Preston Grammar School Association

The Great War 1914 - 1918

Introduction

Roll of Honour of Those Who Died

and to

Record and Commemorate Those Who Served

in the

Great War 1914 - 1918

Revision No 1  December 2008:

This Revision has been extensive.  The Introduction and Notes contain new information. Queries on Thomas Worsley Pilkington and Captain George Woods have been resolved. There are numerous new entries, and several previously un-recorded deaths are now in the List.  Over half of the existing entries have additional information.

*****

The Memorial Window remains in place in the School buildings in Moor Park Avenue.  The bronze Memorial Tablet which was in the School Hall and is now in Preston Minster lists 44 Old Boys and one Master who gave their lives in the Great War.   Unlike the Memorial for 1939 -1945, there is no supporting biographical information.   As 2008 would see the 90^th anniversary of the Armistice I thought, many months before the web-site was launched, that I could use my extensive pupil data-base to compile suitable biographical back-up.  I also somewhat mistakenly thought that only a few hours work would be needed to prepare a print-out suitable for those attending the Remembrance Service in 2008.

The Hoghtonian came into being in December 1913 (H12-1913) under strict instructions from the Head Master that it was to be produced by the boys without expecting input or time consuming support from any member of Staff.    Running in parallel was the Old Boys’ Magazine which was launched in December 1910 (OBM12-1910).   On the outbreak of war the six year-old Association put itself into suspended animation for the few weeks the war was expected to last -“home by Christmas” was the national attitude.   The boys with help and support from the Head Master and members of the Staff began to collect information on Old Boys in the Services.  The Lancashire Daily Post on Monday, 12^th October 1914 carried the following:  “PRESTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL (To the Editor of the “Daily Post”) Sir,- May I ask the hospitality of your columns in order to beg of your readers who are acquainted with old Preston Grammar School Boys who have enlisted to send me their names that they may be put on record by me.-Yours, &c, NORMAN TREWBY, Headmaster, Grammar School, Preston. October 9^th.”

A Roll of Honour appeared in each edition of The Hoghtonian, listing those in the Forces and including information on those who had been killed.   Information came from letters to the School, and to the Editor, and to individual boys; information from parents, from Old Boys in the same Units; whilst somewhat despairingly recourse was made to perusing the newspaper lists of killed, missing, wounded, and hoping to recognise and identify Old Boys amongst them.  Every edition of The Hoghtonian appealed for information.   The Head Master during Prize Days appealed for information, even asking the assembled parents to draw up lists of boys whom they knew had passed through the School so as to provide a base to assist identification.   It is incredibly difficult to find someone when you do not know who you are looking for.

The Roll of Honour did not roll forward with cumulative information edition by edition.   What appeared in one edition might appear in one or more subsequent editions.  There were surnames and absolutely nothing else; surnames with an initial and nothing else.  There were multiple entries which may or may not have been for one individual - for example, see Edwards in the following list.  After the war there were lists of surnames of those released from the Forces, with no other details. The published Rolls and other items have now been reconstructed into a single alphabetical computer listing, a total of 274 names, which immediately rang alarm bells.   Many more must have passed through the School and were of ages making them eligible for military service during 1914-1918.   The reports in The Hoghtonian produced 21 wounded and one prisoner of war, although three more PoWs have now been found but there should be, on national averages, many more than those figures.

My pupil database was inadequate, what was needed was a comprehensive fully detailed database of every single admission to the School from 1874 to 1916.   There were 599 known entrants between 1898 and 1912 all of whom are now in a computer record.   Boys entered the School at varying ages, even 16-year olds. Depending on the information available in School records and from other sources, the data-base for each boy aims to show date of birth, father’s name, address, occupation; boy’s elementary or previous school, dates at PGS, school career details, post-PGS information.  Each name is being searched in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site (CWG) and any positive identification added into the revised Roll of Honour.    When the 274-name Roll was constructed and compared with existing information it was possible to eliminate duplications which reduced it to about 250 Old Boys, eight Staff (7 Masters and 1 Mistress) and two Head Master’s Secretaries - one being subsequently identified as an Old Boy.   It currently stands at nearly 300 and the Roll of those killed has increased from 44+1 Master to 57 in total with a further 26 inadequately identified and left elsewhere in abeyance.    Only around 700 searches have been made so far.  There remain all the eligible entrants between 1912 and 1916 together with those between 1874 and 1898 all of whom would have been of military age during 1914-1918. 

