Mrs Cook’s Blog

EVERY ONE REMEMBERED

The Royal British Legion, in partnership with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has developed a project they call Every One Remembered, to individually commemorate over 1 million Commonwealth Service men and women who were killed during the First World War.

This initiative struck a chord with me personally as it gave my family the opportunity to mark the sacrifice made by my great uncle, my grandfather’s brother, who died from Spanish flu in a Prisoner of War camp, just three days after the war ended in 1918.

We had heard many stories of Uncle Daniel over the years, but no one had ever been able to visit his grave until, with the British Legion’s help, we were able to locate his final resting place in Niederzwehren Cemetry, Germany.

In early October, some of my cousins made the trip and spent several hours at his graveside, remembering the man we never knew and wondering what his life might have held had he lived beyond those 24 short years. They left poems and messages from the extended family and it is wonderful to think that that lonely unvisited grave has now been recognised. (Sadly, their trip clashed with the school’s Open Morning as I would obviously have loved to have joined them but I am determined to visit one day to pay my respects).

This Sunday I will be thinking of Uncle Daniel particularly of course, but this week I have also been thinking of those connected with our school who may not have made the ultimate sacrifice, but whose lives were undeniably altered forever by the so called Great War.

Women like alumna Rhoda Brodie who received an MBE for her war work from the Director General for Voluntary Organisations and in 1915 established the Croydon Women’s Patrols. The women volunteers patrolled in couples for two hours in the evening, carrying a police whistle and lantern.

Rhoda also took charge of the Sun Life Insurance Company’s local Branch Office in order that a man ‘might be relieved for active service’.

Or Kate Luard, who attended Croydon High along with her three sisters, referring to her time here as ‘a defining moment in her life.’ Kate served as a nurse in the Boer War and was one of the first nurses to join the British Expeditionary Force at the start of WW1, initially working on ambulance trains bringing the wounded from the battlefields. During the war, she was twice mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the 1st class Royal Red Cross medal and bar. Kate was Head Sister of No 32 Casualty Clearing Station at Brandhoek during the Battle of Passchendaele. She is the author of two books describing her experiences.

Or Kathleen Mary Leeds who was also a pupil here, teaching at Portsmouth High before returning to Croydon High as Assistant Headmistress. Kathleen was the secretary of the School War Savings Association that started in July 1916 and culminated in a total collection of over £6,000 in War Savings Certificates. Kathleen was also a member of the Croydon Women’s Patrols. She died in 1921 and the school decided to invite contributions to a fund to provide a special prize to bear her name. The Kathleen Mary Leeds Award for Sciences and Mathematics still exists today and was recently awarded to former Head Girl Praveena at Senior Prizegiving in September of this year.

These are just some of the ‘big names’ – if you like – associated with the school and the war effort. But what is more moving in a way, is the realisation that so many of our alumnae were involved, like women all over the country, in doing far more than just ‘keeping the home fires burning.’

An entry in Croydon High’s 50th Anniversary Jubilee publication in 1924 sums this up.

“No reference to the war years can omit the work done by our old girls. It is with pride and affectionate admiration that we have watched their patriotic and unselfish work. I think there cannot be many forms of women’s work during the Great War in which our old girls did not share. They were V.A.D. nurses; they joined the W.A.A.C.S., the W.R.E.N.S., and the Women’s Air Service. They drove Army motorcars in England, France and Macedonia. They helped take care of Belgian refugees. They served as Army cooks and as voluntary helpers in Y.M.C.A. and Church Army canteens. They took part in munition work; they served in Police patrols. Some took the places of men in Government offices and banks, and had responsible positions; some taught boys in public schools. They worked in the Land Army at all kinds of work, including ploughing, milking, and driving cattle to market.

Our old girls came forward at the call of their country. They did their best, forgetting everything but patriotism, and they gave themselves to work which was sometimes difficult, uncongenial, and sometimes very dull though necessary. I think that there was much quiet in many cases ; for instance, in those who did the hard monotonous work of hospital orderlies, and those who had never in their lives before had anything to do with cows, yet persevered in milking them by lantern light, week after week, on cold winter mornings. We have been led to admire many of our old girls, who have shown a wonderful spirit of devotion and unselfishness.”

I found the final paragraph to be particularly moving especially as I felt it to be as true today as it was then.

“Can we allow ourselves to believe that some of their power to be helpful in their country’s hour of need was derived from their training in public spirit as members of a large school? We trust that it may be so, and we earnestly hope that the present generation of girls and those who succeed them will be helped by their school-life to develop into good, capable, and unselfish women who will be ready and able to help in the great work of national reconstruction.”

We pray that our girls will never be called upon to make the sacrifices that previous generations have made, but we also hope that the words of our school motto – May her character and talents inspire others – will prove to be a continued motivation to them all, wherever life takes them.

And to all those who sacrificed so much…
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

With many thanks to Karen Roe for bringing together the archive material that commemorates Croydon High’s involvement in World War 1 and which inspired this piece.

Fran Cook
Director of Marketing