Memory Corner The Lorne House Diehards There was a sad reminder for those Lorne House OUs of my generation who watched the march past at the Cenotaph in November 2010. David Dimbleby mentioned that the Korean War veterans were being especially honoured and that veterans of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Middlesex Regiments, the first British troops in Korea were represented. Boys of Lorne House may not give more than a cursory glance at the honours board hanging in the hall. Dismissed no doubt as just history, as we dismissed without much thought, a visit of a number of old boys from the Boer War. We played, laughed and fagged with Jeff Bucknall (LH 42) and Mike Cawthorne (LH 44) two of those names on the board. These two were both sent to Korea, to face not only thousands of enemy soldiers but the bitter cold. Jeff as Intelligence Officer with the Middlesex and Mike as regular officer with the Argylls and Southerland Highlanders. I picture Mike Cawthorn, a really nice guy, son of a Major General, resplendent in a kilt. Both killed and buried far away in the Pusan cemetery in South Korea unacknowledged by the War Graves Commission. I owe my time in Lorne House to another mentioned on the board. Edward ‘Peter’ Dillon (LH 35) who was killed in 1943 in Italy, commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment, but serving with the Royal Artillery. He was the son of the Middlesex cricketer Ted Dillon. My father knew Ted, so it was Uppingham for me and later my brother. For me, a Lorne House new boy in 1943, from a home that had been flattened by the Luftwaffe, the world was very much at war and Great Britain continued on a military basis until the end of National Service, making the first half of the last century a period of things military. All of us were members of the school corps, except those in the Air Training Corps. We wore the Leicester’s Cap badge but it was the Middlesex Regiment that counted for me, my brother Richard ‘Murray’ Fox (LH 45) 30
School News and my father. The 57th of Foot, later to become the Middlesex Regiment, fought at Albuhera, in the Peninsular War, and thereafter were known as the ‘Diehards’; the CO, Colonel Inglis having exhorted his men to die hard. In my first year I discovered other Diehard links. Murray Judd (LH 43) had a half brother Perks who had served with the regiment. My father was with the 9th Bn. Middlesex Regiment in WW1 and then as a Territorial. At the outbreak of WW2, the Bn. became the 60th Searchlight. By 1943 the 60th changed role to become 595 LAA. In the spring of 1944 who should come to Uppingham – but 595 with their camouflaged Ack-Ack guns. They set up Bn. HQ in the abandoned Redgate. I remember a tea in the Officers Mess. Extra food was an event of some significance. Sadly they only stayed a few days. Now to 1944 and D Day. At the time I do not think I realised, partly I suspect because of secrecy, that Jeff Bucknall’s father, a Lieutenant General, was in command of one of the two British Army Corps that landed on D Day, XXX Corps. He had been chosen by Field Marshall Montgomery for the task. Although highly regarded by Monty for his time in Italy he did not last long in Normandy. Sir General Brian Horrocks (SH 1909) was his replacement and had been one of Monty’s Corps commanders in North Africa, and been wounded there by shrapnel, and had recently recovered. He was a charismatic leader and highly respected by his troops. He was brilliant at remembering names. Edward Fox’s portrayal of him in ‘A Bridge Too Far’ was, I thought, true to the man. My brother, two years younger than I, served with the Middx. in Hong Kong after they had been withdrawn from Korea. My brother and I were lucky to have been spared the horrors of Korea. All and every one of those killed in Korea died hard.
The Magazine for the Old Boys & Girls of Uppingham School
Geoffrey Fox (LH 43
Kathleen Grimwood has celebrated becoming a super-centenarian by reaching the age of 110 in August 2011 and is the 16th oldest person in Britain. Kathleen was Matron of West Deyne in the 1940 under P B King and still keeps in touch with some of her ‘boys’ and states her time at Uppingham as some of her best days. Roy Ford, ex-staff 1951 – 1954 and again from 1966 – 1971 died in April 2011 following a long illness. He left Uppingham to become Headmaster of Southwell Minster Collegiate Grammar School followed by Kings School Rochester. Warwick Metcalfe, Head of Art from 1958 – 1988 passed away in May 2011. Born in 1928, John Philip ‘Warwick’ Metcalfe took up the post of Art Master at Uppingham in 1958 and spent the rest of his career working for the School. Warwick joined as Head of a oneman department with an empty art school, no formal sixth form teaching and a single 45 minute period per week for the Junior classes. Recalling his arrival, Geoff Frowde wrote: “The Art School became a buzz of activity. He inherited an annual budget of £120 and proceeded to fund his department by charging an ‘Extra Art’ fee of £2 per term. He soon had 200 ‘Extra Artists’ and a departmental income of £1200 p.a ” The Department, by now Art and Design, really took off with the arrival of John Royds as Headmaster in 1965 who gave it his full support. Warwick was involved in major school projects using his architectural skills on the enlargement of the Chapel, the conversion of the gym to a theatre, the creation of the second storey in the Hall, the Headmaster’s House, and the Lecture Theatre below the Hall. Warwick remained immensely proud of the achievements of all his protégés and was especially delighted that the modern embodiment of the department he worked so hard to establish is now in The Leonardo Centre, designed by Piers Gough (WB 59) and run by no less than thirteen members of staff. Piers Gough writes: ‘Warwick was a wonderful mentor. He had the gift of teaching all abilities to produce something to be proud of. For a little, rather shy boy not temperamentally suited to the public school ethos of the time, he ran a creative home from home. A refuge across the graveyard that was rich with the possibilities of painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics. Later, he encouraged a more public engagement with
