"Seeing It Through" WW1 Community History event - Ware (cont'd.) - Display 2

Display 2 – Richard Hale school archives – record of former Hertford Grammar school pupils

Eddie Roche and Eric Riddle, custodians of the Richard Hale school archives were kind enough to introduce us to the registers of former pupils at Hertford Grammar school from 1905  up until to WW1;  during this period, pupils attended from all over East Hertfordshire.   Major Kinman, the Headmaster, marked the school registers to show the fates of the pupils who lost their lives.  The archives also contain research carried out by the family of ex-pupil Percy Huggins and this research was displayed at our event.   A summary from the Richard Hale Association’s First World War Book of Remembrance is as follows:

PERCY HENRY HUGGINS 1891-1914

  • Percy attended Hertford Grammar School in 1905.
  • He previously attended Ware Grammar School.
  • His father was an upholsterer.
  • He lived in Baldock Street, Ware.
  • He was a Private in the 1st Hertfordshire Regiment, Service number 2701.
  • Percy was killed in action at Ypres, Belgium, on Christmas Day 1914, aged 23.
  • He is commemorated/buried at le Touret Memorial Cemetery Richebourg-L’Avoue, reference 1.F.12.

For more information on the Huggins family research, please see the Imperial War Museum, Lives of the First World War website.

LESLIE GEORGE DUNCAN ROBERTSON 1900-1919

  • Leslie attended Hertford Grammar School from 1911-1914.
  • He previously attended Stanstead Abbotts Elementary School.
  • His father was a french polisher.
  • He lived in Roydon Road, Stanstead Abbotts.
  • He left school to become a Post Office clerk.
  • He was private in the 45th Royal Fusiliers.  Service number 128979.
  • Leslie was killed in action fighting the Bolsheviks in Russia, on the 14th September 1919, aged 19.
  • He is commemorated on the Archangel Memorial, Russia

Leslie Robertson’s nephew enjoyed seeing the play “Seeing It Through” in Hertford and came to the community event in Buntingford on Sat 22nd October 2016.

Our Thundridge community event (see Thundridge post), in particular had a strong focus on the role of Scouts during WW1 and we’re interested to learn more about those with a known Scouting link on the Hertford Grammer School memorial eg. Philip ‘Buff’ Robinson (Ware Boys Brigade and Scout), Bertram Lawrence (Ware Scout and St Margaret’s Scoutmaster), Robert Dellow (Buntingford Scout)  (see Buntingford post), William May (Ware Boys Brigade and Leader), Frank Page (his brother was a Hertford Scoutmaster).    Please add any additional information you might have below in comments or via our Facebook page,   www.facebook.com/groups/ww1eastsherts Thank you!

For those interested, Sarah Reay’s biography of her grandfather, Herbert Cowl is called “The Half Shilling Curate”  and it details his time as an army chaplain from Christmas Eve, 1914 until the end of hostilities in 1919.   Reverend Cowl used to be the Head Boy of Hertford Grammer School in 1903 and would have known many of the pupils mentioned above.

 

 

 

 

This page was added on 27/03/2017.

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