Marlborough College has commemorated its 749 fallen very widely in the last 5 years (2014-18) and now has a comprehensive website, including a detailed Roll of Honour:
Please click here to launch the Marlborough College Archive
A DVD ‘The 749’ was commissioned, and filmed round the College and in France – it is streamed on the main College website. A book, “Marlborough College and the Great War in 100 Stories”, has been published in 2018 and a copy placed in the Merchant House library.
Services of dedication and remembrance (1919):
Marlborough commemorated the six Assistant Masters who lost their lives on 20 June 1919. A Communion service took place at mid-day, and this was followed by the dedication of the Memorial Cross on the North side of Chapel. In the afternoon a Memorial Service took place in Chapel – a copy of the Order of Service is below.
The following account of the day’s events is from The Marlburian of 17 July 1919:
‘On Friday, June 20th, was held a unique service in the Chapel. Old Marlburians and parents of those members of the School who had died on active service met together with present members of the School, to pay tribute to their cherished memory, to offer thanks to God for the rich example of a great and willing service, and, it may be too, to re-call with deep gratitude what the memories associated with School Chapel had meant to these men in their days of service in the great cause of Truth and Liberty.
They had come because they felt all so truly that here in Marlborough a great and deep influence had passed over those lives in their forming, and that the School Chapel was the centre from which all that was best in that influence had radiated.
There was first that solemn Celebration of the Holy Communion at Mid-day, which none of those 160 present will ever forget. The celebrant was the late Master, the Dean of Bristol [Wynne Willson]. Immediately succeeding this came the dedication of the Memorial Cross, standing on the North side of the Chapel, to the memory of the six Assistant Masters who have fallen in the war.
In the afternoon the Memorial Service itself opened with the sentence, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” to Croft’s setting. Mr Frank Fletcher, Master of Marlborough 1903-11, read the Lesson, Hebrews xi . . .’
Below is a list of the six beaks along with a link to their Rolls of Honour
- Freeman Archibald Haynes Atkey
- Percival Beckwith Wace
- Thomas Keith Hedley Rae
- Charles John Norman Adams
- John Garrett Bussell
- Arthur Clement Heberden
The Memorial Hall was not opened until 1925. Details are provided in the articles below:-