When reading the following Roll of Honour, those entries taken from The Hoghtonian are shown after the personal and School details, and originally in the magazine would have had a name followed by information, if any.  Now shown as the information, followed by such as H4-1915.  Whatever precedes that reference can be found somewhere within The Hoghtonian April 1915 edition; not necessarily printed in the Roll of Honour.   Information was capable of being placed in any item including House and sports reports - it had to be searched for.   Where two or more reference numbers are shown together, the preceding report has appeared unchanged in two or more editions.  “School Scholarships”, normally £10 pa for 3 years, were usually awarded on the strength of examination successes to assist in keeping the boys at School.  Frequently they were related to an intention to take up teaching.

There is one lengthy report, R T W Howe, the only Old Boy so far identified as having served in the Merchant Navy.  This report, containing details not totally relevant to the Old Boy, is for the time being deliberately lengthy to draw attention to the fact that service in the Merchant Navy is counted by CWG Commission and all other official bodies as War Service.  The Merchant Marine did not apply age limits in the same manner as the Armed Forces, and Officers and seamen in their 60s and 70s took their ships to sea.  There must have been more than one Old Boy in the sea-going Merchant Navy and information is requested.

There may be a gap in the Lists. From the outbreak of War there was a rapid turnover of male Staff, with some teachers arriving and departing within months.   Some of them were young, possibly straight from University, and could have left to enter the Services.  There was a similar turnover of the female teachers. There were opportunities for them to serve in or alongside the Forces - the WRNS was formed in 1917; Miss Furlong was in the Red Cross - but nothing has been found regarding most of the other ladies who came and left the School during the War.  A list of names of staff will be added at a later date but in the meantime any information relating to War Service by any Staff members is requested.

Following home addresses can sometimes be seen “1922”.   The precise nature of this can only be guessed at and it has not been possible to discern a pattern.   Some had “Nov 1922” and one has “Dec 1921”.  School Prize Days were in December and there seems to have been routine annual invitations to parents of present and past pupils to attend, therefore 1922 was something different. The “1922” frequently followed a tick, taken to indicate that the address remained the same, or without a tick and followed by a different address.  Otherwise changes of address were not dated.   Letters, content not known, were sent out in November 1922 possibly inviting the parents to the Prize Day.   Probably not asking for donations to the Memorial.  Possibly intending to use the Prize Day to up-date the parents on progress of the War Memorial scheme. However, a letter went to the parents of a boy who around 1910 attended the School for just one week; a letter went to a family whose son had been at the School for 14 months before they emigrated to South Africa in 1911.  There does not appear to have been any structured fund-raising activities, possibly they were not needed.  There is evidence of substantial donations by individuals, one-offs up to possibly £10,000 in today’s money.    Also noted are KILLED IN WAR and DEAD - records made by the School, not comprehensive and without any supporting information.

You may wonder at the number of Old Boys who became Chartered Accountants. At least up to the outbreak of war in 1914 the School curriculum had long included optional training for the accountancy examinations.   A boy could leave PGS partly qualified.

The Association remained in suspended animation despite numerous pleas by the Head Master and in The Hoghtonian until two Masters, neither of them former pupils, brought it back into life in the first few days of 1925.   Undoubtedly prompted by the forthcoming unveiling of the Memorial Window and Tablet. The early history of the Association is uncertain and whatever status existed before and during January 1908 and the following twenty months or so, activity increased from November 1910 with Keith Moore as the driving force behind its development.  He had been a young Territorial officer who was called up on the outbreak of war and then became an early casualty.  Most of his colleagues had been in the Forces with some also being casualties.   Keeping the Association going or later trying to restart it must have been a major problem.   Right up to the time when the Tablet was about to be made the Head Master continued to seek additional information, it being obvious that many more names should be on the Memorial.   Whether or not he knew, but appreciably smaller grammar schools in this region had appreciably more names on their Memorials than were about to be entered on ours.   Interestingly, in 1939 some weeks prior to the outbreak of war, the Association took decisions and set in motion a system for the collection and dissemination of  information and the maintenance of contacts which seems to have been of text book standard.  Most importantly, an administration was kept in being, with one Master, “Fog” Dodson, receiving incoming information as there was the certainty that his Great War injuries would prevent him from being called up for this one. It appears that every effort was made to ensure that all the problems arising in part or wholly due to the lack of an Association between 1914 and 1925 were eliminated in 1939.

Notes One

When Staff and pupils of the School were scanning newspapers for information they would not find those Old Boys who had moved out of the district. The lists were basic in content - regiment, rank, name, initial, number, date.   When the War Office issued lists to regional newspapers there would have to be reliance on families or friends notifying newspapers and other interested bodies in different regions of death, wounding, capture.   Robert McCleverty, a professional soldier, Captain in the 47^th Sikhs, killed on the Western Front in October 1914, home address in Hampshire, is not easily linked with Preston.

