A good number joined the Royal Airforce, serving with bomber or fighter command over Holland, Germany, Italy or the former Yugoslavia.

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1 The Merton Court Lost Boys Our original war memorial, on our Junior playground, dates from just after the Second World War. On it, thirty three names were engraved, and at the time, every effort was made to include those pupils and staff who had died in the two greatest conflicts of the Twentieth Century. The make-up of our memorials are roughly half First World War ( the majority served in the British Army, mostly volunteers, commissioned into County regiments, from their public school OTCs and some Naval cadets, who served in marine battalions which fought at the Front) and roughly half Second World War. They were more likely to be professional career soldiers, fighting in Europe, North Africa or with the Indian Army in the Far East (with the fall of Singapore). A good number joined the Royal Airforce, serving with bomber or fighter command over Holland, Germany, Italy or the former Yugoslavia. Some were also in the Navy or Fleet Air Arm. F.K.Philips name was added after the Second World War, as he was killed whilst serving with the Royal Airforce and his family wanted him remembered at school.

2 We don t, however, know exactly when his name was added. Subsequently, at the request of relatives, three more names; M.A.Simon and H.W.M Schofield from the First War and D.E. F Powell from the Second, have been added, in the last fifteen years. By chance, last year, our headmaster, Dominic Price, was tidying the school s archive material when he found an old photograph album and a previously forgotten scrapbook that had originally been given to the Price Family in 1988, by Edward Pearce, who had been born at Merton Court in 1900 and was the son of Merton Court s founder J.W.E Pearce (The Pearce family ran the school from 1899 to 1921). Upon closer examination, the scrap book had tantalising shreds of complete and incomplete original press cuttings and notes, in J.W.E. s spidery handwriting, from the period , but time had not been kind to the pages The passage of ninety years had faded the pages of print, making the paper brittle and the articles difficult to read. However, new names and information contained therein, suggested that the research into the original school memorial had perhaps not included all past pupil casualties from the two wars It was then that the detective work began in earnest first one, then three, then more names Names which when crosschecked with the war memorials of Chislehurst, Footscray and also Sidcup, were proven to be past pupils. And so it was, that the idea of the Lost Boys project began.

3 Local Historian Yvonne Auld, along with S4 (YR 6) pupils, last academic year, began to piece together further clues from Census documents and local papers, in the early 1900 s, along with information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Imperial War museum. Thanks to that incredible invention, the Internet, details of past Merton Court pupils was made so much easier to source than perhaps even five or ten years ago. Sifting through various leads both Mr Chris Price and Mr Dominic Price made fascinating discoveries about past pupils service histories and searched for their individual stories, trying to find lives and faces for those brave souls whose names we walk past every day in the playground. In all nine names of pupils who attended the school prior to the First World War (but whose names were not on our original memorial) were discovered. Who knows if there are more names out there... In conjunction with the Sidcup Branch of the British Legion, in commemoration of their 90 th Anniversary, a new school memorial stone was commissioned, with the names of nine newly discovered Lost Boys engraved upon it. And so, on the 11 th of the 11 th of the 11 th, School and the British Legion along with the local community shared a moving Remembrance Service followed by a simple ceremony with Reveille played by a Legion bugler and the Lament played by John Spoore from the London Scottish who was also Piper to the Queen Mother. Merton Court has at least two past pupils currently in the British Forces, one of whom is currently serving in Afghanistan.

4 MERTON COURT ROLL OF HONOUR FIRST WORLD WAR Service & year of death C H Bearblock W T G Bryant I O Crombie J M Crombie W M Crombie G M Davis A C Dent B N Dickinson G P Day G A P Douglas L W Goldsmith K H Moore J P Morum R L Pilman 1917 Army 1919 Army 1918 Navy

5 W A L Robinson 1917 Army G S Samuel H W M Schofield M A Simon P J Stanger V C W Sutton H G Wanklyn 1920 Army 1917 Army 1918 Army 1915 Navy Airforce

6 MERTON COURT ROLL OF HONOUR Service & Year of death SECOND WORLD WAR G D Agard Butler 1945 Navy Fleet Air Arm A B Blaxland P H Bower N B Callan T N Dawkins 1943 Army 1942 RAF 1942 Army 1940 Army K D Dawson-Scott 1941 Navy H J Finch D B Forbes R DeP Gauvain J A L Grant T R Jackson F L Haynes R D Kidner 1944 Army 1941 Navy 1942 Army 1943 RAF 1943 RAF 1944 Navy 1946 Army

7 K Kirby-Smith W R P K Mason B H Norledge F K Phillips D E F Powell C J Sanders M J StB Seale A Seymour W S Taylor J Thorne C S Wallace K D Wright 1944 Army 1940 RAF 1944 Army 1941 RAF 1941 RAF 1944 RAF 1944 Army 1944 HG 1942 Army 1940 Army 1943 RAF 1942 Army

8 If you recognise any of these names or are a relative, please do contact the school. We would be delighted to hear from you. The school s Lost Boys exhibition with details of all Merton Court s fallen is open to the public until December 6 th in our school hall. Please ring School on to arrange a visit.