The Original WW1 Memorial

The college archive contains no details about the commission or erection of the marble memorial plaque in the chapel, which commemorates those who fell in the First World War. The names and units of the deceased were most likely gathered from several contemporary sources, including:

• word-of-mouth accounts;
• letters;
• newspaper clippings; and
• casualty lists.

This information was then collated and published in The Wrekinian, the college magazine edited entirely by the pupils themselves. At the beginning of the 1920s, this was regarded as the complete list of OW fatalities.

Later Corrections and Additions

Originally, forty-eight names were inscribed on the memorial. Another six were added between 2007 and 2010, bringing the total to fifty-four: a further fatality was discovered a few years later but due to lack of space on the memorial no recognition was possible.

More than a century later, access to surviving records held in archives across the UK and overseas has shown that the original memorial contains numerous errors. It was decided that the most appropriate way to present the complete list of all OW war fatalities was to erect a “Correction Board” alongside, together with a brief explanatory notice.

It was installed on 1^st July 2026, to coincide with the 110^th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

The opportunity was also taken to erect a memorial to former Assistant Master Captain Harry Driver, DSO, MC, BSc who was killed in August 1919 at the Battle of Dvina.

Jeremy Elsworth
(W. 1970-75)

propatria@wrekincollege.com