SCHOLARS AND SOLDIERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

SCHOLARS AND SOLDIERS

THE “BLUECOAT” LIST

(By, T.C.L.) Christ’s Hospital is, above all things, a London school. Its roll of scholars contains many a name well known in “the City” to-day and in the generations that have gone. One of its earliest old boys, William Camden, made a “Survey of the British Isles” in Queen Elizabeth’s reign which is a mine of information to all who seek knowledge ot the ordinary happenings in Great Britain in those spacious days. Camden became headmaster of Westminster School, and is buried in \\ estminster Abbey. When interest in the historical fragments of earlier London was revived nearly a century ago the name of “Camden” was given to the association formed to stimulate that interest. The “Camden Society” still functions, and the story of its name brings out a characteristic of London and the Londoner which often appeals to the visitor. Superficially, London has not an ounce of sentiment in its make up. But if you probe a little you will find city guilds, charities and , societies, all dependent to a large de | grcc for their support, administration and development upon what seems to the outsider an almost sentimental reverence for the past history' of the particular organisation. There is one name in the “Bluecoat” roll that is of particular interest to New Zealand. It is that of William Wales, a “navigator,” who sailed.with Captain Cook on his two famous voyages. Nowadays, when all that is said of Cook and his explorations bears testimony to the greatness of the man, it is difficult to realise that Cook had his detractors even among his covoyagers. Among those on Cook’s last voyage were two “naturalists,” father and son, named Forster. When England had been saddened by th? news of Cook’s death, the younger Forster published a bitter attack upon the dead explorer, which almost suggested Cook’s murder was the outcome of the treatment of native women by Cook and his officers and men. Wales wrote a trenchant reply vindicating Cook so effectively that the spiteful insinuations soon died out, though Forster did attempt a reply to the castigation ho had received from William Wales. History has thoroughly vindicated Cook, and the loyalty of his navigator brought Mr. Wales into public notice.

At Christ’s Hospital boys were graded according to the profession or calling they were most likely to follow. There were sections for those who were to proceed to the university, for those who were to enter the army, and for those who would follow commerce or even the trade of craftsman. Ono section, the boys who were to become seamen, were known as “King’s boys.” Their destiny was the Royal Navy, and their training was directed accordingly'. Charles Lamb has put it on record that the “King’s boys” were the most difficult, to discipline in a school where disciplinary methods never erred on the score o’ gentleness. At all events William Wales was chosen as mathematical master of these turbulent youths, and it is said he could “blister with his tongue” as well as with the birch, which was plied so unceasingly in those “good old days” in English public schools. A name with a very different history m the list of old boys is that of Charles Lamb, man of letters and, in his own fashion, as great a hero as any on the school tool. Lamb s essays are classics, but the story of his life of poverty and submission to uncongenial toil for the sake of his family is finer than anything he ever wrote. Lamb’s sister was insane, and the treatment of mental disease in his day was appalling. It was not until the mad woman’s murder of her mother made restraint imperative that the world was allowed to know of the tragedy' in Lamb’s household. His was heroism of a kind that still exists in England, though it must be sought for with tact and understanding if it is to be seen. •Samuel Taylor Coleridge, himself a poet and a great friend of Wordsworth; Leigh Hunt, another writer of note in early Victorian days, arc others in the “Bluecoat” list of scholarly men. Another is that of Sir Henry Maine, afterwards Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was appointed, like Lord Macaulay, a law member of the Viceroy’s Council in India. His work on the origin and growth of legal and social institutions in Great Britain was an important contribution to that fascinating subject, and one wonders what he would have thought, of the changes that have come in the half-century that has elapsed since the period closed of which he wrote. Among the famous soldiers educated at Christ’s Hospital is Sir Louis Cavagnari. Son of a Frenchman and an English mother, he entered the army a year or two before the Indian Mutinybroke out. He served through tha' campaign, and was transferred to the diplomatic side of the Indian Service. In 1878 he was sent on a mission to Afghanistan, where it was thought the Amir, Yakub Khan, was coming too much under the influence of Russia, and was menacing Britain’s hold upon India. Cavagnari’s mission seemed to bo successful. In the month of May Cavagnari took up residence in Kabul, and less than six months later he and the. whole of his staff were murdered by a fanatical uprising stimulated by’ the Amir and his emissaries. It cost Yakub Khan his throne, but it. gave a. young officer named Frederick Rob erts the chance to show what he, was capable of in border warfare. Roberts’ march from Kamlahai - to Kabul began tin! brilliant military' career that, was to see him become tin Earl and the most popular Field-Marshal the Bril ish Army has e\<'r known. It goes without, saving that there were him dreds of old “Bluecoat” boys engaged in the Great War. The memory' of those that fell in that great conflict is kept green at, their old school, not. least by the share those who were more fortunate are taking in guiding the destinies of Christ’s Hospital.