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R H U B A R B R H U B A R B
Painted Illusions
Timothy Plant
(B, 1957-1961)
The first three editions
of Painted Illusions were
published in the UK and
the USA in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. Now,
with about 20 years more
work and experience
behind us, we present a
new edition containing many colour plates
of murals painted by us in various parts of the
world since the last edition was published. All the
black and white illustrations and diagrams have
been carefully revised and the text refined.
Books
A Restored Earth: Ten Paths to a Hopeful Future
Edward Davey
(A, 1994-1999)
Coming in 2017, A Restored Earth: Ten Paths to a Hopeful Future is an optimistic
book about how to address the world’s environmental challenges and make
life better and more peaceful for people, nature, and the planet. The world
has woken up in recent years to the scale of the environmental predicament it
faces. 2015 was a turning point, in which the international community agreed
an inspirational new set of ‘sustainable development goals’ and a far-sighted
climate change agreement. What is needed now is to move from these
commitments to action: A Restored Earth shows how. Whether in addressing
climate change, forest loss, soil erosion, fresh water pollution, the biodiversity
crisis, ocean acidification, polluted cities, or the world’s waste, the solutions
are at hand, and nor do they cost very much. What is needed is for us all to
care – and then to make a difference, through personal action and a global
response.
The Missing
Plaques
While researching for my Great War
book about the School, Members of a Very
Noble Friendship, it soon became apparent
that the actual figures of OSE war dead
were incorrectly remembered in Chapel
on the wooden memorial plaques. In fact,
seven individuals were omitted at the time
although they were as justified as the rest in
being included. To make things even more
confusing another OSE was mentioned in
two School Rolls (but with no plaque) as
having been killed in action but had in fact
survived and lived until 1942. Another man
was always included in the lists of the Great
War dead but in fact survived, only to be
lost in another war in 1919!
The then Warden, The Reverend William
Ferguson, and his School Historian Wilfrid
Cowell had been the principal collators of
the War statistics and had always wanted
to include not only those who had died in
battle or of their wounds but also those
who perished as ‘a result of there being a
war’. These included losses due to illness,
over-work and accidents entirely due to the
war effort.
Why these seven were missed is
unknown but, despite Cowell’s best efforts,
the gathering of information from so The new Chapel Plaques
many different fronts and with tenuous
communication lines may have meant he
just wasn’t aware and then elected not to
follow up later.
Who were these seven ‘forgotten’
heroes? Two were civilians one who died
from over-work in Egypt overseeing the
building of roads for troop movements
in 1916 and another killed in an accident
while working with war munitions at
Woolwich Arsenal in 1917. The remainder
were all lost in action, three on the
Somme in 1916, one with the RAF in
1918 - shot down by the German Ace
Rudolph Berthold. The last is something
of a mystery as this was John Paul Ridgeway
killed in 1915 at Loos, one of two Teddies
brothers lost in this war. He had been
at St Edward’s for seven years and was
remembered in all the Rolls and other
memorials and must have had a plaque at
some time but, for whatever reason, this
had gone missing.
Now with the generosity of The School
Society, seven new plaques have been
mounted in the Chapel, maybe 100 years
late but nonetheless totally warranted, and
the record is now complete.
Archivist Chris Nathan (G, 1954-1957)