A group of King's College staff, parents and pupils recently returned from a trip
to the battlefields of Flanders in which they paid tribute to former pupils who lost
their lives during the Great War.
As 2014 is a significant year, marking 100 years since the start
of the First World War, the tour was arranged to coincide with
the centenary commemorations, but also to focus on paying
respects to the 82 former pupils (Old Aluredians, or OAs) who
lost their lives.
Taking in parts of eastern France and Belgium over a four-day
period, the group visited many of the most significant sites of the
Western Front, enhancing their knowledge of the lives of the 82
OAs.
Thanks in particular to the recently published Book of
Remembrance 1914-18, edited by former pupil Chris Warren,
who also accompanied the tour, it was possible to retrace the
movements of many of those former pupils who died 100 years
ago, and to lay memorial crosses near the places where they
fell. In all, eighteen crosses, organised by school archivist Alison
Mason and designed and made in the King's College Design
Technology Centre, were placed in the Somme region of eastern
France, as well as at Vimy Ridge and at Ypres in Belgium.
One former pupil, Frederick Cancellor, was only seventeen years old when he
died at Vimy Ridge in 1916, and the school archives show that during his time
at King's College he was a member of the Debating Society and took the part
of the Earl of Cambridge in the 1913 production of Henry V. He was also a
keen Cadet in the Officers' Training Corps. Current pupil Duncan McLeod laid
a cross at his memorial. Duncan is also seventeen and, like Cancellor, spent
time in Canada (Cancellor joined a Canadian Regiment).
Another former pupil, Colin Selwyn, died at Passchendaele in 1917, having
been a Prefect and a Colour Sergeant in the Officers' Training Corps, as well
as taking part in the King's Review at Windsor in 1911. He played cricket and
football for the 1st XI and was awarded his colours for both, and he was the
holder of both the high jump and long jump records for a number of years.
Current pupils Ed Keeling and Tessa Counsell laid a cross at his memorial.
Tour leader Patrick Scanlan said - 'It was hearing these very personal stories
that brought the reality of war home to the 28 pupils, parents and staff who went
on the tour.'
Two especially poignant moments came when current pupils laid crosses and
wreaths at the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme, and also at the famous daily
Menin Gate Last Post ceremony at Ypres. Three OAs are listed at the Thiepval
memorial to the 73,367 who were missing on the Somme, while a further six
OAs are listed on the Menin Gate memorial to the 54,896 who were missing in
the Ypres region. A minute's silence was observed after current pupils Amelia
Banton, Sam Sprague and Henry Biggs laid a wreath at the Menin Gate in front
of a large crowd.
Detailed explanations of military tactics by current parent Anthony Pittman,
a keen military expert, were a highlight of the tour, enabling everyone to
appreciate clearly the many different forms of warfare that would have been
experienced by OAs at the time. The long and perilous walk across no-man's
land in the face of incessant machine-gun fire at nearby Newfoundland Park,
where Lionel Soper OA died, showed everyone the horrendous circumstances
in which so many young men died during the battle of the Somme.
Pupils began to research and study the lives of the former pupils prior to setting
off on the trip. This helped to bring a human aspect to the places they were to
visit. Whilst the trip was moving and at times sombre, it was also informative
and thought-provoking, leading to much reflection and discussion, not only
about the individual former pupils themselves, but about warfare in general; the
military objectives, logistics and tactics of the time, and its far-reaching impact
on the political, socio-economic and geographical landscapes of Europe.
WWI Battlefields Tour