First World War

As the school was only officially opened in September 1914 there were few boys old enough to serve in WW1, however a few masters either with the school, or to join later did see service.

BOYS

HOLBOURN, Cyril Ralph

Private 14086, ‘A’ Company, Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. Born 1900 in St. Helier, Jersey. Son of Major William and Frances Holbourn of ‘Redstacks’, Goldsworth Road, Woking. He enlisted in Woking and died of pneumonia at the OTC Training Camp at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire on 1 November 1918 just 10 days before the armistice was signed. He was 18 years old and is buried in Brookwood cemetery.

LEWIS, Lionel Morley

Attended the County School 1914-1915. First enlisted with 20th Battalion London Regiment before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps but probably did not see active service. Died on active service in WW2. The only Old Boy to enlist in both wars. He was the son of Henry Lewis (a bank manager) and Jessie Lewis of Luton and was born about 1900.

MASLIN, George H.

Enlisted but did not see active service. Later held the post of Honorary Auditor for the Old Boys Association. He was born about 1898 in Woking, the son of James Maslin, a railway labourer.

PALMER, ?

Signaller. Royal West Kent Regiment. Badly gassed in France, October 1918. The only Old Boy to see active service in WW1.

MASTERS

ALLCOTT, Arnold

BSc, trained at University of Manchester Training College. Held Board of Education Certificate. Before the war he taught science at Hunter’s Bar Council School and Broomhill Council School in Sheffield, Chippenhan County Secondary School and Yeovil County Secondary School.

He saw military service from 1914-1919 and spent time as Chemical Advisor to First Army in France.

He was chemistry master at Woking County School (1919-1926) and later taught at Lord Wadsworth Agricultural College in Basingstoke and Borough Polytechnic.

CAMPBELL, Arthur Duncan ‘Tich’

Before the war taught at Netherthorpe Grammar School in Derby.

Served on the Western Front with the Sherwood Foresters. Taken prisoner by the Germans in February 1917, acted as an interpreter in the prison camp. Released after the armistice. Later taught Geography and was Deputy Headmaster for many years. Would often tell stories to the boys, always starting with the line ‘When I was a prisoner of war on the Hanover State Railway in Germany...’.

During the war the boys of the school sent a weekly food parcel valued at 'six shillings and sixpence".

DARLOW, David John

Trained at University of London. Appointed master at Woking in September 1915. Later during the war served as a drill instructor with the Royal Garrison Artillery for two and a half years. Later appointed Second Master. Emigrated to South Africa in 1921.

Worked with Arnold Allcott at Chippenham.

HOLGATE, Percy Henry

Taught in France before the war.

Served as a machine gun officer (Second Lieutenant) in France and Italy. French master, left Woking in 1918 to teach at Farnworth Grammar School in Lancashire.
OBITUARY

MOORE, Thomas Ivor

Born about 1859. Killed aboard a train in London on 13 June 1917 by a German bomb in the first daylight raid on England. Fourteen Gotha bombers carried out the raid at around noon. 162 people were killed and a further 432 injured mostly in the areas around Moorgate, Liverpool Street and the Barbican. Moore was a JP and chairman of the governors from the schools opening. He was remembered on a memorial plaque in the school hall.

JONES, Arthur Henry

Master 1919-1939. Active with the school rifle club and Old Boys association. Joined Royal Naval Air Service as a mechanic in 1917. At the school speech day in 1918 it was announced he was serving in Lincolnshire with the RAF. He survived the war.

ROOTS, H. S.

Served in both World Wars. Studied at Exeter College, Oxford. Appointed History and English master in 1921. Later sports master.

SHARPE, H.

Army.