PHILIP GILLESPIE BAINBRIGGE

 
PHILIP GILLESPIE BAINBRIGGE:
SCHOLAR, SCHOOLMASTER, SOLDIER
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

 

The scholar and Classics Master, Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge is mostly remembered today for writing two provocative literary works along the lines of Greek love, ‘Dialogus: Jocundus: Robertus’ (written in Latin and printed privately by the Cayme Press, London, in 1926) and ‘Achilles in Scyros’ a verse play (printed privately by the Cayme Press, London, in 1927) which parodies Robert Bridges’s work of the same name of 1892 and also for his often repeated parody of Rupert Brooke’s poem ‘The Soldier’. Without these contributions to literature and had he not died during the Great War, Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge would be little known or remembered today except for being one of a long line of distinguished masters of Shrewsbury School and a romantic companion of Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff. Therefore, I have carried out a little research on Bainbrigge with the hope of bringing from the shadows, a few of the friends and acquaintances he would have known during his time at Eton, Trinity and Shrewsbury; I also propose to look a little into his wider family, on his mother’s side, the Gillespies and the Cowans and on his father’s the Bainbrigges and Borthwicks, but also through marriages some of his Aunts and Uncles before presenting some biographical sketches of the Shrewsbury Masters Philip would have known and perhaps considered friends. Like some families there are those few who achieve some small moments of greatness and find themselves linked to more noble and notable individuals who perhaps leave a record of their friendship and acquaintance; some who fall by the wayside and leave no record of having achieved anything except a birth and a death, if one is fortunate, and those who meticulously keep a diary, correspondence or a memoir of their daily adventures which for the historian is a most valuable text of research. In Bainbrigge’s case, there is little except for what such individuals as Scott Moncrieff, A. T. Bartholomew and Wilfred Owen have left us and written materials later historians and biographers produce. It is a pity that Philip never left a written record of his life as a scholar, a schoolmaster and as a soldier, and all that we can hope to do is to stitch what threads we have together and weave delicately each new patch. Perhaps, some day, more will be known and written about Bainbrigge, a most unlikely Achilles, who died a hero’s death. 

Reverend P. T. Bainbrigge

Philip’s father was the Reverend Philip Thomas Bainbrigge, born 23^rd March 1848 (baptised 31^st May) in Woolwich, Kent. The first child and only son of Major General (Royal Engineers) Philip John Bainbrigge (16^th January 1817- 23^rd October 1881, buried 28^th October, Charlton Cemetery, Kent) of Woolwich, who married Margaret Jane Paterson (11^th January 1822-26^th November 1899), daughter of Major-General Thomas Paterson (1780-1856), on 18^th August 1846 in Woolwich. Following the birth of their son, Philip Thomas, four girls were born to the Bainbrigge family in Woolwich, three of whom remained unmarried. The first daughter was Marion Sophia Bainbrigge, born 17^th December 1849 and baptised 6^th February the following year in Woolwich; Marion never married and she died in Kensington, just a few days short of her 80^th birthday on 11^th December 1928. The next girl born to the Bainbrigge’s was Edith Mary Bainbrigge, born 29^th April 1852 and baptised 30^th June in Woolwich, Edith, like her elder sister, Marion, also never married; she died aged 80 in Kensington on 19^th June 1932. Two years later, another daughter is born – Alice Greta Bainbriige, born 4^th January 1854 and baptised 19^th February in Woolwich. Alice proved an exception to the rule and married the merchant and steamship owner, James Edward Anderson (1849-1922) of Liverpool (1), on Wednesday 7^th June 1882 at Christ Church in Greenwich, London; the ceremony was conducted by Alice’s brother (and Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge’s father), Reverend Philip Thomas Bainbrigge. Alice died in Stroud, Gloucestershire, aged 79, on 30^th June 1933. Finally, the last daughter born to the Bainbrigge household was Lorina Grace Bainbrigge, born 2^nd December 1856 and baptised 15^th April the following year in Woolwich, Lorina, like her two elder sisters, Marion and Edith, remained unmarried. She died in Kensington aged 81 on 9^th October 1938. In fact, the three sisters, Marion, Lorina and Edith lived together in the same household in Brompton, Kensington with one servant (typically a widowed female) to take care of their needs (see the census for 1901 [RG13, schedule 273, piece/folio 117, p. 45] and 1911 [RG14, schedule 42, piece/folio 83, p. 1]). I like to think that the young Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge would have got on well with his three maidenly spinster Aunts, particularly Marion, who in 1914 published a volume – ‘A Walk in Other Worlds with Dante’ (London. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., printed by the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh), an ‘endeavour to gather in a compact form some of the beautiful and elevating thoughts which aught to be the possession not only of Italians, but of all those souls who are struggling in the Purgatory of Life.’ (Preface. p. ix) Marion acknowledges with gratitude the kind permission of the author and scholar, Horatio F. Brown (1854-1926), Literary Executor to the late John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) to use quotations; she also thanks her sister, Edith for correcting the proofs and for her diagram of the ‘White Rose of the Saints’ (on page 241) and ‘L. G. B.’ which is obviously her sister, Lorina Grace Bainbrigge.

Philip Thomas Bainbrigge was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, matriculating on 3^rd February 1872 age 23, (BA 1875, MA 1878), ordained deacon in 1875 and priest the following year. He became curate of Oakham in Rutland from 1875-78, St. Peter, Leicestershire 1878-80, St. Thomas, Regent Street, 1880-81, St. Philip’s, Regent Street 1881-83, Vicar of St. Thomas Regent Street, Westminster, 1883-1919

 

THE GILLESPIE’S OF BIGGAR PARK, LANARKSHIRE

 

Philip Thomas Bainbrigge married his first cousin, Helen Jane Gillespie, born about 1852, the daughter of Alexander Gillespie (1819-1863) of Biggar Park, Lanarkshire (2), on 8^th July 1884 at St. Paul’s Church in Edinburgh. Helen Jane Gillespie was the third child of Alexander Gillespie, born 25^th January 1819 in Lanarkshire, who married Marion Holmes Paterson, (born 18^th March 1820 in Arundel, Sussex), on 26^th December 1843 at Woolwich, Kent. Marion was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Paterson (1780-1856) and Sophia Curry (1795-1865), who were married 20^th September 1813, in Leith, Scotland. Alexander and Marion had the following children: Sophia Margaret Gillespie (1847-1920) who married the Edinburgh paper manufacturer, John James Cowan (1846-1936) in Edinburgh on 14^th August 1869; John Cowan, who attended College Hall in St. Andrews in 1865, published his memoirs: ‘From 1846-1932’, Edinburgh, Privately Printed by Pillans & Wilson, 1933, chapter three of its sixteen chapters, ‘mainly about golf’ says that ‘in the years from 1864 to 1867 I fail to recollect the exact sequence of events. It may have been in 1864 that I first visited the Isle of Mull. I went by rail to Balloch and walked thence along the side of Loch Lomond to Tarbet, where I slept. The following day to Inverary via Arrochar and Loch Fyne. The third day I reached the old inn at Dalmally, whence I had a tramp of 26 miles to Oban. In the four days I walked 84 miles, and carried a knapsack weighing 12 lb. all the way.’ (3); George Gillespie (1849-1921) who became the Manager of the Bank of British Columbia and married Florence Adelaide Hebden (1856-1939) on 30^th March 1878 (4); Helen Jane Gillespie (about 1852-1904), Laura Gillespie, born 1854 who remained unmarried and died in Bath aged 81 on 12^th May 1935; Thomas Paterson Gillespie, born 22^nd September 1855 who married Elizabeth Hall Chalmers (1859-1940) in 1886 (5); Thomas died in Hampshire on 16^th January 1931. And finally, Marion Gillespie, born about 1857, who married Major James McHaffie (1854-1947) of Torhousemuir, Wigtownshire, Scotland, at St. Andrew’s in Edinburgh on 3^rd October 1882 (6); Marion died on Sunday 6^th August 1939 aged 83 and she was buried on Wednesday 9^th August in Aberlour, Moray, Scotland; her husband James died on Friday 11^th July 1947 and is also buried in Aberlour. Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge’s grandfather, Alexander Gillespie, died on 21^st April 1863.

Philip’s cousin, Alexander Gillespie (1880-1948), the son of Philip’s Uncle George Gillespie (1849-1921) and Aunt Florence, was a most interesting man and published a book of his life and adventures: ‘Journey Through Life: Biography of Alexander Gillespie, 1880-1948’. Privately Printed by the Victoria Press (50 copies), 1954. The book gives us some fascinating glimpses into Alexander’s life for he was a ‘born adventurer – everything unfamiliar, unknown or far away was a challenge to him, especially if danger or pain must be expected to result. The spirit was shown when he was quite small. No doubt in answer to a “dare”, he and another of his brothers thought it would be fun if they put on some woman’s underwear which was hanging on a nearby wash line and paraded about in this unusual rigout.’ (Foreword. p. 11) We also learn a little about his schooldays – ‘On September 3^rd, 1893, Hebden [his brother, John Hebden Gillespie, 1879-1929] and I left home for school in Scotland, in care of an Aunt. It was a sad, sad day and I can remember poor Mother, weeping bitterly, running down the drive to kiss us once more.’ (p. 15) Alexander and Hebden stayed with their Uncle Jack and Aunt Sophy [Cowan] in Murrayfield, Edinburgh for a few days before going on to Loretto School, Scotland’s oldest boarding school founded in 1827 in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

 

THE COWANS OF PENICUIK

 

John James Cowan (1846-1936) who married Sophia Margaret Gillespie (1847-1920) in Edinburgh on 14^th August 1869 comes from an interesting family. His grandfather was Alexander Cowan (17^th June 1775-13^th February 1859) the great philanthropist who was the founder of the paper mill at Valleyfield, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland; the mill was built in 1708 and purchased by Alexander’s father, Charles Cowan in 1770 and the firm, ‘Alex Cowan & Sons’ was established around 1830. Alexander married firstly, Elizabeth Hall (1781-1829) on 31^st May 1800 in Cargilfield, Edinburgh and they had eleven children; he married a second time on 14^th August 1830 to Helen Brodie (1796-1863) and they had a further nine children. From the first marriage, John James Cowan’s father Charles Cowan was born on 7^th June 1801 (he died 29^th March 1889). Charles Cowan who was an MP for Edinburgh from 1847-1852, took over the paper mill at Pencuik upon his father’s death in 1859 and he was ‘entrusted in the care of the Waverley Novels mss,’ by the Constable Trustees. He was present at the coronation of Queen Victoria at Westminster Abbey and elected to Parliament, retaining his seat for 12 years. He acquired Logan House in the early 1850’s, a shooting lodge on the Pentland Hills and he knew such eminent figures as de Quincey, Tennyson, Gladstone and Ulysses Grant’; one of Charles Cowans brothers, Alexander Cowan (1804-1831) had the reputation of being a ‘versifier’ and a ‘humorist’ and a volume of his poetry including correspondence and journal entries was published as ‘Remains of Alexander Cowan’ by T. Constable of Edinburgh in 1839. Alexander’s prolific exuberance was not confined to poetry for he married Catherine Menzies on 19^th October 1824 and in the seven years of life remaining they produced thirteen children. Another brother of Charles Cowan was Sir John Cowan, Bart (1814-1900), a Liberal activist and paper manufacturer who married twice: Jane Menzies Gillespie (1820-1854) in Edinburgh on 7^th April 1847, and Jane Falconer Currie, on 19^th November 1857. Sir John was a friend of David Livingstone and used to cruise with Gladstone in Sir Donald Currie’s yacht.

John James Cowan (6^th April 1846-28^th April 1936), born in Torquay, became Governor of Donaldson’s Hospital, a school opened by Queen Victoria in 1850 which accepted deaf children; John was connected with the school until his own hearing became defective and handicapped him from attending the meetings. He lived in Westerlea, Murrayfield, Scotland, and had a fine collection of modern painting including several Whistlers, the artist himself having painted J. J. Cowan’s portrait (An Arrangement in Grey and Green) and his wife Sophy attended the sittings (over sixty) begun in 1893, with him in Paris. John also had a retreat in the Pentland Hills of Edinburgh, in the form of the sixteenth century, Bavelaw Castle, associated with Mary Queen of Scots. As a boy, John James Cowan saw the Iron Duke, Wellington upon his horse in London’s Rotten Row and remembered his ‘aquiline nose and the grey hat’; he also remembered the time when the sedan chair was popular and recalled that when he was six years old, ‘he actually made a journey with his father, in a sedan chair to a house in Royal Terrace [number 30]. The Highland bearers wore tartan hose.’ There were many visits to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park and in 1862, his father, Charles, took him to the Kensington Exhibition and they met the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston (Henry John Temple, 1784-1865) and his Lady wife. When he was seventeen he went to school at Colourex, near Geneva and ‘amongst his schoolfellows being the Marquess of Lorne, Lord Archibald Campbell.’ Afterwards, when he was twenty years old, he travelled with his father in America, Halifax, Philadelphia and Chicago, accompanied by a cousin, (Sir William J. Menzies) and an intimate friend (Walter B. Blackie). In Washington they were present at the trial of a young man for complicity in the assassination of Lincoln, and in Harvard they heard Emerson speak.’

