Month: October 2018 Page 1 of 4

Percy Farrant was born in Hemyock and is the only one of our Old Boys buried on British soil. His war grave is in Hemyock Cemetery.

Farrant was training with the Inns of Court Officer Training at Lincoln’s Inn, London when he was taken ill in June 1916. He had survived a bout of scarlet fever and hospitalization in February of the same year and was getting back to training when he was struck down by acute appendicitis. Tragically, it was too late to save him and he passed away on 30th June 1916, at the age of 26. He was survived by his wife, Ethel.

Jack Annal was a voracious reader, a writer of lively letters and a trainee chemist. He enlisted in Bath soon after war was declared and joined the 1/4 Somerset Light Infantry. Annal saw action in India and Mesopotamia, where he was a Prisoner of War. He died of dysentry in June 1916 at the age of 24.

You will familiar with the front cover by now, I’m sure, but I thought you may like to know just who the men are who are featured on it. I will not go into too much detail here. In the top right of the cover is George Corner, the Headmaster of Wellington School. The soldier slightly in the background is Lieutenant J. V. R. Pastfield, a man who served on both the Western Front and as part of the Camel Corps which was part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He signed up in 1915, fought from then on and died on 9th September 1918.  Slightly in front of him is Lieut. E. R. Zealley. Zealley was one of the first of the R.A.F. pilots and was killed when another plane on a training exercise crashed into his, bringing the plane down and taking the lives of Zealley and his observer. They died on 30th August 1918.

I am so excited that the back cover is now done. Special thanks to Paul at Battlefield Design for bringing the concept to life and to Ian who very kindly gave permission for the images of his grandfather and his postcard to be used. No story sums up the human cost of war than that of Sergt. P. A. Clode. Even though I say it myself, there is something extremely powerful about the cover.

People have asked me for a little more information about what actually is in the book so I thought I’d write a little about it here. There are five chapters. The largest chapter is Chapter 3, ‘Remembering the Fallen’ and it is here that each individual story of our Old Boys is told. The stories range in length and reflect the fact that we were able to find out more about some of our Old Boys than others.

Framing the memorial chapter is the story of George Corner and his building  of the Chapel.  Chapter 1 explores what the School was like in the early years of Corner’s headship. It ends as the boys are being brought back from O. T. C. camp early the day before war is declared.  Chapter 2 brings the voices of the School community together during the war years. It explores how the School responded to the service of so many of its Old Boys, how it adapted to the privations and hardships brought by the war and ends with the Reunion Weekend in July 1919. Most striking in this chapter are Corner’s letters to his Old Boys which provide a moving portrayal of his attempts to motivate, comfort and unite them. As the war progresses the tone of his letters changes and a weariness can be seen.

Chapters 4 and 5 follow George Corner’s dream to build the Memorial Chapel and his years after retiring from the School. Chapter 4 weaves extracts from Joe Storr’s ‘A Fitting Memorial’, a play written to mark the 50th anniversary of the Chapel in 1981, into the story of Corner’s battle to gain funding and support for this most ambitious project. It took twelve long years and the personal cost to George Corner, in both financial terms and in terms of his health, was huge. At the end of this chapter is a reflection on what the Chapel means to us today and the part it plays in School life.

Chapter 5 marks the last years of Corner’s headship and life as he retired from the School and took up residence in his much-loved home at Ruggin Court. He passed away in 1947. The School placed a statue of him outside of Chapel in 1996.