Blood and Thunder (66 page)

The thought of Eton had kept many of them going during times of hardship:

As you know, we never lost an opportunity during those four-and-a-half years of assembling on 4 June, or St Andrew's Day … assembling together to discuss Eton topics and reviving Eton memories. I can assure you that these gatherings were a great tonic to us. The old forgot that they were old and became young – at any rate they behaved as such. All of us forgot that we were tired.

The boys of Eton College, he claimed, had not failed to do their bit:

The British Empire has emerged triumphantly from the greatest ordeal with which she has ever faced, and Eton claims that in that ordeal and in that triumph she has played a part worthy of herself. She does not base that claim on the prowess of achievement of a few individuals who happened to be in a position of authority and influence at the time, but she bases her claim on the large number who gave up much, and the many who gave up all, not prompted by any expectation or even desire for self-advancement; but simply by the wish to do what they knew was their duty.

It was not he, nor the assembled generals, he said, that were responsible for victory, it was the spirit of those who had not returned, including almost 1,300 Old Etonians:

We owe a debt to them, and it is for us to try and pay it … We can pay it by upholding in our lives the honour of our school as they upheld it by their deaths.

Plumer would not have been disappointed, for those that fell have not been forgotten at Eton. Reminders of their sacrifice are around every corner. Their names border the schoolyard on memorial panels and individual plaques circumvent the cloisters with more personal tributes supplied by their families. George Fletcher's prized French flag now hangs in the ante chapel at his father's behest, but perhaps the most poignant salute is the legacy of one single death on the field of battle.

In 2012 the Collegers decided to amend a tradition of over a century so that they might remember one of their forebears. On special occasions they now raise their glasses and toast ‘In Piam Memoriam LCL
3
'. Each of them leaves school aware of who Logie Colin Leggatt was and knowing that he laid down his life in Flanders when he was a fraction older than they are. Magnify his sacrifice by well over a thousand and you have some idea of what Eton College, as just one community of many, contributed to the Great War.

Notes

  
1
  Second Lieutenant Arthur 'Oscar' Hornung was killed on 6 July 1915 with the Essex Regiment. His body was never discovered and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate. He was 20 years old.

  
2
  Bartlett Laurie Stuart Frere was killed with the Bedfordshire Regiment on 13 November 1916. He is buried at Knightsbridge Cemetery near Albert.

  
3
  In Pious Memory LCL.

Sources

Personal papers belonging to the following OEs that are in private hands were either consulted or information kindly donated by:

David Barclay

Guy, Harry and Hugh Cholmeley

Bernard ‘Audley’ Mervyn Drake

Geoffrey Drummond

Henry Dundas

George and Reginald Fletcher

Eric Greer

Francis and Douglas Harvey

John Lee-Steere

Logie Leggatt

The Hon. John Manners

Reginald Mendel

Marc Noble

Ian Napier

Charles Pittar

Also: Diary belonging to Algernon Lamb (with thanks to Clive Morris, 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards Heritage Trust and ‘Firing Line’, The Museum of the Welsh Soldier, Cardiff Castle)

Eton College:

Eton College Chronicle 1885–1928

Eton College Registers 1841–1919

House Books 1900–16

House Debating Society Books 1909–17

Papers of John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

Papers of Richard Selby Durnford

Papers of Edward Cazalet

Miscellaneous School Periodicals

Imperial War Museum
:

George Schack-Sommer

Major Valentine Fleming

Thomas McKenny Hughes

Archibald James

Royal Air Force Museum:

Papers of Captain Ian Henry David Henderson

National Army Museum:

Papers of Major-General John Ponsonby

National Archives:

WO 95

WO 339/374

AIR 1

Newspapers and Periodicals:

Illustrated War News

The Graphic

Scots Guards Magazine

The Times

Westminster Gazette

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