THE SCHOOLS IN TIME OF WAR.
"To describe the effect of the war upon Eton is far from easy: and to do so fully would be undesirable. That is to say it is principally a matter of atmospheric change a deep and not very obvious spiritual movement: much of which is still in the stage of aspiration, likely to be marred by being brought into full con- sciousness. Eton has always been a very English place, yet extraordinarily difficult for any stranger to know : and one of her qualities is a certain reticence about matters of moment, which has always been an English characteristic, and which it would be disloyal to violate, especially at the time of solemn significance through which we are passing."
THESE words are used in an article by the Head-Master of Eton which appears in the December number of the School Guardian. It would be very difficult to imagine a German schoolmaster being content to describe the feeling of his school about the war as an atmospheric change, or implicitly encouraging reticence on matters of moment as a thing desirable in itself. Canon Lyttelton proves by his words that he not only understands—as of course he does—the spirit of the English Publics School, but that he appreciates it. A German master, willingly and by training submissive, like all German masters, to the authoritative views of the Government, would certainly have used an article on school life during the war to emphasize the importance of the national policy, and to applaud the concerted enthusiasm of his school in supporting it. Canon Lyttelton's article, it is true, does all this in effect; it is from first to last a record of the earnestness of Eton in supporting the Government; and yet one nowhere misses in it the suggestion that every Etonian is acting on his own judgment, and that the unanimity of action is the fortuitous result of a conjunction of motives formed secretly in hearts which do not care to reveal quite all that they feel. One is reminded of the hot vicarious shame of the boys in Stalky and Co. when the patriotic lecturer committed the unforgivable offence of underlining what they all took for granted and waved a Union Jack before their faces. Similarly, a German writer has lately professed to be shocked that British soldiers should have gone to their death singing the trivial words of "Tipperary." German soldiers, he told us, make a religion of their service, and face their end with songs that have the dignity of national hymns. It would probably be useless to try to explain to the German writer. We Englishmen at all events know and understand our own spirit, and it is interesting to have such records of how it works in a great Public School and in a great Elementary School as we find in the December issue of the School Guardian. The second of the two articles is by Mr. C. T. Breary, who for many years has been Head-Master of an important Church Day School at Hackney.
Canon Lyttelton notes, in the first place, that the age balance of Eton has been upset There is a more youthful population. The young men, the leaders, the captains of games have dis- appeared, although to the eye of the stranger it might seem that the school was going on just as usual. There is no such volcanic change, no such depletion of familiar places, as has taken place at Oxford and Cambridge. About a hundred and ten boys over seventeen have vanished and are already in the trenches, or at Sandhurst, or in training camps. On Sun- days old boys—very new "old boys "—turn up in khaki and tell strange stories of camp life or experiences at the front :—
"I believe," says Canon Lyttelton, a there are still people—wholly ignorant of what is true but not on the surface—who believe that the sons of the well-to-do are soft and effeminate. The fact is that directly war was declared they telegraphed from all parts of the country for leave to rash off and face the Germans. Crioket weeks were dropped, yachting was taboo, and the grouse were loft to batten among the sunlit burns of Yorkshire, That was in the holidays. When they came back to school, brandishing for signature the blue papers of the temporary commissions, they found a large and motley force of residents being drilled by the masters, and known as • Somerville's Light Infantry.' The Timber Halls continue to echo to the words of command far after the twilight hour, and we are waiting instructions from headquarters about organizing ourselves as a local • Landwehr ' or town guard. catching something of the civic spirit of order and zeal from our neighbour Lord Desborougls. Then, though the numbers of the school were mach 600 diminished, the total of the O.T.C. reached noble.;f oddscme:iuvoSeheltthe they fulfil the requirements of stature before they join. Prac- tically all are mustering, and the more vivid and appalling are the accounts of suffering and lose in Flanders, the more resolutely and quietly they muster. Similarly, I remember at Haileybury, on the morning after the famous Kreger telegram was known, nothing was said, but thirty boys joined the Rifle Corps. Quod potuaruat fees run I."
On Thursday afternoons the O.T.C. turn their backs on foot- ball, and have a long spell of extra drill.
