ARCHIVES
1921 with 49 names, the First World War roll grew to 59 by 1955, alongside a Second World War board listing 51 names. However, recent research revealed omissions and inaccuracies. A dedicated team comprising Old Pocklingtonian Richard George( 74-81) and former staff members Stephen Elliott( 84-88), Dr David Dyson( 88-18), and Paul Bennett( 04-21) spent considerable time and care examining archives, military records, and family testimonies. Their work identified 17 new names, including 12 from the First World War, four from the Second World War, and one from the Spanish Civil War. Three previously listed individuals were confirmed as survivors.
Among those newly commemorated is OP William McLellan. Earlier this year, his family contacted the school, hoping to confirm stories passed down through generations that William and his brother Donald had both attended Pocklington in the 1920s. They were researching their family history but had no firm records or photographs.
Thanks to the team mentioned above, they were able to confirm Willaim and Donald’ s dates of birth, find references in the Pocklingtonian to their time at the Scool, and locate William in the 1928 wholeschool photograph. He attended from 1926 to 1929; his brother Donald from 1926 to 1930. Both William and his father had worked at Rowntree’ s in York before their respective wars – a quiet continuity interrupted by global conflict. After leaving Pocklington, William served in the Royal Navy in the early 1930s, aboard HMS Ramillies. He was a proud sailor and a keen boxer.
William was killed on 14 February 1941, aged 27, while serving aboard the SS Daldorch. He was wounded during an air attack over the North Sea, defending his ship. He was buried at sea and is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial in London. His father had died in the First World War, serving with the Scots Greys, and after the retreat from Mons, was killed in September 1914 as the British Expeditionary Force began its advance towards the Aisne. McLellan’ s grandson and his wife attended the service to hear William’ s name read aloud for the first time.
The ceremony concluded with the reading of these names and the Pavilion’ s enduring epitaph.
ROLLS OF HONOUR
“ Ye that live on‘ mid English pastures green, remember us and think what might have been.”
ADDITIONS AND SURVIVORS( 2025)
FIRST WORLD WAR( 1914 – 1919) ADDITIONS
Stanley Douglas ALLDRED Osborn George de Courcy BALDWIN Alfred Henry CHELL Edward Hughes DODGSON George IBBERSON
Robert Neville Caldecot MARSH( born at School)
William Edgar Forsaith Wood REES Richard Mark STUBBS Robert Oakley Vavasour THORP( Staff) Hugh MacDiarmid TURNBULL Charles Guy WESTON Charles Edward YOUNG
SURVIVORS( Previously included in the Roll)
William Guy Caunter BERRIDGE John Cecil BURBIDGE William Alec HOLLAND( Staff)
WHO’ S WHO- WILBERFORCE BOARDERS HOUSE PHOTO
Thank you to Dave Clark( 84-86) for posting this photo of the Wilberforce boarders in the Old Pocklingtonian Association Facebook group. We think it was taken in the Summer term( June?) 1984. Are you in the photo? Who do you recognise? Email opoffice @ pocklingtonschool. com with your thoughts!
SPANISH CIVIL WAR( 1936 – 1939)
Edward George PETRIE
SECOND WORLD WAR( 1939 – 1945) ADDITIONS
Gordon Alfred CHANDLER( Staff) Peter Dennis MACKIE William McLELLAN Edward Derek THACKERAY
Please send any names, stories, or memories of the school to:
opoffice @ pocklingtonschool. com
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