THE WOOLWICH POLYTECHNIC AND THE GREAT WAR

The Woolwich Polytechnic was founded in 1890 and provided initially evening classes, a social meeting centre for young people, and a thriving athletic club. In fact, the athletic club was the first component of the Polytechnic to be instigated, the educational classes following only when the residences had been secured. The Polytechnic thrived in Woolwich during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and provided sound secondary and technical education to the people of Woolwich². Following financial difficulties in the 1890's, the Polytechnic concentrated on the provision of high quality education in science and in technical subjects such as engineering, as well as art, commercial studies and domestic management. Courses were offered in all these areas, mostly at night, but these were supplemented by several Day Schools. These schools provided the first Secondary Education in Woolwich, and later provided technical education on day release for the workers of the Woolwich Arsenal.

Soldiers of the Empire: The Polytechnic and the Great War

The Great War drew many men from the ranks of the Polytechnic. These included several staff and many old boys, both of the evening classes and of the secondary schools, and many members of the Woolwich Polytechnic Institute—mostly athletes of the Woolwich Polytechnic Athletics Club. The first issue of the Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine listed 163 soldiers, sailors and airmen from the staff, students and members of the Polytechnic who were serving with the armed forces in 1916³. The majority of these served in the corps and services: 126 in all served with, for example, the Royal Engineers, Royal Regiment of Artillery, Army Service Corps and Army Ordnance Corps. Others later served with the Tanks and in the Royal Flying Corps. Given the training in engineering and practical skills provided by the Polytechnic, this is to be expected. The local Territorial Battalions of the London Regiment accounted for a smaller fraction of soldiers from the Polytechnic, with a largish proportion of these not surprisingly serving with the 20th Battalion (Blackheath and Woolwich). A smaller number served with the Regular, Territorial and Service battalions of the county regiments of England (and Wales), the majority from the Home Counties (e.g. with The Queens', The Buffs, etc.) but also from battalions as diverse as the Northumberland Fusiliers, the Devonshire Regiment and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Emigrant sons of Woolwich also answered 'the call'; with representatives in the Australian and Canadian infantry. Relatively few served with the Navy, and a small proportion joined the flying services of the RFC and RNAS. In all, around 500 Polytechnic men served in the armed forces.

How does this compare with other contemporary London Polytechnics? The Regent Street Polytechnic has a Roll of Honour which lists literally hundreds of men killed in the Great War; and in all, thousands served. The catchment for the Regent Street Polytechnic was huge, and its operation larger that its daughter institution, but why the disparity? Two points are probably pertinent here. Firstly, the Regent Street Polytechnic effectively had its own Battalion of the London Regiment—the 12th Battalion (Rangers)—which recruited directly from the Polytechnic and which had a pre-war ancestry. This battalion, the 'Poly Boys' was decimated on the Somme and in many of the major battles on the Western Front⁴. There is no equivalent for the Woolwich Polytechnic. Secondly, many of those who were students or members of the Polytechnic were engaged in war work—at the Royal Arsenal—and therefore many of its men and women were actively engaged in the manufacture of munitions, and were exempt from military service. Other sister institutions had similar casualty lists, particularly the Borough Polytechnic—now South Bank University—which also had its broken and long-forgotten memorial rededicated last year⁵.

During the war, the Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine was conceived in order to keep members of the Polytechnic informed of general progress, and increasingly, of the casualties of war. This magazine reported the usual letters from 'Somewhere in France' or 'from the trenches'. Casualties are listed 'in memorium' or 'Pro Patria'. The first issue of the Magazine, in January 1916, gave brief resumés of the eight men that had died so far under the title: 'Those who have fallen. "They still fighting with us urge us to fight on"'⁶. A full 'Roll of Honour' of the: 'names and particulars of those serving with the King's forces' was published, listing separately 'staff' and 'students and members'. Annotations to the list include those who were killed in action, had died of wounds, had died from illness, had drowned, been wounded, or were missing. The first staff member to be killed was Mr Arthur Horlock, of the Mathematics staff. His death had a great effect on the Polytechnic as a whole.