At least 1,437 boys entered the School up to the end of 1916 and were of an age to serve at some time or throughout the whole of the War. However, in 1918 the Government took powers to conscript men of 50 years, and up to 56 years if they had skills which the Armed Forces needed. The extreme total of those eligible must contain over 1,600 names. There could be over 700 names still to be added to those who Served In The War, amongst them will be several more deaths. The names of those noted in School records as having been in the Forces are already in the list. There are no more to be found from School sources. Every name is being searched in the Commonwealth War Graves records. Numerous name matches are being found but these cannot be progressed any further without more background information.  The stage has been reached where details of war service by any Old Boys and members of Staff can now only come from family members who have details in their family histories and mementos.  

Your help is requested.  

For example, in the Roll of Honour is Arthur L Howard, apparently in the Royal Engineers.   Up to now no School record has turned up so his age, years at School, address, father’s name, are not available to check against other sources.  CWG gives a bare outline for “A L Howard” but includes a Service Number which is also quoted in the entry for Arthur Lythgoe Howard on Preston’s War Memorial in the Harris Museum.   The three separate items may well relate to the one Old Boy but there is no positive link with the School.  Until the link can be made he is held in abeyance.  

George Woods was one of the most difficult entries to resolve.  It is not yet finalised.  It was resolved on 17^th September 2008.   There were two George Woods, cousins, two years apart, both from Walton-le-Dale, both living in the same road.  The Hoghtonian shows the elder left the School for Abingdon (Public) School, then to Keble College, Oxford, left, commissioned into The Loyals, killed in the war.  There are 54 ‘Woods, G’, 1914-18, in the CWG, a substantial number of them incomplete but not one has The Loyals as a regiment. The second George Woods was a fine athlete largely responsible for Miller repeatedly winning the Athletics Trophy during his time.  He was known as Dody.   All the material I held on ‘G Woods’ was separated by recourse to Miller-athletic skills-Dody, and dates after the elder’s move to Abingdon.   Which still left whichever was the deceased George Woods linked to The Loyals.    That was a brick wall.  The Archivist of Keble College was consulted and has provided detailed information that George Woods was a Captain in the 9^th Battalion, London Regiment, who was killed in action on 9^th September 1916.   This still leaves the younger George Woods (24-2-1896) and The Loyals.  Nothing is known (at present) of the second George Woods after 1914.   Was he commissioned into The Loyals?   Did he survive? - presumably he did because there isn’t a ‘Woods, G - Loyal North Lancashires’ in the CWG so far as I can work out.  Was he in a different regiment?    There is an added complication. Richard Crozier placed in St Leonard’s Church, Walton-le-Dale, a stained glass window commemorating his three sons killed in the Great War one of whom, Serjeant Cyril Crozier, MM, is on the School Memorial.  Below the window is a heavy brass plate engraved with the names of the men of the Parish killed in the War.   Captain George Woods is in that list.   His father was John Woods.  George Woods gave a window, depicting St George, commemorating his son George who was also killed in that War.  That means either there is a mistake in a history of the village and the window was given by John for Captain George; or George Woods gave a window in memory of his son George.  Does that mean George “Dody” Woods also died? If so, in which Unit, where, when?

17^th September 2008:- The window portraying St George was given by the Woods family in memory of members of their family.  It was not a War Memorial window.  Within the window are names of those remembered including George Woods, Captain, killed in France in 1916 aged 22.   This means that George, son of John, is in both the family memorial window and on the Parish war memorial tablet.  George ‘Dody’ Woods is on neither so any involvement by him in the Great War is still to be ascertained.  Having settled the questions with the assistance of the Vicar, in mid-October a reference in a directory was stumbled across which states that a war memorial window to the memory of Captain George Woods....... !  Whether it is a war memorial window or not does not really matter within this context provided the individual has remained the same.   By another strange quirk on 14^th November 2008, full circle has now been made and all inconsistencies appear to be resolved.   Somewhere around early 1916, the mother of Captain George Woods died.  George, who had been studying at Keble College with the intention of entering the Church, was killed in September 1916.   His father, John, died on 10^th March 1917, leaving John’s daughter as the sole survivor of the family.  She headed the mourners with John’s brother George and his wife.  There is no mention of cousin George being present so was he on Active Service? The earlier reference to the Window having been given by George, brother of John, seems likely to be correct.