John James Cowan married Sophia Margaret Gillespie in August 1869 and a few years later in the 1870’s, John and Sophia toured around the world, visiting New York, Sydney, Sandwich and Fiji Islands, Poona and Bombay. ‘At Melbourne in 1894, he listened to Gilbert and Sullivan opera, and at Luxor sixteen years later he heard Professor Archibald H. Sayce preach on the survival of Satan! Returning from Egypt, he left the boat at Marseilles, among the passengers proceeding to England by sea being the Princess Royal, the Duke of Fife, and daughters.’ By all accounts, John James Cowan was a ‘man of friendly disposition of considerable charm of manner, and of cultured tastes.’ (Obituary John James Cowan, The Scotsman, Thursday 30^th April 1936, p. 13, also article, same page, The Cowans of Penicuik, by R. T. Skinner)

Alexander Gillespie (1880-1948) in his volume ‘Journey Through Life’ (1954) paints a fascinating picture of gracious living at the Cowan household in Murrayfield, Edinburgh, when he and his brother, John Hebden Gillespie stayed before going on to Loretto School, saying it was ‘late that night’ when ‘two worn out little boys rang the bell at a large stately house in Murrayfield, one of Edinburgh’s (in those days) most fashionable residential districts. The door opened and for the first time in our lives, we were confronted by a real live footman in all his regalia. I can remember how we followed him into a large drawing-room, where Aunt Sophy (who appeared to be seated on a sort of dais, surrounded by what seemed to be an enormous array of cousins) received us.’ (p. 16)

 

Alexander Gillespie (1880-1948)

Philip Thomas Bainbrigge and his wife Helen had their first child born in the June quarter of 1889 unfortunately the baby either died during childbirth or did not live very long, the little girl was named Marion Margaret Bainbrigge (birth: June 1889, Westminster, St. Margaret, vol: 1a, p. 487; death: June 1889, Westminster, vol: 1a, p. 321) and she was buried at East Finchley cemetery, in London.

The Bainbrigge’s next child was Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge born in September 1890 and then, two-and-a-half years later, a daughter named Modwyn Bainbrigge, born on 30^th April 1893 and Christened on 21^st May; Modwyn would remain unmarried and died aged 67 in Winchester on 3^rd September 1960. Tragically, Helen Jane Bainbrigge, died of cancer on Tuesday 17^th May 1904, at Westerlea Murray, Midlothian, Scotland, leaving Reverend Bainbrigge with an eleven year old daughter and a thirteen year old son to look after. Helen was buried at Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh on Saturday 21^st May 1904.

Just over a year later, 57 year old Reverend Bainbrigge married again, to Beatrice Eleanor Borthwick, daughter of Francis Borthwick, at St. Mungo, West Linton, Peeblesshire, Scotland, on 27^th July 1905. It is interesting to note that in the 1901 census, the Bainbrigge household in King Street, St James, Westminster, consists of 53 year old Reverend Philip, his 48 year old wife, Helen, 10 year old Philip Gillespie, 7 year old Modwyn and 26 year old Beatrice E. Borthwick, a ‘visitor’ whose occupation is ‘type writer’ [1901 Census for England and Wales. Schedule: 353, Piece/Folio: 158, p. 47]. It is reasonable to assume that she is undertaking secretarial work for Reverend Bainbrigge and perhaps nursing the Reverend’s wife, Helen. The family have three domestics in their employment – 37 year old Elizabeth Cumbers (nurse), 25 year old Sarah Lewis (cook) and 20 year old Minnie Rachael (housemaid).

 

THE BORTHWICK CONNECTION

 

Beatrice Eleanor Borthwick is a descendant of Sir William Borthwick (circa 1412-1483), Knight (1430) and 1^st Lord Borthwick around 1433 who built Borthwick Castle. Beatrice’s father, Francis Borthwick, born 10^th February 1840 at St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, is the son of John Borthwick (1788-1845) J.P. and 13^th Lord Borthwick of Crookston, and Elizabeth Sutherland Dallas (1789-1872). Francis married Alice Ord Mackenzie on 15^th September 1864; Alice was born 29^th April 1841 at St. Stephen’s, Edinburgh, the daughter of John Ord Mackenzie (1811-1902) and Margaret Hope Kirkpatrick (1810-1873). Francis and Alice had five children; the first born was Margaret Kirkpatrick Borthwick, born 7^th April 1867 at St. Marylebone, London. On 3^rd August 1910, Margaret married Sir John Carnegie Dove Wilson (1865-1935), K.C. and President of the Supreme Court of South Africa. They had two children: Sheila Margaret Dove Wilson (1901-1996) and Geoffrey Carnegie Dove Wilson (1908-1957). Margaret died on 27^th January 1947 in Edinburgh and she is buried in Dean Cemetery. The next child born to Francis and Alice is Francis John Gordon Borthwick, born 15^th January 1871 in Madras, India. Francis was a writer to The Signet and a Director of the firm of solicitors, ‘Mackenzie & Kermack’ in Edinburgh and a Director of the ‘Scottish Eastern Investment Trust Company’. He married on 6^th August 1912, at St. Mary’s, West Kensington, Eugenie Helen Francklyn Thompson (1886-1977). Francis and Eugenie had two daughters: Mary Alice Borthwick (1913-2012) who married on 3^rd April 1943 in the King’s Chapel, the Savoy, Lt. Commander (Royal Navy, the Hon. Douglas David Edward Vivian, D.S.C. (1915-1973), son of the 4^th Baron Vivian (George Crespigny Brabazan Vivian, 1878-1940) and Lady Vivian (Nancy Lycett Green, 1888-1970) and Margaret Eugenie Borthwick (1917-2005) who married on 18^th March 1944,  Major (Grenadier Guards) Ian Rupert Farquhar (1918-2003), son of the diplomat and ambassador to Sweden, Sir Harold Lister Farquhar (1894-1953) and Constance Audrey Capell (1891-1963). The next child sadly died, Mabel Grace Borthwick was born in Madras, India on 26^th June 1872 and died the same year, and two years later, also in Madras, Alice Borthwick was born in 1874; Alice never married and she died in July 1935. The next child also never married, Harriette Mackenzie Borthwick, born in London on 18^th January 1876, died at a nursing home in St. Marylebone, London, on 26^th January 1911 aged 34 (her funeral took place at St. Mungo’s Church, West Linton, Peebleshire on 31^st January). And finally, Beatrice Eleanor Borthwick, was born in Peebles, Scotland in 1884. Beatrice’s father, Francis Borthwick died on 14^th April 1934 and her mother, Alice, died a year later on 28^th August 1935.

 

Reverend Thomas Bainbrigge and Beatrice had a child named Roger Bainbrigge, born 23^rd August 1909; Roger went on to be educated at St. Edward’s School, Oxford and then went up to Worcester College, Oxford and then became a stockbroker in the London Stock Exchange. Roger married Elizabeth Grace Baldwin (1911-1935), the daughter of the Reverend Charles Henry Robert Baldwin, MBE and Vicar of St. Luke’s, on Tuesday 3^rd April 1934 at St. Luke’s, West Holloway. After the death of Elizabeth who died aged 23 in childbirth at London’s Homeopathic Hospital on Wednesday 7^th August 1935, who had given birth to their son Michael Bainbrigge, born Tuesday 6^th August 1935 who was educated at Shrewsbury School and King’s School, Chester (he died unmarried in Devon on 11^th June 1997), Roger married again on Friday 5^th February 1937, to Kathleen Mary Risley (1914-1944), daughter of the Kensington schoolmaster, Arthur Norris Risley; a child came of the marriage named Angus Bainbrigge, born Thursday 28^th April 1938, educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He became an accountant and married Cynthia Aletha Robinson (1928-2014) in 1963 and Angus died in 2018. Lieutenant (later Captain) Roger Bainbrigge died tragically while serving with the Royal Artillery in the Middle East, on Wednesday 24^th February 1943; he is buried at Heliopolis War Cemetery, Cairo. His second wife, Kathleen would die a year later on Thursday 3^rd August 1944.

Roger Bainbrigge (1909-1943)

In the 1911 census for St James, Westminster, we can see Reverend Philip, who is 63 and his wife, Beatrice, 36, with 20 year old Philip Gillespie and 17 year old Modwyn with one year old Roger whose birthplace is given as West Linton, Scotland. The household also lists three domestics: 27 year old Daisy Alphans Green from Cambridgeshire, 21 year old Violet May Loving from Dorsetshire and 16 year old Eva Dyer, also from Cambridgeshire.

 

Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge was born on Friday 19^th September 1890, at 15, Lennox Street, Saint George, Edinburgh, Scotland. There is a charming article in the Liverpool Weekly Courier (Saturday 8^th April 1893, p. 3) which describes the angelic two-and-a-half year old ‘Master Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge’, as being the ‘train bearer’ at the marriage of Miss Ellen Mary Swire, (daughter of William Hudson Swire, 1830-1884) and James Alexander Fleming, (son of James Simpson Fleming, 1828-1899), advocate of Edinburgh; the ‘quiet wedding’ took place at St. Thomas Church, Regent Street, and the vicar was Reverend Philip Thomas Bainbrigge. Young Master Philip wore a costume of ‘white cashmere ornamented with pale blue velvet and Tuscan cap to match.’

He attended Rottingdean Preparatory School in May 1902, winning a King’s scholarship to Eton the following year in September, aged 12, where he excelled in Greek and Latin.

Eton during the period prior to the First World War, in many instances bred an air of authority and aristocracy, a snobbish outlook upon the world which the boy carries through life. I’m sure Philip would have been delighted to see two of his Gillespie cousins marry into the peerage. Sophia Marjorie Cowan, born 3^rd September 1880, the daughter of Philip’s Aunt Sophia Margaret Gillespie who married John James Cowan in Edinburgh in 1869, married on 26^th July 1903, the Right Hon. Lord William Watson (1873-1948), Baron Thankerton who was Lord Advocate Solicitor-General for Scotland. William was born in Edinburgh and educated at Winchester College before going up to Jesus College, Cambridge and graduating in Law in 1895. Four years later Faculty of Advocates, K.C. in 1914, Procurator to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1918-22; M.P. for Lanark south 1913-18, Carlisle 1924-29, Solicitor General for Scotland from July to November 1922 and Lord Advocate from November 1922- February 1924 and from November 1924-May 1929. He became Baron Thankerton of Lanark in May 1929 and his wife, Sophia became Baroness Thankerton. They had three children: Hon. William Douglas Watson (1905-1971), Hon. Sophia Margaret Watson, born 2^nd July 1907 and Hon. David john Watson (1911-1959). Philip’s other cousin, Margaret Grace Gillespie, born in 1871, the daughter of Philip’s Uncle Thomas Paterson Gillespie (1855-1931) who married Elizabeth Hall Chalmers (1859-1940) in 1886, married in Edinburgh on 11^th January 1917, Lieutenant (Royal Navy) Sir Stewart Dykes Spicer (1888-1968), 3^rd Bart and son of Rt. Hon. Sir Albert Spicer (1847-1934), 1^st Bart and Lady Spicer – Jessie Stewart Dykes (1857-1934). Stewart Dykes Spicer was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and fought in the First World War, gaining the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. He worked with the BBC from 1935-51 and also fought in the Second World War and became 3^rd Baronet of Lancaster Gate. Margaret Grace held the office of J.P. (Justice of the Peace) for Sussex and they had four children: Peter James Spicer (1921-1993), Elizabeth Chalmers Spicer (1924-1991), Janet Dykes Spicer, born 7^th August 1931 and Margaret Grace Gillespie Spicer, born 18^th March 1933.

 

The death of his mother, Helen, must have been a devastating blow to young Philip at the age of just thirteen and I believe it to have been an important factor in Philip’s psychology as he grew into adulthood; the second marriage of his father so soon afterwards, in my opinion, brought great resentment in Philip and probably distanced him further away from his family. This is all assumption on my part, but I believe he felt a greater attraction towards the Gillespie side of his ancestry and probably had little or nothing to do with the Borthwick members of the family his father married into, including his younger half-brother Roger. He may have thought that his father marrying Beatrice Borthwick just fourteen months after his mother’s death was dishonouring his late mother. He would have seen the slow deterioration of her health and eventual succumbing to death and felt helpless, how could this happen? Where was God?

At Eton Philip was in the Lower 5^th under his tutor and Housemaster, Dr. Cyril Alington and he won several prizes, including the Hervey English Verse Prize in 1908. Jennifer Ingleheart, Latin Professor at the University of Durham, in her immensely fascinating ‘Masculine Plural’ (2018) paints a delightful portrait of the young Bainbrigge at Eton, wistfully longing after the future Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) who was at Eton from 1906-1910 and was by all accounts quite a desirable boy there, in fact, young Harold did not attend his final year at Eton and it is believed his mother took him away due to the high ‘romantic demands’ upon the weak yet beautiful boy. Harold later won an exhibition scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. Philip’s attention was also drawn to another boy whom he soon became infatuated with – Humphrey Brunel Noble (1892-1968), later Major Sir Humphrey Nobel, 4^th Bart. MC, MBE. Philip won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford which no doubt would have pleased his father who was also an Oxford man of Pembroke College, but instead Philip decided to enter Trinity College, Cambridge after gaining a scholarship, and he matriculated on Friday 1^st October 1909 where he studied classics. His tutor was Walter Morley Fletcher (1873-1933) who later, in 1914, became the first secretary of the Medical Research Council. Bainbrigge won a First Bell Scholarship Award in 1910 and BA (History) in 1912 (MA 1916).

