PROPOSED WAR MEMORIAL

Newport Intermediate Old Boys

OLD boys of the Intermediate School, Newport, met in the school hall to consider the erection of a war memorial to the 76 old boys who have fallen in the war. The Headmaster (Mr F E Battersby MA) presided over a good attendance. He stated that that was the first time he had addressed any considerable number of old boys since the recruiting meeting which Professor Arnold, Bangor, and Principal Griffiths, Cardiff, had addressed in the early weeks of the war. It was amazing that the country had been so little prepared for the thunderbolt of August 4 1914, but the public schools of the country could claim that they had loyally supported the efforts of the War Office in the training of officers, and the nation owed an incalculable debt to the gallant youths who had gained their first military training in the Officers' training Corps of their schools, and who were fitted to take commissions upon the outbreak of war. Before the war they had heard of the excellences of German education, but these eulogies had not survived 1914.

The majority of those present had recently returned from France or Flanders Palestine, and he wished to say that the school was proud of them and grateful to them for their ready response to the national call in 1914. During the first year of the war, when enlistment was voluntary and not compulsory, returns had been made from the Intermediate Schools of Wales and Monmouthshire, and it gave him very great pleasure to note that the Newport School not only headed the list in the number of its recruits, but headed it by a considerable margin.

Hundreds of their old boys had responded to the national call. Of these, no less than 215 had held commissions as officers, and no less than 28 of them had won the Military Cross. Twenty-one old boys had been prisoners of war in Germany, and 76 had made the great sacrifice. The object of their meeting was to consider the erection of a suitable memorial to their memory. In his view as adequate and suitable memorial should have at least three aims: To provide for the needs of those whom the dead have left; to provide a visible record of those who had fought our battles and and died in our cause, and; to secure some permanent benefit to the school, which had been responsible for their training and education. He did not bring before them any cut and dried scheme but he mentioned about half a dozen suggestions which had reached him. Careful and full consideration should be given before the form of the memorial was definitely fixed.

Upon the meeting being thrown open, Mr R G Wilkinson proposed that the meeting heartily approved of the erection of a war memorial, and said that the services rendered by the old boys who had fallen deserved a memorial on a large and generous scale.

Mr W J Martin seconded, and emphasised the importance of considering the needs of children or widows left by the fallen.

Of the various suggestions made in regard to the form of the memorial, the one that appeared to meet with most approval was that of the foundation of a Leaving Scholarship to the universities, combined with the erection of a tablet in the hall.

A memorial committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs G E S Heybryne, J Rowe, R G Wilkinson, G Hartley, I L Phillips, E A Stanton, G Rainforth, D W Cleaver, W B Cleaver, H V Little, K R Stokes, W N Ellis, A E J Holland, G S Stamp, W H Blackhall, H E Vanderplank, G W Bell, and H D Hazell, with the Headmaster as chairman, and Mr Walter J Martin as secretary.