The spiritual war changes suffered by Eton are not less notable. Special prayers are read daily in chapel, and at a quarter to twelve every day the bell is tolled for two minutes —a call to silent and private intercession. On Thursday evenings there is a special Intercession Service, at which attendance is voluntary. In ordinary times how many boys would have attended a voluntary service P Yet now it has been found necessary to use Lower Chapel as well as Upper Chapel, since the voluntary congregation overflowed the latter. On Founder's Day (December 6th) the names of Old Etonians who had fallen in the war were read out in chapel—one hundred and fifty-five of them, already a much larger number than were killed in the whole of the South African War. Imagine the effect upon the minds of young boys when they heard name after name of their seniors, some of whom they had often seen playing cricket or football in the playing-fields. "Thoughts hardly to be parked into a narrow act" of worship or self-dedication they surely must have had at that moment —thoughts which surged in upon them, leaving a mark never likely to be effaced on this aide of the grave. Even a school- boy's last service in the school chapel, when the wrench of parting, the romantic prospect of an emancipated life, and the weight of sobering responsibilities falling on a hitherto cloistered life all struggle for possession of his heart, could not compare with the memorableness of that experience. We do not wonder that Canon Lyttelton is able to say of the war : "It has brought a new idea of death." "I may be wrong," he muses, " but I fancy that since the casualty list began its record there has been less talk of death being' the end.'" One pictures the clever, rationalizing Sixth Form boy, bursting with the conscious riot of his budding intellect. Even to him, if it be but in a pagan form, it must seem that somehow the
vivid life of those playing-fields cannot but be continued in meadows of asphodel or other meadows.
Mr. Dreary tells us of the sudden reassembling of the Elementary Schools before the proper holiday was nearly over. The large number of Reservists called up had made the " feeding question" urgent. The schools accepted the responsibility during the inevitable delay in arranging the grants to the dependants of soldiers. But the number of children fed by Mr. Breary 's school grows continually less. "Please, Sir, I shall not want a dinner ticket any more ; father started work yesterday." In September the dark days of December were dreaded. But the reality has banished the nightmare. As for teaching about the war, Mr. Breary writes
In the early days of the war the London teachers tried to explain dearly to the children 'Why did we go to war.' Cer- tainly the County Council did its beat to supply ne with all the necessary 'literature.' Very helpful were the two small pamph- lets by Six Edward Cook, Why Britain is at War,' and the smaller one, Britain and the Small Nations,' and the official White Papers. The teachers in every school were able to state the case of Serbia, the Larger Deem involved, Britain's Effort for Peace, the German Proposal to England, How England became Involved, the Case of France, the Case of Belgium, What are We Fighting for P the Issues at Stake, and a Conflict of Ideals in such a way as to make the boys in the upper classes clearly under- stand that we had no option but to carry out our treaty compacts, and that a 'scrap of paper 'to an Englishman was binding."
Mr. Breary, like the Head-Master of Eton, notes a spiritual change—a seriousness and a concern for those at the front that will make a child quiver with emotion. The boys have very little sympathy with the crowds who watch professional football Saturday after Saturday. Their heroes are no longer the stars of the Arsenal, Fulham, Chelsea, and the Hotepure, but the men who hold the line at Ypres i- " What a splendid recruiting sergeant the Church organization
has proved in many a parish in East London ! In a Church Institute near here, sixty per cent. of the members have already enlisted, and recruits are still joining. This is not the result of a spasmodic effort It is not the result of speeches. But for many a year in the day school, in the Sunday school, in the Band of Hope, and afterwards in the Lads' Club, the boys have been taught in the school games, in the Deanery competitions, and in the great diocesan competitions; at the Crystal Palace self-discipline, and the sacrifice of self, for the sake of the squad or team."
Of course such results could not have been obtained if the teachers had not practised what they preached. Mr. Breary describes the willingness of the young teachers to offer themselves as causing a "great rush." And yet teachers might easily have excused themselves—what more important than to carry on the education of the country ? Their number of recruits is a record that the teaching profession may be proud of. The paths of the Publics Schools and the Elementary Schools converge on the common point, the faith of and in England, as W. E. Henley described it :—.
"Ever the faith endures, England, my England !
Take us and break us ; we are yours, England, my own I "
Previous page
