Arms, Armour and Militaria

Newport Road Council School, Leyton, East London : The Great War, 1914-1918, “We were proud of them in life and we are proud of them in death, but it is bitterly hard to lose them all the same…”, around 100 original manuscript (and a few typescript) letters and sundry documents, news cuttings and related school ephemera regarding the services of “Old News” in the First World War. Includes approximately fifty letters regarding the deaths of Old Boys, around thirty from “Old News” On Active Service, War Memorial unveiling programme (with Roll of Honour), typescript service roll listing around 500 “Old Boys in the King’s Service”, etc., etc., many items hole-punched to left margin, generally VG state (Lot) £300-350

A treasure trove of correspondence relating to the boys from this school who served and fell in the Great War 1914-1918. The collection was gathered together by a much-respected head teacher, W.H. Weston, B.A., who maintained a Roll of Honour of pupils on service and afterwards organised the erection of the school war memorial (unveiled 1920). Weston also edited and distributed an Old Boys magazine called ‘Ours’ which found its way to many fronts and was manifestly appreciated.

Study of the archive discloses a patriotic group of young men, bound together by a touching love for their old School and Headmaster. Reading the letters a picture emerges of the school as the focus of a social group, friendships and connections between families begin gradually to reveal themselves.

Some of the letters are from old boys, giving news of their activities at various fighting fronts, and one in prison camp. Some send word of other ‘Old News’ they have heard of or encountered far from home. The larger part of the correspondence is from the families of dead soldiers, describing to the headmaster the circumstances of their sons’ death in action. Several enclose copies of letters of condolence from padres and so forth.

Around 500 old boys served, of which number 150 were killed. The latter figure includes a ghastly twenty-four dead brothers. Ordinarily, many of these young men, from solidly respectable working class or lower middle class backgrounds, joined the ranks of clerks in the banks and institutions in the Square Mile to the south-west of their homes, or worked in the offices of local professional men. But in 1914 they left their jobs in large numbers to join the forces. Most served in the Army and by the summer of 1915 many were abroad on active service.

Take the Peek brothers, Victor and George. The former was Killed in Action with the London Regiment at Gallipoli in August 1915, aged 31. His younger brother, in France with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, wrote to his old Headmaster on 13th June 1915:

“…thanking you for the box of cigarettes… Some time ago they sent me from home a copy of ‘Ours’ and I noticed that the old school was still to the front in this mammoth struggle as it is in anything that comes its way. It astonished me to see such a number of names of ‘Old News’ who were away fighting for their country, and I need not say it did me good to read through the list of names, recognising as I did so many of my old school chums… I am quite fit up to now, my rifle met with a bit of bad luck the other day a bullet hit it and split the butt from the bottom to the pistol grip. I was working just underneath in the trench at the time and if my head had stopped the rifle from being damaged, I don’t expect I should have been troubled with the toothache again. I must close now wishing the old school every success.”

The writer Died of Wounds in France in October, aged 26. News of his death reached 64 Grove Green Road, Leytonstone just a few weeks after intimation of the death of his sibling at Gallipoli. Their father wrote to Mr Weston:

“…I fear I have not told you the latest of our Dear Gallant son George. It is therefore with deep regret that I have to inform you that we received a report last week from the Army Record Office, stating he died of his wounds on Oct. 9th ’15. Indeed this has been a great trial to his Dear Mother. Especially following so closely on the sad news of our Dear Victor, but I am thankful to say she is bearing the terrible loss with the fortitude of a true Englishwoman. Personally I scarcely realise what has befallen me, but seek solace in one belief:- ‘They died that all they loved might li

An unusual “Old New” – in that he was a pre-war regular soldier - was Sergeant Percy Harold McLelland of the Royal Dragoons. He won a high award, the Distinguished Conduct Medal, near Ypres in 1914 (it is stated that he would have got the V.C., if all he had done was known at the time he was recommended). He fought again at Ypres in 1915; and there he died. He is commemorated today on the Menin Gate Memorial – alongside others from his alma mater. A school contemporary saw news of “Mac’s” D.C.M. in a newspaper and sent it to Mr Weston. McLelland’s mother later sent the Headmaster a typed copy of a letter of condolence from his squadron commander, mourning the loss of “a brave and valuable non-commissioned officer who on all occasions worked his hardest to play his part whether in peace or war.”

Other tragic statements from bereaved relatives include one from Alice Shergold, sister of Sidney Shergold, who died on the Gallipoli Peninsula:

“Dear Sir, Mother and Father desire me to thank you for your sympathetic letter. My dear brother Sidney has been missing since August 7th – he was with the New Zealand Infantry in that terrible battle on the Peninsula Turkey and was hit on the 7th and seen to fall. But was not picked up it seems, owing to sniping and only those who were slightly injured & were able to crawl away were attended to, our dear one was badly wounded, shot through the body, and a comrade whom we saw only a week ago says he has every reason to believe he passed away the same night. Our grief is great…”

Among the letters written to the Headmaster by former scholars are five from Cecil Lawson of the Signal Section of the 10th (Stockbrokers) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. He describes life in the trenches and when he was awarded the Military Medal he said:

“I really think my M.M. belongs more to Newport than to me personally as whatever the merits of the action which gained it they were the result of a Newport training.”

Corporal Lawson was Killed in Action on the 23rd April 1917 during the Arras offensive.

This is a very unusual grouping of letters and papers in that it portrays a representative group of pre-1914 society, rather than the service career of an individual, as most surviving archives of war correspondence tend to. It was an intensely loyal and patriotic group, bound together by the wish to serve their country and a pride in their old school.