About Whitgift: Whitgift Remembers WWI

Whitgiftians in WWI

This page commemorates the Old Whitgiftians who died in WWI. A list of names of the 251 men who attended the School, but were sadly lost in the conflict, can be found at the bottom of this page. A full album of pictures of these men can be found by clicking here.

Like many public schools, Whitgift had a Cadet Corps that dated back to 1874. It was attached to the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Queen’s Regiment and had an Officer’s Training Corps from 1908. By the time war was declared, numerous OWs had joined Territorial Army units, others volunteering for Kitchener’s New Army.

The School’s Book of Remembrance indicates that around 1,400 boys and teaching staff saw active service. More than 330 received decorations or mentions and 251 Old Whitgiftians laid down their lives. Headmaster Samuel Andrew would read out, in Big School, each Wednesday morning, the names of those who had given their lives or suffered severe, life-changing injuries; this must have been a huge burden on him as he would recall the boys he had taught: Prefects, Captains, many who had visited him on holiday from their universities and colleges and those OWs he had met at various school events, all on happier occasions. As weeks came and went, the lists read would grow ever longer.

No fewer than 92 Military Crosses (M.C.), five Distinguished Flying Crosses (D.F.C.), one Air Force Cross (A.F.C.), six Distinguished Conduct Medals (D.C.M.), one Distinguished Service Medal (D.S.M.), five Military Medals (M.M.), one Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) were awarded as well as a number of foreign orders and decorations, including ten French Croix de Guerre and the Italian Silver Medal for Valour, which was received by Sir Arthur Tedder. Many OWs were mentioned in dispatches, some more than once, while one, George Walter Barber, was mentioned six times.

Of the total 251 Whitgiftians who died in the conflict, many were still students at the School at the outbreak of the war. A photograph of Founder’s Day Parade from March 1914 shows four officers leading – of these, three lost their lives in WWI – one in 1915, one in 1916 and one in 1918. The fourth in the photograph was killed in 1942, having previously served as a Captain in WWI, winning an MC. Of the 1913-14 1st XV, nine of their players were killed in the war.

Amongst those killed in the war were eight pairs of brothers from the Buckworth, Carter, Cooper, Cowlin, Frisch, Fuller, Warner and Williams families. The loss of the Coldwells family was particularly tragic as three out of four of their sons died in the war.

The youngest Whitgiftian to die in the conflict was Midshipman Harold Stuart Pearce Brabner. Only 16 years old, he went down with the ship Don Arturo, on 17 June, 1917, on his first voyage returning from Africa.

By July of 1918, Headmaster Samuel Andrew was already considering the establishment of a small committee to discuss the form a War Memorial should take. Money was raised to build a memorial, a column surmounted by the Whitgift cross upon a two-platform base erected on the lawn in front of the Tower; carved in Hopton Wood Stone, designed and constructed by Croydon funeral directors Ebbutt’s and unveiled on Saturday 11 March 1922 at 3.30pm by Major-General Sir J.R. Longley, KCMG, CBE. The Major-General then unveiled a memorial panel in Big School; a set of parchments beautifully illuminated in with gold leaf and bearing the names of the fallen in black calligraphic hand.

