Head's Newsletter 16 November 2018

Every year Tiffin marks the Remembrance weekend in our own commemoration with the laying of wreaths on our Memorial tablets. Each year we specifically pick out and remember different names from the war Memorials, and this year we remembered 3 of those Tiffinians whose names were not initially included on the First World War Memorial, but who have been added over this Autumn half term. David Potts was only 17 when he joined up, and died as a prisoner of war aged 19 in 1918, having been captured during the German Ludendorff Offensive. John Wakefield volunteered with the East Surrey Regiment in 1915, and died in the assault on Messines Ridge, outside Ypres, in 1917, also aged 19. Charles Cook attended Tiffin in the 1880s, and is one of the oldest known Tiffin casualties: having previously served with the East Surrey Regiment in the Boer War, he re -enlisted in 1915, and died in Murmansk, Russia, in 1919, aged 45.

From World War Two, we were very pleased to remember Peter Bevis (photo bottom left), who attended Tiffin in the 1930s, and joined the RAF. Flying with Bomber Command, he died aged 21 when his Lancaster was shot down over the Dutch coast in 1943, following a raid on Germany. We were delighted that Peter’s nephew, also called Peter after his deceased uncle, was a guest in our service (with me, below). During the war, Peter Bevis had flown under the command of Guy Gibson, later to achieve fame leading the ‘Dambusters’ Raid, and his nephew had brought in his flying log book with Gibson’s signature (below).

The greater privilege though, was that we were able to read out in the assemblies the extraordinary letter that Peter had written to his parents when he joined the RAF aged 19, only to be opened in the event of his death; a truly remarkable and deeply moving piece of writing.