Vivat Shirburnia!

As this term started 100 years ago, Britain had already declared war on Germany and the British Expeditionary Force were on their way to France. Over 220 Old Shirburnians were to die in the conflict which followed and the echoes of their sacrifice will sound anew at our remembrance service in a few weeks’ time. To put that number into context, the entire School roll in 1914 was under 250 boys.

This morning I took the Prefects Book, in which all new prefects write their name, from my study up to the top of the Chapel steps. Many of the names in the book were also carved into the memorial stones. In one volume the first page, from September 1909, shows the six boys who were installed as prefects that year. Forrest(a), O’Dbarey(f), Tuke(c), Sanctuary(a), Peele(b) and Homfray(a). By Christmas 1915 Forrest had been killed in Malta and Tuke at Ypres.

Henry Leigh(a), the last OS on the memorial, died on 11 November 1919, exactly one year after the armistice. By this time around 1000 OS had survived the war and returned home. Both they and the world they returned to were profoundly changed. How often in a five year period do we learn so much about humanity and about ourselves? Just four years before signing in that Prefect Book, Forrest and his friends would have been arriving at Sherborne as the new 3^rd Form as young, eager and sometimes apprehensive as they are today. Now, as then, it is a short fleeting window of time that a boy will be with us, and that short time makes an indelible mark on the person he will become. Now, as then, there are traits of character, scholarship, service and kindness which Sherborne draws out and nurtures from adolescence into adulthood.

In the Prefect Book, before the war and beyond, up to the present day, the names continue. The continuity and permanence of the School seem in a way to contrast with the transience of its population. What exactly is this essence which continues? Not the buildings themselves, for they do not form the character of a person. Even the longest-serving of teachers have only been here for a fraction of Sherborne’s history. Just as family traits are passed through generations via DNA, so the character of the School moves from one generation to another, passing down values, the recognition and understanding of those who have gone before us, a love of learning, and the pride and humility of belonging to something greater than ourselves.

Much has changed at Sherborne since 1914. The effectiveness of modern teaching, depth and responsiveness of pastoral care and extraordinary breadth of the co-curricular programme you will see in this newsletter would all astonish and impress former generations. Boys’ daily lives, their enthusiasms and frustrations are however much the same as they have ever been. The History, Literature, current affairs and Science that boys study may have changed a little. The Mathematics remains largely the same, as does much of the yearly routine with Abbey services, Commem, football in the barge yard and liaisons with the girls’ school. Boys still arrive at what seems an enormous institution at the age of 13 and leave with the impatience to explore a wider, larger world at 18.

As we strive to better ourselves and improve our School, and in our ambition to be the best that we can be, I hope that we also pass on the threads which connect us to our past and remember those who have gone before us. Vivat Shirburnia!