ABRAMS, Lawrence Golding	EXELBY, Charles Roden	O’REILLEY, Henry Duncan Ryan
ADAMS, John Rodway	FENN, Roland Pitt	PAINE, Lionel Walter
ADAMS, Frederick Leslie	FLOWER, Albert Charles	PARKER, Walter Henry
ADAMS, Henry Neville	FOOT, Frederick Charles	PASCALL, Thomas Osbourne
ADAMS, James Raymond	FOOTNER, Arthur Henry	PEGG, Hallam William
ADDY, Kenneth James Balguy	FORSTER, William Edward Blake	PENDRIGH, Alexander Conrad Cuthbertson
AHERNE, Robert Howard	FREEMAN, John William	PENTELOW, George Norman E
ATHA, Leonard Edward	FRISCH, Charles	PERRIN, Thomas Frederick
ATKINSON, Lewis De Burgh	FRISCH, Geoffrey	PERRY, Kenneth George
BANKS, Fred Lakeman	FROST, Arthur Byfield	PETRIE, Alfred Hunt
BARKER, Edward Thomas	FULCHER, William Edwin	PITMAN, Thomas Stuart
BARNETT, Patrick Bernard	FULLER, Ernest Paget	PLANTEROSE, Ernest Albert
BARRIE, William Andrew	FULLER, Leonard Arthur	PORTER, Ernest James
BASE, Samuel Davis	FULLER, Morris Richard	PORTER, William Reginald
BASSETT, Geoffrey Edward	GARRARD, Fredrick George	POULTER, Donovan
BEHM, Ernest John Alfred	GLIDDON, Maurice	PURVES, Thomas Warren
BENTHAM, Thomas	GODFREY, Stephen Mervyn	RADLEY, Christopher Septimus
BENTON, Frank	GOODWIN, Henry Cecil	REEVE, John Stanley
BERRY, Algernon Laurence	GREEN, Charles Layton	REID, James Archibald John
BERRY, Percy Hamilton	GREENWAY, Kenneth	REYNOLDS, Percy Basil
BLAIR-ALLEN, Frank	GRIGG, Lionel Francis	RIGBY, Edgar Wiliam
BOND, Charles Nesbitt	HAMMOND, John Martin Richard	ROBARTS, Francis Watson
BORTHWICK, Donald Walker	HAMPTON, John Latham	ROBINSON, Leonard Herbert Frank
BOTTERILL, Stuart	HARMAN, William	ROOME, Philip William
BOYKETT, Robert Evelyn	HAYWARD, Edward John	RYAN, Alfred Eric
BRABNER, Harold Stuart Pearce	HENMAN, Charles Henry Rowed	SANDERSON, Charles Buswell
BRAGG, Eric Wensley	HEWETT, Edmund Geoffrey	SAWORD, Ralph
BRODIE, Peter Bellinger	HEXTALL, Leonard John	SAWYER, Herbert
BROWN, Francis Clement	HILL, Reginald Gordon	SAYER, James Herbert
BUCKHAM, Norman Langley	HILLYARD, Harry Thomas	SCOTT, Stuart Harvey
BUCKWORTH, Herbert Thompson	HODGSON, Christopher Michael	SELBY, William
BUCKWORTH, Wallace Alfred	HOLLAND, Frank William	SHAW, Edward Stuart
BULLMAN, Haddon Robert Horsley	HOLYMAN, Leslie Ebenezer	SHIPTON, Joseph Cuthbert
BURGESS, Eric Archibald	HOOKE, John Clement	SILCOTT, Christian Philip Eld
BURTON, Alfred Walter	HOOPER, Bernard Keith	SIMMONDS, Guy Bloxham
BUSBY, Donald Arthur	HORTON, Cyril Aubrey	SIMMONS, Eric Warr
BUTCHER, Harold Thomas	HORTON, Percy Stainthorpe	SMETHURST, Cyril Valentine
CAREY, Francis Ambrose	HUGHES, Gordon McGregor	SMITH, Arthur Donald Thornton
CARPENTER, Cecil Henry	HUMPHREYS, Cecil James Gaston	SMITH, Frederick Granville Walker
CARPENTER, Robert Leslie	HUNT, Harry William Kingswell	SMITH, Geoffrey Harold
CARRACK, Charles James	INGRAMS, Frank Ridley	SMITH, Hamlyn Jago
CARTER, John Alan	ISAACS, Henri Roland	SMITH, Wilfred Herbert
