St Bart’s School remembers former pupils killed in war on Armistice Day
A Newbury school gathered in an Act of Remembrance to remember the former students who gave their lives in the World Wars.
Addressing more than 2,000 pupils, staff and visitors in The Hub at St Bartholomew’s School, headteacher David Fitter said on Monday, November 11: “It is easy and perhaps convenient to allow these terrible numbers to wash over us.
“But remember that each single life lost was someone’s child, parent, loved one and the cost of human suffering and bereavement is incalculable.”
The head students, Samuel White and Charlotte Lethaby, then read the traditional Roll of Honour – including the names of those 101 St Bart’s pupils who perished in war.
A bugle call by Year 13 student Lawrence Mullaly was heard, and the whole school observed a two minute silence.
St Bart’s school officers Emily Cox and Charlie Adams (representing Curnock House), Sophie Livingstone and Clementine Barry (representing Davis House), Tess Marston and Beth Sparks (representing Evers House) and Lucy Bosley and Vaibavi Lakshmi Narayanan (representing Patterson House) laid wreaths in the Memorial Garden, where the flag was flying at half-mast.
They were joined by contingent commander Clive Edwards and members of the Combined Cadet Force.
Deputy headteacher Adam Robbins concluded the service with a poem called ‘May 1915’, written by Charlotte Mew.
St Bart’s Houses Curnock, Davis, Evers and Patterson are each named after four students of St Bartholomew’s Grammar School who were killed in the First World War.
Last month, Year 9 pupils and staff travelled to Northern France and Belgium to visit the Menin Gate in Ypres, where George Ashwin Curnock is commemorated.
The group also visited the grave of Robert Arthur Patterson near Athies and Thiepval Memorial, where Bertram Saxelbye Evers’ name is engraved, alongside a memorial plaque which reads: “This plaque commemorates those soldiers who attended St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury. They are named individually in pride of place at our school. They gave their lives in the First World War and their sacrifice will be remembered by us all.”
This year, moved by her experiences on the Battlefields Trip, Davis House manager Louisa Moore organised a similar commemoration to Alexander Herbert Davis.
Ms Moore was joined by Dr Fitter, the rest of the Davis House Team, cadets Will Bloxsom, Milla Brereton and Daniel Cornall and Davis students Sophie Livingstone, Matilda Roots and Blake Thomson at Newtown Road Cemetery to lay a wreath on the grave of Mr Davis, located just 400 metres from the school.
Blake, who recently attended the Year 9 trip, said: “Mr Davis attended St Bart’s in 1898.
“He was a keen sports man and a particularly excellent footballer. He was frequently in the Fives inter-house and school championship.”
The school hopes this wreath laying will become part of an annual tradition to mark Armistice Day.