 

THE MAGPIE AND STUMP DEBATING SOCIETY

 

Bainbrigge and his friend, Reginald M. Wright, were members of Trinity College’s ‘Magpie and Stump’ debating society which was founded in 1866. There is a photograph showing sixteen members of the Magpie and Stump committee which was taken on Saturday 3^rd February 1912 to celebrate their one-thousandth meeting. The photograph clearly shows the 22 year old Bainbrigge standing third from left in the second (middle) row looking gaunt and serious wearing a bow tie.  It is a sad fact that almost half of those young men would not return from the war. The two men sitting on the balustrade at the top of the photograph are Ronald Edwin White who entered Trinity from Tonbridge School in the same year as Bainbrigge (1909); 2^nd Lieutenant White of the Royal Engineers died at Ypres on 5^th March 1915 from wounds received the previous day. Next to him is Morice Julian St. Aubyn, son of Colonel Edward St. Aubyn and Ada Mary White-Thomson of 14 Connaught Square, London. Morice was educated at Eton and went up to Trinity in 1910; at the outbreak of war he enlisted as Lieutenant in the Dorsetshire Regiment before becoming a Major in the 7^th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was awarded the Military Cross in January 1917 and was killed in action on 22^nd March 1918. On the next (middle) row we find Geoffrey Grant Morris (1888-1938) the son of Percy Copeland Morris (1861-1927) and Lucy Augsburg White (1864-1943); Geoffrey was educated at Eton, Newcastle scholar in Robert Penrice Lee Booker’s House, Captain of Oppidans, 1906-07 (editor of the Eton College Chronicle in 1907). He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge and won several prizes: Brown Medal for Greek epigrams 1908, Brown Medal for Latin epigrams 1909, the first Winchester Reading Prize 1910 and awarded the Charles Oldham University Scholarship in 1911. He was also a member of the Games Club, or Lake Hunt and from 1911-1914 he was awarded the Research Fellowship to Jesus College, Cambridge. During the Great War he was debarred from military service due to his poor eyesight. He then taught classics to the Sixth Form at Sherborne School. In 1919 he was awarded a Fellowship and Classical Lectureship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and was on the Council of the Senate from 1922-30. He married Inda Mary Daphne Sedgwick (1897-1985), only daughter of Professor Adam Sedgwick (1854-1913) and Laura Helen Elizabeth Robinson (1874-1950) on 21^st June 1922. He was co-author, with W. R. Smale, of ‘Passages for Unseen Translation from Latin and Greek Authors’ (1923) and he resigned his College Offices in December 1934; he died on 20^th June 1938, aged 50, of pneumonia. Beside Morris is Wilfred Frank Proffitt Ellis (1889-1955), the son of a former vicar of Great Barr, he was educated at Malvern College and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge before going on to Wells Theological College in 1912. He was ordained in Lichfield in 1914 and his first curacy was at St. Andrew’s, Wolverhampton. During the war he served as Chaplain and was onboard HMS Hogue when it was sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea on 22^nd September 1914. He was Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1919-1927 and in 1925 he undertook missionary work in Central Africa. He was vicar of St. George’s Church, Wolverhampton for 18 years before he retired from ill-health in 1954 and he died the following year aged 66. Beside Ellis is Bainbrigge, and beside Bainbrigge is Dennis Holme Robertson (1890-1963) educated at Eton (Newcastle prize classics) and up at Trinity in 1908 studying classics and later economics in 1910. He served in Egypt during the war as a transport officer and was awarded the Military Cross; an unpublished poet, he became Professor of Political Economy and Advisor to the Treasury. Next to him is Osmund Bartle Wordsworth (1887-1917), son of reverend Christopher Wordsworth (Chancellor of Sarum Cathedral) of St. Nicholas, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Educated at Winton and up at Trinity in 1906, he joined the Oxfordshire and Bucks Light Infantry as 2^nd Lieutenant and then 21^st Company Machine Gun Corps as Lieutenant. He was killed in action aged 29 on 2^nd April 1917. Beside Wordsworth is Archibald William Robertson Don (1890-1916), the son of Robert Bogle Don of Farnham, Buckinghamshire, he was educated at Winchester and Trinity in 1909; he studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. During the war he served in France from 1914-15 and Salonica in 1916. Lieutenant Don of the 10^th Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) died in Macedonia of dysentery, aged 25 on 11^th September 1916. Next to Don is Basil Arbuthnot Fenwick (1890-1976), son of Edwin Harry Fenwick, Basil was in the Trinity College OTC and studied Law; he married Eileen Alys Christina Cuscaden in London in 1923 and died in Berkshire aged 87 on 1^st September 1976. The first (bottom) row shows from the left, Arthur Charlewood Turner (1881-1918), son of the Rt. Reverend Charles Henry Turner D.D. (Bishop of Suffragan, Islington); Arthur was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity and was a private in the Royal Fusiliers and a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 6^th Battalion, Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action on 16^th January 1918, aged 37. Beside Turner is Geoffrey Bulmer Tatham (1883-1918), son of Thomas Clarke Tatham, Barrister of Highgate; Geoffrey was educated at Kent House Preparatory School, Eastbourne before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1902. He was made a Fellow in 1908 and later Junior Bursar of Trinity College. He joined the College OTC gaining the rank of Major when war broke out and joined the 3^rd Battalion Rifle Brigade as Captain; he was sent to France in July 1915-November 1916 and after a time in England as a training Brigade Major, he returned to the trenches in France in May 1917 as first a Staff Captain and then a Brigade Major. In January 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross and just two months later on 30^th March he was missing presumed killed at the Somme, aged 34. He was the author of two books: ‘Dr. Walker and the Sufferings of the Clergy’(1911) and ‘The Puritans in Power’ (1913). The next man in line is Harold Malcolm Bullock (1889-1966), the son of Frank Bullock, an iron merchant of Surrey; Harold was educated at Charterhouse School and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge the same year as Bainbrigge, 1909 where he studied Law. At the outbreak of war he joined the 12^th (Service) Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps as a Second Lieutenant, then Lieutenant in October 1914. In January 1915 he transferred to the Scots Guards at Chelsea Barracks; he was sent to France with the 2^nd Battalion the Scots Guards on 25^th February 1915 and took part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. He was wounded in March 1915 from which he never fully recovered and returned to England. He was promoted to Captain in April 1917 and seems to have resided in Paris for the remainder of the war at the British Embassy. After the war he was awarded several decorations, including the Military Cross, Legion d’Honneur and the military equivalent of an OBE. It is almost certainly a fact that Harold was, like Bainbrigge, a homosexual, yet he married the daughter of Lord Derby, Lady Victoria Alice Louise in 1919 (she had married Captain Neil Primrose, the son of the Earl of Rosebery in 1915 but he was killed in action in 1917); Lady Victoria sadly died in a riding accident in November 1927 aged 35 and Harold became MP for Waterloo in Liverpool in 1923. Sir Harold Malcolm Bullock, 1^st Baronet, died on 20^th June 1966 aged 76. Next to Bullock is Hubert William Arthur Elliot, or to give him his full surname – Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound (1891-1969), the son of the Hon. Arthur Ralph Douglas Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound (1846-1923), politician and author, and Madeline Harriet Dagmar Ryan (1863-1906). Hubert, who was born in Chelsea, London, was educated at Eton and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1912. During the Great War he was Captain of the 4^th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment. He married twice: Mary Hester Owen in February 1919 who died in February 1945, and then Pamela Violet Stirling in January 1955. Hubert’s older brother, Robert Douglas Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, who was born in Chelsea in September 1889, died at the age of five years and three months in December 1894. Hubert died on 13^th December 1969 aged 78. The next young man is Gordon Kerr Montague Butler (1891-1916), the son of Reverend Henry Montague Butler, a Trinity College Master, and Agnata Frances Ramsay. Gordon was educated at Harrow from 1905-1910 before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge that year. During the war he was 2^nd Lieutenant attached to the Machine Gun Corps and he died in Egypt on 17^th July 1916 aged 24. Beside Butler is F. Williams whom I am unable to find information on but I believe he did survive the war, and next to him is Henry Arthur Holland (1884-1974) a classical scholar (and later Law) of Trinity College, Cambridge where he was made a Fellow in 1909 and later Dean and Vice Master (1951); he served during the Great War as Deputy Assistant Adjutant general at the British Headquarters in France and was awarded the DSO and an OBE; he was Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at Cambridge University from 1943-50 and he also lectured on economics. He was Reader in Legal History to the Inns of Court from 1945-68 and he died in 1974 aged 90.

 

F. W. H. – A TRAGEDY

 

Bainbrigge dedicated his ‘Achilles in Scyros’ to C.K.S-M. and F.W.H., the first is obviously Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff but I wanted to know who F.W.H. was. If I had read Professor Ingleheart’s marvellous ‘Masculine Plural’ I would have known for she states it plainly but I had started this work on Bainbrigge several years ago and set it aside; I guessed the individual would have been someone he knew either at Eton or Cambridge (probably Trinity) and would, within a year or two be of a similar age and probably served during the Great War. Searching the Eton records I drew a blank, except for a Master, Frederick Walter How (Assistant Master 1930-72 and Housemaster 1946-63) who was obviously the wrong F.W.H. as Frederick lived from 1906-1979, about twenty years too late. I had a hunch that he went up to Trinity and served in the Great War so searching the records of the Trinity War dead for initials F.W.H we find two possible candidates: Francis William Hubback, born 1884 educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge in 1903; 2^nd Lieutenant Hubback served with the Northumberlands and was killed in action on 12^th February 1917. He certainly has the credentials, but the next candidate was Francis Winstanley Haskins, born 1890, who served with the Cheshire Regiment and died in 1916. Further research in the newspaper archive showed him to be, like Bainbrigge a brilliant classical scholar and the tragic circumstances of his death told me that this was Bainbrigge’s ‘F.W.H.’

Francis Winstanley Haskins was born on 5^th March 1890 in Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, the only son of Charles Edmund Haskins (1849-1892), a Classical Lecturer at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and Charlotte Francis Hull (1857-1930). Francis was educated at Charterhouse School (Classical Exhibitioner, Talbot Scholar and Medalist) and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge on 25^th June 1908. He won the Browne Medals for Greek and Latin epigrams in 1910, the Montague Butler Prize for Latin Hexameter verse and the Porson Prize for Greek Iambic Verse in 1911; the Chancellor’s Classical Medal in 1912 and also the same year, 2^nd prize in the Yeats Prize and awarded the Charles Oldham Classical Scholarship. In 1914 he became Assistant Lecturer in Greek and Latin at Manchester University and two years later, on 7^th June 1916, he married Dorothy Mary Winser (1893-1974) at Knutsford in Cheshire. Francis enlisted in the 3^rd battalion, Cheshire Regiment. Just two weeks after Francis married Dorothy, corporal Francis Haskins, 27909, was found in camp at Cheshire, dead from a self-inflicted gun shot wound on Wednesday 21^st June, he was 26 years old. A Sergeant gave evidence at his inquest saying he heard a gunshot in camp on Wednesday (21^st June) morning and found Haskins lying dead with the ‘muzzle of the rifle pressed against his breast and the trigger near his foot’. A corporal said Haskins was of a ‘reserved disposition’ in camp and did a ‘lot of reading’ The night before his death he claimed his ‘memory had completely gone.’ Haskins’s wife, Dorothy, said he had been suffering from ‘exhaustion’ and ‘overwork’ and had ‘enlisted during a breakdown’. The verdict at the inquest in Liverpool was suicide during temporary insanity. (Chester Chronicle, Saturday 24^th June 1916, p. 8, and Macclesfield Times. Friday 3^rd June 1916, p. 2) Haskins’s wife, Dorothy, did rather well and married into the Wedgwood pottery dynasty, marrying Josiah Wedgwood (1899-1968) in Holborn, London in 1919; in 1969 she was awarded an OBE for her services to the disabled and she died on 13^th December 1974.

 

THEO

 

A. T. Bartholomew

At Cambridge Philip became friends with Augustus Theodore Bartholomew (1882-1933) who was always known as ‘Theo’. At their first acquaintance, which also included Francis Haskins for tea, Theo seems to dislike Philip but a friendship and a warmth grows between them and they met several times between 1911-1913 (Professor Ingleheart includes several extracts from Bartholomew’s unpublished journals in her ‘Masculine Plural’); Philip is fond of reading his bawdy verse to small gatherings of friends such as Mallory, Schofield and Don. Theo was at Peterhouse College, Cambridge from 1901-04, graduating on 18^th June. He became a second class Assistant Librarian at Cambridge University in 1900, becoming Librarian, a position he remained in until his death in 1933. He had met the novelist Forrest Reid and in 1915 met Siegfried Sassoon; he was friends with several distinguished figures in the University and a close companion of fellow Librarian and poet, Charles Edward Sayle (1864-1924)

 

BOOKISH BACHELOR DONS AND THE BASKERVILLE CLUB

 

‘Bare-breeched; no decent tendril hides his toy (like
Some curious peach) that nestles warm between
His dainty rosy thighs – the toy that’s been
A deadlier shaft to pierce the scholar’s marrow
Than his more widely celebrated arrow.’

 (Achilles in Scyros. Preface, p. 6, also Love in Earnest, p. 148)

 

Charles Sayle who was educated at Rugby School and New College, Oxford, enjoyed gatherings at his house at 8, Trumpington Street, where handsome and intellectual young men could talk freely on all subjects and topics of conversation, such men as Geoffrey Keynes, George Mallory and the poet, Rupert Brooke. In 1903, Charles Sayle formed the Baskerville Club which was set up purely to promote and encourage bibliographical studies. Theo, with whom Sayle seemed to have become quite infatuated with, was a member of the Baskerville Club from 1903 and other members included the scholar and author, Godfrey Isaac Howard Lloyd (1875-1939), educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge in 1893 (BA 1896, MA 1900); Librarian and diplomat, Stephen Gaselee (1882-1943) of Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge; Arthur Frederick Andrew Cole (1883-1968) barrister and bibliophile of King’s College, Cambridge; the poet and mountaineer, Charles Donald Robertson (1879-1910) of Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge who tragically died in a climbing accident, and fellow Librarian at Cambridge, Francis John Henry Jenkinson (1853-1923) of Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1876, MA 1879). It is very probable that Sayle was aware of the bright and breezy young Bainbrigge and his writings as Sayle and his informal circle were wont to discuss and show off the charms and attainments of their Cambridge ‘swans’; chums whom so often mirrored Adonis in appearance with their blush of youth, so easily withered. Perhaps Sayle had read or heard Bainbrigge’s ‘Achilles in Scyros’ which Philip composed at Trinity, the story of Achilles, the Greek warrior who has been caught seducing his childhood friend, Patroclus and for this indiscretion he is sent to the island of Scyros. There he is disguised as Pyrrha, a girl who must live among the lesbian maidens. The King’s daughter, Deidamia, not knowing that Pyrrha is really a boy, falls in love with her and attempts to seduce her. Pyrrha says that she only loves boys, which of course is true for Achilles. And so, trying to trick Pyrrha into being seduced, Deidamia, disguises herself as a handsome boy named Charmides and each are fooled by the others’ deception and much ribald humour ensues by the two, watched by the lesbian chorus which describes the scenes that unfold. (see Love in Earnest, pp. 148-150 for an excerpt from ‘Achilles in Scyros’ pp. 25-27; also ‘Masculine Plural’ by Jennifer Ingleheart)

 

 

BAINBRIGGE AT SHREWSBURY SCHOOL

At Shrewsbury, Headmaster Cyril Alington (straw hat),
Bainbrigge and M. G. White in uniform

 

In September 1913 Philip Bainbrigge became a classics Master at Shrewsbury School under the Headmastership of Reverend Cyril Alington, who was a tutor of Philip’s at Eton; he taught the lower 6^th form and later, around 1916, the upper 6^th.

