Harrogate school remembers its war dead in poignant ceremony

Back row from left are Ashville’s Heads of School Fleur Croft and Toby Sinclair-Morris, Governor John Wood, Former Ashvillian Society President David Simister, Ashville Head Rhiannon Wilkinson, Ashville Prep School Head Asa Firth, and Warrant Officer Colin Irving. Front row are Ashville Prep School Heads of School Luke Coleman and Rosie Bakewell

One hundred years after the dedication of its own war memorial, Harrogate’s Ashville College has paid its respects to those former pupils and staff members who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First and Second World Wars.

Following a service in the school’s Soothill Hall, current pupils and staff were joined by members of the governing body and former pupils, who gathered in front of the memorial to observe a two minute silence and to lay wreaths and poppies.

In 1919, the Old Boys’ Association (OBA) opened a subscription list for a war memorial to honour those from the College who had perished in the ‘war to end all wars’.

By January 1920, an OBA committee heard that “about £3,460 had already been promised, or received, towards the memorial”.

At the Old Boys’ 1922 reunion weekend, the memorial, in the shape of a small Cenotaph, was unveiled by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lieutenant-General Sir Ivor Maxse.

With him at the unveiling ceremony were the leading Free Church chaplain in the armed forces, The Rev J Penry Davey, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Mallinson, as President of the OBA, and the Headmaster, the Rev Alfred Soothill.

Of the 300 former Ashvillians called up in WW1, 38 died in the conflict.

Eight of those were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

In WW2, 465 former pupils and teachers volunteered for the forces, and of those 59 were killed.

For more information about Ashville College, please visit www.ashville.co.uk