The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine also regularly reported correspondence from those who were destined to return from the front: Lieutenant Arthur Page, Private Leather, former member of staff and colleague of Arthur Horlock in the Royal Fusiliers, and the Sturtons; four members of one family who were old boys of the Polytechnic and who served in the armed forces; all four were to survive the war⁷.

Commemorating the dead

After the war, the Polytechnic remembered those who served by the erection of two memorial plaques: a 'Roll of Honour' of those who were killed; and a 'Roll of Service' of those who served, but who had not been killed⁸. Both memorials were sited in the main corridor of the Polytechnic and unveiled on Monday 30th May 1921 at 8 o'clock. The Roll of Honour Memorial Plaque listed without rank or distinction the 54 staff, students and members of the Polytechnic who had lost their lives in the war. Funds for the erection of the memorial were raised through appeals to the staff, students and members. The memorial cost an estimated £42, and was both designed and manufactured by J. Wippell & Co. of Duncannon Street, Charing Cross, London WC2⁹. It had a simple heading: 'To the memory of the Staff, Students and Members of the Woolwich Polytechnic Institute who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918'. A short verse lay at the bottom of the plaque:

This verse is identical to that used on the Regent Street Polytechnic Roll of Honour, still in place in the entrance foyer to the University of Westminster. This underlines the strong links between 'parent' and 'daughter' institutions, both linked through the teaching of Quintin Hogg.

Both commemorative plaques have been lost, although a contemporary photograph of the Roll of Honour Memorial Plaque still exists in the archives. A separate listing of those who had served from the Old Boys of the Day Schools was published by the Polytechnic. Many of the casualties were natives of Woolwich, and so figure in both the contemporary reports of the Kentish Independent and Kentish Mail newspaper, and are commemorated on the Roll of Honour of the Woolwich Hospital War Memorial.

The Kentish Independent and Kentish Mail carried a regular Woolwich Polytechnic A.C Notes column reporting the week-by-week activities of the Athlectic Club throughout the war period¹⁰. This regularly carried messages from its members 'at the Front', and reported those who left to 'join up' and ultimately, the inevitable casualties. Those members of the Woolwich Polytechnic Athletic Club who were killed in the War were also commemorated on a separate Memorial Tablet placed in the rooms of the club, known as the 'Den'. This plaque was unveiled on Sunday 26th September, 1920. In unveiling the plaque, Mr W.J. Squires, J.P. of the London County Council said that: 'the members of the Polytechnic Athletic Club whose names were on the tablet had given of their best.' As with the main memorial plaque, the whereabouts of this plaque is not known.

In 1948 the Polytechnic and the Polytechnic Union erected a more substantial war memorial in the form of a pair of ornate gates to the sports ground at Kidbrooke Lane, Kidbrooke. These gates were dedicated on Remembrance Sunday, November 7th, 1949 at a service led by the Bishop of Woolwich and the Chairman of the Governing Body¹¹. The gates replaced the memorial plaques which had been removed during one of the many construction phases of the polytechnic, and record no names, bearing no motifs other than the cipher 'WP' together with simple plaques bearing the dates 1914-1918 and 1939-45. Today these gates still stand at the entrance to the sports ground.

The Polytechnic today: The University of Greenwich

Today the Woolwich Polytechnic is an integral part of the University of Greenwich, which has grown through amalgamation and merger to its present size of around 18,500 students—the thirteenth largest university in Britain, and one which is scoring many successes in education and research. The University incorporates several important and innovative early education colleges: Dartford College, the first physical education college for women, and Avery Hill College, one of the most important education centres are the two most important¹². Both are of equivalent age to the Woolwich Polytechnic, but neither have recorded war dead—simply, one expects, because these were colleges for women. Remembering its war dead is an important remembrance of the role of the Polytechnic in the life of the town of Woolwich, of the south east of England and in Britain alone. Remembering our history provides a sense of time and tradition. Although forward looking, it is important to look back to the achievements of our forebears.

