On the morning of Friday 9th November, the entire school body of Brighton College, including staff and pupils from all schools, united at the front quad for a short, but moving service, as we remembered with gratitude all those who have died in the course of war.
The 2014 / 2015 Fourth Form pupils and their families were each assigned one name from the Roll of Honour as part of our Lest We Forget Project. Their task was to discover all they could: where each was born, where he lived, when he was at Brighton College, and how and where he died.
On the 5th October 1916, the Governors of Brighton College met to discuss the usual issues important people discuss.
On Friday 17th June we gathered to remember the 976 Old Brightonians who served in the Great War and in particular the 149 who died, never to return.
The phrase "one picture is worth a thousand words" suggests that an image can more lucidly communicate a complex idea or experience. Perhaps overused, the idiom has lost some resonance over the years. However, I would argue my experiences in recent weeks, while searching for images linked to our roll of honour, have brought home the truth behind the phrase. In fact, three photographs had such a profound emotional impact, I felt the need to share them here.
Brighton College commemorates the Old Brightonians who died at The Somme 100 years ago this year.
The North family bestowed a great favour on the College in June 2015 when they arranged for the medals of Lister Durrell Wickham to be donated to the College. Head Master Richard Cairns was delighted to meet with the Phillipson family and to receive the medals, which are now on display in the College Chapel. After serving at Gallipoli Lister had been home ill, and had married his sweetheart musician Marguerite Dickensen.
Can you guess what the last boy played!? This image is taken from Dorothy Isabella Fenwick’s notebook. From 1929 to 1948, she was a matron at Brighton College: in Stenning House, School House, the Junior School and finally Bristol House. She retired in 1948 and lived in Walpole Terrace, Brighton.
The Brighton College Roll of Honour lists 147 former pupils killed during the Great War. One of the first two officers killed in the conflict was Second Lt. Vincent Waterfall, of Hampden House/Chichester House, aged just 22. Old Brightonians fought and died in Palestine, at the Somme, at Ypres, and in the final push for victory in the week before the Armistice was signed, on 11 November 1918.
Head Master Richard Cairns is re-introducing the classic Brighton College Boater for the first time in 47 years. The decree is a moving homage to the 147 Old Brightonians who died during the Great War, and will be in force from Thursday 23rd April to coincide with St. George's Day.
by Ewart Alan Mackintosh (killed in action 21st November 1917 aged 24)
So you were David's father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.
Ewart Alan Mackintosh (4 March 1893 – 23 November 1917) was a war poet and an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders from December 1914. Mackintosh was killed whilst observing the second day of the second Battle of Cambrai, 21 November 1917. His best poetry has been said to be comparable in quality to that of Rupert Brooke.
Military Service Second Lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters. Date of Death: 4pm, 11th March, 1915, aged 22. Grave Reference Le Touret Memorial, Pas De Calais, France.
Lieutenant, Welsh Regiment. Born: July 28th, 1891. Brighton College Junior House, 1891-1894. Killed in action, France, Feb 16th, 1915, aged 23.
Albert Arundel Holmes (Sc. 1885-88), Captain, Royal Sussex Regiment. Born: January 16th, 1872, died of pneumonia, May 1915 aged 43.
Born: December 24th, 1893, Killed in action, France, Nov 10th, 1914.
Born: June 9th, 1896, Killed in action, Wytschaete, Nov 1st, 1914.
The very first two British officers to be killed in WW1 were 2nd Lt. Vincent Waterfall who had qualified as a pilot from the Royal Aero Club (RAC) in 1913 aged 20 (Brighton College 1907-09) and Lt. Vincent Gordon Bayly of St Pauls.
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