School War Memorial - Honours Board

An Honours Board was designed to commemorate the names of Old Guisborians who had died during World War I. This Honours Board was extended some 25 years later to include the names of those who were killed in action in the Second World War. At each Founders Day, the names of the fallen were read out as part of the Service.

In November 1919, Mr Allison, School Governor, proposed that a Memorial Clock be erected in place of the Bell Turret. The proposal was seconded by Mr Cowen and carried unanimously. One Old Boy wrote that ‘when the boys are returning from their games, they will look up to the Memorial and remember the greater Game and the greater sacrifice’. The Clock was completed in 1922. In 2011, on the College’s 450th anniversary, the clock’s mechanism was replaced with an electric motor and the whole refurbished through a very kind donation from the Foundation Governors.

A third reminder of World War I is a plaster statue of St Joseph and the infant Jesus. Reverend Berwick, Headmaster, had spent the first 3 months of 1917 serving as a YMCA Chaplain at the Front in France. Reverend Berwick found the Statue in the ruins of the village of Fleurbaix. It had stood in the village school “unmoved and unbroken through much shelling”. He brought the Statue to the School saying “I hope it will remain in the School as an object lesson of the Great War to many generations of boys”.

Below are the names of the fallen listed on the Honours Board - click on each name to read their story