=lf>
lo
=co
EX^IIBMS
WILLIAM
LAWSON
GRANT
Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
CHARITY GRANT
. cl\,cmciLcL (juMiofrv c/^f
jisO-uciL' JC)erks4iLrf, ^f\cai
THE LIFE OF
RONALD POULTON
BY HIS FATHER
EDWARD BAGNALL POULTON
LONDON
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD.
1919
TO THE BRIGHT SWEET MEMORY OF RONALD S ELDEST AND
YOUNGEST SISTERS WHO, LIKE HIM, WERE FULL OF LOVE
AND JOY AND LIFE, A CONSTANT SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND
HAPPINESS TO OTHERS
EMILY HILDA, MRS. E. W. AINLEY WALKER
DIED AUGUST 6, 1917
JANET MARY PALMER, MRS. C. P. SYMONDS
KILLED BY A FALL FROM HER BICYCLE, JULY 23, 1919
A 2
PREFACE
THE immeasurable tragedy of our time demands a treat-
ment of our dear ones different from that which would have
been right in past years, the years that seemed so change-
less, when each generation looked proudly upon its band
of brilliant youths a full and splendid company in spite
of all the inroads of disease and accident. In this genera-
tion the War has taken well-nigh all of our best, and future
ages will know nothing of what they were and promised to
be unless we give them the chance. It is a trust laid upon
us alone no others can do the work to preserve a record
of the young men of our day who, if we do not see to it,
will be forgotten because they took the highest line and
sacrificed everything they held dear, everything they
hoped to achieve, nay, would have achieved. I know well
that, while those who loved them are here, their memories
will not only be secure but ripen with the passing years,
losing something of the sadness but always gaining in
glory as they stand out more and more distinctly against
the background of history. But what of brothers and
sisters too young to remember them ? What of the
generations unborn ?
There is comfort in the thought that a true picture, if we
can only attain to it, will endure, and that death will then
bring an undimmed remembrance rarely granted to life
itself.
' He will not do the work on earth that we had hoped' were
words spoken of Ronald a few weeks after his death by
his dear friend William Temple in the Memorial Service
vi PREFACE
at Oxford. But I trust that the story of what he was may,
by its appeal, still accomplish or at least help to accom-
plish some part of all that he hoped. ' He being dead yet
speaketh.'
The book has grown beyond the bounds I should have
preferred to keep because I have felt constrained to
represent Ronald as one with his family and one with his
friends, above all those who have given their lives in the
same great cause. Ronald would, I know his whole life
proves it wish to be thought of with the glorious band
which includes nearly all the intimate friends of his own
age, and received Dick Dugdale, the dearest of all, only
a few weeks before the armistice.
It was originally intended to dedicate the volume to
their memory I hope and believe that it will still be looked
upon as a memorial of them to Dragon friends Martin
Collier and Hugh Sidgwick ; Rugby friends C. Bushell,
Dick Dugdale, H. F. Garrett, H. Podmore, comrades at
the Rugby Boys' Club, Kenneth Powell who also preceded
him as the chief athlete of the School, C. C. Watson who
shared the football captaincy with him, ' Ruth ' Arbuthnot
and Roby Gotch, companions on walking tours; Balliol
friends Keith Rae and Stephen Reiss, co-workers in the
Balliol Boys' Club ; Reading friends C. T. Waldy, Eric
and Eustace Sutton who helped him in the Reading Boys'
Club ; Athletic friends Tom Allen, J. G. Bussell, Kenneth
Garnett, R. O. Lagden, F. N. Tarr, F. H. Turner, a few
out of the great company mentioned in this book and in
many another.
The attempt to represent Ronald as one of a band of
friends, the number of his letters and the extracts from his
accounts of the years although but a small proportion of
both these have compelled me to print in an appendix
much that I had hoped to include in the sections into
which the book is divided. Had I done so, the length of
PREFACE vii
some of them would have too greatly delayed the onward
movement of his life. The sequence in the appendix
being the same as that of the sections, it is believed that
there will be little difficulty in bringing the two together.
Ronald's life will, I hope, gain in interest by an attempt,
in the first section, to set forth his character and personality
and to describe the conditions amid which he lived.
Among these the influence of the family and the power of
simple things are emphasized. Football and Boys' Clubs
are dealt with in special sections, and an indication of the
subjects and periods of the other sections will be found in
the head-lines.
Many who knew Ronald only as an athlete will, I think,
be surprised at the variety and breadth of his interests.
In showing their scope I am far from undervaluing the
single one which absorbed almost the whole attention
of the Press when writing of his death. His football
career was, in the words of Major S. Harold Baker, 1
' a mere fraction of his activity, and had he lived I am sure
he would have been known for greater things than that ;
even though the cleanness and sportsmanship and quick
resolve shown upon the football field stand for much more
than some people think '.
C. W. Corbett Fisher, who at first knew Ronald only as
a Rugby player but later on gained a wider knowledge of
him, wrote nearly two years after his death that his loss as
an athlete is ' nothing in comparison with that of his
immense possibilities as a social force. Especially after
this war, he might have brought us another century
ahead.'
Another friend, Walter Dimbleby, saw in him the
qualities ' we so urgently need in these difficult times of
reconstruction. Apart from his noble character, his mind
1 Gloucester Regt., killed March 23, 1918, after holding Redoubt
thirty-six hours.
viii PREFACE
was plastic and ever ready to learn and take in new
thoughts and ideals. He had " vision ", a priceless gift in
these days.'
I trust that the story of Ronald's life may enable the
reader to judge how far these opinions of his friends were
justified.
The letters and extracts from Ronald's accounts of the
years remain almost precisely as he wrote them, but a few
obvious slips, due to hurried writing, have been corrected.
It was not thought necessary or desirable to indicate these
slight changes.
The boundless sympathy and help I have received in
writing this volume are gratefully acknowledged in its
pages, but I must here also make special mention of all the
time and pains freely given by Mr. C. P. Evers, Mr. P.
Guedalla, my son Dr. E. P. Poulton, Mr. Frank Sidgwick,
my son-in-law Dr. C. P. Symonds, and the Rev. William
Temple, and by Mr. A. C. M. Croome in his valuable con-
tribution to the two football sections.
E. B. P.
OXFORD : Sept. 29, 1919.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAP.
I. PERSONALITY AND ENVIRONMENT i
II. CHILDHOOD: 1889-1897 32
III. THE OXFORD PREPARATORY SCHOOL : 1897-1903 45
IV. RUGBY: 1903-1908 65
V. THE RUGBY MISSION AND BOYS' CAMPS : 1905-
1908 ........ 109
VI. BALLIOL: 1908-1911 .... . 115
VII. BOYS' CLUBS IN OXFORD YEARS .... 150
VIII. RUGBY FOOTBALL AND OTHER SPORTS IN OXFORD
YEARS; WITH A CRITICAL ACCOUNT BY
A. C. M.CROOME 164
IX. INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND OTHER NON-UNI-
VERSITY FOOTBALL: 1908-1914; WITH A
CRITICAL ACCOUNT BY A. C. M. CROOME . 205
X. READING: 1912-1913 244
XI. THE READING BOYS' CLUB : 1912-1913 . . 267
XII. MANCHESTER: 1913-1914 280
XIII. WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS OF THE NORTH 297
XIV. OUTBREAK OF WAR : CHELMSFORD . . . 308
XV. FLANDERS 334
APPENDIX 380
INDEX . .401
ILLUSTRATIONS'
Ronald as Lieutenant in the Royal Berkshires. Photogravure by
Emery Walker from a photograph by Army and Navy Auxiliary
Co-operative Supply, Limited. Frontispiece
The last game before the War, April 16, 1914. From a photograph by
A. W. Wade of St. Helens, I. W. Title page
Rather under four years old. From photographs by Hills & Saunders
of Oxford, June 3, 1893. Facing p. 38
Wall, built by Ronald and his father at St. Helens Cottage, Aug. 27,
1900. From a photograph by A. W. Wade of St. Helens, I. W.
Facing p. 58
Rugby, in the Summer of 1907. From a photograph by Geo. A. Dean
of Rugby. Facing p. 92
Ronald and Bino Rae. An upset in the Thames backwaters. From
a photograph by Edward Rae in the Summer Term of 1911.
Facing p. 115
By the Thames backwaters. From photographs by Edward Rae in
the Summer Term of 1911. Facing p. 133
Hilda as Hermione. From a photograph by Hills & Saunders of
Oxford. Facing p. 134
On the beach and judging in a tug-of-war at New Romney. From
photographs by A. L. N. Russell, 1909, and the Rev. C. S. Donald,
probably 1910. Facing p. 154
The English and Irish Captains, Ronald and Dick Lloyd, in the season
before the War. From a photograph by the late D. Cunningham,
at West Derby, near Liverpool, March 1914. Facing p. 218
' Grande ecole de Football : Poulton Directeur.' p. 225
The last game before the War, at St. Helens, April 16, 1914. From
a photograph by A. W. Wade of St. Helens, I. W. Facingp. 227
The Anglo-French Match, April 13, 1914. Ronald swerving away
from Andre. Facing p. 230
With Janet at Miirren. Skiers picnicking in the snow. From
a photograph by N. Whatley, Jan. 1912. Facing p. 244
The Reading Boys' Club Camp at New Romney : June 1913.
, Facing p. 267
Menu of the New Romney Camp : June 1913. Facing p. 275
The Reading Boys' Club Camp : June 1913 and July 1914. From
photographs by W. Dimbleby. Facing p. 309
The Grave in Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium. From a photograph by
Lt. G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, in May 1915. Facing p. 368
A triple embrace. Dick Dugdale, Claude Evers, and Ronald at New
Romney. From a photograph by the Rev. C. S. Donald, probably
1911.
PERSONALITY AND ENVIRONMENT
He was always the same whenever I met him, absolutely natural,
affectionate, and true. Lt.-Col. C. BUSHELL, V.C., D.S.O. (at Rugby
and Oxford with Ronald), killed Aug. 8, 1918.
BEFORE giving the history of Ronald's short but crowded
life it is, I think, right first to try to show what he was,
and also to say something about the conditions in which
he grew up. I believe that each stage in his life will be
better understood if read in the light of this first section.
To understand Ronald's influence and the secret of all
the strength and joy brought freely, and as it seemed
unconsciously, to others of all ages, with all kinds of
pursuits and interests, and especially to the young, to
understand this is to explain the magic of personality.
When all is said we come back to the central fact that he
was himself, and under all changes of circumstance always
true to himself, always the same.
If we attempt to define the indefinable we may say that
personality is the power of influencing others which the
outer man contributes to the inner, a power which depends
on the completeness with which the outer expresses the
inner. What onomatopoeia is to verse, so, only far more,
is personality to the man.
It has been said with much truth that oratorical success
resides in the audience ; and so with a great personality,
all that memory has stored of experience and reputation,
of joys given or victories gained, are woven into the im-
pression received, are all summed up and, as it were,
echoed and re-echoed while new joys are felt and victories
renewed. So Ronald's friends have said that they smiled
when they saw him. And as men go through the world
B
2 PERSONALITY
and compare one experience with another they come to
feel instinctively drawn towards a few rare beings who
seem to express outwardly all that they most admire, so
that without knowing, or knowing but little, they feel that
they know intimately, and seem to be in the presence of
a dearly loved friend.
