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Remembered Today:

Marlborough College and the Great War in 100 stories


Moonraker

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Produced as part of the College's Great War centenary commemorations, this book tells of the college and its people during the conflict. A limited edition of 749 copies, one for each of the pupils and staff who lost their lives.

Details here

Edited by Moonraker
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On 26/12/2023 at 16:28, Moonraker said:

Produced as part of the College's Great War centenary commemorations, this book tells of the college and its people during the conflict. A limited edition of 749 copies, one for each of the pupils and staff who lost their lives.

Details here

Thank you . I have family connection to Marlborough including a cousin who was KIA in 1917.

I have seen their online Roll of Honour and was hugely impressed by the standard of research evidenced  there and the photographs they had accrued. 

Shame I wasnt aware of this project - last year I viewed that cousins WO file at Kew and could have provided details to add to his record. Been meaning to send photos I took to their very helpful archivist - must do this.

Have you seen the book?

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It certainly looks impressive, but I can’t justify shelling out £40 at present. As Fiona says, the online roll of honour is an excellent resource. I will probably stick with that. Fantastic cover photo though. One of the coldest games of cricket I’ve ever scored was in that pavilion. It snowed, and us scorers were sitting outside on the balcony. Snow stopped play. 

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On 31/12/2023 at 11:42, Michelle Young said:

It certainly looks impressive, but I can’t justify shelling out £40 at present. As Fiona says, the online roll of honour is an excellent resource. I will probably stick with that. Fantastic cover photo though. One of the coldest games of cricket I’ve ever scored was in that pavilion. It snowed, and us scorers were sitting outside on the balcony. Snow stopped play. 

£40 - likewise Michelle .  Not seen the cover - must check their website .

Re Cricket- you have been there ! Am so jealous! I have been trying to arrange a weekend visit in order to attend a Sunday morning Chapel service at the school  .this is at the invitation of the school coz my Grt  great Uncle was the Professor of Music at Marlborough for 47 years and he wrote many of the hymns still sung by the school .also my grandfather attended the school firc2 years just before WW1.

Anyway - the Marlborough Premier Inn cost about £160 per night this year so I thought try again off season ...

Well ...its fully booked up every weekend till the end of their available online booking season end of September!  What goes on in Marlborough! Is it the cricket??!

Not to mention  there being no train station in Marlborough....

 

Edited by FionaBam
Error should be Grt great Uncle
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I got into the chapel a few years go at a Siegfried Sassoon conference. Also visited the memorial hall. Fabulous. I’ve scored a few games there, we were always very well looked after! 

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That sounds wonderful Michelle.

Just watched half of their "749" film on the College website ( unable to copy link here ). Very well made indeed in 2014.

I shall continue to seek ways of having my visit there !  

Cricket- the great uncle I mentioned, the Prof.of Music,  was known to be an excellent cricketer at College and County matches . I would also like to watch a cricket match being played at the College.  Add that to my wish list!

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I have several postcards with photographs of camps with cadets and adult soldiers that I think may have been taken from the balconies of the pavilion. The major WWI camping ground was on the Common, but contemporary maps show no likely buildings there, and it may be that the playing fields were used as "overflow", with the Common being devoted to ASC troops.

I have been known to stand forlornly on the playing fields trying to match the far backgrounds on the cards with the wooded tops of Granham and Postern Hills, but without any luck. (In contrast some of the plantations on Salisbury Plain have changed little in 120 years.)

BTW the College has become even more security conscious of late, with visitors having to alert the College in advance, wear lanyards and be escorted, though uninhibited access to Chapel services and matches seems OK. It was with some trepidation last summer that I sneaked onto the playing fields to visit the Wedgwood Memorial, glancing nervously at the groundsman on a tractor 100 yards away.

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Thank you Moonraker.All very interesting and have saved the old map link - great to have that .

How amazing to stand there and look at those hills with your postcards to hand 

I am glad they have security but yes no wandering in to get a feel of the place. My visit will be very much planned in advance . The school offered the Sunday Chapel service which is wonderful for me but proving so hard to get local accommodation at weekends 

 Perhaps I'll have to change it if school agrees to a mid week visit and miss out on a chapel service . 

I would love to go inside C House ( which I think the archivist explained  is Cotton House) as my grandfather was there for 2 years . It seems odd that Freddy was a boarder when his Uncle lived in a spacious house on the school grounds for 47 years there till he retired c.1919 . Sadly "Waimate" was demolished for a 1950s estate but I fo have a drawing of it.

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No, C House is the old Castle Inn at the far end of Court.

Cotton House is to the west of the main College, along the Bath Road.

Time was when C House was an "in-college house", whereas Cotton was "out-college", with slightly higher fees. Physically the difference remains, but I don't know about the current terminology.

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1 hour ago, FionaBam said:

Cricket- the great uncle I mentioned, the Prof.of Music,  was known to be an excellent cricketer at College and County matches . I would also like to watch a cricket match being played at the College.  Add that to my wish list!

A couple of years go we were out and about on the motorcycle, and just dropped in as we saw a game in progress, Marlborough v Eton if I recall. The security guards were fine about us dropping in unannounced as it were. I used to take my son to county indoor nets at the college many years ago. 

