The Old Elizabethan Association

Simple ideas can become the most complicated of projects. Thus it was with the Elizabeth College Book of Remembrance. For some years now, John Willis, who was, at that time, the Hon Sec of the OE Association, had envisaged a Book of Remembrance in which would be inscribed the names of the OEs who fell in the two world wars. His uncle was one of those killed in the Second World War. The initial idea was fairly low-key and simple – pages of names printed by College resources, set out in a clear and easy-to-read manner.

The names, however, would not just be put down in any old way, and the men behind the names started to become very real. The Principal, now thoroughly engaged by the idea of this large number of pupils lost from a small school, cross-checked the names of the fallen on the Memorial in College Hall and on the list within the Register. Discrepancies! Worse still, cross-checking with the entries in the Register revealed even further discrepancies. Each entry had to be scrutinised to ascertain why. Thus the Fallen had suddenly become real people with real stories.

It was at this stage the project started to become increasingly complex. From just reading the entries in the Register, it was apparent that many of the families who had provided the information for the compiler had only some idea of dates, places and circumstances of the death of their family member. It was time to visit the Commonwealth War Graves website. This wonderful website lists the names, dates, regiments, circumstances and place of burial/commemoration of those with war graves. John Willis took on the Second World War and I began the task of researching the names of the Great War. By far the great majority of those who fell in the wars were listed on the website, but again, discrepancies! The information had to be examined and arranged with logic and consistency.

We had to be able to identify where a name was given:

List – the list of names given on pages xvi and xvii of Volume II and xix of Volume III of the Elizabeth College Register

Register – the main entry given in the body of text of the Elizabeth College Registers

CWGC – the site of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

CH – College Hall, Elizabeth College where the official Memorials are placed

We had to decide how the OE was going to be listed in our Book of Remembrance. The name given and used by College in the Register has been preferred and any variation by CWGC has been stated as such. Names and initials sometimes varied between the list and the main entry. In those cases, the main entry has been preferred.

Then we had to deal with the discrepancies of listing, and so names found on the CH memorial and not in the Register and vice versa were annotated as such.

Regarding the discrepancies of unit given in the Register and CWGC, the unit given by CWGC has been preferred as personnel moved between units, and the one they joined may not have been the one in whose service they died. Families were often unaware of the movement between units. Any decorations were given their campaign of award. The date of death was taken as the one on CWGC records as this was probably more accurate than family history.

By far the most painful was the discovery of names in the Register that were not included anywhere on the memorials or CWGC. And so entries discovered in the Register during research were included, and names not found on CWGC were annotated as such.

No names were deleted. It was felt that for whatever reason, the family of the man who died inextricably linked his death with the war, and we were in no position to question this. Two examples readily spring to mind. Frank Herries Adams died of measles (one of many such victims of disease as well as injury – the CWGC does not draw any kind of distinction) during the Great War. On examination, it would appear that he had won a commission in the Royal Engineers and was on his way to start training. But he has no War Grave and there is no trace of him on the website. The most likely explanation of this is that he died on the way to training and so had not officially been taken into the Army. But for everyone in his family, he was just as much a victim of war as any other. The second example is Pilot Officer Frank Edward Board who was lost in the North Sea in August 1939. War was not declared until the beginning of September 1939, and so PO Board could not be listed with the war dead. But who are we to query the validity of his entry in the Book? He died carrying out work in preparation for war.

Thus, we had a plethora of information – much more than we had when we started. It was decided that the Book should be very carefully put together to honour these men and in the manner of other Books of Remembrance, Elizabeth College was to have only the best. Small Ltd were consulted. They were the people engaged to produce The Elizabethan, and their work had been much admired. They created the format and worked our woolly ideas into some sort of order. They consulted the makers of leather-bound books and found us a calligrapher. It was at this point that the Friends of Elizabeth College very generously agreed to sponsor the Book. The project was taking shape. Under Small’s guidance, the information was groomed and prepared. The entries in the book had to be limited to what Jonathan Skelton the calligrapher could fit on a page. The colour of the hand-tooled navy goatskin had to be chosen and the printing blocks for the silver crest and wording for the cover had to be made. The paper had to be selected and the ribbon for the marker sourced. The writing began.

Each page was to contain five names. The layout – A3 landscape – would allow for essential information only. Any information gleaned during the research phase would be kept safely and published in another format. Names would not be displayed alphabetically, by seniority or date of death, as in other memorials, but by College number which would make the memorial special to College. The age at death was calculated, to help the reader to envisage the person behind the name. Rank and Regiment were given, following the criteria agreed.

On 3rd November 2005 after about three years’ preparation and planning, David Christopher, the Chairman of the Friends of Elizabeth College, received the Book from David Montgomery at Small and handed it to the Bursar – by now John Willis – for College’s safe-keeping. The Book of Remembrance was brought to life from a simple idea conceived by John. The book was placed with great ceremony in a niche in College Hall at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.

But what to do with all the rest of the information gained over the length of the project? It is all safe on a spreadsheet and can be made available at the touch of a button from the website….

Mrs S Cash