The mother of a Balliol friend has written of Ronald :
' One evening in 1912 he came to dine with us. He sat
next me at dinner, and I at once fell under the spell of his
charming and lovable personality, and, although we only
met on that one occasion, I had heard so much about him,
that I have always thought of him as an intimate friend.
He was so natural, and so transparently sincere, so
courteous and gracious, that it was impossible not to be
drawn to him, and I felt proud and thankful that my boy
possessed such a friendship.'
It was the same with many who had never met him at
all, as in the following words written in kindly sympathy
by a stranger :
' My wife shed many tears when she heard of his death,
and she had never met him, but we both realized what an
irreparable loss the community had sustained. It is prob-
ably difficult for you to realize how widespread was his
reputation as being in all respects a pattern of what we
would all wish our own children and brothers to be/
Many memories remain, and some of them will appear
in later pages, of Ronald's personality as a leader in games
and the way it impressed the players on his side. It was
the same with onlookers, even those who had never spoken
to him, who came to see him rather than the game itself.
Out of many letters conveying this impression I select
one written May 10, 1915, to my son-in-law, Capt. Ainley
Walker, by Capt. Walter H. Moberly, D.S.O., Fellow ot
Lincoln College, Oxford :
' What one admired in him so much was always some-
thing more than mere physical or athletic excellence,
however great. It was that, in some way, his personality
AND ENVIRONMENT 3
showed through, even to the spectator in the ring. And
so for years he has been a sort of hero in our family,
though we none of us knew him well in the ordinary way.
We have followed all his successes very eagerly. We
have taken a keen interest in Rugby football; but far
more because it was the scene of his triumphs than for its
own sake.
' But though in a sense my knowledge of this side of him
was second-hand, I can't help feeling as if I really knew
him ; as if there was something in his personality which
declared itself even to those who only looked on and
admired from a distance. A man who was at Balliol with
him said to me on Saturday, " There was something so
radiant about his personality." And, looking back, I think
that must be why I feel as if I had the sort of knowledge
of what he was that a friend might have had, though
I cannot claim anything but the most casual acquaintance.'
One chief secret of Ronald's influence lay in the combina-
tion of qualities that are in most people irreconcilable. The
brightness and charm of the swift shallow stream cannot
be united to all the depth and power of the mighty river,
yet it was just such a union that his friends found in
Ronald. He was a born leader without the faintest trace
of arrogance or of an over-bearing manner, an extra-
ordinary individualist who was the most unselfish of
players. With him everything was for his team and
nothing for himself, but he inspired others with the feeling
that everything was for their captain and nothing for
themselves.
A Rugby friend, LI. A. Hugh-Jones, who can remember
no positive incidents associated with Ronald, writes from
Egypt:
1 More than once in talking of the war we have agreed
that of all the losses among our friends he will be the one
that we shall feel the most. Even though for years I have
seen him hardly at all, I know that this is true.'
Of Ronald's physical qualities it is sufficient to say that
he was sft. n in. without boots, the legs and especially the
thighs being long in proportion to his height, that he and
B 2
4 PERSONALITY
his youngest sister inherited their father's left-handedness
and left-footedness.
The following impressions of our dear eldest daughter
Hilda (Mrs. Ainley Walker) were written, as well as others
on later pages, in the spring of 1917, a few months before
she went to him, leaving with us, as he did, the ever-
growing comfort of happy memories :
' How can I best give my picture of our beautiful fair-
haired brother? His form and expression were the true
index of his lovely spirit and he seemed to radiate bright-
ness to all who were with him. I think that beyond his
tall perfect figure and beautiful face the two things that
struck me principally were his blue laughing eyes and the
vivid yellow of his hair.
'Of his nature, I think the most wonderful part of all
was his absolute simplicity. Although I suppose he was
one of the most popular men of his day he remained
perfectly humble and unselfconscious and was never so
happy as when at home ragging with his brother and
sisters. It was in his nature to be simple and sweet, but
I think that Margaret's influence on him helped to develop
his stronger side, so that he soon overcame what was
almost too great timidity and nervousness as a child/
These natural tendencies, which we all remember, were
in the end so completely suppressed that few can have
known of their existence. His intimate friend Dick Dugdale 1
thought, however, that they explained the least successful
element of Ronald's football in the early years, but in this
he schooled himself with complete success and became an
expert in the part of the game that more than any other
demands resolution and courage.
It was said of Ronald at the time of his death that ' he
was the bravest of the brave ', and the tribute is all the
truer because his courage was of the highest kind, being
purely moral and intellectual and not in the least instinc-
tive.
It will be seen that in his early years Ronald was highly
1 The Rev. R. W. Dugdale, C.F., M.C., killed October 23, 1918, near
Le Cateau.
AND ENVIRONMENT 5
emotional, being very easily moved to laughter or tears.
I well remember how inconsolable he was he was nearly
nine at the time when his brother Edward caught a Small
Tortoise-shell butterfly that he too was anxious to catch.
' It was such a nice specimen ', he kept saying as he lay on
the ground crying.
The central feature in Ronald's character was what the
Rev. William Temple has well called an 'understanding
sympathy'. 1 One thing, one only, could extinguish his
sympathy, and that was the want of sympathy, shown in
disregard of the feelings of others.
Alfred Ollivant remembers his saying ' You can't work
alongside a man all day without getting to love him'.
That, at any rate, was the gist of what he said. It was
a beautiful and characteristic remark, so simple and yet
meaning so much the end of all class jealousy and
suspicion, the regeneration of society.
His warm sympathy and the delicacy with which he
showed it appear in the words of one much older than
himself who had suffered :
' I knew him, although not very intimately, but he wrote
to me and asked, " May I come and stay with you for a day
or two?" and he came. It was a sweet and gentle way
of showing silent sympathy which no one else would have
thought of. I shall always treasure the memory of it.'
Of Ronald's power of friendship it is not necessary to
say much here, as this book is full of it and of attempts to
show what it meant to many lives. Some of his most
intimate friends, like the Rev. William Temple, Capt.
C. P. Evers, and the Rev. W. J. Carey, were much older
than he, but it made no difference. As Capt. Evers says,
' I don't suppose that he reflected on our peculiar intimacy
and the way that it created a complete equality in spite of
our ages any more than I did.'
Ronald's pleasure in meeting an old friend is well
1 In the sermon at the Memorial Service, St. Giles', Oxford, May 29,
1915, p. 12. Macmillan & Co., London.
6 PERSONALITY
described by Capt. W. T. Collier : ' The picture of him
that will always remain clearest in my memory is his
greeting of an old friend "Why, it's dear old ",
generally followed by a hug or an embrace.'
Beautiful and pathetic memories of Ronald as a friend
were written by Lt.-Col. Hubert Podmore, D.S.O., of the
Northamptons, on Nov. 24, 1917, only a few weeks before
he was killed, on Dec. 31, by an explosion of ammunition.
His words show the modesty and unconsciousness of his
own greatness spoken of in the notice of his death in The
Times of Jan. 10, 1918. A few words in a letter to Janet
lead us to believe that he was more to Ronald than he
knew. Col. Podmore wrote :
'I was not one of Ronald's intimate friends. I loved
and admired him as every one did, but in my absurd self-
consciousness was always fearing to claim a share in the
real friendship of a boy and man who numbered among
his friends so many better men than I. I did not under-
stand then, as I think I do now, the wonderful large-
heartedness of him, who had room for all and, as William
Temple said in his memorial address, seemed to have
something special for each. That was Ronald's secret, as
I suppose it is with all great masters of friendship : though
I wonder if there was ever such a master as he. I remem-
ber how often on walking tours in the Lakes a party of
five or six perhaps he would quite unobtrusively and
with no sense of giving a favour, separate himself from his
particular friends and walk a stage with me : it was the
same at Romney with the Mission Camp, the same at
school and up here at Oxford: he was always ready to
give, and I seemed to have nothing to give in exchange.
But he always had that unique power of making one think
better of oneself as well as him after even five minutes
spent in his company. And there are few men indeed of
whom one can truthfully say that.'
Examples will be found in later pages of Ronald's power
of bringing friendliness and peace into a heated atmosphere.
And it was the same with his family ; his presence always
acted like magic when there was any friction or irritation
or depression.
AND ENVIRONMENT 7
A dominant interest in serious things is apt to make
a man rather overpowering to those with the same tastes,
rather dull to those without them. Ronald had far too
strong a sense of humour to be either the one or the other.
Hilda remembered how he laughed when speaking of the
Cavendish Club. Although it represented his own dearest
hopes and ambitions, still he could not help seeing the
humour of the unfathomable seriousness of it all little
knots of men in all the corners each planning some new
social scheme ! Thus he would laugh at himself as he did
in his boyhood on an occasion well remembered by two
members of the family.
One who is to be a leader of men must, however gentle
and sympathetic, have in reserve the power of unmistakable
command. I was first surprised by a glimpse of the
hidden fire in the autumn of icpi, 1 when Ronald was
not quite twelve. We had walked over from St. Helens
to Seaview to hear the Clifford Essex Pierrots and had
taken our seats on some tree-trunks in an open space at
the back of the Assembly Room. Two or three village boys
were making themselves rather a nuisance in the dim light,
tumbling over the trunks and now and then against Ronald.
He bore it patiently for a time and then suddenly turned
upon them fiercely and drove them off. There was some-
thing in his tone and the flash of his eye which could not
be mistaken, and they troubled us no more. It was a
revelation of something new in him which arrested not only
my attention but Hilda's as well, and we both found when
we spoke of it fifteen years later, that it was perfectly dis-
tinct in our memories. But there was a characteristic
sequel. Ronald had no sooner driven them off than he
burst into a roar of laughter. The abrupt transition from
anger to laughter is very clear in my memory. It was
certainly at himself that he was laughing. The fact that
he should have spoken like that was too much for his keen
sense of humour.
1 Mr. Clifford Essex has courteously assisted me in recovering this
date with precision.
8 PERSONALITY
It is interesting to learn from this little incident that the
characteristics of which his friend William Temple speaks
were quite evident in early boyhood :
' In everything that Ronald did or said there was a
wonderful buoyancy and freedom from self-consciousness.
Hardly anything was ever done without some mark of his
own intense humour. Now I am in the habit of saying
that nearly all boys who subsequently make any real mark
are priggish at about the time of leaving school and for
a good part of their University career, and Ronnie is the
only one who seems to me a quite definite exception, for
he was certainly going to make a very big mark, and he was
certainly free from pnggishness at every moment.'
He would make fun of members of the family, including
his parents, always getting laughter out of any little per-
sonal peculiarity, but getting it so that the one concerned
joined in and was pleased to have been so keenly and yet
so lovingly watched.
He much enjoyed the humour of the words, ' The more
I see of some people, the better I like my dog ', and he
had them printed on a card in one of his rooms at Reading.
But no one could have been less of a cynic than Ronald.