Rededicating a memorial long lost

On November 11th 1998, on the eightieth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which closed the Great War, the University of Greenwich erected a specially commissioned memorial to remember the dead of that terrible war. Based on the original design, the new memorial was hand cut in Welsh slate by Richard Grasby, a noted stone mason. Each of its sixty names—I had added six more through painstaking research—was cut in the style of the original, and encompassed deaths on land, sea and in the air; in France, Gallipoli, Salonika, Palestine and Mespot.; in the Salient and on the Somme; at Loos, Gommecourt, Messines, Arras, Passchendaele; and at all times from September 1914 to October 1918. The story of these men and boys is a microcosm of the war as a whole, and was a story worthy of telling¹³.

It was with this backdrop that Armistice Day 1998 was an important day for me personally. Long labours in the library and at the graveside had born fruit, and I was to witness a moving ceremony in which long forgotten members of my University would once again live in the halls in which they were educated. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Fussey, Sir Sidney Bacon, former Managing Director of the Royal Ordnance Factories and an alumnus of the University, the Revd Lu Gale, University Chaplain and a throng of former students and veterans gathered to witness the rededication of a memorial long forgotten¹⁴. The last post was provided by our neighbours, the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and as its plaintive notes rang out in the Calderswood entrance to the University in the heart of Woolwich, it seemed to call forth the memory of these once forgotten names, never to be forgotten again. As the epitaph of one of the Polytechnic men, Gunner Herbert Barlow Nightingale, R.G.A, buried in the remote R.E. Farm Cemetery on the flanks of the Messines Ridge reads:

Acknowledgements

This was document was completed with the assistance of Alison Goss, formerly the University archivist, without whom it could not have been finished. Helen Buckingham (University of Greenwich) helped in the early compilation and extraction of information. The staff of the Greenwich Local History Library and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission were also extremely helpful. I am grateful to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, Dr Davd Fussey, and several of his senior members of staff, all of whom helped me in getting the University's Armistice Memorial erected on 11th November 1998. In particular I would like to thank Caron Jones, Martyn Stephenson and Lu Gale for their help with the project.

Notes

1. Wood, E.M. 1932. The Polytechnic and its founder Quintin Hogg. Revised and enlarged edition. Nisbett & Co, London, 383 pp. Back
2. Brooks, C. 1955. An educational adventure. A history of the Woolwich Polytechnic The Woolwich Polytechnic, 153pp; Hinde, T. 1996. An illustrated history of the University of Greenwich. James & James: London, 250pp. Back
3. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for January 1916, Vol. 1, No. 1 contains a full list of the men of the Polytechnic currently serving or killed with the forces. This is given as 'Our Roll of Honour' and lists staff, students and members. It distinguishes those alive, killed in action, died of wounds, died from illness, drowned, wounded or missing. The list contains the names of 14 staff and 177 students and members. At this point, the staff had suffered no casualties, while nine students had been killed, one was missing and four had been wounded. Seven more names were added in issue No 2 for May 1916 (p.5). Back

 

 
 
 

A Woolwich Polytechnic Day Schools Record of Service was published on July 29th 1919. This purports to list all those Old Boys of the Secondary School and of the Junior Technical School (Engineering) who had served with H.M. Forces during the War. Of these, 132 were listed for the Secondary School, and 25 for the Junior Technical School. This list is substantially different from those published in the Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for Jan 1916 and May 1921. It may be that this lists all Old Boys, while the Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine lists do not. 

