Wellington School, Somerset
Four years ago, as we were preparing for the Commemoration Service to mark the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of WW1, I remember sitting down in Chapel and looking at the beautiful red panelling containing the names of those Old Boys who had fallen in the war. I had seen them almost daily for fifteen years but I looked at them properly for the first time. The Chapel recorded their regiments and deaths but there was nothing here about their lives. It was this that lit my interest and I decided I would find out as much as I could about them as individuals, the men behind the names.
The School magazines provided an excellent starting point and I very quickly found myself immersed in the School before 1914 with its reports of sports matches, O. T. C. days and schoolboy humour. As the outbreak of war was recorded and the subsequent focus changed, I began to realise that what I was reading was a unique record of the impact of war on a small, close community. The ‘Extracts from the Head’s Letter Bag’ brought the voices of serving men to me, relating their experiences and thoughts. I was touched that so many of them had taken time to write to their Headmaster, George Corner and his sister, Mary in what must have been very trying circumstances. What sort of man must Corner have been to have such affection and loyalty from so many Old Boys, I asked myself? It didn’t take me long to find out. Corner’s ‘My Dear Old Boys’ letters, also published in the magazines, show us a man of great energy, devotion and feeling. He saw over 300 of his Old Boys enlist and fight on many fronts overseas and he was as concerned for them as any parent would be. With news of casualties and deaths of Old Boys, Corner experienced a personal grief. He had watched many of them grow from boys to men and to see so much lost potential was harrowing.
It is this perhaps that motivated his determination to build a Memorial Chapel for those Old Boys who never came home. A staggeringly ambitious project, given the size of the School and the economic impact of war, Corner cajoled, persuaded and fought to gain enough funds to build it. The toll on his health was palpable. It took twelve years. Corner’s passion, loyalty and love of the School were extraordinary. When funds were low, he gave his own money so that his ‘Fitting Memorial’ would be finished. He was owed over £6,000 when he retired – almost £400,000 in today’s money.
The stories of George Corner and the 37 Old Boys who fell deserve to be told. They have gifted to us a unique insight into our School in these years through their voices and experiences. Their legacy of service, bravery and resilience are humbling. Our Wellington School is a very different place now than it was 100 years ago in many ways, but the legacy of Corner and his Old Boys is all around. The ‘community’ feel of the school, which makes it so special to many, lives on.