Capt. C. P. Evers writes :
1 1 can't remember ever hearing him say an unkind word
about any one, and when he did criticize it was always
done in the kindest and gentlest way. And he was equally
appreciative of things as well as people. He had a wonder-
ful capacity for enjoyment and for extracting innocent
pleasure out of very simple things. He was never bored
and he never grumbled since it never occurred to him to
think of his own personal comfort or convenience.'
*
Few young men can have crowded more work into the
day and night than Ronald, but all the more because of it
he loved to rush down to Oxford for a Commemoration
ball, or a lawn-tennis tournament, or to take his boy and
girl friends for a picnic on the Cherwell.
Although Ronald always looked well he never wasted
any time or interest on clothes, and one of the records he
AND ENVIRONMENT 9
made was in speed of dressing. Once when I was playing
golf with him and Edward at St. Helens I suddenly dis-
covered that one stocking was inside the leg of my knicker-
bockers while the other was outside. When Ronald had
finished laughing he said, ' Oh, father, I hope I shall be like
you when I'm older ! ' Such a hopeless height of uncon-
ventionality of course transcends the ambition of the early
twenties.
Naturally associated with his simplicity was a dislike for
display, as shown in the tone of his letter to his mother
describing the reception of royalty at Rugby.
He disliked anything which seemed to him in the least
unnatural and affected. Thus he greatly preferred ' Boys'
Club ' to ' Lads' Club ', and it was the same instinct which
led him to decline the double name which the newspapers
so constantly gave to him. The recognition of these
qualities impelled one of his many clerical friends to write :
' It occurs to me that you are one of the people marked out
by Providence to preserve me from " clericalism ". If you
ever detect its emergence, kindly lay me across your knee
and take steps for its exorcism ! '
In money matters Ronald was always extremely careful
and businesslike. He lived simply and inexpensively, and,
when buying things for himself, always liked to get his
money's worth and strongly objected to being done in
a bargain.
His aim was, as he told his friend 'Caesar' Carey, to spend
as little as possible so as to accumulate funds for important
objects. There can be no doubt that the first of these
would have been the establishment of a large Boys' Club
in Reading, and he had already noted down some of its
main features. These fixed intentions, as well as the help
he was able to give to the same cause during his brief
possession of a considerable income, and the arrangements
he made for his brother, were the expression of a large-
minded generosity that was characteristic of him.
He was sensitive at receiving gifts and was at first rather
io PERSONALITY
anxious on this account when it was proposed that he
should enter the Reading business, but his uncle quickly
recognized and admired his independent spirit and all
misgivings soon disappeared.
We all remember with his youngest sister Janet
(Mrs. C. P. Symonds) that Ronald
' was devoted to duet-playing, and when he came home
only for a few hours and even in the last khaki days we
sat down to the piano, he the bass and one of us the treble,
and played the same old pieces over and over again
Haydn's Symphonies and many others that have been in
the house from time immemorial.'
It was the same with Ronald and Dick Dugdale when-
ever they met at Oxford or St. Helens, and, when he was
at Balliol, the longing for music used often to seize him
and he would rush home to play on the schoolroom piano.
Although, as all his friends must have observed, Ronald
was essentially a town dweller, who loved to live amongst
men and would have felt stranded in a country-house as
a permanent residence, no one enjoyed a walking- or
cycling-tour more than he. His great love of scenery of
all kinds could not often be indulged because of his busy
life and the constant attractions of the seaside home at
St. Helens. The beauty of the English lakes seemed to
be a revelation to him when he first visited Grasmere in
1907, and wrote to Hilda, ' I don't think I ever imagined
there could be such a lovely place '. And those who were
with him know that the love of the snow mountains entered
into his keen enjoyment of Alpine winter sports. Then,
speaking of a landscape of the most opposite type, he wrote
to his friend Keith Rae of how he had grown to love the
beauty and wonder of the Romney Marsh. His delight at
the view over the Weald from the Ridge at Woldingham
' Surely this must be the finest view in the south of
England', he said is among the memories of the day on
which we said our last good-bye.
AND ENVIRONMENT n
He had only one brief chance of studying Italian art, but
it gripped him instantly, as his mother clearly saw on their
journey together in the spring of 1913.
As regards his intellectual powers, Edward remembers
that at Rugby
' Ronald was highly industrious, and this would have
accomplished much, but he was never extremely clever at
his lessons. I can well remember his difficulty at chemical
equations, when I used to talk over such matters with him
after he had started chemistry, and when I was working
for the Final School, or had just finished it. At Oxford he
was very interested in his work for the Engineering School,
and I remember his insisting, during the Manchester
period, on the great value of theory in the practical side of
the science. He was quite alive to the weakness of those
who only knew and cared about the practice, and who
further argued that theory was of no value.'
These memories suggest the marked intellectual develop-
ment spoken of by his friends, G. C. Vassall and C. P.
Evers. I have sometimes been surprised at his failure to
grasp an explanation, and William Temple has evidently
had the same experience in discussing theological questions
with him. I believe that the reason for this is to be found
in the immense keenness and variety of his interests. His
life was such a glorious rush that he only had time to
snatch at many things by the way, and so sometimes he got
hold of them by the wrong end. But in no other way
could he have impressed his friends as he did and in so
short a life left behind him such a legacy of joy.
He loved work of all kinds and threw himself into it
with the utmost energy and persistence. He could keep
it up at high pressure for long hours without injury to his
health, but once at Reading in 1913 he went too far and
had to knock off for some weeks. His fondness for work
was characteristic throughout his life. ' I shall be glad to
get back on Saturday to work again, as doing nothing is
fearfully boring', he wrote to his brother when isolated
with rose-rash at Rugby. And it was not doing nothing
but building operations of various kinds and the most
12 PERSONALITY
strenuous of sports and games that formed his recreation.
' We did have a lovely time in Switzerland ', he wrote to us
after his first winter sports at Morgins, in the winter of
1908-9. ' For a sheer holiday it is the most magnificent
I can imagine. You simply can't do any work I don't
believe Father could and I am sure it has done us a
tremendous lot of good/
Although Ronald loved games and played with all his
might, he got most of the pleasure from the companion-
ship. The majority of the papers in writing of him gave
a very wrong impression by suppressing every side of
his life except one. On this subject Capt. N. Whatley
writes :
' I met him first at dinner when he was Captain of the
O.U.R.U.F.C. and what struck me most was his dislike
of talking ordinary athletic shop. He never let football
become anything more important than a glorious game.
I was so sorry that the papers in writing of him after his
death mentioned hardly anything but his football, which
was such a very small part of his life/
It is unnecessary to say more at this point. The little
that he made of his own athletic triumphs will be obvious
in many future pages, as well as his enthusiasm over the
successes of his brother and sisters.
In politics Ronald was no party man. He would have
supported the side which tried to do most for the social
causes that were so dear to him. ' By their fruits ye shall
know them' would always have been his rigid test. He
agreed on the whole with the Liberal policy in social
problems and hoped still more for what it might achieve in
the future ; therefore, so far as he thought about politics,
he generally considered himself to be a Liberal. Mr. James
Grant remembers his interest, when he was in Manchester,
in a Reading bye-election, when Capt. L. O. Wilson, D.S.O.,
captured the seat from the Liberals. Mr. Grant recalls
that Ronald 'was quite surprised when I expressed pleasure
at the result, saying, "I thought you were one of us".
Several times afterwards we chatted on politics, but
AND ENVIRONMENT 13
always with the greatest goodwill, and quite willing to
differ.'
Then, not a year later, in the crisis of his country's fate,
another aspect of politics was revealed to him when he
found that his Conservative friends to a man were eager to
volunteer, but that there were to him surprising and dis-
turbing exceptions among the Liberals.
His friend Dick Dugdale remembered that Ronald
talked with him about Parliament, and ' together we came
to the conclusion that he could probably do more in
Reading home politics than in the House'.
Capt. C. P. Evers writes :
'I have heard him argue both for and against Liberal
policy, at different times. In a general way, he was entirely
in sympathy with social legislation for the working classes,
but here again he was still just feeling his way. He felt
very strongly that men who had worked long and faithfully
at their job were not receiving, and were not likely to
receive, adequate payment. He felt that the good work-
man deserved greater recognition and more ample chances
of improving his position.
' His opinions were not the result of his own individual
experience, which was of course very limited and only just
beginning. It was rather the general situation which
impressed him. I don't think he had yet arrived at any
particular conclusions : he saw the evils on one side and
the difficulties on the other.
' The boy problem interested him keenly. He felt that
most good could be done on the moral side by getting hold
of fellows when they were young. He was convinced
that the greatest results could be achieved by personal
influence and contact, and he succeeded, I am sure, for all
the boys whom he came across loved him. He was not
afraid to talk to boys i.e. factory boys and the like on
serious subjects. At the School Mission Camp he was
ready in fact eager to sacrifice much that was pleasant
in order to sleep m a tent with the boys. He felt, rightly,
that it was the way to get to know them and influence
them. And he realized that ultimately the appeal to such
boys must be based on Religion put to them in a way that
they could really understand and appreciate.
'We used to talk about the evils of blind-alley occupa-
14 PERSONALITY
tions, and I remember how pleased he was when I told him
that some money had been left to the Netting Hill clubs
which would enable us to apprentice some of our boys to
useful trades, instead of allowing them to become van boys
or paper sellers.'
William Temple's memories of Ronald's views on social
questions will be found in the Reading period ; and a large
part of this volume is made up by an account, much of it in
Ronald's own words, of his doings in Boys' Clubs the
central interest of his life.
Ronald rarely spoke about religion to members of the
family. His spirit was the very reverse of the revivalist
type, of the man who will drag in religion on every occasion.
And in his religion as in everything else there was the mark
of his ever-present humour, as when he wrote to Janet of
his first talk on serious subjects at the Balliol Boys' Club
and how the boys ' were fairly quiet that is to say they
only whistled, and talked, and threw chairs about '. And
before another address to Club boys his friend Dick
Dugdale remembered his humorous expression of despair
as he said, ' I don't know what on earth to say to them '.
But with his friends, the Rev. W. J. Carey and especially
the Rev. W. Temple, he often discussed his difficulties and
talked with the utmost freedom and naturalness, as may be
inferred from his theological conversation in the bath after
the English-Irish match in 1914.
' In religious doubts', wrote R. W. Dugdale, ' he generally
went to Billy Temple as 1 used myself. But his doubts
were theoretical : his religion practical. His difficulties
were intellectual and he never reconciled the two sides,
although he longed to do so. But the intellectual diffi-
culties never undermined his religious beliefs.'
William Temple has written the following impression of
Ronald's personality and religion, of which he can speak
more surely than any other friend :
' Ronnie had or rather was a genius for evoking
affection. This does not seem in memory to be one
AND ENVIRONMENT 15
quality of his composition, but to be its very essence.
