We’re always on the lookout for photos of OEs who were killed in the World Wars and so were delighted to recently receive this one of Gerald William West (OE1904-09) in uniform.

‘Gerry’ as he was more commonly known was a prefect, house captain of Howe and sergeant in the Officer Training Corps (OTC) where he represented Emanuel at Bisley in the prestigious shooting competition, the Ashburton Shield.

After leaving school he continued playing rugby and captained the Old Emanuel rugby team whilst he worked for the Board of Agriculture in the Civil Service. At the outbreak of war he was serving as 2nd Lieutenant in the London University OTC, and then joined the Special Reserve of Officers being gazetted to the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.

There is a memorial to Gerry, placed by his family, in the school chapel which indicates he died on September 15th 1915 “gallantly leading his machine gunners in the great advance on Loos”.

In the older versions of the official school history the poem ‘In Memoriam’ is included. Written by former Headmaster Harold Buchanan-Ryley, this is dedicated ‘to GWW and CBG’ in reference to Gerry and Cecil Grundy, another OE who lost his life:

IN MEMORIAM: GWW and CBG

Dear lads, whom years ago I knew,

Ere yet your lives to manhood grew;

Dear lads who shared with me afar

The training of our mimic war,

The camp, the range, the march, the drill:

And now that blood-soaked Flemish hill

Has put you to the final test.

Thank God, thank God you gave your best!

God rest you, gallant gentlemen,

And keep you, as He held you then!

Sleep on in peace, O valiant dead,

Longed for, beloved, remembered,

We will not fail you: She for whom

You gave your hope, and light, and bloom,

England, the Mother of the strong,

England, the Righter of the wrong—

She will not rest until the price,

The measure of your sacrifice,

Be paid in full, and once again,

After the war-clouds’ bloody rain,

Peace smiles upon a world set free

From all that Hunnish devilry

You fought, when not in vain you fell!

Dear dead, farewell, a long farewell!

We will remember to the end.

Farewell, dear friend! farewell, dear friend!


Tony Jones (Senior Librarian & Archivist)