During the war Philip volunteered his services, he ‘tried and failed to get into the same regiment as Charles’ [his friend Charles Scott Moncrieff] (Chasing Lost Time. p. 143); he would not have been accepted in the armed services due to his poor eyesight but the resourceful Bainbrigge ‘practically blind without his glasses’, had ‘memorised the standard army eye test, and passed with full marks’ (ibid) and was accepted into the 5^th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. In May 1917, aged 27, he trained at the Inns of Court OTC (Officer Training Corps) Berkhamsted and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in November 1917 and saw active service in France from February the following year.

Alexander Gillespie (1889-1915)

Philip would have known the horrors of war first hand as several of his Gillespie cousins joined the armed forces and some did not return; two such cousins were the two brothers and only sons of Philip’s Uncle Thomas Paterson Gillespie and Aunt Elizabeth: Alexander Douglas Gillespie and Thomas Cunningham Gillespie. Alexander was born on 13^th July 1889 and attended Cargilfield Preparatory School in Edinburgh from 1899-July 1903; he then went to Winchester College in September 1903 until July 1908 where he won the King’s Gold Medal for Latin Verse and the King’s Silver Medal for Latin Speech. Other prizes included the Warden and Fellow’s Prizes for Greek Prose and Latin Essay and the Duncan Prize for Reading. He won a scholarship to New College, Oxford in 1908, taking his degree in 1912 (First Class, Classical Mods, 2^nd in Lit. Hum.) He was reading for the Bar when war broke out and volunteered his services to the Argyll and Sutherland highlanders, 4^th Battalion, attached to the 2^nd Battalion. He served as 2^nd Lieutenant in France from February 1915 and fought in the Battle of Loos in September where he was killed in action aged 26 on Sunday 26^th September 1915. His letters make fascinating reading which were published by Smith Elder (London) as ‘Letters from Flanders’ in 1916 which also contains the following poem by Alexander (pp. 314-315), composed on the Island of Hoy in September 1908:

 

NINETEEN

 
Up thro’ the sand and heather
I climbed the stony track,
Then, where the valley ended,
I turned, and I looked back.
A spring of water chuckled
Among the bracken fern,
Far off the last light glinted
Upon the winding burn.
In the still breath of evening
The air was strangely cool,
The small gnats danced a measure
Above each dimpled pool.
The steep bare hills had gathered
Shadows in every fold,
Between the clear-cut headlands
The sea was shining gold.
A faint and fitful murmur
Carried the slow swell’s roar,
One wisp of smoke climbed upwards
Above the distant shore.
Then, as I looked and lingered,
The gold was turned to grey,
And out into the silence
A boy’s heart fled away.
Sadly I turned homeward
To leave that lonely place,
The valley was behind me,
And the night was in my face;
For coming years may bid me
Be merry and be wise;
But nothing can recover
That glory for my eyes.
And down that westward valley
Among the hills of joy
There wanders, blithe and singing,
The glad heart of a boy.

 

 

Thomas Cunningham Gillespie (1892-1914)

Thomas Cunningham Gillespie was born on 14^th December 1892 and like his older brother Alexander, was educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School from 1901 to July 1905 and the Winchester from September 1905-July 1911. He also went up to New College, Oxford in September 1911 where he rowed for his college for three years and was a member of the New College eight, winning a Silver Medal for Great Britain at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm in July 1912. He left Oxford in July 1914 with a University Commission as 2^nd Lieutenant (4^th august 1914 and then Lieutenant from 1^st September 1914 until his death in October) in the 2^nd Battalion, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He served in France and Belgium and fought at the Battle of Aisne where he was killed in action at La Bassee, aged 21 on 18^th October 1914.

Another Gillespie cousin to die was Ian Colquhoun Cowan, son of his Aunt Sophia Margaret Cowan, nee Gillespie and John James Cowan. Ian, born 28^th July 1889 was a Flag Lieutenant (Signal Officer) in the Royal Navy. He served on board HMS Defence from 29^th August 1915 which was destroyed at the Battle of Jutland on 31^st May 1916, Ian, was sadly one of the many lives lost.

Ian C. Cowan (1889-1916)

Philip had another cousin die during the time of the Great War but he was not a casualty of war. Duncan Cowan, younger brother of Lt. Ian Colquhoun Cowan, was born in 1884 and in April 1915 he was residing at the Land’s End Hotel, Sennen, Cornwall. An acquaintance whom he had known for about two months named Lieutenant Richards of the Royal Fusiliers, Falmouth, drove to the hotel and picked Duncan up. They left land’s End at 3 p.m. Sunday 18^th April driving on through St. Ives and returning to Land’s End via Penzance. When they got near the Quaker Burial Ground Cowan was reported as saying ‘now you can let her go!’ and for some reason he either put his hand on the steering wheel or nudged Lt. Richards’ hand, they swerved off the road and into a telegraph pole; Richards was uninjured but Cowan, aged 30, died after a few minutes. The inquest took place at Land’s End on Tuesday 20^th April and the funeral at Sennen on Thursday 22^nd. (Western Morning News, Tuesday 20^th April 1915, p. 5 [and Wednesday 21^st April 1915, p. 4], West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, Thursday 22^nd April 1915, p. 7, and the Cornishman, Thursday 29^th April 1915, p. 7)

 

 

At Shrewsbury, one of Bainbrigge’s pupils was the author Nevil Shute Norway (1899-1960), (7) who says of his tutor in his autobiography, ‘Slide Rule’ (pp27-28), that ‘people were being sent into the army and to France who never should have gone at all. Philip Bainbrigge was typical of these casualties, a brilliant young Sixth Form schoolmaster at Shrewsbury. He was a tall, delicate, weedy man with very thick glasses in his spectacles without which he was as blind as a bat. He had a great sense of humour and enormous academic ability; when the time came for him to go into the army I have no doubt that he went willingly and made a good officer in regard to morale and within the limits of his physical deficiencies. He left as a memorial a sonnet written in the trenches which I have never seen printed, but which seems to me one of the best war poems that I have ever heard.’ The sonnet Shute is referring to is Bainbrigge’s parody of Rupert Brooke’s poem, ‘The Soldier’, which begins: ‘If I should die, be not concerned to know / the manner of my ending, if I fell / leading a forlorn charge against the foe, / strangled by gas or shattered by a shell.’ The poem goes on to list some of the things he enjoyed, such as ‘dinners, curious parody, / swimming, and lying naked in the sun’ and famously ends with four of the things Bainbrigge loved most in the world – ‘Beethoven, Botticelli, beer, and boys.’ In her excellent volume, ‘Stand in the Trench, Achilles’ (2010) Elizabeth Vandiver says that Bainbrigge’s list of pleasurable things ‘that the dying soldier must renounce includes physical delights as well as aspects of classical pedagogy, and he is not content merely to hint at such joys’ and she says rightly that Rupert Brooke in his sonnet only ‘touches warily on sensual and sexual love… saying that the Dead had “loved; gone proudly friended; / …Touched flowers and furs and cheeks,’ Bainbrigge’s last line is emphatically earthy in its assertion of the speaker’s love for “beer and boys”.’ (p. 330)

He must have been well-liked at Shrewsbury and had a delightful, almost child-like sense of humour, as can be seen from this charming ‘clerihew’ (Wilfred Own Collected Letters. p. 532, and A Salopian Anthology. Philip Cowburn. London. Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1964. p. 188) which even Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) the inventor of the form, praised:

 

The Emperor Pertinax
Kept a certain axe
With which he used to strike
Men whom he did not like.

 

Another example can be seen in this passage from Michael Charlesworth’s ‘J. B. Oldham’: ‘In 1916, Phil Bainbrigge, a member of the staff, composed with some wit, advertisements for the various Houses.’ For his fellow Master, James Basil Oldham’s House (‘Oldhams’) he wrote that it was a ‘Home from Home’ and an ‘up-to-date House’ where the ‘boys’ morals’ were ‘carefully looked after by a specialist’ who entertained his boys on ‘personally conducted tours of the continent every Easter.’ He went on to say that ‘what Basil doesn’t about the night-life of Montmartre isn’t worth knowing’. (J. B. Oldham. Charlesworth. pp. 45-46). Basil, like Philip was a bachelor who delighted in the company of boys which had tragic repercussions for him in 1932 when he ‘resigned’ following an accusation against his conduct with a fifteen year old boy.

 

CHARLES KENNETH SCOTT MONCRIEFF

 

C. K. Scott Moncrieff

Bainbrigge became acquainted with fellow Scotsman, soldier and translator, Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff (1889-1930) who would become famous for his English translation of Marcel Proust’s  ‘A la recherche du temps perdu’ (‘Remembrance of Things Past’). Philip dedicated his verse play, ‘Achilles in Scyros’ to two people close to him, one being ‘C K S-M’ adding that he is ‘uncertain which did more to beget’ the ‘monstrous birth’ of the play, dated [Saturday] 10^th February 1912, from Trinity College, Cambridge. Charles was an experienced man of great reading and travel who was educated at Winchester College in 1903. At the age of sixteen in 1907 Charles met Robbie Ross (1869-1918) who had been a close friend and lover of Oscar Wilde, who in turn introduced Charles to his private secretary, Christopher Sclater Millard (1872-1927). Millard, an author and Wilde bibliographer who had been up at Keble College, Oxford, immediately fell under the spell of the handsome young Scot and began to seduce him. Charles must have been very flattered by the attentions of Christopher, ten years his senior and very experienced sexually with young men; a sexual relationship flourished between them.

In 1908 while in his final year at Winchester, eighteen year old Charles wrote and published a daring short story in the first edition of the ‘New Field’ magazine which he edited. The story, ‘Evensong and Morwe Song’ (the title taken from the general Prologue of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’), opens with two boys named Edward Hillary Maurice and William Carruthers at the fictitious ‘Gainsborough School’, secretly enjoying a sexual act, namely fellatio, that most ubiquitous of public school customs, in a thicket. Years later, the ‘older boy [Carruthers] becomes a headmaster and is just about to punish a child for a sexual offence when he remembers he did the same as a boy’ (Chasing Lost Time. p. 55) and by a strange coincidence the child happens to be the son of the same boy he himself seduced at Gainsborough. The magazine was distributed to parents, Masters and old boys of Winchester and scandal swiftly ensued; the magazine was suppressed and the Headmaster, Hubert Murray Burge (1862-1925) wrote to Scott Moncrieff’s father and it is believed that it may have affected his chances of an Oxford scholarship. The story was later published by the poet, Francis Edwin Murray (1854-1932) in 1923 in an edition of fifty copies for private circulation.

Charles and Christopher remained friends and it is quite likely that Charles introduced Philip Bainbrigge to Millard who probably read in manuscript, Philip’s ‘Achilles in Scyros’. (Yours Loyally. p. 98)

It is highly likely that Charles and Philip became acquainted by a mutual friend – R. M. Wright, who recalls his first meeting with Charles in ‘Memories and Letters’ (p. 25); Charles and Wright were at Winchester together and formed a friendship there and later, Wright, whose Christian names are Reginald Montague, went to Trinity College, Cambridge at the same time as Bainbrigge and they both became friends. It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to assume that Wright would have mentioned Scott Moncrieff and possibly Charles paid Wright a visit at Trinity on a few occasions. We do know that in July 1910 Charles and Philip went to ‘Cambridge with a man named Spring Rice’ (possibly Cecil, or one of his brothers), an Irish ‘Nationalist from Kerry’ and ‘had tea with Francis Birrell, the son of the man who runs Ireland.’ (Chasing Lost Time. p. 62) The friendship between Charles and Philip developed into love and ‘Philip later came to Edgemoor [the Scott Moncrieff family home between Lanark and Edinburgh] for visits and fitted in well with the family and his [Charles’s] mother had come from Lanark herself.’ Philip ‘gave Charles an edition of  the Oxford Book of English Verse and a manuscript copy of his explicit version of Plato’s Symposium, both of which Charles treasured.’ (ibid.) Philip spent his Christmas vacation, from Wednesday 18^th December to Monday 23^rd December 1912 with Charles at Edgemoor as can be seen in the Edgemoor Visitor’s Book (ibid. p. 150).

The friendship between Scott Moncrieff and R. Wright seems to have endured as Charles included Wright’s ‘A Sensitive Petronius’ in his collection of essays – ‘Marcel Proust, An English Tribute’ of 1923.

 

REGINALD MONTAGUE WRIGHT

R. M. Wright, Archibald Don, W. F. P. Ellis (below Don),
O. B. Wordsworth (hat and pipe)
Trinity Lake Hunt, 1912

 

Reginald Wright was born in Guildford in 1890, the son of Alfred George Wright (1853-1933) and Alice Elizabeth Hirst, of Birklands, Horsell. He was educated at Winchester College where he became acquainted with Scott Moncrieff and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge the same time as Philip Bainbrigge and the two became good friends. He left Cambridge to take a Mastership at Eton and there joined the OTC and when war broke out he resigned his Mastership and volunteered for service and was attached to the Coldstream Guards at Windsor. Second Lieutenant Wright, age 24, was wounded near Bethune on Monday 25^th January 1915 while holding a trench with a number of his regiment; in the early hours of that morning the Germans exploded a mine and surrounded them. A desperate fight ensued and Wright was shot in the back and left for dead; he lay wounded all day until 5 p.m. when he managed to crawl back to the British lines. He was taken to the base hospital and given two months leave to recover. [Surrey Advertiser, Saturday 6^th February 1915. p. 5 and Rochdale Observer, Saturday 6^th February 1915. p. 12] He was awarded the Military Cross and also rose to the rank of Captain and Major in the Machine Gun Corps, and Colonel in the Coldstream Guards. Following the war he taught mathematics at Eton and became Second Master and Housemaster at Winchester College and was the author of: ‘Machine-Gun Tactics and Organisation’ (The Army Quarterly, 1, number 2, 1921) and co-author of ‘Senior Algebra’ and ‘A New Canadian Algebra’, both with fellow Winchester Master, Clement Vavasar Durell (1882-1968) and both published in 1933, and ‘Elementary Trigonometry’ also with Durell, in 1958.