Plato might have argued that, as many things and persons
are called lovable, there must be some " Absolute lov-
able" which these things and persons imitate or resemble;
if he had argued so, and had then met Ronnie he would
have had to say that the Absolute Lovable had literally
appeared before him. Everything else seemed subordinate
to this ; his skill in games, his self-sacrifice for the boys in
the clubs he helped to manage, his hopes of reform in the
industrial world based on the growth of understanding and
sympathy between employers and employed, all seem part
of that extraordinary lovableness its modes of manifesta-
tion and action. He was entirely of the Greek, as against
the Hebrew, type of excellence. 1 I never detected in him
any sense of an effort to be virtuous. He was magnetic to
everything good, drawing it to him and into him ; every-
thing mean or evil was repulsive to him, and he rejected
it not so much with moral reprobation as with a kind of
disgust. People were at their best in his company even
coarse people just because low speech or action in his
company would have been like a drunken shout in the
middle of a symphony, and there is something stronger
than conscience which prevents people from being con-
sciously blatant beyond a certain point.
' I put these general remarks first, because I know that
some others and expect very many others had in their
relations with Ronnie an experience unique in their lives.
For myself I know that it is so ; one can never say, perhaps,
that one loves one friend more than any other, for love is
essentially individual and one loves each for what he is ;
but in this friendship there was something more arrestingly
unique than in others. One of its chief peculiarities makes
any adequate description totally impossible. There was
throughout a completeness of understanding which made
it unnecessary that we should explain our minds to each
other. I felt that I knew what he would think and how he
would act on any given occasion. The result was that
while we had many serious interests in common, we hardly
1 Mr. Temple tells me that he was here referring to ' the contrast
on which Matthew Arnold insisted so much, especially, I think, in
"Culture and Anarchy ". The Greek type is (normally) easy, graceful,
attractive : the Hebrew type is more earnest and struggling, evoking
respect more than affection. It is not far from the difference between
the Once-Born and the Twice-Born which James made familiar.'
16 PERSONALITY
ever spoke about them ; when they were in our minds we
said nothing but there was intercourse all the while.
The only real exception to this is to be found in religious
doctrine and the effort to relate religious experience to the
rest of our experience and to the scientific view of the
world ; but here Ronnie did nothing but ask questions,
leaving me to do the talking, until suddenly he put in a
remark which showed that however puzzling he found the
intellectual problems, his own religious experience was
fuller than my own. He would ask about prayer and how
it could be expected to make any difference except to
one's self, and when I had done my best to explain, I found
that he was actually using prayer intercessory prayer
more constantly than I was. Or he would ask about the
Incarnation ; and was the whole of God in Christ or only
some elements of the Godhead ? What was the relation
of the Incarnation to the Presence of Christ in the Com-
munion ? and the like ; and suddenly I found that in
practice he relied more intimately upon Christ as a Divine
Friend than I had ever learnt to do.
'As far as I can judge from my own conversations with
him his mind was never interested in religious questions
until he got to Oxford. In this respect he and I were
direct opposites of one another. While I was still at
school I was corresponding with my father about the
eternity of matter, free-will, whether the Perfect Man
would be in himself and apart from any Incarnation-
Divine ; no doubt there was some germinal experience
behind all this, but my data have always been in the first
instance the experience of other people, and my own appre-
hension has usually been intellectual first and spiritual
afterwards. With Ronnie this was inverted. He had a
very full personal experience before his mind was exercised
upon religious questions at all. As he had meanwhile
been acquiring a view of the world based on or chiefly
influenced by his scientific studies, the difficulty of ad-
justment was very great. As a matter of fact, he held
a view of things never consciously constructed but
gradually formed as his mind worked over a larger and
larger sphere which left no room for prayer or any real
Incarnation or his own spiritual experience. This last was
never a material for his thought until the other was fairly
set; as a result his religious doctrine, when he came to
form one, was a curious tangle, and at the time of his death
he had not got far in straightening it out. This, however,
AND ENVIRONMENT 17
was always a relatively superficial matter ; he was far too
clear-eyed to deny the certainties of his own experience,
and the fitting of them into an intellectual scheme was for
him not much more than an engrossing jig-saw puzzle.
' When we met in Manchester in July, 1914, he was
much upset because in my sermon I had said hardly
doing more than paraphrase St. John that a man who
loves any one, in so far dwells in God and God in him.
Ronnie pointed out that many agnostics and utterly irre-
ligious people were capable of love (which was of course
the whole point of my remark). I remember thinking how
odd it was that one who in practice knew so much of faith
and love should find difficulty here; but at the time he
professed to find it the removal of a great perplexity when
I told him that many people thus dwell in God without
knowing it. I think the tangle of his theology was just
beginning to worry him, and he was in the phase of
wondering if one could " believe " if one had no rational
justification for one's belief.'
His elder sister Margaret (Mrs. Maxwell Garnett) re-
members that Ronald, in one of their rare talks on religious
subjects it was during his residence in Manchester
expressed opinions which at the time surprised and a little
distressed her. He said he could quite understand a man
being willing to give up his life for some great good to the
world, and that therefore the death of Jesus Christ did not
appeal to him as the transcendent sacrifice it appeared to
many people. His sister remembers his saying that he
felt, if the world would be made better by it, he himself
would be willing to die. It is probable that Ronald in this
conversation was recalling what he had learnt from William
Temple, who has written :
' I am afraid I can't find in my recollection any talks with
Ronnie on precisely the question of " Death and Re-
demption ". But I am bound to have expressed to him my
own conviction that if our Lord's death is taken merely as
a historical episode, it cannot be regarded as so far tran-
scending other sacrifices by other heroes as to take the
place given to it in the Christian scheme. It is only when
taken as a climax of a life always utterly devoted, and
again only when this whole Life and Death are taken as
i8 PERSONALITY
the revelation once for all of the eternal nature and activity
of God, that the Atonement begins to be intelligible or
credible. This is why St. John who regards every
incident in our Lord's life as a flash of the eternal light (as
his Prologue makes plain) is to me the chief guide in
theology. No doubt I said all this at some time, probably
at many times, to Ronnie ; and probably it chimed in with
his own thoughts and he raised no objection, so that we
had no real discussion of the matter.'
The impressions of a dear Balliol friend of about the
same age as Ronald are placed next to those of the older
friend to whom he talked so freely of his difficulties and to
whom he owed so much. At the time of Ronald's death
Stephen Reiss was ill with scarlet fever and being nursed
by his mother, and they talked and thought about him
together. Later in the year when Keith Rae had been
killed before he could record his memories of his friend, I
wrote to Stephen Reiss and asked for his help. His reply
was written in pencil from the Front on Sept. 19, 1915, less
than a month before he too gave his life for the liberty of
the world :
' I wish that I could give a more adequate reply to your
request. I had such a tremendous respect and love for
Ronald and yet I find so little that I can write which will
in any way express my feelings for him or will not outrage
my very vivid memories of him.
' As I sat down this morning and wondered what I could
tell you, my mind seemed naturally to turn to St. Paul's
summary of the gifts of the Spirit in Galatians v.
' He was just the personification of joy that delicious
joy that makes all who come near it happy. I remember
seeing Billy Collier just when Ronald had knocked himself
up at Reading and before he was sent away to Italy. He
was to have come with us on the river but had been
advised to stay in bed. Billy told me that he was in
excellent spints but looking rather seedy. I remember
saying then " It will be tragic the day when Ronald is not
in good spirits." His was the joy that made people smile
when they met him.
' Then I remember soon after he came to Balliol he was
sitting in Keith Rae's rooms and Keith asked him why he
AND ENVIRONMENT 19
was taking his Preliminary Science Exam, before .
He laughed and said, " Because I am cleverer than
It was charmingly modest. He knew he was the cleverer
and he knew there was nothing to boast about in that.
He just stated the fact.
' He had the same modesty regarding his athletic
qualities. He told me of some small Marlborough boy
who had written for his autograph. He answered by telling
him not to be " a little idiot " but to spend his time better
than by worshipping athletics.
' It all sprang, as you know, from a wonderful reverence
that made him keenly sensitive to all that was beautiful or
lovable in others. He had such an extraordinary apprecia-
tion for their good qualities. As Walter Carey said, he
had that supreme modesty that made him think every one
better than himself. I remember especially, when staying
with him at Reading, how eloquent he was about an old
man who used to work next to him in the factory and talk
to him about social questions and industrial history, and
how he used to make him feel " an awful worm ", and he
would spend his spare time very little in Reading, I think
reading Marshall's Economics so as to understand things
better and discuss them more easily with the old man at
the factory.
' Then I never understood the meaning of "temperance "
before I met Ronald. I had always hated the wora and had
associated it with a nasal twang and dullness. But Ronald
could enjoy everything in a way I had never known before
and yet he never got over-excited or " overdid it ". And
when he was enjoying himself most he was always obser-
vant of the enjoyment of others.
' He was always the same. He was no Naaman waiting
for great occasions. I remember his ready assent when
I told him one day that I thought the Balliol Club boys
gained their chief religious inspiration from playing games.
And the idea had to a great extent come to me from know-
ing him. It was when playing games that his joy, his self-
restraint, and his impulsive fondness for others found their
most splendid expression.
4 His religion was just an outpouring of the spirit. It
coloured all that he did. It made me see that true religion
expressed itself in conduct, and I understood Christ's words,
" If ye love me keep my commandments ".
1 About his religion he was extraordinarily sincere. Pie
would never join a bible circle because he was afraid
c 2
20 PERSONALITY
that others might think he was more earnest than he
imagined himself to be. He hated giving publicity to his
views, not because he was ashamed of them but because
he was so intensely modest that he took an almost cynical
view of his own ideas and was so sincere that he was terri-
fied of cant and dreaded expressing views that he did not
put into practice. He realized so well that belief is not
purely intellectual.
' But at the same time, as you know, he held a very
strong and simple faith and was always pleased to discuss
religious matters quite in private and with his friends.'
From his youngest sister, Janet :
1 Only three times did he speak to me of religious matters.
First at the time of my Confirmation in 1908 ; during a walk
home from the flint implements in Priory Bay he told me
of his difficulty in keeping up the keenness and enthusiasm
stimulated in him at the time of his Confirmation three years
before. Then many years later, during the early days of
his adoption by Uncle George, when the strangeness of the
situation was still upon him, we were spending a week-end
at Marlston, and he told me of his firm belief in Christian-
ity. Since the first time we spoke of this subject he had
passed through his College life and had had, he said, many
doubts ; indeed he had at one time given up saying his
prayers. But the doubts were conquered and he came out
of the conflict a convinced believer in Christianity. I can-
not remember the details of our last talk on the subject.
To his family he was reticent about these matters, but he
gained much from his many talks with his friends William
Temple, " Caesar " Carey, and Dick Dugdale, all clergy-
men.
' As Ronald grew older and as his interest lay more and
more in the lives of working men and boys, so did the
religious side of his nature come more to the front. From
his own experience he found, as he once told me, that
a Boys' Club without religion was a failure. He introduced
prayers into his Reading Boys' Club, and I was present at
one of his first efforts. He told me that on the first night
the boys behaved very badly, but they soon saw that he was
in earnest and learnt to keep quiet. He would first play
the hymn, then read a portion of the New Testament, and
lastly say a few prayers, one or two of which were extem-
pore.'
