Concordia Merchant Taylors’ School

Tony Booth taught History at Merchant Taylors’ from 1983-2014 during Tony Booth taught History at Merchant Taylors’ from 1983-2014 during Tony Boothwhich time he led many school trips to the Western Front battlefi elds. In addition, earlier this year, he led a group of OMTs on a commemorative visit to the Ypres Salient. Tony has also spent many years coaching the 1st XI. While contemplating some of the photos of past teams in the 1st XI pavilion, and in view of the centenary of World War One, he decided to research one particular team – the 1st XI of 1908

It was at tea in the cricket pavilion at school during a 1st XI match that I started thinking. I was surrounded by photographs of the school’s 1st XIs going back to the late 19th century. I was preparing to lead an OMT Commemorative Trip to Ypres to pay respects to old boys of the school who had died in the Ypres Salient in the First World War. And I knew that the young men whose faces were looking down at me from those fading pre-war photographs were the generation who had fought and died in the war. I couldn’t help wondering what stories lay hidden in those photographs.

I could have chosen any one of a number of teams. For example, tucked away in a dusty corner, amidst the very earliest photographs, were John Raphael’s teams. Probably the greatest sportsman the school has produced (he captained the British and Irish Lions at rugby, and played cricket for Surrey), he featured as a youngster in the 1898 XI, and two years later as captain of the 1900 team; it was during this season that he

established a record number of runs scored that was to last for 90 years. Alongside him in both photographs was Charles Bourns, another talented sportsman. They went on together to St. John’s College, Oxford, John to read History and Charles Literae Humaniores (Classics); they played alongside each other in the university rugby XV, winning Blues together against Cambridge. By the time the First World War began they were in their thirties, and were making their way in their chosen careers. Raphael, when not playing high-level sport, was a barrister, and Bourns a schoolmaster at Westminster and Repton. At the outbreak of war they volunteered, and by 1915 both had reached the rank of Lieutenant. Lieutenant Charles Bourns died in May 1915 in the Second Battle of Ypres, and Lieutenant John Raphael died in the Battle of Messines in June 1917. Amongst the wreaths that we laid on our commemorative trip around Ypres, one was at Raphael’s grave at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, and another at the Menin Gate, where

Charles Bourns’ name is inscribed alongside eighteen other OMTs who died around Ypres and whose bodies were never found.

I knew though that the highest casualty rates in the war were amongst those who had left public schools in the six years before 1914, because these were the young men who were most likely to serve in the front line as junior officers. It was for this reason that I was particularly drawn to the 1908 1st XI. Merchant Taylors’ had been classified as one of the “Great Nine” by the Clarendon Commission in 1861. In 1875 it had moved from its original site in Suffolk Lane in the City of London, where it had been since its foundation in 1561, a short distance to Charterhouse Square, into the buildings vacated by Charterhouse School. It was about half its current size in 1908, with about 440 pupils, and there was some concern about falling numbers. Many boys had to travel long distances to get to school, and to play games they had to get to Bellingham in south east London.

C.W.R. GREENHILL