Ox & Bucks Light Infantry

June 20th 1915

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There has been so much distressing news from the various fronts of the war during these past months that it is pleasure to dwell this time on the life of the OPS and the Summer Term.

So much good cricket has been played and it is a great pity that an outbreak of measles has meant we have been unable to play matches against other schools.

The Fathers’ match, however, went ahead as normal. This contest was ‘fought out’ on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on June 18th.

One hundred years from the great fight near Brussels – 
And now another of the biggest tussles.
The bright green field, the cloudless sunny heaven
Between them hold the OPS eleven
And the old fellows who the boys begat
To settle which lot is the better bat.

So wrote Mr Harvey of this annual encounter. Unfortunately he and the other ‘old fellows’ could only amass 144 runs to the boys’ 147.

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Mention must be made of two visits of parties of wounded soldiers from the Base Hospital and Somerville. On the first occasion, the soldiers played cricket in the nets, and in spite of bandages and crutches, bowled and batted with much skill. VIa were their hosts and bowled at them till tea-time; after tea, hosts and visitors mutually entertained each other with songs and recitations: one professional comedian, just home from the trenches, seems to have been well enough to stand on his head and sing until he was ‘as-you-wered’ by a companion, who was afraid the strawberries and cream wouldn’t stand the inverted position any longer.

A match was to have been played on the second occasion, but it was so wet that a sing-song was held in the School Hall instead.

We look forward to entertaining a team from the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry in a couple of weeks’ time.

May 8th 1915

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Ronnie Poulton

Lieut. Ronald Poulton Palmer (Royal Berks Regiment)

We have received further details from Jack Conybeare of dear Ronnie’s death, which occurred on the night of May 4th/5th.

Jack Conybeare

5/5/15. “I have just heard that poor Ronald is dead. He was shot through the heart, in the early hours of this morning, and was killed instantaneously. This is the first real shock I have had since we have been out here. There always are a certain number of bullets flying about, but they never seem to hit anyone one knows, and in consequence, I, at any rate, had half forgotten that a friend might at any moment be killed. This is rather a rude awakening.

I last saw Ronald about ten days ago, when he came to see me in the trenches, as his company were taking over from us. It seems, indeed, hard lines, that a stray bullet should light on one who had both the power and the inclination to do so much good in the world…

I was talking to one of the Berks’ officers this morning. He told me that Ronald was far and away the most popular officer in the battalion, both among officers and men.

Apparently he was standing on top of the parapet last night, directing a working party, when he was hit. Of course, by day, anyone who shows his head above the parapet is courting disaster; in fact if one is caught doing so one is threatened with court-martial. At night, on the other hand, we perpetually have working parties of one kind or another out, either wiring, repairing the parapet, or doing something which involves coming from under cover, and one simply takes the risk of stray bullets.”

Captain Jack Conybeare (Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry) was at both the OPS and Rugby with Ronnie.

May 4th 1915

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A number of Old Dragons are involved in the battle that has been going on in the Ypres area since April 22nd. Donald Innes enlisted immediately at the start of the war as a despatch rider in the Motor Cycle Corps:

Donald Innes

Sgt. D. Innes

May 1st 1915. “On one of my rides I came across Treffry Thompson OD at Hazebrouk; he seemed very fit. Since Ypres is at present the centre of interest, perhaps a short account of it would not be amiss… 

One’s first view of the Cathedral reminds one of Magdalen tower; and the cloisters attached are very like those there also. The town has been smashed up more or less in zones, just short of and just beyond the Cathedral: where the shells fell short or overshot it. I was there the night before the attack on Hill 60, and then the Cloth Hall did not seem so very badly damaged, but of course I don’t know what this other bombardment has done.

The inhabitants seem to take things very philosophically, and one got a limited but quite excellent dinner there in a more or less patched up café. Where the shops are absolutely smashed, the owners sell their goods in the street outside.

With regard to the actual fighting, one sees very little of it and it is just a matter of chance if one happens to be there at the time, the trenches acting as a kind of touch-line inside which we play; so I will leave the description of that to ODs who are in the thick of it. 

