Winchester College Publication Winchester College War Inscriptions | Page 8

and South Africa Gate (the latter
itself a memorial to the Boer War,
designed by F L Pearson in
1903) another 13 names are
commemorated of those who
have fallen in conflict since
the Second World War. These
include Archibald Wavell, son
of Field Marshal Wavell, who
rededicated the War Cloister in
1948, and who himself lies
buried within the ancient Cloister
adjoining the College Chapel.
different species. We become what the soldiers were
– the souls of the dead are transferred into the
bodies of the living.
The War Cloister is designed lastingly to influence
all those who walk through it. Walking into the
Cloister from South Africa Gate, there is an
immediate challenge to confront head on: it is the
words “in the day of battle”. Turning left below that
inscription there is a new text straight ahead:
“Valiant in action”. All those walking through the One of the two angels on
War Cloister Gate,
Cloister are supposed to be conscious of that
copies of original designs
challenge; and, as Wykehamists daily turn right
by R M Y Gleadowe.
through the arch and out to the world preserved for
them by the sacrifice of others, they cannot but realise the significance and
import of the challenge which awaits them in their life ahead.
Almost a hundred years
on, War Cloister continues
to fulfil its original
purpose: a memorial daily
to be traversed with
thoughtfulness and a
commemorative respect.
After the Second World
War the names of another
285 former pupils were
War Cloister one hundred years on.
C R W Nevinson, Twilight, 1916.
added, this time facing into the Cloister rather
than out of it. Periodically odd individual
names are added, as another hitherto unknown
casualty from these conflicts becomes
identified. In 2006, for example, the name of a
lab technician, Cecil Offer, was added – the
Winchester memorial being unusual in limiting
those commemorated to former pupils and
teachers, and also specifying respective ranks –
characteristic indications of Rendall’s views on
social order. In the passage between the Cloister
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Rendall did not die until 1950.
There are few memorials to him,
or books by him. For Rendall, it had always been a privilege to live in
Winchester. Dwelling in College had been to him a daily ecstasy. He intended
the Cloister to commemorate not only men fallen in the service of their
country but also a whole way of life. Baker intended it to be “elemental,
enshrining eternal values in the style beyond style”. Rudyard Kipling regarded
it as “significance itself ”. A Latin phrase, originating in the Greek Euripides,
is commonly used about schools: Spartam nactus es; hanc exorna. “Sparta has
fallen to your lot, adorn it by your actions.” Loretto School adopted it as its
motto in 1827. Some 95 years later (1922) the civilised scholar and
Headmaster, J C Nichol, was using the phrase to encourage the boys of The
Portsmouth Grammar School to volunteer for war service. Rendall adapted
the phrase: “I went on the principle athenas nactus es; has exorna”, he
explained. Pupils needed to appreciate that they inhabited not the motley
buildings of Sparta, but the classical temples and academies of Athens.
Wykehamists inhabited a plateau, a privileged place, a paradise. All the more
should they adorn it by their actions. What mattered to Rendall was less the
place but the consequences of place.
Field Marshal Wavell in War Cloister, 1948.
“The buildings of Winchester College form one of the cardinal monuments
of English architecture. They provide the perfect example of the
perpendicular style”, explains John Harvey in Roger Custance’s Sixth
Centenary Essays. Rendall’s achievement was to provide an equally cardinal
monument to commemorate his former pupils. His message continues its
relevance for the society of today.
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