AND ENVIRONMENT 21
The only sermon found among Ronald's papers, that on
' Spirit and Truth ', was preached by William Temple
before the University of Cambridge, and printed in full in
the Guardian for Oct. 20, 1911. Ronald was then in his
last term at Balliol, but it was settled that he should begin
his work at Reading early in the following year, and I do
not doubt that he felt a special force in the words quoted
below :
' For a man to choose his life's work for any considera-
tion other than that of the service he can render is the
greatest sin that any one can commit far greater than
lapses into indulgence or vice for it is the deliberate
withdrawal of most of his time from the obedience of God.'
In writing about the home life which I believe was the
chief environmental influence brought to bear upon Ronald,
as it is in English life as a whole, I run the risk of appear-
ing both egotistical and commonplace. The risk must be
faced. I believe that these influences counted for much,
and that, under different conditions, his nervous, timid
nature would have developed very differently. To become
what he was he had to be gradually strengthened without
losing any of his tenderness. Under harder conditions his
sensitive nature would probably have shielded itself be-
neath a covering of reserve and he would have lost much
of his power over others. If, on the other hand, he had
been favoured above the other children, he might have
become self-centred and have yielded to some of the
dangers of athletic success.
Looking back on the happy days of our children's
youth, I think I may say that our unconscious aim was
to be the elder brother and sister. There was certainly
no conscious intention only a yielding to the delight of
being with them and being one with them. And as time
went on, and equally unconsciously, we were led to become
in some ways the younger brother and sister, and to learn
from them. Family life must lose a part of its greatest
joy when this is not so; and yet it is not always easy.
22 PERSONALITY
Every age has its lessons to teach, but the parents' minds
are already stored with the impressions of their own age
and so are apt to be unreceptive and dulled to the inspira-
tion of new thoughts and ideals. How different is it with
our children, and we must try to see with their clear un-
biassed vision, and accept and help on the best that the
new age has to offer.
I have often thought that the natural and inevitable con-
trast between the receptive powers of the old and the
young gives its true interpretation to the words : ' I came
not to bring peace on earth but a sword ', words uttered by
Him whose sublime teachings meant, if they were to be
received, the profound transformation of mankind.
' And so it is in all the ages with every high creative
thought which cuts deep into " the general heart of human-
kind '. It must bring when it conies division and pain,
setting the hearts of the fathers against the children and
the children against the fathers.' l
Our generation has not been tried, as others have been,
by such sudden epoch-making change I do not speak of
the Great War, for its influence upon us has happily been
unifying and not dividing but gradual change there has
been, epoch-making we may hope, and there has been
need, in order to reach the fullest sympathy, for parents to
learn from their children. I do not believe that the school-
boys and undergraduates of my time were essentially
different from or inferior to those of the succeeding gene-
ration, yet I had never even heard of interests which to
Ronald and his friends stood before everything else. They
simply did not exist. There were no Boys' Clubs or Boy
Scouts, which now seem to offer the most hopeful solution
of the great social problem of the age, that of making us
' all members one of another '. In these days and it has
been so for many years past our children at the most
receptive age, both boys and girls, are encouraged to in-
1 Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species, Poulton, London, 1909,
P-55-
AND ENVIRONMENT 23
terest themselves in these movements and to help them
on such flexibility at any rate have our educational sys-
tems shown. And this means a great deal when we
remember how recent and how profound is the change
that has come upon us.
Prof. H. S. Holland, that bright spirit whose loss we
are mourning, traces the origin of the movement, of which
Boys' Clubs are probably the most fruitful element, to two
Balliol men, Thomas Hill Green and Arnold Toynbee,
and after them to Samuel Barnett.
T. H. Green ' had taught us the obligations which bound
the University to the larger life outside '. Then, into the
midst of the beginnings which had been stirred
' there shot the radiant figure of Arnold Toynbee. . . .
He gave himself from the political economy of the schools
to the democracy of the streets. He went out to meet it,
and to help it, and to teach it ; and in doing this he broke
his heart and lost his life. Something must be done that
should prevent such a memory from dying, so his friends
felt, and Samuel Barnett was the man who saw what could
be done.' l
In talking of Boys' Clubs with Ronald I came to feel
a most strangely sweet feeling for a parent a curious
youth and immaturity in contrast with the large experience
which, young as he was, had been his. For he had taken
part in Boys' Camps for nine consecutive summers when
the Reading Club finished its outing by the sea at New
Romney four days before the outbreak of war, and, after
the first year or two, Boys' Clubs had become the central
interest of his life, an interest which he owed to Rugby.
With Ronald's mother it was somewhat different. The
opportunities and endeavours of the home in which she
was brought up and the beneficent activities of her uncle,
William Isaac Palmer, prepared her beforehand for Ronald's
chief interest and made it less of a new world to her than
it was to me. Her chief effort of adjustment to something
1 ' Samuel Barnett and the Growth of the Settlements ', in A Bundle
of Memories, 1915, pp. 89, 90.
24 PERSONALITY
new and strange must have been in the region of athletics,
for I certainly remember an unfulfilled prediction uttered
after watching a game of Rugby football in the Parks : ' I'm
sure I shall never let a son of mine play football ! ' I have
often thought of the words when the speaker of them was
adding to her treasured pile of press-cuttings or arranging
for her seat at an international match.
The signs and symbols of affection between parents and
children were not abandoned as Ronald grew up. As it
had been between my father and me so it was between me
and my sons. In neither generation could any point be
recognized in which a love that grew with the passing
years was willing to be denied its symbolic expression.
The last time we kissed each other was in Piccadilly Circus
where we said ' Good-bye ', and I turned away with a heavy
heart to return to Oxford, he to Chelmsford for the last few
days in England. And not only in this but in other ways
he was always the same to his parents. On any of his
visits to Oxford from his work at Reading or Manchester
or from his training at Chelmsford he would warmly em-
brace us, always calling us by some endearing diminutive,
literally most inappropriate to his father, but seeming to be
all the sweeter on that account.
The sum of loss I have not reckoned yet,
I cannot tell.
For ever it was morning when we met,
Night when we bid farewell.
Mary Coleridge's perfect lines sum up memories of being
held close to that strong beautiful body and of the sweet
absurdity of his words memories too of his last sight of
us after a visit home as he went off on his motor-cycle or
in his car and would always wave his hand far down the
road, for he knew we were still waiting and watching at
the gate. He knew well how much we all loved him.
There were no doubts. It is a consoling thought.
The most important influence brought to bear on Ronald
was, I believe, the fact that he was one of a large family, or
what in these days is called a large family. Almost equally
AND ENVIRONMENT 25
important were the great individual differences between the
members. Unfortunately we mere human beings cannot
emulate the fairy mother of whom Lewis Carroll says in
Phantasmagoria :
The notion had occurred to her,
That children would be happier,
If they were taught to vary.
But we can at any rate help them to preserve and de-
velop the individuality which nature has bestowed, and in
doing this we shall help them in another way by creating
in the whole family the most favourable conditions for the
development of each one of them. This ideal can only be
reached when the family is a society of equals, in which
each child feels that it is so and that it is not necessary to
strive for it.
In two respects Ronald was favoured by chance. I am
sure that it was of special value to him that he was born
between two sisters. It was also important that he was
one of a family of which all the members were athletic
much beyond the average.
It is of course impossible to speak of likeness between
children, or between them and their parents, as if it were
a matter of certainty which would command universal
agreement. But nearly every one remarked on the extra-
ordinary resemblance which Ronald bore to his elder sister
Margaret. In his first term at Balliol he told us that
a friend had said, ' I saw your double in the town to-day,
only it was a lady '. And Margaret was often recognized by
the crowd as we were leaving the ground after some great
match. The remarkable likeness between them was
brought out with special force in the charades of which we
were all so fond, when the brother would sometimes
appear dressed as the sister, the sister as the brother, or
when at a costume dinner at Wokefield in the Christmas
Vacation of 1908 they walked in together as Roman
brothers. This strong likeness was accompanied by special
bonds of sympathy, although it is hardly possible to make
26 PERSONALITY
any distinction, so warm was the love that united all five
children. It is obvious, however, that there must always
be some peculiar affinity between those children in a family
who are next each other in age. Life unfolds for the
younger so largely through the eyes of the elder that the
unconscious pupil will always hold specially dear and
intimate memories of the unconscious teacher. And what
was true of Ronald in relation to his elder sister was of
course also true of his younger sister in relation to him.
The forceful influence of his elder sister was just what
was required by his nervous emotional temperament, and
when the treatment was rather drastic there was always
comfort to be found in the sympathy of the younger.
What his sisters were to Ronald will appear on many
a page, but I think the sweetest indication of all is that
delightful Peter- Pan-like letter written from Rugby when
his mother and two elder sisters had sailed for Cape Town,
telling Janet, not yet thirteen, that he supposed she was
the mother now.
Then in a young family the special admiration of one
child is apt to be countered by a healthy scepticism, as
shown in a memory of the summer of 1896. A lady friend
who was staying with the children while we were away
was asked by Margaret,
' Do you think Ronald beautiful ? '
' Oh yes, very.'
' So they all say. / don't think so at all.'
Memories of Ronald's childhood are especially associated
with St. Helens, because we were there together in holiday
times. At Oxford there was always so much to be done
and the opportunities were fewer. Chief of these were the
meals when the children at one time they were at five
different schools met and compared their goings on,
getting tremendous fun out of the little adventures. Thus
Ronald once told how a woman had stopped him on his
way to school and asked for help in carrying a parcel,
a story at once capped by Margaret, who had been asked
to tie up a shoe ! Little things, yet how fruitful of laughter
AND ENVIRONMENT 27
and interest to tellers and hearers. For each one was
really interested in anything that the others had to tell,
knew too that the others were equally pleased to hear
of his or her experiences. Thus, without any teaching or
effort, there grew up a delightfully friendly and equal form
of family talk in which each was happy in being listened
to and happy in giving way to others. And sometimes the
incidents were really thrilling, as when Ronald, then at the
Dragon School, was stopped by an older boy with the awe-
inspiring words :
' It's not usual for young Dragons to be seen with hoops.
However, as I like you I won't take it from you.'
It was the same with the accounts of years written by
each member of the family and read to all the others on or
about New Year's Eve. Although the writing was some-
times rather an effort in the middle of the holidays, we all
got a great deal of fun out of the occasion, as will appear
in some of the quotations. The custom certainly makes
for family unity and furnishes convincing evidence of the
moulding power of the home life : the things that above
all became part of themselves were the things that the
children did together.
And there are other advantages. I have often heard
parents regret that they did not know what were their
boys' strongest interests, or indeed whether they had any
special interests at all. But encourage a boy to write
down what he remembers of the past year, not as a task,
but to bear his part as one of the family ambitious to
amuse and interest no less than glad to be amused and
interested and a parent will very soon find out what are
his real tastes.
And so too in letter- writing : each was spurred to the
effort partly by the love of doing it but even more by the
knowledge that only in this way were the longed-for letters
from others to be gained. In these letters, of which many
are printed in later pages, will best be realized the love
and joy which grew out of the varied influences and at
times the rough-and-tumble of family life.
