Teachers Go To War!

Mr Wyon with pupils from
The High School, Nov 1912

It wasn't just the pupils who put their lives on hold and enlisted in the forces in WWI. Some members of the teaching staff also signed-up.

Mr Thompson, The High School headmaster at the time, mentioned the part that members of his teaching staff were playing in the war, when he spoke at the annual Prize Giving Ceremony in November 1916:

"In addition to Mr Ellwood, Lieutenant in the North Lancashire and Mr Slade, Lieutenant in the 6th Essex Regiment, who joined in December 1914, Mr Wyon, our senior Modern language master, joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at the end of last term, and before the holidays were over he was fighting in France, where the Intelligence Department have found his knowledge of French and German so useful that they have attached him to the General’s Staff."

The Erasmian, the school journal, noted in December, 1917:

'Three of our Masters are at the front - Mr. Wyon, Captain in the Sth Staffordshire, Mr Ellwood, Lieutenant in the North Lancashires; and Mr Slade, Lieutenant in the Essex Regiment.'

One wonders what kind of impact, having teachers enlisting in the army in wartime, must have had on the impressionable boys.

In June 1918 it commented further:
'Two of our masters suffered in the battle. Mr. Wyon (Captain and Adjutant, South Staffordshire Regiment), was. severely wounded-near Cambrai on March 23rd, the upper left arm being shattered.

Mr Slade (back row) and Mr Ellwood
 (second row, on the left) with
High School pupils in Nov 1912.

He is now in Dr. Wheeler's Hospital in Fitzwilliam Street, and making good progress.

Also, Mr. E. S. Ellwood, Captain, North Lancashire Regiment, was taken prisoner early in April.'

Mr Slade - 

We know that Mr Slade was set to Gallipoli, because he wrote a long letter - most probably for his pupils back home to read - which was published in the school journal, The Erasmian.  Click here to read the full transcript. He arrived in the theatre of war on 7th October 1915, and saw action in Gallipoli and Egypt.  He was awarded the Star Medal,The British War and Victory medals.

My Wyon -

Mr Wyon, as he was known to his pupils, was actually named, Melvill Walter Thornton Wyon, born on 25th July 1883, in Alderney, on the Channel Islands. His mother was from South Africa, and his father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army.  In the 1911 census, he was boarding in a house at 90 Harcourt Street, just a stone's-throw away from The High School, where he was the modern language master.  However, his circumstances soon changed, as later that month he went to London and married Gertrude Thiele.  When he applied for his medals in 1924, his contact address was much further away, in Durban, South Africa.  However, he died on 6th June, 1936, in a nursing home in Watford, London, and in his will he left his estate to his widow, Gertrude, who died in 1961, in Australia, aged 91.

Mr Ellwood- 

 Edgar's bible showing the stamp of Lahr prison camp, from 
his time as a PoW in 1918. He presented the bible to his
nephew, (John) Hassall Ellwood, whom, in the event, he 
raised as his own after the death of Hassall's father in 1927. 
Thanks to the Ellwood Family for sharing these great photos.

Mr Edgar Stanley Ellwood was born in Lancashire on 2nd May,1890, where his father John Hassall Ellwood, worked as a Gunpowder Works Manager. He was 'Assistant Master' at The High School Dublin from 1912-1914. He left to join the 8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers but was taken prisoner on 21st March, 1918. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) listed him as being a prisoner of war in Hargicourt, Rastatt and family sources say that he was imprisoned at Lahr Prison Camp, Baden, Germany. He was was repatriated on 10 December 1918.

Mona and Edgar Ellwood in later life, with their nephew,
John Hassall, who they raised as their own.
Photo courtesy of the Ellwood family.

He wasted no time returning to work and by 1919 he was teaching at The King's School in Pontefract, He did not return to The High School. He married Mona Ramsay in March 1919, and remained in Lancashire (Barrow-in-Furness), now Cumbrai, until he died, aged 57, in 1947. While he clearly survived the war, he did not come out of it unscathed, losing his 23 year old brother Charles at Ypres in 1915, just as Edgar was donning the army uniform for the first time.
Source:  Michelle Burrowes and Dave, Simon, Peter, Ken, Tim,  Robert and Peter Ellwood.  (We are forever grateful for your help!).