Telling the story of a school's lost generation
The individual stories of the young men from Bridgnorth Grammar School who went to war - some never to return - are revealed in a new book inspired by the restoration of a board honouring its Great War dead.
Old Boys, Young Lives, is the product of the researches of Graham Jones of Bridgnorth, who is 79, and was himself a pupil at the old grammar school, which is now Bridgnorth Endowed School.
"The lady in the library of the Endowed School had found, and I don't know whether it was in a store room or the boiler room, an honour board created by one of the men whose brother had died in the First World War.
"In a previous life I have done bits of woodwork and metalwork and she asked if I would glue it back together and tidy it up and they would screw it on the library wall," said Graham.
That wooden honour board had been created by a schoolmaster named Wightman who survived the war but his brother had died. The school also has a separate glazed tile war memorial bearing the names of 43 who died.
"I was in and out of the school quite a bit and Mrs Peeler, the librarian, said perhaps I could give her a bit of background on the men who were on the war memorial. These were men who died - the fallen.
"That was not a particularly difficult task because I had already researched some of them for my earlier book called The Apley Legion because they happened to live on the Apley estate."
Graham's project expanded to looking into others from the school's Great War generation, which was greatly helped because the librarian, Jane Peeler, had the school entry records for the relevant years.
"There was enough information in those old books for me to trace the families. Some, particularly the farming families, had never moved, two or three generations on.
"I went around knocking on doors and people invited me in and I was standing in the same room the men I was writing about had stood.
"It was the same on the farms and the farms' fields and stables where they had saddled up their horses for the Yeomanry.
"Everyone was very supportive and families found out photographs and that sort of thing. A lot of people had drawers full of old photographs and letters.
"When I started the project I thought that I would do a thick pamphlet and try and get that out of the way in 12 months. People kept giving me more information which I had to incorporate and the pamphlet then went into a booklet - and then it got out of control."
His book runs to just under 400 pages.
In the course of his researches Graham covers some familiar Bridgnorth names, such as the Cooksey and Deighton families.
"The Deightons do all things property in Bridgnorth and David Deighton's father was a legendary character in Bridgnorth. He gave me a lot of information."
Over 400 Old Boys from the school went to war, serving not just in the trenches, but all over the world.
"Although nobody won the Victoria Cross, there were plenty of other medals that were won. Eleven Old Boys of Bridgnorth Grammar School received the Military Cross."
Graham also has an indirect family connection.
"My father was in the First World War, but he was not a grammar school boy. One of his friends, a farmer's son, was a grammar school boy and was killed. His belongings were gathered together and sent back to his family and they gave my father various bits of his clothing that he always wore.
"In the winter he always wore this scarf his boyhood friend had worn in the trenches."
His friend's name was Tommy Robins, who was killed serving with the 6th Battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry on the Somme. His body was never recovered.
Old Boys, Young Lives is published by SilverWood Books. It costs £14.99 and is available from Graham direct on ghj238@googlemail.com by email or from SilverWood Books at www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk.