28 PERSONALITY
I feel strongly that, quite apart from their inestimable
value in keeping up all the old family intimacies, the letters
home are most important in education, and I believe that
Ronald owed to them much of his power in expressing
himself easily and rapidly. The power of writing English
is thus acquired in the same way that speech is acquired
by the free use of a faculty bringing advance and improve-
ment, as an incidental result and not as the direct aim. In
fact, improvement as the direct aim was rather strongly
resented by one of the girls, who wrote :
' I am sorry if I am not grimatical in my letters home,
but you must forgive it because if I felt I had to think of
what I had to put, I should hate writing the letters.'
The instinct was quite right : her letters would become
'grimatical' in time, and this, because she loved writing
them, without any loss of ease and freshness in style.
A large part of Ronald's early letters to his brother and
sisters is filled with pleading for answers pleading and
sometimes upbraiding. His letters often end in 'write
soon ', repeated in a crescendo.
Ronald wrote with great speed and facility : comparing
his accounts of the years one sees that he suddenly
attained his mature handwriting in 1905 when he was
sixteen. He always performed his full share and generally
more than his share of the family bargain.
'Frightfully busy', he wrote to Janet from Rugby in
1908. ' Written about 100,000 letters but can't miss you,
so must make it 100,001.' And to his brother, with more
numerical accuracy, ' I am simply eating up paper writing
to you all. This is the tenth letter I have written and
I must write one more.'
The letters on both sides were generally full of the
ordinary daily happenings of work and play the little
things especially full, too, of anticipations of meeting in
the holidays and the games and fun they were going to
have together. Speaking of the little things, constant
reference was made to the family jokes which are so
AND ENVIRONMENT 29
different from others in that, starting from nothing, they
continually gain by repetition.
The little family traditions which always spring up in
a happy home were peculiarly dear to Ronald. He was
always one of the first to remind the others of them the
family walk to Port Meadow on the afternoon of Christmas
Day, the party to the pantomime in the same holidays.
The family is and has long been the prime force in
British education, but I do not think that it has been
generally realized how immensely its power has been
strengthened during the last generation by the ever-growing
tendency towards an open-air life and the free play which
sisters as well as brothers have had in it. Croquet, the
halting first step, was followed by a very real one when
lawn tennis became general in the seventies, and this by
a mighty leap when girls began to make free use of the
bicycle in the nineties.
I have often been led to contrast my own youth with
that of my sons and to realize how much they have gained
by the fact that nearly all their sports and amusements
have been shared with their sisters. Some few sports
such as riding and skating were allowed to girls in my
boyhood, but think of all that they missed. Hardly a girl
could swim in those days, alpine winter sports were
unheard of, for a girl to bicycle or play hockey or cricket
would have been thought indelicate. As for sleeping in
the open air, it was considered dangerous even for boys,
and I remember my father being quite angry with me
when I made my bed under a pear-tree on the lawn one
very hot summer night.
In 1905 and 1906 our family and friends played hockey
against united Sandown and Shanklin. In one of those
long stretches of a game during which my defence of our
goal was a sinecure, an enthusiastic spectator remarked to
me:
'Of course we've no chance against your team; you
feed your women ! '
Another change which has strengthened the influence
30 PERSONALITY
of family life is the fact that now girls as well as boys go
to schools where they learn loyalty to the community and
to ' play the game ', creating too an additional and enduring
bond between sisters who have been school-fellows. With
brother and sister there is all the interest of comparing the
differences in detail added to the strong sympathy in
things essential.
Whenever thoughts such as these arise in our family
the memory of Hilda and her unswerving loyalty and
devotion to Wycombe Abbey is always with us. And
sympathy between brother and sister reminds me of the
day when Janet came to leave the same much-loved school
and went to Ronald for comfort; I found her sitting on
his knees crying almost as soon as she reached home.
She so rarely broke down that I was somewhat taken
aback, but ' it is such a lovely place ' was the all-sufficient
explanation.
Thus British family fife, always the predominant force
in shaping the lives of the young, has become under
modern conditions an overwhelming power a power that
may sometimes become a danger. When a family is
swayed by a spirit of self-indulgence and self-assertion, or
of class feeling and arrogance, the children are likely to
give way to the temptations or to resist the broadening
influences of Public School and University life. I use
these words deliberately of our Public Schools in spite of
much that has been written in recent years ; for apart from
the intellectual side, which it must be admitted is often
weak, apart too from the splendid public spirit and loyalty
which all admit, the opportunity of meeting in the demo-
cracy of school life numbers of boys with different experi-
ences, different interests, and a different outlook is certainly
broadening and educating in a high degree.
The age which came to an end with the Great War was
extraordinarily complex. When the attention was directed
to one set of currents all seemed well, when it was focussed
upon another set we seemed to be sweeping headlong to
disaster. On the one side was a healthy love of work and
AND ENVIRONMENT 31
play, on the other unexampled luxury; in this direction
class hatred, in the other men giving their happiest hours
to promoting friendliness and sympathy throughout the
whole community, and meeting too with a wonderful
response. To all these and other tendencies of the age,
good and bad, family life has acted as a mighty intensifier,
and family life will be the greatest of the forces to which
we must look for reconstruction after the war.
II
CHILDHOOD: 1889-1897
I have known and admired him ever since as a little boy he sat on
my knees to look at the dancing class. I have watched his triumphs
at football and seen him with his sisters at home. He has been to
me an ideal, the finest young fellow I knew. Dr. A. G. VERNON
HARCOURT, writing, May 8, 1915, to his wife.
RONALD was born on September 12, 1889, at Wykeham
House, Oxford, where his brother and sisters were also
born.
The family when he joined it included Edward, aged
six, Hilda, nearly five, Margaret, two and two months.
Just three years later Janet was born.
We named him Ronald because it was such a beautiful
name. Later on, when ' Ronald ' and more often ' Ronnie '
became the most familiar of names on the Iffley Road at
Oxford, at Twickenham, or at the Queen's Club, we
realized that the choice had been something of an inspira-
tion. For surely those who knowing him loved him, as
well as the crowds who loved without knowing, all felt
that the name and the man fitted each other, that no
other name could have recalled so vividly the picture of
the fair-haired Three-Quarter.
He was baptized on October 18 at St. Philip and
St. James's Church, by my old friend and tutor, the late
Rev. W. Hawker Hughes, of Jesus College, who had also
baptized his brother. His godparents were Miss H. O'B.
Owen (Mrs. F. S. Boas), the Rev. Walter Lock, Warden
of Keble College, and his uncle, the late Lewis Palmer.
The attempt to write the story of Ronald's childhood
must inevitably take the form of a series of disconnected
pictures ; but each of these will tell something of him and
18891897 33
all together will I hope show what he really was. This
period seems to me of great interest, not only because,
in Mrs. Henry Sidgwick's words, ' Education in its widest
and fullest sense ' begins ' as it must with the earliest
infancy ', l but because to understand fully a child at this
age is the surest means of distinguishing between the
inherent and the acquired elements in a character.
When Ronald was about fifteen months old he came
into the care of a gentle, bright, and sympathetic nurse,
who had already known him for some little time ; for it
was the happiness of the children whenever they were
with her that led us to persuade her to give up another
position and devote all her time to them. And although
Edith was married less than a year later, when Ronald
was rather over two, she clearly remembers the presence
of much that was characteristic throughout his life ; so
that when Ronald's friends speak of his being ' always
the same ', the words express a truth greater than they
knew. Sunny memories of Ronald as a baby have come
from the happy African home where his nurse of twenty-
five years before thinks of him, thinks too with pride of
her splendid sons who fought for the cause of freedom
in South-West Africa, then in the last German possession
on the continent, and finally in Europe.
' Of course to me he was always a baby, good as he was
lovely. He very soon made great friends with me and
was a big rogue, always with a bright smile. Before he
could talk he made me understand he wanted me to have
his cot near my bed, to hold his dear little hand, but he
soon got over his little fears.
' He was always obedient, too, and would wait so
patiently for the five minutes I always had him to play in
the morning, and when the permission was given it was
surprising how he would balance on his hands and turn
a big somersault on to my bed without the least fear.
' I also remember at St. Helens he would not put his
1 Presidential Address to Section L, Report Brit. Assoc., 1915,
P- 732-
D
34 CHILDHOOD
little feet in the sea for some time, and one day he asked
me in his way, saying " Egie's hand ".
' I can remember he would always give away his choco-
late and forget himself. On one occasion he had one left,
forgetting me, and he looked at it, saying, " Never mind,
Egie, you can have a nibble ". Also he would not kill flies
as one of his sisters often did ; he would say, " Poor fly
wants to go home to Mummie ".
' He was very fond of flowers, and used to try and find
the very tiny ones, and give them to me. He was not too
fond of toys, but would carry a flower in his hand the
whole time whilst out in his pram.
' I feel rather proud I taught him his first prayer,
" Gentle Jesus ", and he could say it before his sister
Margaret, and after the first time he always wanted to say
it several times a day.
' He was also remarkably intelligent, and would always
want to play the older games with the others ; in the
dressing-up games he would sit quite nicely and try not to
smile. Hilda was very fond of having church in the
nursery on Sundays, and the little darling would take part
in it all ; he loved the hymn, " There 's a Friend for Little
Children ", and would continually say, " Again, again ".
At one time he had a very troublesome little rash, and,
poor little chap, would say, " O dear 'pots Egie ", and
then say "Sing", and it had to be "Friend for Little
Children".'
When Ronald was about two years old he devised for
himself a simple form of negative sentence. He had got
the affirmative one all right, and he knew very well what
' no ' meant. What could be simpler then than to tack
on ' no ' at the end of an affirmative sentence ? One day
at Christmas, 1891, when we were staying at The Acacias,
Reading, he was evidently offended with his nurse, Frau-
lein Hebak, who had succeeded Edith, and sat at tea with
his face persistently turned away from her.
' Me want to look at Fraulein NO ', he said with em-
phasis when she tried to appease him. It was really
most effective, the sentence being rapidly spoken, then a
slight pause followed by an emphatic, deep-toned, and
unmistakable ' NO ' so effective indeed that Margaret
adopted it from him.
18891897 35
One charming little saying comes back from the earliest
years. The paraffin lamps at St. Helens Cottage were
new to him, and when he saw one with a large white
globe lighted, he exclaimed ' Oh ! pitty sun ! '
1 He was a pretty son ', said Edith.
The incidents I remember of those earliest years chiefly
illustrate Ronald's nervousness and extreme sensitiveness.
I happened to come into the nursery at St. Helens when
Edith was teaching the children a wonderful game, new
to them and to me, founded on ' battles long ago '. Two
lines were formed facing each other, and then the first
advancing sang :
Are you ready for a fight ?
Are you ready for a fight?
We're the Roman soldiers.
Then the other line advancing sang :
Yes, we're ready for a fight ;
Yes, we're ready for a fight;
We're the British soldiers.
And then the fight began a very gentle fight with Edith
in command of one army and controlling the other, but
in a moment Ronald had left the ranks and run to ' Egie '
for protection, holding her dress and crying bitterly.
Ronald was also distressed by other than physical
causes. He would begin to cry if any one wanted to look
at his bent little finger a slight deformity chiefly marked
on the right side or if he was asked to try how far he
could straighten it.
The following incident shows, I think, an unusually
sensitive appreciation of the links of understanding by
which human beings are bound together. At about this
age two or three he used to come into my room while
I was dressing in the morning. He would stand at the
corner of a case which was just the right height for him
and, holding the pencil in his left hand, make vigorous
attempts to draw.