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3 hours ago, Moonraker said:

C House is the old Castle Inn at the far end of Court

Thank you so much!What a terrific history the Castle Inn has! And quite a lot of historical parts or items remain within the buildings , if I have understood correctly. 

Found a contemporary photo on Historic England and will look at the College website for the location of C House on the school site , at far end of Court.

I imagine  for the full school experience it was preferable to be a boarder so glad Freddy had that .

Thanks again for your help

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3 hours ago, Michelle Young said:

dropping in unannounced

That was fun ! Marlborough v. Eton- therein lies a tale I am sure!

One of my favourite short stories heard on BBC world service in about 1993 when I was living abroad is " The Cricket Match" by     A.J.McDonald      and read superbly by Richard Briers.i still have it recorded on cassette in 1993! Its absolutely hilarious, very clever caricatures of different types  but nothing cruel or unkind . Thoroughly recommend  it for you if you can find it in print I never could .

Thanks again for your help.

 

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On 31/12/2023 at 18:49, FionaBam said:

One of my favourite short stories heard on BBC world service in about 1993 when I was living abroad is " The Cricket Match" by     A.J.McDonald      and read superbly by Richard Briers.i still have it recorded on cassette in 1993! Its absolutely hilarious, very clever caricatures of different types  but nothing cruel or unkind . Thoroughly recommend  it for you if you can find it in print I never could.

 

I suspect what you heard was the famous "A village cricket match" chapter from "England, their England" by A.G. Macdonell (note spelling), which you should easily be able to find in print.

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1 hour ago, pierssc said:

which you should easily be able to find in print.

Indeed I just did! Oh what joy awaits me when it arrives on January 6th!A whole book by this guy!

Thank you so much! Obviously I mis-heard the authors name on the radio all those years ago and as I had missed the start of the broadcast I also did not hear the possible announcement of the book title. Plus...never varied my searches online.. derr... 

@Michelle Youngas one review  puts it "Go buy a copy! ". Plenty available 2nd hand online  .☺️

Now to persue the audio version by Richard Briers - the BBC better prepare itself for FionaOnAMission - not a pretty sight! 

Many thanks Piers- 2024 is looking up already!

 

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Mr Y reminds me we have a copy. Now to find it. When we retired, we said we’d sort the book shelves out. Been too busy  going to cricket and the Western Front…..it’s on the must do list. 

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49 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

Mr Y reminds me we have a copy. Now to find it. When we retired, we said we’d sort the book shelves out. Been too busy  going to cricket and the Western Front…..it’s on the must do list. 

Ooh great news then!

Ha ha! The Must Do list ! I think we have all been there Michèlle or certainly I have/am!

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I’ve found it, when I was dusting one of the bookcases. Result! 

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14 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

Result

Yey! 

And the moral of the story for us all is.....?!😎

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Re - Audio version by Richard Briers -  heard on  BBC radio in 1993-

No sign of it - did  a deep trawl of Internet .😔

 

 

 

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I hope this link leads to a poem reminiscing about Marlborough by another man with local connections, Edward Hilton Young:

https://archive.org/details/museatseaverses00kennuoft/page/29/mode/1up

For more about E H Young and 'A Muse at Sea,' this post from some years ago: 

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/228039-edward-hilton-young-a-muse-at-sea/

(you may have to scroll along one page to reach the poem I meant, 'In the third year of war.'

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Thank you Seajane! What treasures therein!

A Muse at Sea is beautiful. And the forum  thread has so much to offer 

Edit update -got Young s book for £9 on Amazon ! Day's Poems & Rhymes however is £140 at a (local to me) vintage bookshop - wonder if they are having a sale !

Edited by FionaBam
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5 hours ago, FionaBam said:

Day's Poems & Rhymes

If you look on bookfinder.com there are copies on sale for about £20. Happy hunting!

sJ

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On 31/12/2023 at 13:36, Moonraker said:

think may have been taken from the balconies of the pavilion

Hello Moonraker 

I bought and am really enjoying Thomas Hinde's "Paths of Progress -A History of Marlborough College ". Some marvellous photos including one of my grt. Uncle and a cartoon  drawn by a pupil  depicting the school's internal schism regards sporting achievements versus  academic excellence - see below.

I wonder if this is the pavillion you refer to .

I hope to find out next month if all is confirmed by the College for my visit .I will  also walk into the hills nearby  weather permitting.  

From another terrifically detailed  book about Wiltshire and WW1 ,with excellent old photos ,   by T.S. Crawford you might like his chapter on Prose & Poetry .

The author is hopefully still  somewhere on the Forum as he thanks the Forum in his foreword .Some pics below

Is this signpost still there? Related to Charles Sorleys poem also below

Many thanks!

Copywrights to

1. Marlborough College book -James & James Publishers Ltd 1992

2. Wiltshire book - The Crowood Press Ltd 2012 first published 1999

 

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Here is Sorleys signpost. It’s a fair way out of Marlborough centre. There’s a good biography of him by the wonderful  Jean Moorcroft Wilson. Map image courtesy Ordnance Survey. 

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Oooh wonderful!  Thank you Michelle that's so helpful !

Perhaps a walk along the track in that direction will be my aim ☺️

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