Over the past year we have been researching numerous Old Greshamians who fell in WWI. We have found this to be not only really interesting as modern Greshamians but also as historians. The skill of archiving will also prove beneficial to us in our history based university courses in the near future. It has been good fun and we have really enjoyed coming down every week and researching students such as Stanley George Marriott and Joseph H. Simpson, both of whom were enthusiastic participants in school life.
Gresham's will be remembering those who fell at
the Somme in a special service on 1 July. We are researching the 10 OGs and one
member of staff and profiles will appear on the website shortly but please get
in touch if you would like information on the any of the following in the
meantime -
George Fenchelle, Walter Gissing, Henry
Scott-Holmes, Geoffrey Barratt, Henry Russell, Mark Hill, John Foster, Douglas
Richardson, Archibald Gilmour, Dawson Atkin, and Geoffrey Day.
Cuthbert
Hill died aged 18 on 31 May 1916 when his ship Invincible went down at the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea. He
attended from 1907-15 and was a popular Howson’s and School prefect, who showed
great talent for acting and sport, as well as winning many prizes for school
work. Soon after leaving School he was
accepted for training at the Royal Naval College at Keyham, near Devonport,
passing out of the college in January of 1916 and being appointed as midshipman
to HMS Invincible. He writes to his
‘Dear Mummie’ in May from his ship of the Scotch mists out at sea and of the
enjoyable visit he made to School whilst on leave when he played cricket and
rode one of the master’s motorbikes. Invincible was destroyed when a barrage of
shells caused a magazine explosion on 31 May.
The ship broke in two and sank in fifteen seconds, leaving only six
survivors out of the 1.031 men on board. The battlecruiser was taking part in
the largest naval battle of the War, off the Danish Jutland coast which
resulted in huge loss of life, including fourteen British and eleven German
ships. Both sides claimed victory and
debate still continues today over the significance of the battle. The School
will commemorate Cuthbert Hill in a special service on 25 May.
Thanks to parent Steven Todd for sending this photo of the service medals of George Dawson Hope Atkins(Woodlands 1911-14) who died on the Somme on 16 July 1916 working to dig trenches to 'consolidate the line'.
I would like to thank my team of sixth form researchers for all their help so far - namely Georgia Rose, Kim Sly-Jex, Alice Goldsmith, Maddie Bailey, Emma Dugdale, Hannah Rice, Evie Rossi, Katie Francis, Joe Melvin and Leo Thomson. Thanks is also due to the two members of the History Department who have supported the project from the start, Chris Cox and Tim O'Donnell.
Liz Larby
I
am pleased to be able to go live with the website which is still very much a
work in progress with much information still to be added over the centenary
years. I have been very impressed by the way my team of sixth formers
have embraced the task of researching our fallen OGs and staff. Carrying
out detailed research using original archive source such as registers,
magazines and photograph albums is very different from the classroom based
history they are familiar with and they are showing great promise as historical
researchers. We have started researching our fallen in chronological
order to tie in with the services of commemoration held on the anniversary of
their death in the School Chapel. However, if anyone has an interest in
one of our fallen whose details do not yet appear on the website we would be
happy to carry out some research.
Liz
Larby
We have wholly enjoyed our first term researching
the lives of the boys who fell in WW1. This project has taken us on not only an
emotional journey but also a journey of discovery. Over the course of the term
we have researched the lives and achievements of these incredible individuals,
following not only their time in School but their contributions to the War. The wealth of information stored in the
archives is truly fascinating and brings history to life in a way we have never
experienced before. Last term we entered information on Frank Halsey into the
database and it was immediately clear just what an inspirational character he
was; he was head of school, he had a scholarship to Oxford and he participated
in nearly every aspect of school life imaginable. Learning about characters
such as Halsey makes us truly appreciate the opportunities presented to us at
Gresham’s. One task that proved to be particularly challenging was trying to
identify boys in the school photo albums, although this was time-consuming it
was very worthwhile as it’s nice to have a face to put to the facts.
Throughout
the term we have researched the lives of numerous OGs who fell in the War. We
have used old Gresham magazines,
photo albums and various websites to carry out our research. First, we checked
the dates of the boy’s attendance so we could look through the relevant
magazines to find out about their lives at school. We have also scanned many
photos of OGs, collating a commemorative database. Researching the lives of
these men has been truly inspiring and we have loved to find out about the
profound effect that the War has had on our school. They all led ambitious and
busy school lives, going on to sacrifice their lives for our country.
Welcome to our new Blog.
We will update it in the near future.