They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

In my interview today, on the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice at the end of the Great War, I am talking to Kate Hodson, author of My Dear Old Boys. Now, most of you will know me as a science fiction author and are used to this slot being given to a scifi or fantasy writer. However, this month felt right to highlight some very personal stories of people who fought so many years ago.

What made you decide to write this book?
The initial interest to find out about the Old Boys who had died in the war came as I was sat in Chapel during preparations for the 100 year anniversary in November 2014. I remember looking at the red panels where the names of the fallen are written and wondering who these men really were. We had their regiments and date of death but we knew nothing about their lives. It was here I determined to find out as much as I could about them.
The decision to write the book came in July this year when I visited four of the graves of our Old Boys in France. The sheer number of graves laid out in endless rows was overwhelming. When I looked at the grave of 2nd Lieut. H. G. Shapland, one of the most prolific letter writers to George and Mary Corner, the lively voice I had heard contrasted with this silent stone and I felt I owed it to him to tell his story and those of the other Old Boys. Few might know the stories of those in that cemetery but I did know something about Herbert; he deserved it have his told. And that was the starting point for turning the research into a book.

What is the origin of the title? Is it a quote from George Corner’s letters?
George Corner was the headmaster of Wellington School. ‘My Dear Old Boys’ was the opening of every letter he wrote to the former pupils serving during the war and the community after the war when he was trying to get a shared interest and investment in the building of the Chapel. Although I hadn’t planned to write about Corner, the passion of his letters and clear affection he had for the boys struck me. Here was a man who was devoted to making sure his Old Boys would never be forgotten. I began to realise that it was down to him that we had such a rich insight into the impact of war on our small community. George Corner is the overriding presence in the book and his story frames the Roll of Honour in Chapter 3. I think he was an exceptional man whose story is extraordinary. He gave the School so much more than many realise and he did it with great affection, drive and, at times, at great personal cost. Without his efforts, the school would be a very different place today.

Is the building shown on the cover that chapel?
Yes. The building on the cover is the one that Corner dreamed would be a 'fitting memorial' to the Old Boys who died, but his ambition to build it was staggering. Wellington School was not a rich or large school and the road to completing it was indeed long and hard. It took 12 years. Corner is reported to have put much of his own money into building it when funds were low. It is believed that at the time of his retirement he was owed between £6,500 and £8,000, that’s around £400,000 in today’s money. Corner’s attention to detail was meticulous. Every aspect had significance. He made a point of using local craftsmen and sourcing local products. He helped with the cutting of the wood and drilling of the stone. He was 'everywhere'. The building was never quite finished to the specification he had wanted, but it was dedicated in 1931 and has been in use ever since.

How did you collect the information to put the stories together? What were the most useful resources for your research?
The research into the 37 took four years to complete. The School magazines were an excellent starting point because all bar two of the Old Boys had an obituary which detailed their date of death and regiment. From this point, I was able to go to the CWGC website to find their regimental number and place of burial. The magazines also contained hundreds of ‘Extracts from the Head’s Letter Bag’ which allowed me to hear the voices of the Old Boys who had written to Corner.
The next stage involved much work on Ancestry.co.uk. Here I could access birth, marriage, death, probate and military records. I could also access the Census records so I could work out who else lived with our Old Boys in various years. This then enabled me to follow each member of the family as far as I could. Often it was a case of trying to fit the pieces together. Ancestry also contains a link to other people researching the particular person you are researching and this was particularly helpful in getting in touch with relatives.

Tell us about one of the 37. Someone whose story struck a chord for you.
Over the four years of research, the story of 2nd Lieut. Colin Graham Gordon has always stood out for me, initially because of the tone of his letters but because he came to embody the waste of potential the war caused. He was in France in 1914 with the London Scottish and wrote very honestly about what he was enduring and the awful sights he had seen. His letters were both amusing and ironic in places yet there are moments of anguish which bring the horror of battle to an audience who probably still thought the fighting would be over by Christmas. In his School career, Gordon had been the pupil who excelled in everything. He was a fantastic sportsman, held the record of 100m for years, an academic and an accomplished actor. He was also very high up in the O. T. C.
Gordon was killed as he led his troops out of a trench in the early hours of the Battle of the Somme. He was shot through the head and died instantly. He was buried in The Gordon Cemetery which is a small cemetery on the road to Mametz. He is one of six officers who died on the 1st July. Their graves were wired in and marked. The other Gordons who died (nearly two hundred) are buried ‘somewhere’ in the cemetery. This intimate cemetery tucked away on the Mametz road, is particularly striking. It had been the site of the reserve trench during the fighting.
During the research, one of the things that struck me was that some of our most revered pupils who died appeared to have been almost forgotten as no living relatives seemed looking for them. There were many others whose school careers and military careers lacked the heights of Colin Gordon’s yet there were people who valued them and were actively looking to find out more about them. Perhaps we assume that those who excel in school will always go on to make the biggest marks but I’m not sure this is so.
In 2016, I was able to purchase the Shrouds of the Somme figure in his name and this now hangs in Chapel.

Do you feel close to these people? How did you cope with their individual tragedies?
When I started this research I never imagined becoming emotionally attached to men I would never meet and who lived a hundred or so years ago, but I really have. When I think of a name of one of our fallen, I don’t think of a name on a chapel wall, I think of an actual person. Their letters to George Corner convey their voices, their courage and their love for the School. They are alive and yet I read the letters knowing what will happen to them, which makes it all the more poignant. I remember watching celebrities on Who Do You Think You Are become emotional when sad stories were related and thinking it was all an act to make good television, but now I feel that there is a connection on a human level to tragedies even though the victims are not known to us in the conventional sense.
Many of the stories moved me. There are some men who always seem to be close to being recognized for their actions yet never were. There are men whose death left children without a father. In the case of Harry James Martin, his death in 1915 was followed by his wife’s in 1917, leaving three children orphaned. There are some men who served from early 1915, Pastfield being one, and who died in the last weeks of the war, over three year later.

Thank you so much for this insight into the lives of people who gave so much.