Thomas Worsley Pilkington has a paragraph in The Hoghtonian in which there is a categorical statement that he had been killed in action.  His father was a member of PGSA.  There was no retraction or correction.  He is not on the Memorial or CWG.  Neither is A Jackson and I have no record of him up to now.  CWG is unable to offer any further information on Thomas Pilkington unless some definite facts come to light.  November 2008:  Thomas Worsley Pilkington, MC, survived the War to become Managing Director of T C Holden, Ltd, Steel Stockholders, of Lord Street, Preston.  He died, apparently of considerable age, and is buried in St Helen’s Churchyard, Churchtown, Garstang.  “Robinson, J” was an iconic figure throughout his time at PGS, invariably known only by “Robinson” despite there being other Robinsons in the School; his initial was used infrequently, and his Christian name possibly never used in The Hoghtonian so his identity was a mystery for a long time.  No reference to his military career ever appeared in the Roll of Honour in any edition of The Hoghtonian.  Combined with the number of Robinsons in the School of military age was a lack of information of his Service or Unit, date or place of death, plus a multitude of “Robinson, J” in the CWG, making identification impossible.   There was a problem over an extremely athletic Robinson whose medical restricted him to UK service, Robinson in an OTC, and a Robinson noted in the Artillery about to go to France.  St John’s (Oxford) College Archivist kindly provided details which enabled all the loose ends to be tied up.  He also made the first reference to the award of the MM.    “X” in WW2 frequently denoted experimental or unusual equipment.  Does anyone know if “X” 9^th T M Battery was something special? Or was “X” the 10^th gun in the [Trench Mortar] Battery? His captors were obviously at close range, he continued firing shells into the German positions, and they did not throw a grenade or shoot him.  Why not?  It is not known where or when he was captured.  John Wilcock, wounded, possibly died - only one boy of this name in PGS has been found so far. There was only one Private John Wilcock in the 1^st/5^th King’s Own at this time and he is in the Regimental records as having been killed in action.  The ages and dates are roughly in line but the family details bear no comparison.  Could this entry be an incorrect identification?   

Abbreviations

D A C    Divisional Ammunition Column (Royal Artillery)

HMHS   His Majesty’s Hospital Ship

LCC      Lancashire County Council

LDP      Lancashire Daily Post

Liverpool Scottish   A Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment

OBM    Old Boys’ Magazine

PCP      Preston Council Proceedings

psm      Passed School of Music (Graduate of the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall.)

RAMC   Royal Army Medical Corps

RFA      Royal Field Artillery    (Later, and currently, Royal Fleet Auxiliary – RN supply ships)

RFC      Royal Flying Corps   (RAF April 1918 onwards)

RGA      Royal Garrison Artillery

RNAS   Royal Naval Air Service

TRB      Training Reserve Battalion

Victor     Any boy who represented the School in every football league match during a season was declared a                 “Victor”.   It may have applied to School cricket matches.

Bombardier   Corporal, Royal Artillery

Guardsman    Private, five Regiments of Foot Guards.  King George V awarded the title to the Regiments on                           11^th November 1918.

Gunner         Private, Royal Artillery

Sapper         Private, Royal Engineers

Signalman    Private, Royal Signals

Trooper        Private, frequently in former Mounted regiments

WO             Warrant Officer - Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, such as Regimental Sergeant Major

One brief report has been seen that the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry part way through the War had been de-mounted, re-equipped and numbered as an infantry battalion of The Manchester Regiment.

During the 1890s a form was in use which required the date of birth as day, month, age in years.   Some parents stated age last birthday; others stated age next birthday; some did not attempt to clarify; some played safe and gave the date of birth and the age; some gave day, date and current year. And someone in the School tried to make sense of it all. Where a boy has two dates of birth exactly twelve months apart it is not a problem.  Just the end result of a silly system.

Family history researchers may wish to note that numbers of Roman Catholic boys attended Preston [Protestant] Grammar School before the Catholic College was founded on 1^st September 1865 as the Catholic Grammar School, and continued to do so to a lesser degree for at least fifty years thereafter, one being admitted in 1916.  Catholic boys going to and from PGS Cross Street endeavoured to avoid meeting the priests in the vicinity of St Wilfrid’s!  Some of them will have served in the Great War. In January 1898 work commenced on new buildings for the Catholic Boys’ Grammar School which found itself temporarily homeless.   The Corporation allowed it to use the Dr Shepherd’s Library (L&PS) at the corner of Cross Street, next to and planned to be extended into by the Protestant Grammar School.  When the new buildings on the west side of Winckley Square came into use it was with the new name of the Catholic College.  As the Catholic Boys’ Grammar School moved out of the Literary & Philosophical Society building the [Protestant] Grammar School moved in. There has been plenty of scope for confusion.  

