Centenary of the War Memorial

Dedication of the New Plaques

Friday 15th October 2021 marked 100 years since the Fettes College War Memorial was unveiled. We chose this day to commemorate not only the Centenary of the War Memorial, but also to dedicate the new additional plaques for the Lost Boys, namely: ʜ 40 Old Fettesians and eight school employees who lost their lives through war, 1896–2004 ʜ 36 Old Fettesians who lost their lives on peacetime military service, 1892–1986

We are very grateful to the Fettesian Trust for their support with this project and for their support in recording this important ceremony.

If you would like to watch the recording of the poignant event to hear the names on the new plaques being read by the Head, prayers from the Chaplain and a short address by staff member David McDowell (Staff 2005–present), Head of Politics and member of the History Department, along with Senior CCF participation, a piper and a moving performance of the Last Post, please visit: https://bit. ly/3zFKqCi

David conducted significant research to ensure that the right names are represented on the plaques. His address of dedication is noted below:

A hundred years ago today, the Fettes family gathered for the dedication of the war memorial. It began with a chapel service so well-attended by relatives of the fallen that there was room for only a few pupils to attend. The school then assembled round the memorial, which was draped in the Union flag, for its unveiling by Major General Sir William Macpherson (SH 1870–1875). He was trebly honoured as Colonel-General of the Royal Army Medical Corps, a Fettes ‘patriarch’, and father of a fallen OF. In his address to the school, he said that the 246 names beneath the fallen highland officer were a record of heroism of which Fettes should be proud.

In this Memorial (he said) you hold their memory and the memory of their gallant deeds in trust… Duty and sacrifice are the foundations of patriotism, justice, and freedom… Carry these principles into your lives and so keep the spirit of those who sacrificed theirs for them a living presence amongst you.

Sir William’s son Duncan is one of the 246. It’s said that on the morning of the younger man’s death, they had met near the front in Flanders; after Duncan was killed, the general could never speak publicly of him again. Their medals are united in the clan museum in Newtonmore.

However, not all the Fettes fallen were being held in trust. The difficulty of communications a century ago meant that two of those recorded behind us were not dead at all, whilst others who had died were left off.

This was not a new problem, as Andrew Murray (Staff 1981–2014) and I often discussed; avid readers of the Fettesian will know from its March 1900 issue of the heroic death of G.G. Smith (SH 1875–1880) in the South African War; he was killed while helping the wounded at the Battle of Spion Kop, literally smashed to pieces by a shell; his commanding officer believed he deserved the VC, but for some reason he didn’t make it onto the black memorial in chapel. Nor did several others who died of wounds after it had been cast.

Andrew felt that Smith and other people we ‘forgot to remember’ should be commemorated on new panels. We have known for some time that getting onto Fettes memorials was rather hit or miss. In the First World War, like the War Graves Commission, we only recorded military

deaths, but in the Second the lists expanded to recognise civilian casualties.

Aviation pioneer Harold Barnwell (Ca 1893–1897), killed whilst testing a night fighter, was one who was missed off because of this; he now joins his school friends on this memorial.

There was also confusion over names; William Thomson (Gl 1891–1897) was lost when his ship sank in 1917 but archive documents suggest that he was mixed up with an OF killed in France. Kenneth Mackenzie (SH 1906–1913), who fell at Messines in 1914, seems to have been conflated with a Kenneth Mackenzie (Gl 1896–1901) killed in 1918. These lost OFs now join their school friends on this memorial.

We have also added those who died of the effects of combat or captivity after war’s end, like Lieutenant Anker Elsworth (Gl 1907–1910), who succumbed to wounds from the Somme and Passchendaele in 1923, and also eight nonteaching staff killed in World War I. People killed in neither World War, and thus not covered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, were added; these include victims of terrorism like Insp Tennent McNeill (Ca 1901–1903) and Lieutenant Ronald Hendy (SH 1906–1911). They too join their friends on this memorial.

Those who died on peacetime military service also receive recognition, on the wooden plaque in chapel, notably Squadron Leader Christopher Johnson (SH 1926–1928), killed on a rescue mission in the New Zealand alps in 1953.

Many people helped with the lengthy research process: OFs like Hugh Macrae (CE 1961–1966) and Brigadier Ian Gardiner (Mo 1963–1968); parents, notably Iain Gale; colleagues, especially Estates, Captain Rowlands (Staff 2014–present), Peter Worlledge (Staff 2009–present), and archivist Andrew Murray and his successor, Craig Marshall (Staff 2014–2022), to whom I owe a great deal. The financial support of the Old Fettesian Association and Fettesian Trust was of course essential. To them, and to the Fettesians helping us today, I offer heartfelt thanks.

Our memorials are historical touchstones, linking the Fettes community of today with those predecessors who died in the service of others and enabled us to live as we do now. By rescuing these ‘lost boys’ from historical oblivion, they are added to that cloud of witnesses which surrounds us when we stand here as a school on Remembrance Sunday.

The names on these new panels join the list of all our fallen which personalises General Macpherson’s principles of duty and sacrifice. It reinforces the sense that, like a family, Fettes stretches back into the past just as we look forward into the future.

Our ‘Lost Boys’ are no longer lost – they are here.