Category: Old Boys

The school’s WWII Memorial is located in the Oxford Community School (previously the Oxford School, previously to that Southfield School and now the Spires Academy).

The Inscription reads: Grati Dulcem Colimus Memoriam Horum Huiusce Scholae Alumnorum Qui Pro Communi Omnium Libertate Vitam reddiderunt. MCMXXXIX – MCMXXXXV. 

The translation offered in the April 1966 Scvhool Magazine reads: “Gratefully we cherish the dear memory of those pupils of this scholl who for the general liberty of all men gave up their lives.”

Denis Tomlin offers the following alternative: “With thankful hearts we honour the cherished memory of those former pupils of this scholl who laid down their lives for the universal freedom of all men.”

The names of the 56 people remembered on the memorial are:

B C Adamson – H F Bannister – P L Bayzand – D H Beare – H M Beeson – M H Bullock – H T Burden – H D Buswell – J D Cox – A G Davies – R C France – W A Freeborn – R Griggs – S D J Grimsdale – J G Halliday – A F Hamilton – K C Hampson – S J Heath-Smith – R B Hester – D S Hill – K G Hill – J E Hills – P W Hine – T V Holbrow – K J Howes – H G Jarman – R Jennings – W G Johnstone – H R Keen – H A Kidd-May – C F King – E A Legrand – P J Lewis – W C Liebermann – P R Loose – J W Lynes – J N M Muir – J B T O’Neill – W J Pearce – R G Robbins – J A Rowley – H Sabarsky – H W J Savin – S M Seddon – E A Sims – H C Nichol Smith – I T Stanley – F W Taylor – J E Timms – J D Turner – J A R Ware – P A Watts – A W Webb – M D J Williams – C N Woodcock – CW Wright. 

An unknown pupil writes:

I was moved by the reference to the WWII memorial. Several of the men named on it were known to me. I was aware that one or two had been killed, but some others came as a shock. Even at this late date the thought of those young lives being lost is very saddening.

Among the names that I see is that of Jack Halliday, who was, I think, our last Cricket Blue (1935). When I joined the School he had just left, but he had obviously been a great sporting hero, and there was much talk of his getting a Blue, in which he was eventually successful in his second year.

Also among those lost is S J Heath-Smith (generally know at school as S J H Smith. My recollection is that he boxed for the university, though I am not sure whether it was before or during the war.

(Note from Ken Powell: There was a photo of S J H Smith in the school hall over the stage next to one of an eclipse! He boxed for Oxford before the war.)

One name missing is that of Dick (R S?) Withers. I have no certainty of his death, but I remember being told by Peter Quelch soon after the end of the war that he had been killed – I believe in an RAF bombing raid. He was a great chap, with whom I had much pleasure in collaborating on a Sixth Form magazine in the early days of the war.