Not directly related to the War but perhaps of some interest.  On Monday morning, 11^th November 1918, a message was sent from Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral that the terms of the Armistice had been agreed.  This was announced during the Daily Service.  There was a big congregation of people going into the Cathedral for Prayers as they anticipated the war was coming to an end.  The congregation then sang “The Old Hundredth” and the National Anthem.  The duty organist that day was F G Shuttleworth, organist of St Mary Abbots, Kensington.  On Tuesday morning, 12^th November 1918, the King and Queen and Princess Mary went, without ceremony or military escort, to a Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s.   Entry was open to all and the Cathedral was full.   F G Shuttleworth was again the organist.   An Old Boy as well as being the nephew of Sir Charles (Dr R C) Brown, donor of the School organ, which Mr Shuttleworth had played at the opening ceremony of the new organ on 2^nd October 1913.  

There are numerous names in the Roll with no other information.  Each possibly represents the same level of problems as James Robinson and George Woods produced. Please will you also note the substantial number of entries which end during the War and no subsequent information is known.  Services’ Museums sources have suggested they could be wounded and discharged; prisoners of war, or deaths. 

The only way in which these can now be resolved is with the assistance of family members.  

Information on any Old Boy who served in the Great War is requested. (There should be sufficient personal details to enable his identity to be confirmed.) 

I do not use e-mail, letters please, to:

Alick Hadwen   7 Windsor Avenue, Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston PR2 1JD.

or telephone Preston (01772) 733544

Copyright Alick Hadwen 2008

Notes Two

Name Match Only

Help, please - definite links between the School and Service in the Armed Forces, 1914-1918, are needed for the following.   Such as Service details plus personal or family details.   Date of birth; date of marriage; wife’s name; an address; anything which relates to someone positively known to have been at PGS. The School records are known for each of these.

Arthur Evelyn Abbott

H Armstrong    (Possibly a badly written ‘H’ and should be George Arnold Armstrong, same DoB.)

John George Oswald Ash

J H Baxter   (Joyce !! or Joseph Hewitson Baxter)

Beaven, H C  (In the Army List in both the Royal Horse Artillery and the Royal Field Artillery as a junior officer but if it is Harold Castlereagh Beaven he is another mathematical genius.)

VFred Berry

Arthur Butterworth

Sidney Carwin     

Joseph Alan Cross 

VJames Crossthwaite

Thomas Dagger

VJohn Darlington

Robert Fisher

Charles Fowler

John Hesketh Gardner

Sidney Ernest Glaister

George Clifford Goodier

John Harris

Richard Frankland Harrison

James Hibbert 

VJoseph Hibbert

Norman Lockwood

Lindon Margerison

Jack Mayor

Thomas Oliver Myerscough

Charles John Geoffrey Palmour

VEdmund Phillipson

S Porter (Possibly Stephen)

F J Preston

John Pye

Norman Rawcliffe

John Catterall Salisbury        

Matthew Hackforth Seddon

Clifford Maymon Seed

Robert Seed - RN Officer? 

VRobert Sharp

William Sowerbutts

John Spencer

Henry Evan Pateshall THOMAS

Reginald Fawcett Tindall

John Hamilton Whitehead

Alfred James Whittall

Malcolm Cecil Wilson

Carl Gordon Winter (related to Arthur Winter)

William John Worden

Name Match, Second World War:

Thomas Topping, Lance Corporal, Corps of Military Police, KIA Italy 1945.  Any information on date of birth, date of marriage, marital home address; father’s name, family home address around 1915-1920.

*******

Work is in progress on a Listing of the Former Pupils who served in the Second World War, 1939 to 1945. There will also be an Appendix for Korea and other wars, campaigns, insurgencies, skirmishes and National Service.   Any information which can be given to me will be very helpful.

The closure of the School and cessation of The Hoghtonian has removed most sources of information about former pupils.   The Association records only rarely give details of personal events and in any case the personal circumstances of non-members would not necessarily be known. Information will be welcomed. If anyone has diary records of PGSA activities from about 1965 and can let me have details, if I have a date of an activity I will at least know where to look in the local press for any reports. Photocopies will be greatly appreciated of lists of attendances at Association, Athletic Section, University Section, and other activities. 

• Alick Hadwen   October 2008