CARTER, Malcolm Russell	IVORY, John Arthur	SNELGROVE, Herbert Davys Bernard
CARTWRIGHT, Arthur William Clarence	JACKSON, Henry Stewart	SPARKS, Frank Evans
CAWSON, George Adrian	JASTRZEBSKI, Hubert Stephen Stepowron	SPICER, Robert William
CHADBAND, John Stanley	JOHNSON, Charles Eric	STEWART, Douglas Alex
CHART, Geoffrey	KEABLE, Henry Batten	STURGES, Montague Edgar
CLARIDGE, Lawrence Braham	KESTERTON, Thomas Frederick	TAGG, Harold Arthur
CLARKE, Harold Martin	KIMPTON, Norman Herbert	THACKER, Herbert Lane
COLDWELLS, Charles Albert	KNELL, Edward Warren Harcourt	THOMAS, Len Elystan Owen
COLDWELLS, Francis Baker	KURTEN, Gaston Pierre	THOMSON, Gilbert Makepeace
COLDWELLS, Leonard George	LAINE, Charles Janion	TOMKINS, Vigor
COMBER, William	LANDER, John Herbert	TROUNSON, Graham Francis James
COMPTON, Neville George	LANE, Frederick Edward Neeve	TUCKER, Reginald
COOKE, Edward Ralph	LAUDY, Victor Spencer Harold	TULLEY, John Rudrum
COOPER, Clarence Edwards Nooth	LEANING, Reginald William	TURNER, Thomas Alfred
COOPER, Francis Nicholas Nooth	LETTS, Arthur Kingdon	TUZO, John Atkinson
COPPIN, Richard Alfred	LEWIS, Thomas Charles Victor	UNDERHILL, Edward Samuel
CORDREY, Harold Courtney	LINDLEY, Ernest William	VIPOND, George Emmerson
CORKE, Guy Harold	LLOYD, Edward Stanley	VORLEY, William Kenneth
COWLIN, Horace	LLOYD, Lyndsey	WALKER, Gordon Henry
COWLIN, Hugh Houghton	LOVETT, Alfred Crowdy	WALLER, Charles David
CURTIES, Dudley Thomas Lee	MABEY, John Hume Neilson	WALTER, Joseph Stanley
CUTLER, Harold Arthur	MACLEAN, Alan Charles	WARNER, Archibald
DALZIEL, Thomas R	MADDER, Robert	WARNER, Evan
DAVIES, James Gordon	MAINWARING, Cyril Lyttleton	WARNER, Henry James
DAVIS, Leopold	MARTIN, Stanley Curley James	WARRENS, Eric Kenelm
DAVISON, Robert Arthur Poole	MARTIN, Walter Percival	WEST, William
DAVY, Percy Brereton	MASSEY, Hugh Alexander	WHITAKER, George
DENNETT, Thomas Frank Preston Thwaites	MATTHEWS, Frank Reginald	WHITE, Wilfred Appleton
DICKSON, Cyril Garlies	McADAM, Arthur Charles	WHITEHEAD, Eric Wilfred
DIMMOCK, Edward Harold	McMINN, Hugh Bell	WHYBROW, Harry Thomson
DOWN, Lionel Wyndham	MIDDLETON, Leonard William	WILKINS, Frank
DRYSDALE, Adrian Castlelaw	MITCHELL, Erik Harrison	WILKINS, Morris Howard
DUFF, Harley Norman	MOOJEN, Walter Lennox	WILLIAMS, Harold Ernest
EBBUTT, John Streeter	MORANT, Gerald Alexander McKay	WILLIAMS, Howell Whytehead
ELLIS, Dudley Hector	MORRIS, Lionel Bertram Frank	WILLIAMS, Percy John
ELLIS, Philip Henry	MÜLLER, John Stewart	WILSON, Cornelius William
ELY, Denis Herbert James	NATUSCH, Reginald William	WILSON, William Stanley
EUSTACE, William Williamson	NEAVE, Alexander Lionel W	WISE, Colin Walter
EVANS, Herbert Courtenay	NEW, Athelsan William	WITHALL, Sidney Henry
EVERITT, John Wilson	NEW, Hedley Bruce	WORSTER, Frank Copeland
EVEZARD, George	NOBLE, John Stanley	YOUNG, Cuthbert Frederick
EWALD, Fred Edward Henry	NYREN, Dudley Richard