"The EA Chronicle & the First World War":
Two things that can be learned from this material:
One main point that jumps out at me is that the "letters from the front" are very positive. This was the early time of the war, and attitudes would then change afterwards darmatically, but in these early months it all seems to be a very positive thing to be out there among the mud and German bullets. I already knew that governments and public wanted the war before it came, but I personally would have cringed at the mere sight of those trenches.
What was life like?
It also amazes me (yet when I look at it another way it does not,) that you would be so interested in the trivial little things like the naming of the dug-out or mice eating your biscuits. So I think that there was already a subconscious thought of trying to completely distract yourself from what was going on.
Attitude of the school
Another thing that strikes me is that the school was obviously trying to do something (or several things) to make itself proud of something that they did during the war. This of course is a very nice thing like the ambulance donation, but I am surprised to see so many quite well ranking officers. (I may easily be unfair or statistically wrong here, but that is what I see from the top.) There were also no obituaries of Accies anywhere in the pages, which shows that they were trying to give a positive picture.
As you can see from the pie chart, many of these people are lieutenants (60%), the next highest being the captains (only 16%.)
I would like to reconstruct these statistics to our age group, and see how realistic you may think it is. There would be:- (if there are 60 people in my year):
- about 6 privates,
- 36 lieutenants,
- 1 trooper,
- 10 captains,
- 4 majors,
- 1 petty officer,
- 1 paymaster,
- 1 quartermaster,
- and about 2 Lt-Colonels.
To be perfectly honest I find it very hard to believe that there would be 36 lieutenants out of us, more than half the year.
First World War Battlefields Trip
Annual highlight in year 3
At one level the tour involves the acquisition of great quantities of information about the First World War, from the songs of the soldiers (vigorously sung on the bus) to the details of weaponry and of military formations. But at a deeper level the boys are drawn in to an imaginative involvement with their forebears, who volunteered for the "Pals Battalions", and to an emotional awareness of the thoughts and feelings of those who suffered, those who dared and those who grieved. Morale remained high throughout, and the boys gave a good account of themselves, even when a blown tyre caused an unscheduled stop of three hours in Bethune. |
An Academy pilgrimage
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On the evening of February the 27th, 36 boys in the Thirds, 4 teachers, 2 tour guides and a driver set off from Henderson Row for the Ypres Salient. This was our fifth "Battlefield Experience" with Mercat Tours and it fully lived up to the high standard of its predecessors. .jpg)
From the trenches of Sanctuary Wood, to the killing grounds of the Somme, to the muddy Passchendaele Ridge, to the ranks of white stones in the cemeteries, to the Menin Gate Ceremony itself, we looked and listened and learned and thought.
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Ailsa Templeton, our guide, added an extra dimension this year by researching in detail the war records and graves of all 295 former pupils of this school who were killed in the war. The youngest, Midshipman George Watson Muir, was only fifteen.This page is: Edinburgh Academy / curriculum / history / gallery.htm
