Winchester College Publication Winchester College War Inscriptions | Page 4

Sixty-nine attended. The aim was to discuss how those who had died already
might be honoured: many of those present realised that they would be
discussing a memorial likely also to commemorate themselves. The meeting
rejected a number of concepts which can now be discerned as of striking
modernity: an overseas school, an Academy (“a sort of enlarged Secunda
Classis”, as one speaker expressed it), a central dining facility and a bursary
fund. But the resolution which received unanimous approval was that
“a visible and substantial memorial consisting of a building or a group of
buildings should be erected in the precincts of the College”. It was further
warmly suggested that the memorial should be built in stone and flint in the
manner of William of Wykeham’s original buildings.
That same year, the distinguished
architect H W Baker (1862-1946) was
commissioned to provide “an entirely
non-utilitarian structure built only with
an eye to perfection”. Baker was especially
well regarded for his designs for Empire,
especially South Africa and India. In this
country he designed Rhodes House, a
grandstand at Lord’s (and the still existent
figure of Old Father Time to adorn it),
and enlarged the Bank of England. He
was to become one of the three architects
commissioned by the Imperial War
Graves Commission to design their war
cemeteries, and in many ways War
Cloister was his dry run for the largest of
these, Tyne Cot (opened in 1927), the
final resting place of 11,965 soldiers (of
which 8,369 are unnamed) who fell in
the battle of Passchendaele.
War Cloister under construction.
Dedication of War Cloister by Edward Grey,
15th July 1922.
Tyne Cot and Rhodes House in Oxford, both designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
Sir Herbert Baker,
by Alfred Kingsley Lawrence, c.1939.
© The Governor and Company of the
Bank of England.
The War Cloister was intended to provide a sacred way comparable in beauty
and spiritual appeal for the Commoners with the splendid and hallowed
buildings provided by Wykeham for his Scholars. “Together, War Cloister
and the Boer War Gate form a Via Sacra for Commoners, leading to work
and worship”, wrote Rendall, intending that “even those who run may read”.
Baker’s initial plans were grandiose and involved several new buildings.
Expense was not to be spared: materials, for example, were to include local
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