N O . 1 2 1 T H E T R U S T Y S E R VA N T
Win Coll in WW2 – result of Survey
Suzanne Foster , College Archivist , reports :
In 2014 , Win Coll was approached by Clémence Pillot , a PhD student from Paris , for assistance with her work on public schools and how they changed between 1930 and 1951 . Clémence asked us to circulate a questionnaire to OWs , which asked about their memories of the School in WW2 , and their perceptions of the educational reforms of the mid-1940s .
With the help of Win Coll Soc and the College Archivist , the surveys were sent out in November 2014 and about 50 OWs responded – the best result of any school involved in the study . This short article gives a flavour of those responses .
Most felt that daily life in wartime Win Coll continued much as normal , but with ‘ constraints ’, and that the Headmaster and his staff ‘ absolutely kept the standards ’ throughout the war . Many remembered wartime austerity and rationing , including an ‘ illicit ’ trade in rationed sweets . Some recalled the evacuation of galleries at night , particularly during the doodle-bug threat in 1944-1945 , and the influx of troops of all kinds to the city in the weeks leading up to D-Day . The arrival of Jewish refugee boys and pupils from Portsmouth Grammar School was widely remembered and these new admissions were thought to have settled in well . Some Collegemen remember a question in the Election exam held on 5th June , 1944 , which asked , ‘ If you were General Eisenhower , how would you plan the Allied invasion of Europe ? Draw a map to illustrate your answer . Note – If the invasion has already started by the time you do this paper , show how you think it ought to develop .’
Many commented on agricultural work , harvest camps and growing vegetables in boarding-house gardens . Some hated this work , considering it ‘ definitely War Effort ’, but others thought it ‘ useful and fun ’, enjoying both the ‘ hard physical work and camaraderie ’. For most respondents , military training like the OTC and Home Guard patrols was timeconsuming , but as one OW commented , ‘ it was also , without any doubt , a valuable preparation for later Army service ’.
Most respondents mentioned that older dons were brought out of retirement to replace younger men on active service – the return of these younger dons in 1945 was remembered as a welcome improvement , with men such as Ronnie Hamilton and Tom Howarth , ‘ who opened both eyes and mind in a way that we had never enjoyed before ’.
All the respondents commented on how aware they were of what was happening in world and war affairs . Many mentioned the visits and lectures of Field Marshal Montgomery and the constant reminder of war casualties , among them OWs . Reading the responses as a whole , it is evident that the School spirit was strong , although there was ‘ perhaps more a national spirit than a school one ’. As two OWs put it in their replies , ‘ we were much caught up in the national spirit of cooperation to support the war effort ’ and ‘ of course we wholeheartedly supported the war . We were all in the Corps , training to be soldiers ’.
The questionnaire asked if OWs felt that the war had helped the school to be more attuned to the realities of wartime England , and
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