Reginald married Joan Maynard Goslett (1902-1981) [eldest daughter of Maynard Gordon Goslett and Mabel Scott Wallis of Holmesbury, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire] at Stanmore Parish Church on Tuesday 31^st December 1935. He died in Hampshire in 1962. There is a group photograph of Wright with other members of the Trinity Lake Hunt of 1912 in Charles Sayle’s ‘Archibald Don’ (p. 196) which clearly shows Wright, top left, standing beside Archibald Don to his left with Wilfred Frank Proffitt Ellis in front of Don and in front of him is Osmund Bartle Wordsworth (1887-1917), son of Reverend Christopher Wordsworth, Osmund was educated at Winchester College and won the Warden and Fellows’ Prizes for Greek Prose and Greek Iambics; he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1906 to study classics and graduated in 1909. He was Lecturer in Classics at Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1911 and published a novel ‘The Happy Exchange’ in 1914. He survived the sinking of the Lusitania and in 1915 he joined the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and served the following year as Liutenant with the Machine Gun Corps. He was killed on 2^nd April 1917 at the Battle of Arras. Also in the group (front left) is Frank Reyner Salter, MA, OBE, (1887-1967), educated at St. Pauls and Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1905; he became Fellow (1910) and Dean of Magdalen College where he taught History and published several books, such as: ‘Karl Marx and Modern Socialism’ (1921), ‘Sir Thomas Gresham (1518-1579)’ (1925) and ‘Some Early Tracts on Poor Relief’ (1926). We also see (Sir) Walter Wilson Greg (1875-1959) in the front row (third from left), he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge who became a notable bibliographer and Shakespeare scholar and published many works of literary scholarship including ‘Sir Thomas More’ (1911) and ‘Doctor Faustus’ (1950). And, (Sir) Charles Galton Darwin (1887-1962) top row far right, the grandson of Charles Darwin; Charles was educated at Marlborough College and studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge; he was awarded the MC during the Great War and became Lecturer and Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge and accomplished many great things during his life; he also worked with the physicist (Sir) Ralph Howard Fowler (1889-1944) who is also in the group photograph (middle row, second from left). Geoffrey Charles Norton Wardley (1892-1916), top row left of Darwin, died in the Great War and the great chess player, Eric Augustus Coad-Pryor (1890-1958), (middle row third from left, next to Fowler) to name a few of the eminent figures pictured.

 

TWO WINCHESTER COLLEGE SUICIDES

 

Wright was called as witness in the inquests of two suicides at Winchester College almost thirty years apart. The first occurred in 1926 when a fifteen year old boy Wright knew, Francis Mervyn Loftus Tottenham, born in Ireland on 14^th October 1910, who took his own life by suspending a rope over the door of his bedroom on the morning of Good Friday, 2^nd April 1926. Francis, the son of Percy Marmaduke Tottenham (1873-1975) who was the Chief Inspecting Engineer to the Egyptian Government, was a normal boy ‘cleverer than most’ and the Headmaster, Rev. Alwyn Terrel Petre Williams said he was ‘just under average age of the boys in the Lower Sixth’, with a ‘promising scholastic career’. Wright said he was ‘personally acquainted with the deceased’ and ‘had a bright smile and seemed particularly happy at school.’ The inquest took place at the home of the parents, ‘Laragh’ South View, Crowborough on Saturday 3^rd April 1926. [Kent & Sussex Courier, Friday 9^th April 1926, p. 4]

The second suicide took place in 1952 and it is the sad case of another fifteen year old boy named Alan Samuel Roseveare, born in Cheltenham in 1936, the son of the chief mathematics Master at Winchester College, Richard Victor Harley Roseveare (1897-1968) [Richard was awarded the Military Cross for his heroic actions during the First World War and he was sometimes the Head of Cheltenham College]. Young Alan seems to have been a brilliant science pupil and a very sensitive boy who became a vegetarian because of his abhorrence to the slaughter of animals. On Monday 10^th March 1952 Alan missed his supper and his father went to look for him that night and found him hanging from the bell rope in the belfry of the college’s chapel. Previous to this he had dressed in his scholar’s gown, black coat and grey flannel trousers and wrote in his diary: ‘thoughts before committing suicide in the chapel tower’ and walked the 200 steps up the belfry. The inquest took place on Wednesday 12^th March and a verdict of suicide was given. [Daily Herald (London), Thursday 13^th March 1952. p. 3]

 

Charles Scott Moncrieff was returning from his three weeks annual camping with the Royal Scots cadets on Lanark moor when he arrived in Edinburgh with his cousin, Douglas Christie, on Friday 31^st July 1914; as if by a strange coincidence, Philip Bainbrigge was at the train station late that night and met them. Philip had travelled from Shrewsbury School and probably stayed with Charles and Douglas at Scott Moncrieff’s Edinburgh rooms at Lister House. The following day, Saturday 1^st August, Douglas had to travel back to the family home in Durie, leaving Charles and Philip to while away the time at Edinburgh’s Drumsheugh Bath Club, a private swimming pool and gentlemen’s club which was built in 1882 and opened in 1884. No doubt the two friends enjoyed themselves immensely for Charles writes in his diary that he ‘stayed and played with Philip.’ (Chasing Lost Time. Jean Findlay. p. 78) The next day, Sunday 2^nd August, Charles went to Durie leaving Philip at his rooms in Edinburgh and on Monday 3^rd August Charles went on to the seaside town of Elie to visit his mother and other members of the family.

 

WILFRED OWEN

 

Charles met the poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) at the wedding of the author and soldier, Robert Graves (1895-1985) at St. James Church, Piccadilly on Wednesday 23^rd January 1918. Charles had returned from Marylebone Police Court that day attempting to defend the honour of his friend and previous lover, Christopher Millard who had been arrested on 9^th January for ‘gross indecency’; this was, in fact, Millard’s second arrest for the same charge, the first occurring in April 1906 at Iffley in Oxfordshire where he was charged on two accounts of gross indecency. He pleaded guilty and served three months imprisonment with hard labour. Despite Charles’s persuasive manner in court, Charles was committed for trial at the Old Bailey, which must have saddened Charles greatly [Millard was eventually found guilty and served twelve months in Wormwood Scrubs Prison without the hard labour].

Following the wedding, there was a reception at 11, Apple Tree Yard, St. James Square where Charles, in despondent mood and not wanting to be there, met the handsome young officer, Wilfred Owen. That evening after dinner, Charles met Owen again and learnt that he was a friend of Robbie Ross and was recovering from shell-shock. Charles was obviously feeling great warmth towards the young poet and ‘found that we had already become, in some way, intimate friends.’ (Yours Loyally. p. 177) In fact, Charles was falling in love with Wilfred but it would be a love he could not return for Owen was himself in love with the older soldier poet, Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).

Wilfred Owen was returning to Scarborough where he was stationed and knowing that Bainbrigge was posted to Scarborough after his OTC training at Berkhamsted, Charles thought how marvellous it would be if Owen and Bainbrigge met as they seemed to have much in common. Graves had already met Bainbrigge, three weeks before the wedding and found him excellent company. Owen was staying at Scarborough’s Clifton Hotel which is where he probably first met Philip; in a letter to his mother, Susan Owen, dated Wednesday 14^th February 1914, Wilfred writes that ‘tonight I am ‘dining out’ with Bainbrigge. It is amusing to think of myself in the Masters’ rooms at Shrewsbury.’ (Wilfred Owen Collected Letters. pp. 531-532)

Philip probably lent Wilfred his copy of ‘The Hill: A Romance of Friendship’ by Horace Vachell (1905) which deals with boyhood friendships at Harrow School. (Wilfred Owen. Cuthbertson. p. 256)

On Friday 22^nd February 1918, Bainbrigge was with Wilfred Owen at an oyster bar in Scarborough (Owen was stationed near Scarborough) and talk must have been on the war when Philip said that ‘civilisation seemed on the edge of collapse.’ (Wilfred Owen. Dominic Hibberd. p. 304) Soon after this at the end of February, Wilfred writes to his mother that ‘Bainbrigge would be returning to Shrewsbury and staying at a School House’ on Friday 1^st March. (Wilfred Owen. Cuthbertson. p. 537)

 

Three weeks later, on Tuesday 12^th March, Owen set off for Ripon for training; just several months later, in September, Bainbrigge would be dead and soon after, in November, Owen himself would lose his life to the war.

 

Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge died on Wednesday 18^th September 1918, the day before his 28^th birthday, in the Battle of Epehy while he was leading a patrol over a sunken road. The attack had begun at 5.20 a.m. and resulted in an allied victory.

He was buried at Five Points Cemetery, Lechelle, France in grave B.24.

Charles would have been devastated by the news of Bainbrigge’s death; on Thursday 3^rd October 1918, Charles, who must have read Bainbrigge’s obituary which appeared in The Times that day, was deeply saddened by the loss, he went to the theatre and then to 40 Half Moon Street, the residence of Robbie Ross, with a young friend, the then unknown eighteen year old, Noel Coward. Siegfried Sassoon came by, but Charles was in no mood for mirth or frivolity. The next day he went to see Bainbrigge’s father and spent the day with him, the Reverend Bainbrigge showing Charles the letter from Philip’s Commanding Officer and Charles showing the Reverend Philip’s poem ‘If I should die…’ (Chasing Lost Time. p. 158)

 

Charles writes in a letter that he hopes to ‘get in touch with Philip Bainbrigge’s battalion soon and get some more details about him. His father showed me the letter from his C.O. (who was in hospital with me last year), and it is clear that he behaved with great gallantry, dear soul.’ (Memories and Letters. p. 141)

In a letter dated Saturday 12^th October 1918, Wilfred Owen informed his mother of Bainbrigge’s death (Wilfred Owen Collected Letters. pp. 584-585)

 

A brief obituary appeared in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer of Friday 4^th October 1918 (p. 6), which read: ‘Sec-Lieut. Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge, Lancashire Fusiliers, attached Welsh Regiment, who was killed in action on September 18^th, was the son of Prebendary Bainbrigge, vicar of St. Thomas, Regent Street, London,W. Born on September 19^th, 1890, he went to Eton as a King’s scholar, and there won the Newcastle Medal and many other prizes. Went up to Trinity, Cambridge, with a Scholarship and a first class both parts the Classical taking his degree in 1914. Subsequently he joined the staff of Shrewsbury School.’

Bainbrigge’s friend at Shrewsbury, Ronald Knox, wrote a heartfelt elegy in Greek for his fellow Classics Master in the school magazine, The Salopian, 12^th October 1918, p. 10 (also found in Knox’s volume ‘In Three Tongues’, London, Chapman & Hall, 1959, p. 15) A rough translation of the elegy goes as:

 

TO P. G. BAINBRIGGE

(“If I’m killed, I shall expect Greek elegiacs”)
 
Who could be more worthy than you?
You, whom the muses lament, whose ceremonies you knew…
Impulsive Ares, you laboured hard over his body
But was denied his soul as in life he peered
Upon those Parnassian peaks in the distance,
With contempt for you… and now dead – what?

 

In his translation of ‘The Song of Roland’ (1919), Charles Scott Moncrieff dedicated the volume to the three great friendships of his life who were all lost to war: Philip Bainbrigge (1890-1918), Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), and poet, Ian Hume Townsend Mackenzie (1898-1918). The poem to ‘P. G. B.’ (p. vi) suggests a great depth of love existed between them and the translator of the work is not afraid of declaring such a love:

 

Philip, here at the end of a year that, ending,
Spares for mankind a world that was not spared thee;
O’er the sole fathom of earth that may know thee, bending
Dry-eyed, bitterly smiling, I now regard thee.
 
Friend – nay, friend were a name too common, rather
Mind of my intimate mind, I may claim thee lover:
Thoughts of thy mind blown fresh from the void I gather;
Half of my limbs, head, heart in thy grave I cover:
 
I who, the soldier first, had at first designed thee
Heir, now health, strength, life itself would I give thee.
More than all that has journeyed hither to find thee,
Half a life from the wreckage saved to survive thee.
 
*               *               *               *            *         
 
Fare thee well then hence; for thy scrutinous Devil
Finds no gain in the faults of thy past behaviour,
Seeing good flower everywhere forth from evil:
Christ be at once thy Judge, who is still thy Saviour,
 
Who too suffered death for thy soul’s possession;
Pardoned then thine offences, nor weighed the merit:
God the Father, hearing His intercession,
Calls thee home to Him. God the Holy Spirit.
 
Grant thee rest therefore: a quiet crossing
From here to the further side, and a safe landing
There, no shore-waves breaking nor breeze tossing,
In the Peace of God, which passeth our understanding.
 
Christmas, 1918.

 

A year after Philip’s death, his father, Reverend Philip Thomas Bainbrigge died aged 71 on Saturday 1^st November 1919 in Edmonton, Middlesex, and he was buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, on Thursday 6^th November. His second wife, Beatrice Eleanor Bainbrigge died on Tuesday 10^th July 1951 and her funeral took place three days later on Friday 13^th July at 12.15 p.m. at Golders Green Crematorium in London.

