Winchester College Publication Winchester College War Cloisters Architecture | Page 5

roof spaces and arches this is also made extant. Exiting from War Cloister into
Meads one passes through Angel Gate. Turning around and looking back
into the cloister through this gate, one sees beautifully framed the monograph
M on the far western range wall for Saint Mary. This is directly in line with
Turner’s slender cross which is also framed by Angel Gate itself.
All of the ranges have at each end of their roof spaces, mounted on the beams,
angels holding variously: the wooden cross of the early battlefield cemeteries,
the wreath of victory, the Arms of Jerusalem with its Or on Argent coloration,
an exception to heraldic law made in favour of the Sacred City. Other roof
angels hold the badges of those Regiments with which Wykehamists were
most closely associated during the Great War: the Rifle Brigade, the King’s
Royal Rifle Corps, the Royal Artillery, and the Hampshire Regiment in
whose ranks our youngest Victoria Cross winner Denis Hewitt served. He
died aged 18 on the opening morning of the Third Battle of Ypres, 31st July
1917, while leading a company attack on the strong point of Sint Juliaan; so
much responsibility and courage demanded of one so young.
Roof boss of crown of thorns. Roof boss of St Mary’s monogram.
St Mary’s monogram. One of two bronze-cast angels.
The north and south doorways also have a bas-relief of an angel above
them. To the north the angel holds the dove of peace and a sheaf of corn
representing plenty. To the south the angel holds the symbols of victory, a
crown and palm leaves.
Some of the most impressive Christian symbols are seen in the central roof
bosses of the southern and western ranges. In the roof space of the southern
range there are two such bosses in vivid colours of gold and red: the monogram
of St Mary and further on the emblems of Christ’s passion depicting the ladder
to climb onto the cross, the whip of the Roman guards and the spear of the
Legionaries. In the western range roof space there are a further two bosses,
showing the crown of thorns and the Lilies of the Virgin.
Accompanying the Marian and Christian symbols are the 123 Regimental
badges of Regiments and Corps in which Wykehamists served in both world
wars. On the inner stone arches and Portland stone columns stand the names
of the 272 Wykehamists who fell during the Second World War. They face
their forebears of the First World War whose names are engraved on
close-grained Hopton wood, which despite the nomenclature is a Derbyshire
marble. The Regimental badges are placed on outside corbel-tables, on both
sides of the beams, and on inside corbel-tables on, or in the middle of, the
oak tie-beams. It is a magnificent visual history, especially of the old County
Regiments, regrettably no longer in existence, of the first half of the twentieth Victory angel above Southern Gate.
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