I saw a little of Neuve Chapelle, and for an infantry man a modern attack can only be described as ‘Hell let loose.’ I thanked God I was a Despatch Rider. Our troubles are rather neatly put by one of the D.Rs in what he called the D.R’s prayer:-

From holes, shells, and motor ‘bus

Good Lord deliver us.”

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Donald Innes was one of the five Old Dragons to win Oxford hockey blues in 1911. All five of them are now in the Army.

1911 Hockey Blues

Standing: Donald Innes (Sgt. Motor Cycle Corps) and Patrick Duff (2nd Lieut. RFA in Gallipoli)

Sitting: John Brooks (2nd Lieut. Indian Army), Sholto Marcon (2nd Lieut. OBLI), Ronnie Poulton (Lieut. Royal Berks).

 

February 15th 1915

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Roderick Haigh

Roderick Haigh

Roderick Haigh’s Will.

The will of Roderick Haigh, who was killed at Ypres in November (see October 12th, 29th and November 16th posts) has just been published. We are immensely grateful to Roderick for remembering us, as no doubt will be all who are benefitting from his generosity:

£2300 to the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to found a scholarship or annual prize in memory of Arthur Elam Haigh (his father, a Fellow of the College).

£1000 to the Governing Body of Leeds Grammar School to found a scholarship or annual prize in memory of Arthur Elam Haigh.

£500 to the Headmaster of Winchester College for some purpose as he may determine to assist the Winchester College Mission.

£500 to the Headmaster of the Oxford Preparatory School to supplement the Exhibition Fund, or for any other purpose he may determine.

£30 to the Oxford Women’s Church of England Temperance Society and £20 to the Oxford Surgical Aid Society.

£500 to the officer commanding 2nd Battalion Royal West Surrey Regt., for investment as he may determine and to apply the income in the purchase of instruments, music etc for the drum & fife band, or for any other purposes he may determine.

Roderick also left a number of bequests varying from £50-£10 to warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men of his regiment ‘as a token of gratitude’ In the event of their being no longer alive, the gifts will go to their next-of-kin.

Part of Roderick Haigh’s bequest to the OPS has been used to pay for the miniature rifle range and the Roderick Haigh Cup will be shot for annually, and will be won by the best individual marksman in a competition between Day-boys and Boarders.

The range has also been very useful to the 4th Territorial Battalion of the OBLI (Ox & Bucks Light Infantry) and to the Oxford Volunteer TC. Officers home on leave from the front and others in training have also used the range for revolver practice. In fact it has been a great success.

The rest of the money may be used to help the sons of Oxford dons attending the School, who, on account of the war, or for other reasons, may need it.

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Mr Haynes has contributed a handsome addition to the Boarders’ Library in the shape of the following books, which were chosen by a plebiscite of the VIth Form:

W. H. Ainsworth: 	Old St. Paul's 
		 	Windsor Castle
		 	Tower of London
F. Anstey: 		Vice Versa
R. M. Ballantyre: 	Coral Island
Rolf Boldrewood: 	Robbery Under Arms
A. Conan Doyle: 	White Company 
			Rodney Stone
                	Exploits of the Brigadier Gerrard
Quiller Couch: 		Dead Man's Rock
Fitchie: 		Deeds that Won the Empire
W. S. Gilbert: 		The "Bab" Ballads
Rider Haggard: 		King Solomon's Mines 
	       		She
	       		People of the Mist
J. K. Jerome: 		Three Men in a Boat
R. Kipling: 		Just So Stories
	    		Jungle Book 
	    		Second Jungle Book
Lamb's 			Tales from Shakespeare
Capt. Marryat: 		Midshipman Easy
Anna Sewell: 		Black Beauty
Seton Thompson: 	Wild Animals I have known 
			Lives of Hunted
Jules Verne: 		From Earth to Moon 
	     		20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Stanley  Weyman: 	Gentleman of France
P. G. Woodhouse: 	Mike 
	         	Psmith in the City