 

 

At Shrewsbury: Reverend William Smith Ingrams,
Hugh Howson, Bainbrigge and Knox

 

FRIENDS AND SCHOLARS

 

It is worth noting some of the many friends and scholars Bainbrigge would have been acquainted with both from his days at Trinity College and at Shrewsbury, such as Alwyn Faber Schofield (1884-1969) who from Eton went up to King’s College, Cambridge in 1903 and then taught at Eton, where presumably Bainbrigge would have first known him. He became a Librarian at Cambridge in 1911 (classical and early printed books) and Librarian at Trinity College from 1919-23 and from 1923-49, Librarian of the University of Cambridge. And Yorkshire born Edward Joseph Dent (1876-1957) who went from Eton to King’s College, Cambridge in 1895; he was Professor of Music at King’s College from 1926-41 and did much to popularise opera, including translating many into English. Bainbrigge wrote to Dent on Wednesday 19^th June 1918 and mentioned his friend, Wilfred Owen, saying he was ‘simpatico’. Also, Dent’s friend, the composer and pianist, William Charles Denis Browne (1888-1915) who at Rugby School in 1903 was a close friend of the poet Rupert Brooke; from Rugby he went up to Clare College, Cambridge in 1907 and then became an Assistant Music Master and organist at Repton School. Like his friend Brooke, he joined the Royal Navy during the war and Sub-Lieutenant Browne was killed aged 26 in the Dardanelles on 4^th June 1915. Bainbrigge also wrote to the philosopher Charles Dunbar Broad (1887-1971) who was at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1906-10 and he is the author of several works on philosophical themes, such as ‘Perception, Physics and Reality’ (1914), ‘Determinism, Indeterminism, and Libertarianism’ (1934) and ‘Human Personality and the Possibility of its Survival’ (1955).

 

SHREWSBURY SCHOOL MASTERS

Evelyn Southwell relaxing at New House,
Shrewsbury School. February 1915

 

Dr. Cyril Argentine Alington (1872-1955), the son of the Reverend Henry Giles Alington (1837-1928) and Jane Margaret Booth, was educated at Marlborough College before going up to Trinity College, Oxford. In 1896 he became a Master at Marlborough and three year s later at Eton where he would have encountered Bainbrigge and many other scholars he would later bring to Shrewsbury. He was ordained priest in 1901 and Doctor of Divinity at Oxford in 1917. When he became Headmaster of Shrewsbury at the end of the Easter term1908 he was 35 years old and younger than any other member of the regular staff there, such as ‘Moser and Chance’ who were regarded by Old Salopians as ‘pillars of the state’; the senior Masters – ‘they were extremely ill-paid and there was no pension system’ (Things Ancient and Modern. p. 140) Dr. Alington felt it was necessary for the school that younger members of staff were urgently needed and he looked to his fellow pupils, now Masters whom he had known at Eton and Trinity, such as Southwell, White, Bainbrigge and Knox, to breathe new life into the old school. There is rather a fine description of Alington in (Sir) John Frank Neville Cardus’s (1888-1975) ‘Autobiography’ (1947), in which he says Alington was ‘too handsome for any parson or pedagogue with a longish face and a good jaw and quizzical eyes, and a twist to his mouth. He was tall and slender, with a slight stoop’. (p. 79) Neville Cardus was at Shrewsbury School for ‘five summers’ as coach and assistant Professor of cricket who got to know Dr. Cyril Alington well during the spring of 1912; he became Alington’s part-time secretary during the Great War. He recalls that Alington, with his ‘straw hat under his arm and chewing a daisy, the stalk in his mouth’ had a gracefulness about him and ‘moved like a man who saw and savoured himself as he moved. His voice fascinated me because of its suave inflections.’ (p. 80) Cardus also writes evocatively of his last evening at Shrewsbury School as he walks across the playing field alone for the last time (pp. 84-85)

And so, during the time of Reverend Alington’s great reform of the school from 1908 many young and notable Masters whom Bainbrigge would come to know, were brought in who would distinguish themselves, such as Major Francis Manning Ingram (1864-1933) who was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford in 1883. The son of Reverend Henry Manning Ingram (1824-1911) and Mary Crawley (1827-1904), Francis, who was a great sportsman and athlete, was a Master at Bradfield School in 1888, becoming Housemaster in 1899. He was Master and Housemaster at Shrewsbury School from 1908-1929 and an Officer commanding the Shrewsbury OTC and known at Shrewsbury School as ‘the Girk’. Another Master at Shrewsbury was Cuthbert William Mitford (1884-1963), a Yorkshire man who was educated at Marlborough College and Jesus College, Cambridge; an excellent cricket and rugby player, he was a Master at Shrewsbury from 1908-49. There was also the Reverend John Osborn Whitfield (1885-1965) who was a Master at Shrewsbury from 1909-49. In fact, there are a good dozen or so Masters whom Bainbrigge would have had day to day contact with within the school so it is well to mention them with a brief biography:

 

Leslie Woodroffe

Captain Leslie Woodroffe (1886-1916), son of the wine merchant, Henry Long Woodroffe and Clara Eliza Alice Clayton, Leslie was educated at Marlborough College and University College, Oxford. He distinguished himself in rugby and cricket. He was Assistant Master at Shrewsbury from 1919 until the outbreak of war in 1914 where he received a commission as Captain and joined the 8^th Rifle Brigade. He was severely wounded at Hooge on 30^th July 1915 (where his younger brother, Second Lieutenant Sydney Clayton Woodroffe, a friend of the poet Captain Charles Sorley, was killed aged 19 and awarded the Victoria Cross medal) and awarded the Military Cross; he recovered and returned to active duty but was wounded again on 1^st June 1916 and died three days later aged 31. A third brother, Lieutenant Kenneth Herbert Clayton Woodroffe, who was also educated at Marlborough College and was a classics scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge, was killed in action in May 1915, aged 22. Leslie Woodroffe is commemorated on the Shrewsbury School war memorial.

Evelyn H. L. Southwell

Captain Evelyn Herbert Lightfoot Southwell (1886-1916), the son of Reverend Herbert Burrows Southwell, Evelyn was educated at Eton and as a King’s scholar entered Magdalen College, Oxford in 1904; he rowed for the college and was also the spare man for the Olympic crew of 1908. He became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury in May 1910, teaching French and classics. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 15^th September 1916 and is commemorated on the Shrewsbury School war memorial.

Malcolm G. White

Lieutenant Malcolm Graham White (1887-1916), the son of John Arnold White of Birkenhead, Malcolm was educated at Birkenhead School in 1898-1905 and went up to King’s College, Cambridge in 1905-08 (BA 1908, MA 1913); a member of the King’s College Choir and a Captain of the College Boat, he became Assistant Master of the King’s College Choir in 1908. After being an Assistant Master at Marlborough College, he became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury School in May 1910, in fact, the same day as Southwell, where he taught Geography. He was Captain of the School OTC until 1915. On 11^th July 1915 he wrote a letter to his sister, from Shrewsbury where he is visiting on leave, mentioning Bainbrigge, saying the ‘Head in great humour, and Knox and Bainbrigge being incredibly brilliant.’ (Two Men. p. 88) He was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 1^st July 1916 and is commemorated on the Shrewsbury School war memorial. For an excellent account of the lives of these two outstanding Masters, Southwell and White, see ‘Two Men: A Memoir’ by Hugh Howson (1919).

The Headmaster's Garden
Southwell (2nd left) and White (far right) with Cyril
Alington (2nd from right), on weekend leave, probably
Sunday 11th July 1915, when Bainbrigge was 'incredibly
brilliant'

James Basil Oldham (1882-1962), son of the Venerable Reverend Algernon Langston Oldham (1847-1916) former Archdeacon of Ludlow, and Charlotte Gruggen, James was educated at St. Christopher’s Preparatory School in Blackheath and Eastbourne College before going to Shrewsbury as a pupil in 1897. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford in 1901 (BA History 1905) and became a Librarian at Shrewsbury School in 1910 until 1960 where he was known as ‘the Gush’. He was an authority on the History of English book-binding and became Housemaster in autumn 1911 until 1932 when he resigned aged 50, probably under pressure from the Headmaster after a 15 year old boy named John Roland Maddison Vaisey (born 1916) made accusations to his parents of improper behaviour by Oldham during the Christmas holidays of 1932. [see ‘J. B. Oldham of Oldham’s Hall’ by Michael L. Charlesworth (1986)]. It seems that ‘Basil was an emotional man and highly sexed. He trod a dangerous path, for his soul yearned always for intimate friendship and trust and yet reciprocation might lead him across a thinly drawn line. One might stretch a point, but when stretched far enough a point becomes a line which must be drawn and Basil on occasion was not able to draw it.’ (Charlesworth. 1986. p. 22) The boy, John Vaisey, seems to have forgiven Oldham and later joined the RAF during the Second World War and was killed in 1941.

Arthur Everard Kitchin (1887-1946), born in Calcutta and educated at St. John’s College, Oxford, where he rowed for the college, ‘Kitch’ was a classics Master and rowing coach at Shrewsbury School from 1910, brought in by Dr. Alington, until he retired in 1943, having given 33 years as Assistant Master and as Housemaster of Ridgemount, taking over Rev. H. E. Kendall in 1925. Ill health forced his retirement and he died on 21^st January 1946 aged 58. There was a memorial service for him in the School’s Chapel on 21^st February that year.

Walter G. Fletcher

Walter George Fletcher (1888-1915), son of the Historian and Fellow of All Soul’s, Oxford, Charles Robert Leslie Fletcher (1857-1934), Walter was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. Known as ‘Hoj’, he was a Master at Shrewsbury School from 1911 until July 1913 when he then spent a year at Eton. he was commissioned as a second Lieutenant and joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in September 1914 and was killed in action at Bois Grenier on 20^th March 1915, by a sniper’s bullet, aged 27. He is commemorated on the Shrewsbury School war memorial.

Richard Fitzroy Bailey (1883-1951), the son of Richard Crawshay Bailey and Mabel Jane Palmer, Richard, known as ‘Phiz’, was a friend of Southwell at Eton before going up to Cambridge. He was a Master at Eton before being a Master at Shrewsbury School from 1911-21 where he was also known as ‘Treacly Jim’. After his time at Shrewsbury he became the first Headmaster at Quarry Bank High School for Boys, Liverpool. He died on 1^st March 1951 aged 67.

Reverend Thomas Pears Gordon Forman (1885-1965), the son of Reverend Arthur Francis Emilius Forman (1851-1905) and Eleanor Pears, Thomas was educated at Shrewsbury School, Repton and Pembroke College, Cambridge; he studied at Wells Theological College before becoming an Assistant Master at Shrewsbury School from 1911-15. He was Archdeacon of Lindisfarne from 1944-55 and died on 22^nd November 1965 aged 80.

Reverend H. E. Kendall

Reverend Henry Ewing Kendall (1888-1963), the son of the Liverpool Solicitor, Francis Henry Kendall; young Henry was educated at Shrewsbury School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was an Assistant Master at Shrewsbury from 1912-13 and Master from 1913-25. From 1925 until 1954 Reverend Henry was warden of St. Edward’s School, Oxford. He died in 1963, aged 74, onboard RMS Arcadia in the Pacific during a world tour.

Richard Sale (1889-1970), born in Scotland, Richard, or ‘Dick’ Sale was educated at Repton School before going up to Oxford. He was a first class cricketer and played for Derbyshire from 1908-12. He was Master at Shrewsbury School from 1912-49 and ran the School’s junior OTC during the Great War. He married Rachel Cattley in 1919 and died in Berkshire on 7^th September 1970, aged 81.

John Henry Tombling (1889-1953), the son of John Thomas Tombling of Cambridge; John H Tombling was a Master at Shrewsbury School from 1913 (the same year Bainbrigge joined the staff) until 1949 and he married Joan Grafton Cattley, daughter of the Reverend Arthur Cattley of Repton, Dawlish, [he was Assistant Master at Repton from 1879-1916] in 1931 and he died aged 49 on 17^th January 1953 in Shrewsbury.

Ronald Arbuthnot Knox (1888-1957), educated at Eton in 1900, King’s scholar and went up to Balliol College, Oxford in 1904 and became a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford in 1910. He was ordained in 1912 and in the summer of 1915, at Dr. Alington’s request, he took a leave of absence from Trinity to act as temporary (unpaid) Master of Shrewsbury School, taking Southwell’s form VB. Knox became great friends with Bainbrigge and upon the death of Bainbrigge, composed a poem in Greek elegiacs, as Bainbrigge had asked of him, should he not survive the conflict.

Sydney Shelford Sopwith (1886-1974), the son of Arthur Sopwith (1843-1920) and Catherine Susan Shelford (1852-1916), Sydney was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge as a Late Exhibitioner in 1907 and he was Senior English Master at Shrewsbury from 1915-1948 and Housemaster of Oldham’s from 1932-1947. During the Great war he was 2^nd Lieutenant in the Shrewsbury OTC (later Captain) and in 1918 (Saturday 28^th December) he married Ethel Cholmondeley Brawn (1886-1944), eldest daughter of George Brawn, J.P. and Caroline Cholmondeley, at St. Peter’s Church, Stonnall, near Lichfield. Following his career at Shrewsbury Sopwith was English Master and Housemaster of King’s School, Canterbury and he was the author of several books: ‘A Scheme of English Teaching at Shrewsbury School, with Some Preliminary Notes’ (1922), Keats (1925) and Tennyson (1926), in the series ‘The Companion Poets’ which he edited; ‘English Sampler, Some Essential Passages of Prose and Poetry’ chosen and edited by S. S. Sopwith (1938) and ‘An English Note Book’ (1959). He died in Canterbury on 29^th December 1974.

James Martineau Street, (1893-1975), the youngest son of the Reverend James Christopher Street (died 1911 aged 79) and Maud McMechan; in 1906 James aged 12 entered Clifton College on a classical scholarship and went up to Magdalen College, Oxford. He was a Master at Shrewsbury School from 1916-1920 and Housemaster of Rigg’s from 1932-1947. He married Alice Mary Lowther Weir (1899-1925) on Thursday 19^th December 1918 at St. Michael’s Church, Bude, Cornwall and two years after her death, he married Katherine Haydon (1903-1973), daughter of his fellow Master at Shrewsbury, W. D. Haydon, on Wednesday 6^th April 1927 in Atcham, Shropshire. He retired in 1960 and is the author of ‘Rome, 753 BC-AD 180, a Short History for Secondary Schools [with Anthony Chenevix Trench] (1960) and the autobiographical, ‘Changes and Chances: Memoirs of Shrewsbury and Other Places’ (1971). He died on 1^st November 1975 in Witney, Oxfordshire.

