Schoolmaster

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

27th September 1918

Arthur Bruce-Freeman, D Social 1910. Lt, 2nd Bn, Royal Scots Fusiliers. Killed during the Advance across Flanders

He was a member of a military family whose father also served in the 3rd Hussars. He went straight to Sandhurst on leaving school in 1914. He served on the Western Front throughout WW1

was known at Radley always with the initials of T. B. On leaving, he entered Sandhurst, and passed into the 3rd Hussars.In April last he was transferred to the Royal Scots Fusiliers, and was wounded a month later. He went out again on Sept. 12, and was killed on the 27th.

Aged 22

AND

Lt Arthur Bruce-Freeman, Royal Scots Fusiliers

James Carter, Don. Captain, 1st Bn, Grenadier Guards. Killed in action, Battle of Canal du Nord

After a distinguished career at Eton and Cambridge, where he rowed in the fine eight of 1903, J. S. Carter came to Radley as a master. and was here for five years, leaving at the end of the Summer term, 1909. He took up work at Warren Hill, and, just before the war, had taken a private school at Cromer in partnership with Mr. Hales. After the latter’s death, Mr. Carter carried on till Easter 1917, when he decided that he too would go out to the front, for he had always been a keen Territorial. He took a commission in the Grenadier Guards, and went to France early this year. In August he was made Acting Captain, and was killed on Sept. 27th.

I should think it is quite true to say that Jim never had an enemy: for he was one of those genial large-hearted giants, with whom it was impossible to feel anger, and who was popular with everyone.

Naturally when he was here he associated himself with the river, and he coached the crew of 1909: but his interests were wide and varied. He had stayed some months in Athens, and he took a keen interest in archaeology, while he was more than an enthusiastic entomologist. Many a night have I been out” sugaring” with him, and he was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who was keen on that subject. He was a first class skater, and competed two or three times for the “Open Bowl” at Davos, while at Leuzerheide he was deservedly the most popular man in the place. It was only this time last year that he came down to Radley to sing in a concert, and perform in the “Radley Quartette,” which for five years enjoyed some popularity while he was here.

It is hard to realize that poor old Jim is gone too, like, Sammy Hales and Lance Vidal. Truly Radley has had some cruel losses, but the loss of these three leaves a sorrow that will never fade away. In his last letter, only three weeks’ ago, he wrote, ” I would not miss this for anything. The men are simply splendid, and it is a real privilege to be with them. Keep the home fires burning and some day I shall be sitting by your fireside, with a pipe, boring you stiff with what we did in the great war.” And now he has joined all those other heroes, but he still lives enshrined. in the hearts of many devoted and sorrowing friends.

Aged 37

AND

JS Carter, from Radley College Common Room photo, 1906

Alfred Morris, F Social 1909. Lt, 1st Bn, Grenadier Guards. Killed in action, Battle of Canal du Nord

He left school in 1912 and went straight to Sandhurst. He served initially with the Royal Fusiliers from 1914, then joined the Grenadier Guards.

Aged 23

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

The VIII on the river 1903. EN Balme rowing at 2

22nd April 1918

Edward Balme, MC. A Social 1899. Lt, 11th Bn Essex Regt

Died of wounds received in an unknown engagement

He was a prefect who played for the 1st teams for football and rowing. After school he trained at St George’s Hospital but did not continue with a medical career. He joined up as a private with the Honourable Artillery Company in September 1914.

In 1915 he was given a commission in the Essex Regt., and went to Gallipoli where he won the M.C. for gallantry at Sulva Bay, and was mentioned in despatches by Sir Charles Munro. Later he served in Egypt, and then in France, being invalided home in 1917. In March, 1918, he went to France again, and was mortally wounded on April 21st near Ypres, and died of wounds the next day.

Aged 33

AND

Frank Harston, MC. Don

Captain, East Lancashire Regt. Killed in action in an unknown engagement

Citation for the Military Cross. Lt. (temp. Capt.) Frank Northey Harston, E. Lanc. R. He rendered most valuable service as Brigade Major during the advance. When a gap occurred he proceeded at great risk of capture and under continuous fire to rectify matters before daylight. He set a magnificent example throughout.

He was educated at Highfield Preparatory School, Liphook (then Southampton), and Eastbourne College, and at both was head of the school. He went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship, and took first class Classical Honours. After leaving Cambridge he was at different times assistant master at Clifton College and Radley College. At the outbreak of war he joined the Public Schools Brigade, but in October, 1914, was gazetted to a commission in the Leicestershire Regiment, with which he proceeded to France in July, 1915, as captain and adjutant. In January, 1916, he was appointed to the General Staff of a Division and almost at the same time was granted a regular commission. In February, 1917, he was promoted and appointed brigade major of an infantry brigade, in which capacity he was serving at the time of his death. He had been twice mentioned in dispatches and in May of last year was awarded the Military Cross.