' It 's all kibbered ', he observed off-hand one day, as a
matter of mild general interest.
D 2
36 CHILDHOOD
'Covered ?' I said, getting a hint from the state of the
paper.
' No, KIBBERED ', very decidedly, and in evident distress.
' Do you mean covered ? ' I said again, with some want
of tact, but really without any light.
'NO, KIBBERED', he said, with great stress on the
' kibb ', and beginning to cry heartily.
Of course it was most painful to have to put up with
such an uncomprehending father one who couldn't recog-
nize the obvious ' scribbled ' when he heard so praise-
worthy an approach to it but I am sure that none of the
other children would have wept because of it.
A picture of Ronald at two-and-a-half can be recalled
from the impression he made on our friend Miss Grace I.
Parsons, of St. Hugh's Hall, in the Easter Vacation of
1892:
' He had the most lovely colouring imaginable a rose-
leaf complexion, soft, slightly waving golden hair, and
blue eyes of extraordinary clearness and brightness.
' He was coming up the garden-path at St. Helens
Cottage, and by way of greeting drew my attention to the
" Pitty p'imrose ", a bunch of which he was holding in his
hand.
' I remember him too as a remarkably affectionate child.
He had a caressing way of gently stroking one's face, which
was most endearing.
' Altogether he made a deep impression on me as the
most beautiful, attractive, and loving child I have ever
met. I can see him quite well, but it is difficult to con-
vey my impressions in words. 1 never felt so enthusiastic
an admiration for a child either before or since. I felt
at the time he was unique in his beauty and attractiveness.'
It is interesting that with all his nervousness Ronald
should have been quite free from shyness. A few years
later he was sometimes shy of people in the mass, but
of friendly individuals never.
Ronald's godmother, Mrs. Boas, retains vivid memories
of his first game of hockey :
4 1 was married in Dec. 1892, and Teddie Poulton
1889 1897 37
was one of my pupils for the last part of my happy
school life among my boys. One afternoon in my last
term, when the days were getting chilly (so it must have
been about October or November), I went to tea at Wyke-
ham House, with Teddie and his family. We were all
keen about hockey, and Mr. Poulton was very good about
playing with us. Mrs. Poulton was out when I arrived,
but he was in the garden with Teddie and Hilda, and we
began a vigorous game. I think Teddie and I played
Hilda and her father.
'Presently there came a cheery shout, and Ronald
trotted in, fresh from his walk, and clad in white fluffy
garments ; he was always, at that age, like a personification
of Spring, with his wonderful beauty and grace. " Me,
too ", he shouted, and brandished a stick he had picked
up. His father laughed, and said " Come on, then ! " and
he charged in among us, shouting and laughing, and
hitting out vigorously at the ball.
' In a few minutes came the inevitable result ; down he
fell, knocked over by the players who were all much
bigger than he was, and who stopped to look at the small
white figure tumbled among them.
1 There was a moment's pause, then he gathered himself
up, and scrambled to his feet with a delighted chuckle.
' " My ten (turn) now ! " he called triumphantly, and fell
upon the ball with eager strokes.
' " Yes ", said his father, laughing, " let him hit it now.
Don't you see he thinks it the rule of the game that when
you have been knocked down you have a free hit ? "
Ronald's athletic distinction was only traceable at this
time and for many years later in his delight in movement,
and the beauty and grace of his movements, remarked by
many at the time. ' I love to see him run ', summed up
the impressions of a lady friend who met him in the
Parks ; and we can never forget how he would act when
he went into the garden after breakfast. It was always
the same : he walked faster and faster until, about half-way
down the path he began to run, ending up with a spurt as
fast as he could go. There was no competition : he was
alone and had no object in view but the joy of swift move-
ment for its own sake and this almost as soon as he could
run at all.
38 CHILDHOOD
The first clear indication that I remember of Ronald's
intense interest in manual work was given when a large
rocking-horse was sent to the children by their grandfather
in Reading. Ronald was the first to see it, and he came
up to the nursery landing and said to the others in rather
awe-struck tones,
' There 's a great bogey-man horse in the playroom ! '
But when the case of open boarding was being removed
he sat by me enthralled at the fascination of seeing the
nails drawn out, and continually pointing to fresh ones
with ' There 's another, father '. I remember realizing at
the time that this must be the expression of an innate
tendency, and my surprise and delight at its appearance
so early. I have no means of certainly fixing the date,
but am confident that he was not over three at the
time.
The second indication can be placed with precision.
With the help of some workmen I had been digging
a reservoir in the garden at St. Helens and holding up
the clay sides with concrete retaining walls. One sunny
morning in September 1893, when the men were away,
Ronald sat at the edge of the little precipice the wall
was 10 ft. high looking on with rapt attention, and I feel
sure helping whenever it was possible, while I removed
the boarding from one of these walls of which the concrete
had sufficiently set. We were alone, I working and he
eagerly watching, through the whole of the lovely autumn
morning. Most boys of four would probably be interested
in such work, but I do not think that many would keep
up their interest for so long. The picture is very clear
in my memory as the first of all the long, happy days
spent in work together, and leading his strong natural
inclination onward to a realization of the charm as well as
the dignity of labour.
Memories of Ronald's timidity and sensitiveness, and of
his friendliness towards the friendly, come back to me
from the later years of his childhood.
He was always very shy of trespassing or of going
3
O 3
o K
<u x>
H 2
bfl
Facing p. 38.]
1889 1897 39
anywhere or doing anything if, as he readily imagined,
' a man looked angry at me '.
I remember an example of his sensitiveness in the
summer of 1894, when he was nearly five, and our dear
American friends, Professor and Mrs. Osborn and their
children, were staying with us at St. Helens. Mrs. Osborn
had brought for him from New York a pretty little garment
which he recognized as different from those worn here,
and the struggle between his natural courtesy and equally
natural dread of appearing conspicuous nearly brought
him to tears ; but Mrs. Osborn quickly realized and with-
drew the cause of his distress.
Two pictures of Ronald are associated with my friend
Sir Ray Lankester, who lived between 1891 and 1896 at
a house in the Bradmore Road back to back with Wykeham
House. I made some rock-work steps to help in getting
over the party-wall dividing the ends of our gardens, and
often used to take the children over to see my friend.
Ronald was probably about four at the time of which Miss
Fay Lankester writes :
' I recollect that dear, beautiful boy climbing over the
wall in a blue smock and coming up into Ray's house
where I was sitting at the window, and getting on to my
knees. He said, " I think you must be the Perfessor s
wife ", and I kissed him and thought he was the dearest,
sweetest thing I had ever seen in my life. Of course he
grew up to be so splendid and such a joy and pride to
you.'
He was probably a little older, about six, when we
looked in upon Professor Lankester and found him enter-
taining his mother and an American lady, who, when she
saw Ronald, began to express, in talking about him and
even to him, a rather unrestrained admiration. He bore
it quietly, appearing not to notice it, but as we went back
he told me how much he liked one of the ladies.
' Not the one who was so proud of my eyes ', he was
careful to explain.
It was the same instinct which in later years led him
40 CHILDHOOD
to be shy of a partner at a dance who would talk to him
about football.
A few of his quaint or charming sayings remain in my
memory.
' Father, I saw a butterfly with a burnt wing in the Parks
to-day', was his description of that lovely messenger of
spring the Orange-tip.
When asked what he intended to be, 4 1 want to be
a father * was his reply, summing up the memories of happy
hours spent together at play, and more especially at work,
in the garden of St. Helens Cottage.
' It won't rain long because it 's crooked rain ', was the
inference from his childhood's observations in meteorology,
which, at least in England, is sure to be the first of the
sciences to receive attention.
Ronald's first school was Miss Cobb's and Miss Leather's
(Mrs. Powell) kindergarten in the Polstead Road. He went
there in the autumn of 1894, when he was five, and stayed
for two years. Miss Cobb writes :
1 It is his face I remember so vividly his sweet bright
smile and very fair hair. I do not think that he cried at
school, but he certainly appeared to be very sensitive.
I think it is not too much to say that he seemed highly
strung. I know that I felt it would be wrong to press him
at all at his work that his physical development was then
all-important.'
Mrs. Powell writes :
4 1 remember your boy perfectly at Miss Cobb's school.
I can see his little figure now full of life and energy, and
such a bright, merry, sunburnt little face always full of
fun and mischief. I cannot remember anything about his
lessons, but his sparkling vivacity is very clearly imprinted
on my mind even after so many years.'
After the two years at Miss Cobb's Ronald went, in
September 1896, for a year to the Misses Owen's school
where his brother had been.
18891897 4 1
Miss M. E. O'B. Owen writes :
' My recollection of him is that he was always keen about
his work, and I remember particularly that he wrote very
nicely for such a little boy. Ronald's voice is another thing
we always remember. It was very sweet, and fuller than
is often the case in such a young boy. Of course he took
no leading part in the school from being so young ; but we
always remember him as one of the manliest and best-toned
boys we ever had. He always worked well and even then
showed promise of his future as an athlete, and was, as
always, liked by every one. In fact I have no remembrance
of having to reprove him for anything. I always think his
character was as near being perfect as a mortal being's
can be.
' One of the things which showed how utterly unspoiled
he was by his successes and popularity was the way in
which he used to come and play in our old boys' hockey
matches. Between 1900 and 1911 he played seven times;
and he always played as if it was a real pleasure although
our boys are very young. And he showed just the same
keenness as if he was playing in an International match.
This spirit in the old boys is a very great help to us with
each rising generation. I remember in December 1906,
when Ronald had kindly played as captain for the school
and Teddie for the old boys, walking home with them, and
the eagerness with which they discussed the best way of
arranging the match the next year. When that year came
they both played again, only reversed their positions.'
The intimate friendship and affection between Ronald
and his cousin Eustace Palmer was begun in this period of
his life. Eustace and his cousin Gerald Barry matriculated
at Trinity in the autumn of 1896 and at once became warm
friends of all our children.
This close friendship, begun when he was seven, was
destined to have an important bearing on Ronald's life,
and if he had lived the two cousins would have been con-
stantly associated in the control of a great business.
The following memories begin towards the end of the
period 1893 to 1897 but stretch on into Ronald's Dragon
years, forming a natural link between these two stages of
his life.
42 CHILDHOOD
From his Mother.
1 As far as I can remember Ronald never needed punish-
ment. I never remember him really naughty ; he was very
sensitive, and a mere look of disapproval was sufficient.
His joyous disposition showed itself very early. I remem-
ber so well going into the nursery during a meal, and
seeing him and Janet sitting opposite to each other, both
laughing and setting each other on to laugh. He was very
easy to teach, and he never seemed to find any difficulty in
learning the Sunday collect, which I always expected the
children to repeat to me during our Sunday lesson.'
From Hilda.