Reverend Thomas Allen Moxon (1877-1943), the son of George Moxon, schoolmaster, Ashford, Kent and Martha Johnson, Thomas was educated at Manchester Grammar School and St. John’s College, Cambridge 1896 (BA 1899, MA 1903). He was ordained deacon in Edinburgh in 1901 and priest the following year; Assistant Master at Nottingham High School 1902-06. During the Great War he was in France with the Red Cross 1916-17 and after became a classical Master at Shrewsbury School from 1917-31, after which he became Headmaster of Denstone College from 1931-41. In 1934 he became Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral and died in Cannock aged 65 on 15^th September 1943 with his funeral taking place five days later.

John R. Pound

John Russell Pound (1887-1915), eldest son of Sir John Lulham Pound of Highgate and Julia Isabella Allen, he was educated at Merchant Taylor’s School and then went up to St. John’s College, Oxford (1^st Class Honours, mathematics). He became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury School in 1909 and joined the OTC (Captain); he volunteered for active service at the outbreak of war and was gazetted the rank of Captain in August 1914; he joined the Shropshire Regiment, 3^rd (Reserve) Battalion, Light Infantry; on being sent to France he was attached to the 2^nd Battalion. On 31^st March 1914 he married Elsie Irene Pendlebury in the School Chapel and Captain Pound was killed in the trenches near Ypres on 27^th April 1915 aged 27. His younger brother, 2^nd Lieutenant Murray Stuart Pound of the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) died on 7^th November 1914 of wounds near Ypres.

Hugh Edmund Eliot Howson (1889-1933), the son of Edmund Whytehead Howson a Master at Harrow and Agnes Isabel Butler, Hugh was educated at St. Paul’s School, Westminster and Harrow on the Hill before going up to King’s College, Cambridge. Hugh was another of the Masters brought in by Dr. Alington and at the end of the war when Dr. Alington left Shrewsbury for Eton, Howson followed him there and taught classics there from 1918-1933 (Housemaster 1926-33, Master of Corner House 1926-31). Howson, founder and first President of the Eton Alpine Society, died aged 44 on 17^th August 1933 in Switzerland while climbing with three fellow Eton Masters and alpinists: Edward Vere Slater, Eric Walter Powell, and Science Master, Charles Robert White-Thomson; all were unmarried at the time of their death.

The following members of staff were all established at Shrewsbury at the time of Dr. Alington’s arrival but would also have come to know Bainbrigge:

Reverend William Smith Ingrams (1853-1939), the son of William Ingrams of Croydon, Headmaster of the Whitgift School, William Smith Ingrams matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 1^st February 1879 aged 25 (BA 1883) and became a Theological Associate of King’s College, London. He became an Assistant Master at Shrewsbury where he was known as the ‘Tush’, from 1883-1921 when he took up secretarial work for the school until 1933., editing the ‘Blue Book’ in which class lists were entered. He was ordained deacon in 1885 and priest in 1887 and curate from 1885-97. He died in Surrey on Friday 3^rd March 1933 aged 85 and his funeral took place at Shrewsbury cemetery on Monday 6^th March which was preceded by a service at the School Chapel.

Edward Branthwaite Moser (1850-1936), born in Kendal the son of Roger Moser, solicitor, Edward Moser was educated at Shrewsbury School (1864) before going up to St John’s College, Cambridge on 20^th April 1870 (BA 1874, MA 1877); he won the Browne Medal for Latin epigrams in 1871, and the same for Greek the following year. Following Cambridge he returned to Shrewsbury as an Assistant Master in 1874 and Housemaster from 1885 until 1911 when he retired. During the Great War he returned to his tasks as a Master at the School. An excellent classical scholar and sportsman, he was a member of the Alpine Club, a keen musician and a connoisseur of water colours. He died on Monday 9^th November 1936 aged 86 and is buried in Shrewsbury cemetery.

Arthur Frederick Chance (1857-1934), the son of George Chance of London, he was educated at Shrewsbury School before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge on 7^th June 1876 where he won the Porson Prize 1877 and 1879 and the Chancellor’s Medal in 1880 (BA 1880 MA 1884). He became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury from 1880-1930, Housemaster 1886-1934. At Shrewsbury he was known as the ‘Man’ and he had interests in archaeology; he died on 1^st October 1934 aged 77.

Thomas Edward Pickering (1861-1939), the son of Thomas Pickering of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, he was educated at Shrewsbury Grammar School and won a classical scholarship to University College, Oxford, matriculating on 15^th October 1881, aged 20 (BA 1885). He became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury in 1885 and Housemaster in 1910; he was the first Shrewsbury School Librarian from 1880-1910. He retired in 1926 due to ill health and died on 5^th October 1939, aged 78.

Frederick Thomas Prior (1867-1942), the son of Dr. Charles Edward Prior of Bedford, he was educated at Bedford Grammar School where he stroked the first eight the school had and went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1885 (he also stroked for Pembroke 1885-88). In 1889 he studied German at Munich and Heidelberg Universities. He was Assistant Master at Shrewsbury in 1891 and Housemaster (succeeding Mr. Moser) in 1911. He started an eight at Shrewsbury and coached rowing from 1900-1910; he also composed the ‘Old Salopian Song’ and was also Captain and President of Pengwern Boat Club, President of Sabrina Boat Club, President  Shrewsbury Golf Course and President of the Shrewsbury Amateur Dramatic Society. He remained a bachelor and retired at Christmas 1933 and died 1^st April 1942 aged 75.

Henry Holden (1861-1925), born in Lancashire, Holden was a Fellow of Owen’s College, Manchester, a brilliant mathematician who also worked in Science, he was an Assistant Master at Shrewsbury from 1896-1925. At Shrewsbury he was known as ‘the Old Bla; he had a squint so that when one thought he was looking out of the window and ventured some minor misdemeanour, his other eye was looking at you and you were caught.’ (J. B. Oldham. Charlesworth. p. 26) He died in Shrewsbury on 20^th October 1925.

Reverend Robert Douglas Beloe (1868-1931), the son of Reverend Robert Seppings Beloe of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Robert Douglas was educated at Oundle School before going up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on 1^st October 1887 (BA 1890, MA 1900). He was Assistant Master at Felsted School from 1896-1900 when he then became Assistant Master at Shrewsbury (History); following this he became Assistant Master (September 1902) and Housemaster and Chaplain of Winchester College; he was ordained deacon at Winchester in 1908 and priest at Guildford in 1910. From January 1915 until ill health forced him to resign in 1928 he was Headmaster of Bradfield College. He died in Winchester on 2^nd February 1931 aged 62.

Walter Dodsworth Haydon (1861-1933), the son of Dodsworth Haydon (1830-1901) the Guildford banker and one-time Mayor, and Eleanor Georgina Dudding (1838-1897), he was educated at Winchester College and went up to New College, Oxford on 16^th October 1879, aged 18 (BA 1883). Captain of College Boats at Oxford, he always had an interest in rowing; he was Assistant Master and started the School Eight in 1897 at Shrewsbury and Housemaster 1900-1932, coached his own House Boat until he retired and coached the School Four. In 1932 he gave up his work as Housemaster to become a domestic bursar. He was married twice; his first wife was Katherine Mary Salt (1863-1894), whom he married on 19^th April 1887 at St Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury; the eldest daughter from this marriage, Dorothy, married the School’s musical director, and friend of Haydon, W. H. Moore; another daughter, Margaret Haydon married the Shrewsbury Master previously mentioned, Reverend John Osborn Whitfield, and a third daughter, Katherine, married the Shrewsbury Master, Jimmy Street. His second wife was Alice Maud Trevor Briscoe whom he married on 10^th August 1897 at St Asaph in Wales. Walter Haydon died on 19^th June 1933 and was buried at Shrewsbury cemetery on 21^st June, preceded by a private memorial in the School Chapel.

Walter Henry Moore (1874-1949), the son of Stephen Moore (1838-1915) and Mary Huthwaite, Walter, born in Nottingham, became Assistant master at Shrewsbury where he was known as ‘Black Death’, from 1905-1933 and Housemaster from 1918-1939; he was the organist and choirmaster and founded the Music Club and the School Orchestra. He married Dorothy Haydon (daughter of Walter Dodsworth Haydon, the Shrewsbury Master) in Aitcham, Shropshire in 1913. He died in Surrey in 1949 aged 75. Michael Charlesworth in his volume on J. B. Oldham also mentions a Master and photographer named Pilcher who came to Shrewsbury in 1918. It is most unlikely that Bainbrigge knew Pilcher but perhaps a brief biography of him would be of interest to some: Percy William Pilcher (1866-1937) was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, the son of William John Pilcher, FRCS, LRCP, JP, (died 1897) and Margaret Westland. Percy was educated at Bath College from 1879-1884 and went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to study medicine, but later changed to music (BA 1888, MA 1892). He was a composer and organist at Shrewsbury Abbey from 1892 and became a Master at Shrewsbury in 1918, teaching music and other subjects to the 4^th forms under Canon Sawyer. He married Margaret (‘Martha’) Mowbray Harwood (1866-1947) on 16^th April 1895 at St. Botolph’s Church, Boston, Lincs. They had four children: Gerald Aubrey Pilcher (1896-1917), Lieutenant Pilcher died on 26^th October 1917 from wounds received at the Battle of Passchendale; Alan Humphrey Pilcher (1898-1957), educated at Shrewsbury School, married Dorothy Eileen Parrington (1928) in Calcutta; Colonel and MC, served in both wars and was Managing Director of ‘J. Joule & Sons’, brewers. Ronald Pilcher (1902-1977) and Geoffrey Norman Pilcher (1905-1930), Flying Officer (pilot) RAF, number 8 Squadron died on 26^th July 1930 in an air crash while taking off at RAF Khormaksar, Aden, in Yemen, killing both crew, Pilcher aged 25 and LAC (Leading Aircraftman) Robert Angus Laidler, aged 26. Percy Pilcher was a fine oarsman at Cambridge and stroked for his college; he was interested in photography (as was his brother, artist and Deputy Coroner, Cecil Westland Pilcher, MRCS, LRCP, (1870-1943). Percy retired at Shrewsbury in 1935 and took on music pupils in one of the smaller houses until his death aged 71 on 3^rd May 1937. The funeral took place three days later on 6^th May, preceded by a service in the chapel of Shrewsbury School by Reverend Whitfield.

 

To finish this article on an amusing note, as I’m sure Bainbrigge would wish, I have composed a set of limericks to those distinguished Masters of Shrewsbury School:

 

SHADES OF OLD SHREWSBURY SCHOOL
 
Old Headmasters of Shrewsbury School
Dined on partridge, pheasant and fool;
And oft’ it’s been said,
When Butler was Head,
That ‘beaks’ were proportionately cruel!
 
Old dons in stuffed shirts at their tables
Discussed Virgil and Alington’s ‘fables’;
Housemasters are friendless
For their tasks are endless
Like cleaning the Augean stables!
 
It is said that the Head of the House
Feasts on fine wines and sometimes cold grouse;
And a sweet treacle tart
Warms the Harrovian heart
Followed by port and cigars and some Strauss!
 
And the great sage of Shrewsbury – Knox,
Knows when opportunity knocks,
For the Eton King’s scholar
Wore his clerical collar
But ne’er changed his clerical socks!
 
Ah, Cuthbert William Mitford…
‘Tis said that the young Master’s wit could
Like a cricket ball, hit
With such force and such wit –
Did it hurt? Not a bit,
But it did leave me feeling as a twit would!
 
And Everard Kitchen coached rowing
And taught classics, his credentials were glowing;
He’d soon shape a boy,
Both ‘wet bob’ and ‘dry’,
And what Kitch didn’t know weren’t worth knowing.
 
And yes there was Reverend Forman,
Who like the Conquest by someone named Norman,
Found the strength to aspire
Ecclesiastically higher –
He would either be Deacon or doorman.
 
And known as ‘Black Death’, Walter Moore,
Like all good choirmasters of yore,
Lived a life filled with song,
Orchestrally long,
With each day just the same as before!
 
‘Excuse me’, said Frederick Prior,
‘What’s the hurry, where’s the damn fire?
At Pembroke we knew
A few things or two
Such as when and when not to perspire!
 
For sports and athletic suggestion
Was decidedly out of the question –
Young scholars in nooks
With their interminable books
Are prone to acute indigestion!’
 
Southwell and White were Two Men
Who came up in May nineteen-ten;
Both came the same day,
To Shrewsbury way
And both were fine Masters, but then
 
The war broke out and they gave
Their sweet souls, gay, solemn and grave –
From Magdalen and Kings,
Those two bright young things
Were terribly, gallantly brave!
 
Basil Oldham had a bachelor’s mind…
‘Twas under dark clouds ‘Gush’ resigned:
He was Christ Church up front
And to be perfectly blunt
He was all book-binding and boys from behind!
 
And that Old Salopian, Moser,
Was an epigrammatic bulldozer,
In Latin or Greek
With his tongue in his cheek:
From his nose to his toes a composer!
 
Dear Bainbrigge brought humorous relief;
Friend of Owen and Charles Scott-Moncrieff;
His verse was erotic,
Some would say quite quixotic
And his academic career was too brief!
 
With keen eyes kept on boys drawn to spoon
And swoon by the light of the moon…
‘I’ll just watch for a while,
As I don’t want to spoil
Boyhood’s delicate bloom, too soon!’
 
A brilliant Etonian, so amusing –
You would never find a classic’s Master snoozing
Or pretending to set
Aeschylus with regret
Upon fanciful boys of his choosing!
 
Peculiar, perplexing, perverse,
Are words of course, nothing worse
To a man who’s a perpetual
Damned intellectual
Whose preposterous, pomposity’s a curse.
 
When Howson and Dick Sale met at table,
Dick’s cricket to Hugh was all babel,
So Hugh turned talk to Pater,
And Dick said, ‘see you later,
To converse on that stuff, I’m not able.’
 
Pickering, Fletcher and Chance,
With ‘Phiz’ Bailey went to a dance,
Talked Greek composition
And strategic position
Of Armed Forces in their advance!
 