The modern battlefield has proved a strange school of poets, and the love of nature was never more intimate and more real, than in this nightmare of destruction and rampant mechanism. There were two men here, whom we knew well, richly endowed with that quality, – not a rare one, perhaps, but often disguised, – the love of Earth: I mean Frank Harston and his friend Lance Vidal. The official notice of his death, in our last number, reveals nothing of the man: I can, at least, say something of my own knowledge of him as a friend.

Both these men as we knew them were sane, sterling, generous souls, devoid of affectation and vanity. Such men are not as they had never been; something endures in the consciousness of everyone who associated with them.

When nearly every incident of the past is forgotten, a few luminous scenes remain, clear in the memory, like sunlight striking on a distant hill. I remember fishing with Harston, near Bablockhithe, one afternoon in summer. He was a gay and delightful companion, as he was, I imagine, punctilious and strict in form: for he did nothing by halves. Last April he wrote to me expressing the wish that we should one day go fishing together again; and his letter recalled the whole scene most vividly, – the mown grass lying in swathes by the stream, the conversation we had sitting in the inn-garden, and the ride home in the dusk.

Personally, I shall always remember him and Vidal as men who loved earth and the sun, and who, full of the joy of living, were not afraid to enter the enchanted “Woods of Westermain,”-the mystery in nature. In Memoriam Frank Harston

Aged 28

Lt Edward Balme

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

6th June 1917

Humphrey Arden, A Social 1906. 2nd Lt, 156th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Died of wounds received near Messines

He was a Junior Scholar, Prefect and rowed at stroke for the 1st VIII, competing at Henley twice. He went up to Queens’ College, Cambridge and rowed for the College and the University. After a short time teaching at Eagle House Prep School, he was preparing to study for the priesthood at Cuddesdon when he joined up.

The Royal Garrison Artillery developed from fortress-based artillery located on British coasts. From 1914 when the army possessed very little heavy artillery it grew into a very large component of the British forces. It was armed with heavy, large calibre guns and howitzers that were positioned some way behind the front line and had immense destructive power.

After his death, his father gave the money for two War Memorial Scholarships in his memory. He is also remembered at his prep school in Oxford, where his story features on their WW1 memorial website.

Aged 25

AND

William Gourlay, B Social 1910. Captain, 5th Bn, Cameron Highlanders. Died of wounds received in an unknown engagement

He was wounded on May 1st and succumbed to his injuries on June 6th. W.N. Gourlay rose to the position of House Prefect and filled the post with quiet dignity and force of character. Outside his own small circle of friends, among whom he was much loved and respected, he will possibly be chiefly remembered for his introduction of bagpipes to Radley.

Aged 21

2nd Lt Humphrey Arden, Royal Garrison Artillery. Died 6th June 1917

Calvary at Yoxall to the memory of Humphrey Arden. Photo by Shirley Fisher

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

11th November, 1916

William Hall. Schoolmaster. Chaplain & Naval Instructor, HMS Venerable, Royal Navy. Died on active service.

William Hall taught maths at Radley for just one year in 1889-90. He then taught at Rossall School until 1893, when he left to take Holy Orders. He served as Chaplain and Instructor to the Royal Navy from 1894 until his death on active service in 1916. He was a distinguished mathematician who had graduated as 2nd Wrangler from Cambridge University (King’s College). His naval career utilised his maths and he was the author of several books on navigation: Ex-Meridian Altitude Tables, Modern Navigation, Model Sights, Tables and Constants, and lnman’s Nautical Tables. He was seconded to the Ottoman Navy in 1910 and to the Australian Royal Navy in 1912. He served in the Endymion and the Astraea (1895-98), in the Raleigh (1899), St George (1899-1902), London (1902-4), Aurora (1904-5), Highflyer (1905-6), Britannia (1906-09), and the Collingwood (1911) before his final posting to the Venerable.

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

The Butterworth Memorial in the Music School at Radley College. Designed by Laurence Whistler

Today we remember …

Battle of the Somme

20th September 1916. George Butterworth, MC. Don & Composer. Lt, 13th Bn, Durham Light Infantry. Killed in action at Pozieres.

