A YEAR OF REFLECTIONS ON THE TWO WORLD WARS
GE Moore Lecture: Dulwich College and the First World War The boys of Dulwich College made a signif icant contribution to the Great War, 534 of them dying for their country. In recognition of this, the GE Moore Lecture in the Lent term focused on different aspects of the war, involving Dulwich students, past and present. Here Abel Banf ield (Year 8) describes his thoughts on the event
T he talk began with the Head of Middle School, Dr Black, presenting the new interactive website honouring those OAs who fought in the First World War. It contains a profile page for every OA, as well as photographs of Edwardian Dulwich and essays on the various campaigns in which the OAs took part. There are also details of where the OAs lived when they were at school, the numbers who fought and where they are buried or commemorated.
The statistics are shocking: 3,103 OAs fought in the war, most of them for the British, ten for the Belgians, seven for the French and, incredibly, one for the Germans. 534 died. Although most of them lived in Dulwich, some boarders came from as far away as the Peak District, America, Australia and India. And while the majority are buried in France, Britain and Belgium, a few have their final resting place in Africa, southern Europe and India. One was even buried in northern Russia. The second lecture showed how art can highlight the horror of the Battle of the Somme. The Turner prize- winning author and OA Jeremy Deller talked to us about his artwork, ‘We’re here because we’re here.’ For this project, which marked the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, Deller stationed 1,400 volunteers in First World War uniforms all around the UK and Northern Ireland. The men were silent, simply giving cards to passers- by, informing them which individual solider, of the 19,000 that died on that one day, they were representing. At the end of the day the soldiers met up at a given place, and marched three times in a circle while singing: ‘We’re here because we’re here.’ Then came a short scene from a play based on the Wipers Times, a satirical newspaper created by soldiers fighting in the trenches that was often harshly critical of the officers and generals. The scene
Art can highlight the horror of the Battle of the Somme was performed by senior students from the College; it showed the main characters avoiding a bombing raid by blundering into an abandoned factory. There they find paper and a printing-press, which inspires them to start the Wipers Times , so called because they pronounced Ypres ‘Wipers’. Private Eye ’s Nick Newman and film producer David Parfitt then described how they went about researching the newspaper, and those who produced it, in order to turn it into a film and a play. The final image of the evening was the obituaries of the founders of the Wipers Times , Captain Roberts and Lieutenant Pearson, which were finally published in The Times in 2013. Nick Newman commented that he thought that it was the only time that he could think of when satire had achieved a real and specific change. I absolutely loved this event. I heard many fascinating stories and facts that have made me want to know more. I would strongly recommend the website to anyone who wants to know more about the OAs in the First World War.
44
Made with FlippingBook Annual report