Holden was an arithmetical conundrum
Who lived a life so decidedly humdrum:
A brilliant mathematician
Who dreamed in long division
And would calculate pi ad infinitum!
 
And so Holden like Moser, grew older
But not wiser and certainly not bolder,
And with the squint in his eye
He could look at a boy
And with his other eye look over his shoulder.
 
Tombling, Kendall and Beloe
Thought Whitfield a damned decent fellow,
When the Right Reverend said
He’d sooner be dead
Than read a book bound decadently yellow!
 
While Haydon, Pickering and Pound
Thought Woodroffe wholly unsound –
From Marlborough and Oxford,
Just like a fox would,
When hunted he’d soon run to ground!
 
To Whitfield, Street, Moore, each a maiden,
Three sisters, all by the name Haydon,
And the singular effect
Was, I should suspect,
Three sisters most heavily laden!
 
And Sopwith wed a girl named Brawn
Near Lichfield, one cold December morn;
He was hot on the feet
Of his friend, Jimmy Street
Who just married a Weir, Cornish born.
 
And like all great schools, Shrewsbury bore
The loss of fine Masters to war,
That left scholar and boy,
In far field to die
And ne’er come back no more.
 
These past voices, now silent and still;
Great minds that were born to fulfil
The teaching of knowledge
To prepare boys for college,
And the honour of the school to instil:
 
Intus Si Recte Ne Labora 
[If all is right within, trouble not]

 

NOTES:

 

1. James Edward Anderson was a member of the Liverpool shipping firm, Messrs ‘Thompson, Anderson, and Co.’ He retired in 1918 having been for 26 years a member of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. James and Alice had the following children: Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Philip Anderson, born in Wavertree, Liverpool in 1884 (he died in 1934) who was educated at Rugby and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Edward gained a commission into the Royal Engineers and specialised in Railway transport work. From 1904-14 he Assistant and later Executive Engineer of the North Western (State) Railway in India and during the Great War he was a Railway Construction Engineer in France and Belgium. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the DSO for his services during the construction of the Khyber Railway from 1922-24. In 1924 he became Divisional Superintendent of the North Western Railway, then deputy Chief Engineer until 1929 when he took the appointment with the Ministry of Transport, inspecting and investigating railway accidents. The Andersons then had two daughters, both born in West Derby who both remained unmarried: Annie Irene Anderson, born 11^th November 1884 and dying in Brackwell, Berkshire in 1976, and Edith Margaret Anderson, born 17^th September 1886 and dying in Weston, Somerset in 1971. At the time of his death in February 1922, James Edward Anderson was living with his family at Box Cottage, Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire; just over ten years later, his wife, Alice Greta Anderson, nee Bainbrigge, would die at Quarry Wood, Minchinhampton, on 30^th June 1933.
2. Alexander Gillespie (25^th January 1819-21^st April 1863) was the son and first-born child of the merchant, George Gillespie (5^th October 1772-18^th September 1842) of Lanark who was born at Wiston, Scotland, and Helen Hamilton (1784-1869) who were married in Edinburgh on 23^rd April 1818. George Gillespie went to Montreal and Quebec around 1790 and became a partner in ‘Dickson, Gillespie and Company’ of Michilimackinac about 1796 and probably a partner in ‘Ogilvy, Gillespie and Company’ in Montreal from 1794-97; he was a member of the ‘Hudson Bay Company’ which dealt mainly with the fur, wheat and timber trade. In 1800, George and his brother John Gillespie (1769-1817) became associates with ‘Ogilvy, Samuel Gerrard, John Mure and others to establish ‘Gerrard, Ogilvy, and Company’ of Montreal. By 1810, George and his younger brother, Robert Gillespie (1785-1863), later Sir Robert Gillespie, established a partnership with George Moffatt in ‘Gillespie, Moffatt, and Company’ and by 1812, George purchased the estate of Biggar Park in Lanarkshire, Scotland where he lived until he died in 1842. George’s son, Alexander (Helen Jane Gillespie’s father) worked in the offices in Quebec for ‘Gillespie, Moffatt, and Company’ from 1844-49. George’s brother ‘Sir’ Robert Gillespie, who was born in Douglas, Lanarkshire in 1785, was a partner and head of the English branch of ‘Gillespie, Moffatt, and Company’ from 1822-56 and he died in London on 3^rd September 1863. He married twice as far as I can find: Anna Agnes Kerr around 1816 and Matilda Caroline Arnoldi (1803-1879) on 8^th September 1830.
3. John James Cowan was a keen golfer and great collector of art. Mostly modern British and European art, including several works by Whistler who also painted J. J. Cowan’s portrait which was begun in Paris in 1893; John’s wife, Sophy attended the sittings which took nearly ten years over sixty sittings. In the portrait (‘An Arrangement in Grey and Green’) Cowan, with moustache, is seen standing in his grey ‘game-keeper style’ suit holding his cap. Sophia and John Cowan had the following children: Charles Harold Cowan (9^th October 1872-7^th January 1943) Charles was the Director of the paper manufacturers ‘Alex Cowan & sons Ltd.’ he married Marjorie Carlos-Clarke (1895-1959) on 30^th April 1908; Alexander Gillespie Cowan (born 25^th October 1873), papermaker, he married Margaret Annie Logan Home in Edinburgh on 22^nd July 1903, the daughter of Major George John Ninian Logan Home, MC, and 13^th Laird Broomhouse and had two sons: Christopher Home Cowan (1908-1999) who was educated at Winchester College and won a musical scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, and Charles Anthony Cowan, born 1914 and educated at Wellington School. Francis Cowan (24^th October 1875-24^th December 1931), Marion Cowan (7^th March 1877-22^nd October 1959, never married), Katherine Margaret Cowan (1878-4^th February 1965), Helen Cicely Cowan (1879-1881), Sophia Marjorie Cowan (3^rd September 1880-1949), John Colquhoun Cowan (1882-1882), Duncan Cowan (1^st May 1884-18^th April 1915), Laura Patricia Cowan (7^th March 1887-1972), she married on 22^nd December 1910 at St. Paul’s Church, Edinburgh, Sir Robert Henry Maconochie OBE, QC, (1883-1962), son of the former Sheriff of Lothians and Peebles from 1896-1918, Charles Cornelius Maconochie CBE, KC, (1852-1930); Sir Robert was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Winchester College and went up to University College, Oxford (1902), became a barrister, Advocate1908 and took silk in 1934. He was Sheriff of Inverness, Elgin and Nairn from 1934 and Sheriff of Stirling, Dumbarton and Clackmannan from 1942 until he retired due till health in 1961 and died the following year [his daughter Veronica Laura Maconochie married in 1955, John Leonard Thorn (1925-2023), Headmaster of Repton School; and Ian Colquhoun Cowan (1889-1916).
4. George and Florence Gillespie lived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and had the following children (who all attended boarding school at Loretto in Scotland, except for Florence who was schooled in England): John Hebden Gillespie (28^th January 1879-7^th April 1929) who married Mary Anne Isabella Todd (1880-1950) in 1905 and was Captain (later Major) in the 50^th Regiment of Highlanders of Canada since 1913; John a ‘financial agent’ and ‘accountant’ enlisted during the Great War on 26^th January 1916. Alexander Gillespie (4^th June 1880-9^th February 1948), he married Ross Ellen Todd (1885-1980) younger sister of Mary Anne Isabella Todd, on 11^th December 1907 [for more on Alexander see: ‘Journey Through Life: Biography of Alexander Gillespie 1880-1948’, Victoria Press. (private printing, 50 copies) 1954], ; George Kenneth Gillespie (19^th October 1881-20^th September 1972), he married first the American Alice Josephine Marboef (1885-28^th January 1940) in Victoria, Canada, on 5^th June 1912 and then a year after his first wife’s death, Margaret Nisbet Burney, born Bishop (26^th November 1890-3^rd October 1959) on 27^th May 1941 in Nanaimo B.C. (Margaret seems to have enjoyed marriage, she married James Eben Locke in 1910, and George William Burney in 1922 before George K. Gillespie); Charles Edward Gillespie (17^th November 1882-10^th December 1882), Dugald Llewellyn Gillespie (2^nd February 1885-14^th July 1981) he married first Marguerite Louise Holden (30^th November 1892-20^th July 1953) in Victoria, B.C. on 26^th April 1916; after Marguerite’s death in 1953, he married Elizabeth Joan Robertson (22^nd June 1916-3^rd March 2000) who was almost 30 years his junior and finally he married Marjorie Thorne Gooderham, nee Persse (18^th October 1888-12^th July 1958) whose first husband (she married in 1910), Harold Dean Gooderham died in 1945. [Dugald was President and Managing Director of ‘Distillers Co. Ltd.’ in Canada]. Florence Marion Gillespie (14^th June 1889-December 1976), she married the Argentinian Erick Krabbe Colbourne (1888-1915) on 31^st December 1912; Ronald Dare Gillespie (14^th April 1890-8^th April 1981), Lieutenant and Captain, Gordon Highlanders in the Great War, he was taken prisoner of war at La Bassee in January 1915 and won the Victoria Cross; he married Kathleen Little (born 7^th March 1883 in Norfolk) in 1921, Sholto Monteith Gillespie (12^th September 1891-14^th August 1966), he served with the 4^th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the Great War (enlisted on 9^th November 1914, occupation: ‘surveyor’) and married the American Roberta Dolores Houston (1915-2004) in China on 25^th July 1936; and Erroll Pilkington Gillespie (10^th December 1893-1988) who served as a Lieutenant with the 50^th Highlanders of Canada in the Great War (2 years OTC, enlisting on 19^th December 1917, occupation: ‘rancher’) and married Beatrice Lydia Catharine Oliver (1897-1974) in 1921.
5. Thomas and Elizabeth Gillespie had the following children: Gwendoline Isabel Gillespie (24^th August 1887-27^th May 1970), she married James Arthur Watson (1876-1967) the son of George Watson (1845-1927) on 7^th March 1910 and they had two daughters: Elizabeth Helen Watson (1916-1988) and Isabel Margaret Watson (1917-1965); Alexander Douglas Gillespie (1889-1915), Margaret Grace Gillespie (1891-1967) and Thomas Cunningham Gillespie (1892-1914).
6. Marion and James McHaffie of Dunshaun, Aberlour, had the following children: Marion Isabel McHaffie (1883-11^th October 1960), she appears not to have married and is buried in Aberlour; Elizabeth Black McHaffie (6^th September 1884-4^th November 1936), she married on 3^rd August 1917 in Dumbarton, Scotland, Daniel John Urquhart (1886-1937) and Major William John McHaffie (1887-1965) of the Royal Field Artillery, married and had three children: John James McHaffie who married Elizabeth Mary Haggart, of Vancouver, around 1954; Robert Colin McHaffie who married Catherine Reid Neill Hendrie, daughter of Robert G. Hendrie of Rosemount, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1959, and finally, Barbara Beatrice Jean McHaffie (18^th September 1931-1991); Barbara got engaged in 1955 to Sub-Lt. (later Commander) Christopher Patrick Richard Belton, born 1933, but she actually married on Saturday 18^th June 1960, Captain (Royal Canadian Armed Corps) John Walter Stopford, born 7^th March 1926, son of Rear Admiral Frederick Victor Stopford, CBE, (1900-1982) and Mary Guise Vernon-Wentworth (1902-2001) who were married on 10^th April 1924. Barbara and John had three children: Susan Caroline Stopford born 1961, Jennifer Claire Stopford born about 1965 and Michael John Stopford born 12^th March 1966.
7. Another prominent pupil of Shrewsbury School who would have known Bainbrigge was the climber Andrew Comyn Irvine (8^th April 1902-about 8^th  June 1924), born in Birkenhead, Cheshire he attended Birkenhead School before going on to Shrewsbury School from 1916-1921; he then went up to Merton College, Oxford where he studied engineering. He took part in the expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1924 with other members including George Mallory, born 18^th June 1886 (Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge) and both men, Mallory and ‘Sandy’ Irvine died in the attempt and whether they reached the summit or not has long been a matter of speculation and debate.

 

 

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Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer. Nevil Shute [Norway]. London. William Heinemann. 1954.
 
Two Men: A Memoir. Hugh E. E. Howson. Oxford. Printed at the University Press. 1919.
 
J. B. Oldham of Oldham’s Hall. Michael L. Charlesworth. Shrewsbury. M. L. Charlesworth. 1986.
 
Wilfred Owen Collected Letters. Edited by Harold Owen & John Bell. London. Oxford University Press. 1967.
 
Wilfred Owen. Jon Stallworthy. London. Chatto & Windus with Oxford University Press. 1974.
 
Wilfred Owen: A New Biography. Dominic Hibberd. London. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2002.
 
Love in Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English ‘Uranian’ Poets from 1889 to 1930. Timothy D’Arch Smith. London. Routledge & K. Paul. 1970.
 
Chasing Lost Time, the Life of C. K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator. Jean Findlay. London. Chatto & Windus. 2014.
 
The Song of Roland. Charles K. Scott Moncrieff. London, Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 1919.
 
C. K. Scott Moncrieff: Memories and Letters, Edited by J. M. Scott Moncrieff & L. W. Lunn. London. Chapman and Hall. 1931.
 
Things Ancient and Modern. C. A. Alington. London. Longmans, Green and Co. 1936.
 
Masculine Plural: Queer Classics, Sex, and Education. Jennifer Ingleheart. Oxford University Press. 2018.
 
Stand in the Trench, Achilles, Classical Receptions in British Poetry of the Great War. Elizabeth Vandiver. Oxford University Press. 2010. (Philip Bainbrigge pp. 328-331)
 
Yours Loyally: A Life of Christopher Sclater Millard. Maria Roberts. FredARead.com Publishing. 2014.
 
Archibald Don, a Memoir. Charles Sayle. London. John Murray. 1918.
 
Journey Through Life: Biography of Alexander Gillespie, 1880-1948. Privately Printed by the Victoria Press (50 copies), 1954. [includes Alexander’s fairy story ‘The Domestic Animal’s Dance’ written for his children in January 1916, pp. 135-149]
 
Autobiography. (Sir) John Frederick Neville Cardus. London, Collins. 1947.