Merton Court First World War Roll of Honour
Service and year of death
Lt. Charles Henry Bearblock, Essex Regiment Age 22 (1915)
Able Seaman Walter Theodore Grahame Bryant, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Age 18 (1915)
Lance Sgt Austin Campbell Dent, Royal Army Medical Corps Age 23 (1915)
Capt. George Archibald Percy Douglas, Essex Regiment Age 21 (1915)
Capt. Philip James Stanger, London Regiment Age 19 (1915)
Flt Lt. Herbert Graham Wanklyn, Royal Navy Air Service Age 19 (1915)
Capt. Ian Osborne Crombie, Middlesex Regiment Age 21 (1916)
Lt. Bruce Norman Dickinson, Royal West Kent Regiment Age 26 (1916)
Lt. Gerald Philip Day, Lincolnshire Regiment Age 19 (1916)
Capt. Lewis Wilberforce Goldsmith, Yorkshire Regiment Age 21 (1916)
Lt. Kenneth Hartley Moore, Dorsetshire Regiment Age 20 (1916)
Lt. James Pearse Morum, Rifle Brigade Age 20 (1916)
Capt. Robert Lawrence Pillman, Royal West Kent Regiment Age 23 (1916)
Lt. Gerard Steuart Samuel, East Yorkshire Regiment Age 27 (1916)
Lt. James Machattie Crombie, Royal West Kent Regiment Age 20 (1917)
Lt. William Alfred Layton Robinson Royal West Surrey Regiment Age 20 (1917)
Lt. Marcel Andre Simon, Royal Berkshire Regiment Age 19 (1917)
Able Seaman George Makins Davis, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Age 22 (1918)
Private George Harry Larner, Middlesex Regiment Age 19 (1918)
Lt. Vivian Charles Wolfe, Sutton Royal West Kent Regiment Age 22 (1918)
Capt. William Maurice Crombie, Indian Medical Service Age 25 (1919)
Lt. Henry William Melles, Schofield 123rd Outram’s Rifles (1920)
If you recognise any of these names or are a relative, please do contact the school. We would be delighted to hear from you.
The Story of the finding the Lost Boys
Our original war memorial, on our Junior playground, dates from just after the Second World War. On it, thirty three names were engraved, and at the time, every effort was made to include those pupils and staff who had died in the two greatest conflicts of the Twentieth Century.
The make-up of the names on our memorial is roughly half First World War and half Second World War. Of the former, the majority served in the British Army, mostly volunteers, commissioned into ‘County’ regiments, from their public school OTCs and some Naval cadets, who served in marine battalions which fought at the Front. Those from the Second World War were more likely to be ‘professional’ career soldiers, fighting in Europe, North Africa or with the Indian Army in the Far East (with the fall of Singapore). A good number joined the Royal Airforce, serving with bomber or fighter command over Holland, Germany, Italy or the former Yugoslavia. Some were also in the Navy or Fleet Air Arm.
F.K.Philips’ name was added after the Second World War, as he was killed whilst serving with the Royal Airforce and his family wanted him remembered at school. We don’t, however, know exactly when his name was added. Subsequently, at the request of relatives, three more names; M.A.Simon and H.W.M Schofield from the First War and D.E. F Powell from the Second, have been added, in the last fifteen years. By chance, our headmaster, Dominic Price, was tidying the school’s archive material when he found an old photograph album and a previously forgotten scrapbook that had originally been given to the Price Family in 1988, by Edward Pearce, who had been born at Merton Court in 1900 and was the son of Merton Court’s founder J.W.E Pearce (The Pearce family ran the school from 1899 to 1921).
Upon closer examination, the scrap book had tantalising shreds of complete and incomplete original press cuttings and notes, in J.W.E.’s spidery handwriting, from the period 1914-19, but time had not been kind to the pages. The passage of ninety years had faded the pages of print, making the paper brittle and the articles difficult to read. However, new names and information contained therein, suggested that the research into the original school memorial had perhaps not included all past pupil casualties from the two wars. It was then that the detective work began in earnest.
-first one, then three, then more names-
Names which when crosschecked with the war memorials of Chislehurst, Footscray and also Sidcup, were proven to be past pupils. And so it was, that the idea of the ‘Lost Boys’ project began. Local Historian Yvonne Auld, along with S4 (YR 6) pupils, began to piece together further clues from Census documents and local papers, in the early 1900’s, along with information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Imperial War museum. Thanks to that incredible invention, the Internet, details of past Merton Court pupils was made so much easier to source than perhaps even five or ten years ago. Sifting through various ‘leads’ both Mr Chris Price and Mr Dominic Price made fascinating discoveries about past pupils’ service histories and searched for their individual stories, trying to find lives and faces for those brave souls whose names we walk past every day in the playground.
In all nine names of pupils who attended the school prior to the First World War (but whose names were not on our original memorial) were discovered. In conjunction with the Sidcup Branch of the British Legion, in commemoration of their 90th Anniversary, a new school memorial stone was commissioned, with the names of nine newly discovered ‘Lost Boys’ engraved upon it. In 2014 we commemorated the start of the Great War (1914-1918) and also added the name of the prolific artist Rex Whistler, who was killed in action in 1944, to our school memorial.
Work has continued on the project with our archivist working to gather the materials for the 100 year anniversary of the end of the first World War. Now in 2019 we started our online project so the resources we have can be shared and an open call to any family member and old Mertonians who can help us uncover and record our community history.
Who knows if there are more names out there….
