Wykehamists in Wipers

The themes for this Wykehamical tour of First World War battlefields derived from the Centenary year of War Cloister and from the school’s interest in the Western Front Way.  Mike Wallis, leading the first of two battlefield tours this year, brought his encyclopaedic knowledge to bear on the battles of Passchendaele (1917) and Loos (1915).  The countryside that was so dominated by the battles themselves is now home to a multitude of cemeteries and memorials.  Along with the battles we made a point of visiting memorials designed by Herbert Baker, the architect of War Cloister.  Baker, as one of the three Principal Architects appointed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, was responsible for 119 cemeteries and memorials, of which he personally designed seven. 

Our departure fell on the day of War Cloister’s Centenary and in a short but poignant ceremony, we dedicated the wreaths we would lay in Flanders with these words: 

One hundred years ago today, the memorial in which we stand was dedicated to sons of this school, whose lives were developed and enriched by the buildings and fields that surround us and were cut short on the battlefields of the world.  

Today, we take these wreaths from their place in War Cloister, to be laid on the graves and memorials of Wykehamists, forming a symbolic link between this spiritual home and the places where they fell, a link that has been unbroken for the last hundred years. 

Thou therefore, for whom they died, seek not thine own but serve as they served and in peace or in war bear thyself ever as Christ’s soldier, gentle in all things, valiant in action and steadfast in adversity.  

Our first visit was to Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial, near Ypres, one of those designed by Herbert Baker. At the memorial, Nicholas Sansbury (I, 78-83) laid a wreath beneath the name of Kenneth Wilson-Barkworth, whose family had endowed the bursary that supported Nicholas at Win Coll.  An extension of the Western Front Way provided the route for the party to walk back towards Ypres. 

On Sunday 2 June, we drove south to visit the Dud Corner Cemetery and Loos Memorial, another Baker design.  Among the 18 Wykehamists recorded on the Memorial is Douglas Gillespie (Coll, 03-08) whose words, in letters between him and Headmaster Monty Rendall, became the inspiration for the Western Front Way.  From the Loos Memorial, we followed the WFW on foot before passing the point where Gillespie fell.  After marking Gillespie’s brother, Tom at the Le Touret Memorial, we visited the last Baker memorial of our trip, the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle.  Of the three principal Architects, none was more appropriate than Baker and none could have designed it more sensitively.  All the agreed components of the IWGC designs are included, but with a stone column, inspired by columns erected by the Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd Century BC, topped by a lotus flower, replacing the Blomfield cross of Remembrance. 

We spent our final day across the border in France again, touring the Wellington Crater museum in Arras and then the Vimy Memorial.