OA News
OA News ..........................................................................................................
This section of the Yearbook contains a roundup of news received from Old Alleynians over the past 12 months. The College website publishes OA news stories throughout the year. If you would like to share your news with the OA community then please contact us via alleynclub @ dulwich.org.uk.
News from the Archive
War. The College owns three of these seven medals, all three awarded in the First World War. Over the last year these medals have been the focus of attention on various occasions. In April 2014 three members of the Lafone family visited the College. Terry Walsh (Senior Fellow; Past President) and Calista Lucy (Keeper of the Archive) showed them Alexander Lafone’s (1881-89) VC medal and the War Memorial. They also toured the Old Library, which commemorates Old Alleynians who fell in the Boer War, including Capt W B Lafone (1869-75), a cousin who served in the 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment. He was killed in action on 6 January 1900 at Ladysmith. On Tuesday 20 May 2014 Sergeant Johnson Gideon Beharry VC gave an inspirational talk in the Great Hall to members of the CCF. Before the talk Sgt Beharry visited the Archive to view the three Victoria Crosses owned by the College and shared that he had only held his own VC on two occasions. He was particularly interested in the stories on Cecil Sewell (1907-10) and Pip Gardner (28-32) as their stories most closely match his own. On Armistice Day all three Victoria Crosses were on view in the Lower Hall and Lt Gen Sir Peter Duffell KCB CBE MC (49-56) agreed to record a ‘podcast’ about them. The College is recording various people talking about objects and events which are important in its history. This is part of the build up to the celebration of the 400th anniversary in 2019. In December Andrew Gray, a great-great-nephew of Lt Richard Jones (1909-14) contacted the College to ask if he could lay a wreath on our War Memorial on behalf of his family. The College rose to the occasion at very short notice. The CCF turned out and provided a guard of honour. Robin Smith (Head of Brass) organised some trumpeters to play the Last Post and Ivor Warburton (57-65), President of the Alleyn Club and Terry Walsh attended. Afterwards Mr Gray viewed Lt Jones’s VC.
The Archive continues to flourish and is used as a resource not only by the public but within the College as appropriate in the curriculum. During Lent Term 2015 the exhibition in the Wodehouse Library is showcasing the Year 9 History project. This programme has been running since 2009 and is a very successful collaboration between the History department and the Library and Archive. Each boy studies an Old Alleynian who fought and died in the First World War. It introduces the pupils to basic skills of research including using different sources, reading original documents – often hand written – and cross-checking information for accuracy. The project has revealed some mistakes on the War Memorial that have now been corrected. The Summer Term exhibition will be on magazines, other than The Alleynian, produced at the College. If you were involved with any of these – Groll, Troll, The Orchardian, Black and Blue, Illuminati, The Locusts, Muse, PER, Semantron , etc then please contact the Archive via archive @ dulwich.org.uk. The exhibition will be open throughout the Summer Term, including Founder’s Day (Saturday 27 June). The exhibition in Michaelmas Term 2015 will take a look at Modern Foreign Languages at Dulwich College: the teachers, the methods and where the learning of languages has taken Old Alleynians in later life, including Bletchley Park in the Second World War and the diplomatic service. We would like to hear from you if you have benefited from learning languages at the College. The exhibition will be open throughout Michaelmas Term, to coincide with the OA Reunion on Saturday 3 October and the European Day of Languages on 26 September 2015. Dulwich College and the Victoria Cross Seven Old Alleynians have been awarded the highest medal for gallantry, the Victoria Cross: five during the First World War and two in the Second World
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