After the war he went to Oxford University and became a publisher with the Cambridge University Press. World War II intervened and he re-joined the army as a Liaison Officer between the Army and the Air Force. He spent time in Bomber Command and the War Office. In 1945 he was de-mobilised with the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel. He later became Professor of Commonwealth Relations at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. A published writer, his books on John Robert Godley and Rudyard Kipling are in the John Harris Collection of Christ’s College Old Boy writing. xxiii Perhaps surprisingly it was the war which enabled the four older brothers to be together for the last time. There were various maternal and paternal relatives who welcomed the three soldiers and a pacifist as they came and went from the front and from university. Cuttell tells the story of their last time together, at Cambridge, when Philip pawned his Chancellor’s Gold medal for 5 pounds as they were all hard up, “so they could have some entertainment”. xxiv Both Charles and Philip kept in touch with Christ’s College while they were overseas, probably though AE Flower. Philip’s accounts were published in April and August 1915 and are headed Diary of a New Zealander in the War . The first part covers the period immediately before the declaration of war and includes an account of a plane landing at Lowescroft where he was camping with a group of Scouts, and an increasing awareness that war was inevitable. The second part includes being mistaken for a German spy by a group of territorials, wireless stations being deliberately destroyed, and schools being turned into hospitals. He ends with “Something is going to happen; but there are those who believe it has already begun”. xxv
student and Master at Lyttelton West School) had left Cora Lynn intending to raft down the Waimakariri River. After a mishap on the first day when their food and blankets were drenched they continued down the river, but the raft over turned. After dragging it onto a shingle bank, they lit a fire and wrung out their clothes and planned to continue down the gorge until they could climb up to the railway line. Further down the river they hit a bluff and the raft overturned again. xxxi Brassington survived and raised the alarm. Carrington’s body was later found and he is buried in the Springfield Public Cemetery. xxxii Prior to his death the tramping club had been given a £50 grant to build a hut at the junction of the Waimakariri and White Rivers. This was completed and is named the Carrington Hut in his memory, as is Carrington Peak (2010m) between the Waimakariri River and Campbell Creek. xxxiii Five brothers, with diverse talents and skills and all from one family. There are some who would say they are the most gifted brothers to have attended Christ’s College.
Charles’ information was published in Term 1 and August 1916, and is less speculative. He writes from the trenches, finally. There is a sense of excitement in the shelling, cold and wet, which contrast with his later writing in Soldier from the War Returning . xxvi Gerard Nelson Carrington Gerard, the youngest, was initially enrolled in the Lower School and was regularly in the top three places for Maths and Science and in 1922 represented College in the inter-school athletics team. xxvii He was awarded a Junior National Scholarship, coming first in New Zealand in Mathematics, xxviii thereby earning College a half day’s holiday the following February. xxix He began an engineering degree at Canterbury University College.
Gerard Nelson Carrington from the 1921 South Town Photograph. Christ’s College Archives. He became the secretary of the Photographic Society, and was one of the founders of the Canterbury Tramping Club and wrote for The Press . He also edited The House , the College House Magazine and in 1926 its production was delayed because he had drowned, aged 20, while exploring the Waimakariri River. xxx
Carrington, Walter William Brassington (a Master at
Christchurch Boys’ High School) and John Stevenson Shannon (a
Christ’s College Canterbury
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