Schoolmaster | Radley College Archives

The grave of Charles Ellerton at Ecoivres Cemetery. Photographed for ‘Marching in Memory’ for Combat Stress, July 2015

Today we remember …

19th May 1916. Charles Ellerton. Don. Capt, 10th Bn, Cheshire Regt. Killed in action during preparations for the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Charles Ellerton was born in Cheshire in 1884. He was a Scholar of Jesus College, Oxford, who came to teach at Radley early in 1914. He signed up almost immediately war broke out in 1914.Extract from a letter received from an Officer at the Front re Captain C. F. Ellerton: ‘He died at the head of a party of his company charging the enemy. It was an act of unnecessary bravery, as it was only a small party and he might have detailed it to a subaltern. I was told by a witness that he saved the life of one boy who was going to be bayoneted, by rushing in front and throwing a bomb at the Germans. He was at first badly wounded and refused to be carried away, ordering the stretcher bearers to save themselves. Immediately afterwards he was killed.’‘I saw his grave this afternoon. He is buried in the little cemetery in the wood at Mount St. Eloi. He was just reported missing, because it was not until the next night that it was possible to recover his body.’

The schoolboys he taught at Radley remembered him as ‘Though only here for a comparatively short time he made his influence felt in many ways here – on the “Rugger-field,” in “school,” and with the “recruits,” and there are many to whom the news of his death came as a real grief.’

Aged 32

The name of Lance Vidal on the Loos Memorial. Photographed for ‘Marching in Memory’ for Combat Stress, July 2015

25th September 1915

Battle of Loos

This must be considered the darkest day in the history of Radley College. Eleven men from the College fell on this one day during the Battle of Loos and an unknown number were wounded. Many of the men were volunteers in Kitchener’s New Army, so the list of the Fallen includes young men from Radley village who had worked for the College and the first serving schoolmaster to be killed.

Although the long-drawn out campaigns of Gallipoli, the First Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres (Paschendaele) claimed more lives overall, 25th September must stand forever as a day of mourning.

Lancelot Vidal, Schoolmaster, Tutor of A Social. 2nd Lt, 2nd Bn, Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. Reported missing, believed killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Loos.

‘For days, even weeks, we entertained hopes that the news might be false, but eight weeks have now elapsed, and we can now only fear the worst. He was last seen in the German trenches in the attack on Sept. 25th. when in charge of a machine gun … it has since been learnt that he was killed by a shell whilst pushing forward with his section in the early morning of September 25.’

Lance Vidal was the first serving schoolmaster of Radley College to fall in the Great War. He volunteered in 1914, having held the post of Tutor of A Social for two weeks. He was a popular Don at Radley and was one of those instrumental in introducing and promoting rugby football as the school’s major sport. He had played for Harlequins before joining Radley. He was also Master in Charge of Cricket.