33 / 64
S
T
. E
DWARD
’
S
S
CHOOL
O
XFORD
AND THE
G
REAT
W
AR
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of 1914 had now been replaced by far more realistic descriptions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
C
HARLES
E
DWARD
R
IDGEWAY
BRIDSON
4 A
PRIL
1916
L
ESLIE
J
AMES
D
ENMAN
STANDEN
18 M
ARCH
1916
L
ESLIE
J
OHN
E.C.
FAIRWEATHER
19 M
ARCH
1916
1916
ROLL OF HONOUR