting Office in December 1915. At the age of 71, after a year of this work, Arthur suddenly fell ill and died on 13th June 1916. Arthur William Hammans was remembered for his “kindly presence and unfailing courtesy”. He was given a military funeral and was buried in the parish churchyard of Goring, where eight buglers of his former regiment sounded the Last Post.

Only Alexander survived the war; he married Catherine V.A. McCullock in London in 1920. Arthur John Spencer, who had also been awarded Elder Legion of Honour by the President of the French Republic, was killed in action on 3rd July 1917.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot, Bletchley, The Park Hotel | 2 Comments

Eustace Walter Russell Hadden

Eustace Walter Russell was the younger son of the Rev. Robert Henry Hadden, Vicar and his wife, Eva Prudence. The family home was at Hazel Hatch in Addlestone, Surrey.

Eustace was educated at Westminster School, joining Ashburnham House in 1903 and went up to Christ Church in 1908, the year after his brother.

Whilst still an undergraduate at Oxford, he joined the 4th Battalion, Territorial Force in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and was gazetted Second Lieutenant on 29^th November 1908. In 1910 he was attached to the 52nd Light Infantry at Shornecliffe and in September 1911 he was promoted to Lieutenant.

In 1912, although still in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Eustace was called to the bar of the Inner Temple and became a Barrister. In 1913 he went to Siam (now Thailand) where he worked in a legal position for the Siamese Government. He returned to England the following year, and was promoted to Captain, on Tuesday 1^st September 1914.

In 1915 he was sent to France with the 4th Battalion. Shortly afterwards he was wounded in the face. It was feared that he would lose his eyesight, however, he was treated in France and returned to his regiment. He was promoted to Temporary Major, now becoming the most Senior Officer in his Battalion.

On 7 June 1916 he was admitted to hospital in Abbeville suffering with appendicitis. Although he was operated on that day he could not be saved and died four days later in 2 Stationary Hospital, Boulogne. His death was announced in The Times on Wednesday 14 June.

Posted in The Fallen | Tagged 52nd Light Infantry, Ashburnham, Christ Church, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry | Leave a comment