4. Wood, E.M. 1932, op cit., pp 311-335. A reported 4800 members or former members of the Polytechnic joined 'the colours'. See also Lyn Macdonald, (1983). Somme. Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, pages 290-291 refer to the 12th Rangers ('The Poly Boys') on the Somme. Back
5. Western Front Association Bulletin, numbers 48 (1997); 54 (1999) and 55 (1999) all refer to the rededication of the Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University) war memorial. Back
6. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine, January 1916, op cit. Back
7. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine, October 1917, p. 25; the four members were: Percy W, Sturton and Fred. C. Sturton, both of the RNAS; Private Harry Sturton of the Royal Sussex Rediment; and Private Frank Sturton of the Royal Marine Artillery. Back
8. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for May 1921, vol. 2, No. 3 lists a Roll of Honour of the War Dead (p. 71) and a Roll of Active Service of 'Staff, students and Members of the Polytechnic who, being on the books of the Polytechnic during the year 1914-15, served then, or afterwards, in any branch of his Majesty's Forces during the War' (p. 72-73). This lists 25 staff and 234 students and members who served, of which 52 staff, students and members were killed. Back
9. Plans for the erection of a permanent War Memorial were made in the early 1920s. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for January 1920 reported that: 'The Governors propose to raise a fund to provide in the Polytechnic a suitable Memorial to those members of staff, students and members who gave their lives for their King and Country in the Great War. The form the memorial will take has not yet been decided, but much will depend on the amount subscribed. In order that this worthy object may be proceeded with subscriptions are now invited and may be paid to the Clerk to the Governors (Room No. 1), who has undertaken to collect them.' (WPM Jan 1920). Back

 

 
 
 

The minutes of the Governors' Meeting of 29th November 1920 notes that: 'Designs for a suitable War Memorial in memory of the members of the Polytechnic Staff, scholars and students who gave their lives in the War 1914-1918 were submitted and it was resolved that the design of Messrs Whipple [sic] and Co, at an estimated cost of £42 be approved'. The Pilgrim's Guide to the Ypres Salient, published for Talbot House in 1920 carries an advertisement for: 'Memorials designed and executed by J.Whippell & Co. Ltd. Art workers in embroidery, wood, stone, metal and stained glass. Exeter and 4 and 5 Duncannon Street, Charing Cross, London W.C.2'. The Woolwich Polytechnic Magazine for September 1921 reported that: 'It is pleasing to note that the War Memorial of those Members and Students who gave their lives in the War has now been placed in its position in the Polytechnic, together with a panel to the staff, students and members who were on active service. The former was designed by Messrs. J. Whippell and Co., and the latter was executed in our own School of Art by Mr. G.A.N. Reed. The execution of both the Memorial and the Roll of Honour has been much praised.' (WPM Sept. 1921, p.104).

A memorial card was produced 'To the Memory of those who gave their lives during the Great War 1914-1918' Which reproduced the Memorial Plaque together with a patriotic poem. This may have been produced to the unveiling ceremony of the memorial in the Main Corridor, on Monday May 30th 1921 at 8:00pm (WPM May 1921, p.71). 

10. The Kentish Independent and Kentish Mail was the local newspaper for the Woolwich area, and it carried local war news, reports from sports clubs and the Arsenal, and as the war drew on, regular casualty lists and references to the men of Woolwich who had lost their lives. Microfilm of the KIKM may be consulted at the Greenwich Local History Library in Mycenae Road, Greenwich. Back
11. Woolwich Polytechnic Union of Clubs and Societies. Dedication of Memorial Gates in honour of Members, Students and Staff who gave their lives in the 1914-18 & 1939-45 wars. Order of Service. 7th November 1948, at 3 p.m. The gates were dedicated by the Bishop of Woolwich and the gates were opened by Dr P. Dunsheath, CBE, MA, Chairman of the Governing Body. Back
12. Hinde, T. 1996. op cit. Back
13. Doyle, P. 1999. The Woolwich Polytechnic and the Great War. The Western Front Association Bulletin No 55, 40-41. Back
14. University of Greenwich [Doyle, P.] Dedication of the University of Greenwich Armistice Memorial. Order of Service. Armistice Day, November 11th 1998, at 11.00 a.m. The service was conducted by the University Chaplain, Rev'd Lu Gale, and included the reading of the names of the fallen. See also Greenwich Line (staff newsletter of the University of Greenwich) vol. 3, issue 2, December 1998, pp. 4-5, for review of the event. Back

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