George Butterworth was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, and from a very early age evinced great musical talent. One of his compositions was played at an Eton school concert while he was still a boy there. Among his musical publications are two cycles of songs from Housman’s “Shropshire Lad,” and an orchestral rhapsody, played at the last Leeds Festival, also at Queen’s Hall in the spring of 1914. He also devoted much time to the collection and arrangement of folk songs and folk dances in collaboration with Mr. Cecil Sharpe, and he took an active part in the formation and in the work of the Folk Dance Society. He contributed musical criticism to The Times intermittently for several years, and whatever he wrote showed shrewd judgment, sound knowledge, and independence of view. He was, in fact, a musician of great promise as well as a man of sterling character, who, if he had not given his life to a greater cause, would undoubtedly have done much to further a national ideal of musical art in this country. The Radleian

As a Don at Radley, he inspired a love of English pastoral music, reflected in the Music Society Minutes after he left. With Lance Vidal (kia 25 September 1915) he encouraged the boys to take up Morris dancing. He composed part of the Shropshire Lad Suite whilst at Radley.

Letter from his Commanding Officer to his father:

DEAR SIR ALEXANDER, I feel I must write you a note to tell you how deeply I grieve with you and yours for the loss of your gallant son. He was one of those quiet, unassuming men whose path did not appear naturally to be a military one, and I had watched him doing his duty quietly and conscientiously.

… Later we went into a line on the right of the Australians, S.E. of Pozieres.

Here we were about 450 yards from the Germans, and I gave orders to dig a trench within 200 yards of them so that we could attack with some chance of success.

This trench was dug in a fog, and was a very fine deep trench which saved many lives in the days to follow, and your son again superintended the work, and it was called Butterworth trench on all the official maps.

… Your son was in charge, and the trench was very much blown in and shallow, and I begged him to keep his head down. He was cheery and inspiring his tired men to secure the position which had been won earlier in the night. Within about a minute of my leaving him he was shot. I could ill afford to lose so fine a soldier…

Aged 31

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

Today we remember …

Mesopotamia Campaign

23rd August 1916. John Robinson, MC. A Social, 1899. Captain & Adjutant, 7th Bn, North Staffordshire Regt.. Died of wounds received in the Battle of El Hannah, Mesopotamia (now Iraq).

John Robinson was one of the most distinguished Radleians to die in the War. At school he played for the Cricket and Football XIs and was Head of A Social. After school, he went to Merton College, Oxford, where he graduated with honours in history. He played Hockey for Oxford University for four years, became an international player and went on to win Gold for Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics.

After leaving university he became a schoolmaster. He enlisted in an OTC immediately War was declared, receiving his commission in September 1914. He served in the Gallipoli Campaign. He was Mentioned in Dispatches and awarded the Military Cross in February, 1916. The same month he was sent to Mesopotamia. He was wounded in the spine in April and died from the injury in August 1916.

His shield still hangs in Hall.

Aged 31

John Robinson, Captain & Adjutant, 7th Bn, North Staffordshire Regt. Died of wounds in Mesopotamia

Commemorating the Fallen of WW1

AH ‘Sam’ Hales, Captain, 1st Bn, Wiltshire Regt. kia First Battle of the Somme

Today we remember…

5th July 1916. Arthur Hoare ‘Sam’ Hales, MC. Schoolmaster. Captain, 1st Bn, Wiltshire Regt. Killed in action at Canal du Nord, Battle of the Somme.

‘Sam’ Hales was educated at Rugby and Corpus, Oxford, taking honours in moderations and in the final school of modern history. He was in the Rugby School XV of 1900, and afterwards played for the Harlequins and the Monkstown team of 1902. At Oxford he was a rowing ‘Blue’ and rowed in the 1904 and 1905 Boat Race crews. He was an extremely popular teacher at Radley where he was one of the group of young Dons who encouraged the growth of Rugby as the school’s major sport.

He enlisted immediately war was declared in August 1914, as a private. He was awarded his commission ‘for gallantry.’ He won the Military Cross in March 1915 ‘for bringing in the wounded under heavy fire.’

The Radleian published a letter from him describing everyday life in the trenches:

I have heard several times from Mr. Hales, who is sergeant in the Wiltshires. It will be news to hear that, during his first three days in the trenches, even he was absolutely dead beat, as they had to carry up sandbags to mend the gaps in the trenches. His legs absolutely gave out. On the first night he fell into a Jack Johnson hole and was not dry for a week afterwards. Nor could he use his rifle for a day and a half as it was jammed with mud. He is full of praise for the food and bully beef. He has been under heavy fire several times, but he claims to be very good at keeping his head down. When we returned this term we heard that he had been wounded, but his own account is as follows; “A graze on head and arm from a bullet that splintered through a sand bag. Both wounds quite dry by the time I left the trenches next day.’’