1 My picture of him at three or four was as a beautiful
little boy, but decidedly a cry-baby. Then later, I see him,
always with Margaret, having their supper together and
seeing who could eat the largest mouthful of mustard,
putting gravel in each other's beds and being anything but
models of behaviour in church, so that they came out
before the sermon even when quite big children. They
used to come to the station to see me off to school and ran
up and down the platform and stood on the footboard as
the train was moving and other goings on, and I was so
proud when the other girls noticed them and thought
now jolly they were. I always think of those two together
as children playing and ragging and having great jokes
and it was the companionship with a sister a little older
than himself, a very vigorous and athletic girl and abso-
lutely brimming over with fun, which both kept him so
simple and prevented his natural sensitiveness from getting
too strong a place in his character.'
And now that she is no longer with us it is right to
speak of the strong, sweet influence which Hilda herself
exercised over Ronald and indeed over all who met her.
Ronald's gifts as a leader are well known, but within the
family he and the other children all yielded to her gentle
but vigorous leadership. Nor did she give up her power
when the brothers and sisters had scattered into homes of
their own. Even in the weakness of illness she was still
the leader, and family schemes with some kind object in
view were still suggested and organized by her.
18891897 43
From Janet.
' My first definite memories of Ronald centre round the
time that Evelyn came to us the Christmas after he was
seven, and I four.
' Ronald developed a love of carpentering at a very early
age. When he was seven he made me a -doll's house,
dividing the box taken for the purpose into rooms which
he papered and carpeted. When he was eleven he
improved on his first efforts, and introduced stairs with
bannisters and doors which opened, the whole being
papered again and painted white. I have still this little
doll's house.
' He was an exceptionally nervous little boy and always
cried very easily. Margaret's great delight was to make
him dissolve into tears and then I always wept to keep
him company.
' He had a sweeter disposition than most boys of his age,
and hated inflicting pain on animals. Of course he engaged
in all the games ana sports of his age, and amongst them
catapulting. I remember how he confided to me that once
he had killed a sparrow, and he was obviously very much
upset.'
A few months after Evelyn's arrival the Diamond
Jubilee (1897) was celebrated, and she remembers that
when we took the three elder children to London for the
procession, she took the two younger into the Parks to see
the children's fete and tea arranged by the city. She
clearly remembers Ronald's great anxiety lest there should
not be enough tea for such huge numbers and how he
insisted on inspecting the preparations for himself to make
sure!
When he was punished by being sent to bed earlier
than usual he never could go to sleep until the difference
with Evelyn had been put right.
' I know it 's all for my good ', he would say ; ' I know
that I deserve it ; but do forgive me.'
All this sounds priggish and unnatural, but with Ronald
it was the very reverse. It was quite spontaneous and
meant a real and deep concern for the bonds which united
44 CHILDHOOD
him to others: it was the expression of his central and
essential self.
For this reason his extreme sensitiveness to a word or
expression of disapproval neither of us ever punished
him, a remarkable thing considering how much he was
with us as a child. The same is nearly but not quite true of
our other children. The occasions were so rare that I think
I can recollect all with which I was personally concerned.
I remember hearing Ronald say in answer to some slight
rebuke :
' Oh ! Mother, don't call me cross ! '
He meant, of course, ' Don't be cross with me ', but the
way he put it seemed to be an unconscious emphasis of
the thing he really dreaded, the endangering of the bond
between them : whether the threat came from one side or
the other mattered little.
The offences for which Evelyn had to punish him were
also characteristic : the commonest were due to impatience
in dressing, when he would seek the aid of scissors in
dealing with the button-holes for which starch had more
than its usual affinity. From the first he made the most
of his life. Always he worked and played with all his
might, and slept soundly for as long as he could. The
uninteresting phases that lay between he cut down to the
finest point. His great friend among the masters at
Rugby says that among his other records was that for fast
dressing, and long before he went to Rugby he had noted
down his times. Thus in a note-book of his I find that
during six days in July and August, 1901, the maximum
time occupied in undressing was fifty-five seconds, the
minimum, twenty; in his bath and drying himself, the
maximum three and a half minutes, the minimum two
minutes twenty-five seconds; in dressing, the maximum
five minutes, the minimum two minutes five seconds. It
was no doubt the first possession of a watch which made
him so keen to time himself and others as well, for his
note-book includes the length of sermons and other parts
of the Church services.
Ill
THE OXFORD PREPARATORY SCHOOL: 1897-1903
His presence is like a gleam of sunshine. Headmaster's Report,
Apr. 4, 1903.
You cannot think how universally Ronnie Poulton's death was felt
in the army. Everyone, both high and low, spoke of it. He was a
great Dragon. Bde. Maj. C. C. LUCAS, G.H.Q. British Army in the
Field (Draconian, Apr. 1916, p. 1849).
IN September 1897, when he was just eight, Ronald
entered the O.P.S. as a day-boy and became a Dragon,
thus continuing the family tradition, for his brother had
left only the term before to go to Rugby.
The healthy, breezy Oxford Preparatory School the
name ' Dragon ' was invented by the boys themselves in
the early days had been in existence for just twenty years
when Ronald went there. It was founded when the
sudden liberation of the University society from a
mediaeval celibacy had led to inevitable and insistent
results. The first headmaster, the Rev. A. E. Clarke, died
in 1886 and was succeeded by the present head, Mr. C. C.
Lynam one who prides himself on shorter hours and
more holidays than other schools, who gives the boys
more independence and makes it easy for them to see their
parents in term time, who hates to be called ' Sir ' every
half-minute and prefers to be the ' Skipper V
Capt. W. H. Moberly, D.S.O., remembers that one of
the greatest on the Roll of Honour of the Old Dragons,
Capt. Hugh Sidgwick, once spoke at an O. D. Dinner
of the distinctive spirit and ethos of the O.P.S., and sought
to explain how it was that
1 it makes an appeal and invokes a loyalty similar in kind
1 For a fuller statement of the Skipper's sound principles, see the
Draconian for Aug. 1901, pp. 517, 518.
46 THE O.P.S.
to those of the best public schools.' He found the answer
in ' the Skipper's refusal to force his boys into one or other
of two or tnree conventional moulds, in his positive en-
couragement of originality, in the opportunity given to
boys to discover their own peculiar interests and gifts ; so
that, if you were to collect a number of Old Boys in after-
life and! to ask what was the common stamp that the
school had set on them, you would be able to point to no
single machine-made quality but you might observe that
every one was very much himself ' (Draconian, Dec. 1917,
P- 395)-
I will speak of athletics first, not because it is most
important, but because Ronald was most widely known as
an athlete, and the period of life at which his powers began
to appear and the rate of their development are of much
interest. Until Ronald was about n his successes in
any of the games and sports were in no way exceptional.
His friends, looking back on that time and thinking of what
he became, are astonished at the contrast between his
powers before and after the spring of 1901. Thus Capt.
W. T. Collier, R.A.M.C., writes:
' I was just a month younger than Ronald, for I was
born Oct. 12, 1889. One of my earliest recollections at
the O.P.S. is of running against him and Claude Hardy
in the 100 yards to decide who should represent the school
in the under 10 or n race. Claude Hardy was first, and I
just beat Ronald for second place. I think this is interest-
ing because he had certainly come into his own in the
athletic world before he left the school, and it must have
been in the last year or two that his powers really began
to develop.'
Major Claude Hardy, R.G.A., is a little younger than
Capt. Collier, but all three friends were within three
months of the same age. It will be found in the records
of the Draconian that Claude was at first always ahead,
but after the spring of 1901 Ronald developed so rapidly
that in a year's time he had become the first athlete
in the school, as shown by his performance in the inter-
school sports in the spring of 1902, while from this time
up to the end of July 1903, when he left, he was making
1897 193 47
school records in the most varied games and sports, and
had thus at a bound gained the exceptional position he
never lost. This sudden increase of power was accom-
panied by sudden increase of weight and height, as shown
in the tabular statements of the Draconian. The rapidity
of Ronald's growth continued after he left the O.P.S., for
a Rugby record shows that at 14^ his height and weight
were those of an average boy two years older, and his
chest girth that of a boy of 18.
If the curve of Ronald's growth be typical for a boy
with exceptional powers and there is no reason to doubt
it then for the full development of such powers the food
supply during the critical period must be greater than that
of the average boy.
In spite of this deferred development of power it has
been shown that from his earliest childhood there was
something which attracted general attention and admiration
and held the promise of all that Ronald was to be as an
athlete.
Considering the games and sports in order, I first take
Rugby football, the regular winter game at the O.P.S. since
the opening of the school. Ronald seems to have been quite
happy in the game at the lower levels, for he wrote in a very
short birthday letter to his brother on Sept. 30, 1900 : ' I
am sorry to say there is no news. I am getting on well
with football but there is no news so I will fill up the rest
with kisses,' and so thoroughly was this done that the
crosses occupy more space than the writing, leaving room
however at the end for the most important part of all.
1 P.S. Please write soon.'
Ronald must have made his mark directly he entered
the XV, for I remember one of the masters saying in the
Michaelmas Term of 1901 : 'He has the regular Rugby
swerve ', and in the account of that year I wrote, ' Ronald
has become a famous three-quarter at football, so I am
told by many of his teachers'. His play in the autumn
term of this year is prominently noticed in the Draconian,
where, speaking of the match against Lambrook on
48 THE O.P.S.
Nov. 16, won by the Dragons 29-0, the critic remarked : ' Of
the three-quarters I think Poulton was the best on the day,
he was very good at taking passes and very fast when he
got under weigh.' The account of the match shows that
he was even then an unselfish player responsible for tries
made by others.
The comments on his play in the last match of 1901,
against Bilton Grange II, won 12-9, give the first expres-
sion to an oft-repeated criticism :
' Poulton made two or three capital runs but he must
learn to go for an enemv who has the ball as skilfully and
eagerly as, having the ball himself, he scoots away from
the enemy.'
Ronald referred to this match and the one against Lam-
brook in a letter, Nov. 24, 1901, to Hilda at Wycombe
Abbey School :
1 1 am writing to you because of your birthday. I have
now got my colours at football and am very pleased. We
shall play a match against Bilton Grange shortly which is
quite near to Rugby so I may be able to see him [his
brother]. Next term we are going to do a Greek play,
I hope it will be nice. We are at present doing " Lucian "
about the adventures of some men who get wrecked on an
island, with rivers of wine, and whirled into the moon ; it
is very interesting but hard. We are having quite a hard
frost here now and last week some of the boys skated but
it thawed in the middle of the week. Teddie comes up to
his exams, in about 10 days, isn't it nice ? We are doing
Macbeth for a play this year, but Mr. Lynam cannot find
a boy for Macbeth. Aunt Alice (Palmer) has sent to ask
us what we should like for Christmas and Father suggested
that I should have a working-bench which you can get any
size in London and are not very expensive. We played
a match against Lambrook and I enjoyed myself very much
indeed. Mother has given me a new bag for my football
things, it is ripping. We had such a nice lecture at school
given by Mrs. Woods on Canada which was very success-
mi and sarcastic. I must stop now.
1 Your loving brother.
1 P.S. I. WRITE SOON. P.S. II. Have not I
written a long letter? P.S. III. Goodbye. P.S.
IV. xxxxxxxxxx.'
1897 1903 49
A year later, in 1902, in his last season's play as a Dragon,
he made 15 tries, a school record, on Oct. n, against
St. Edward's (Juniors). In the account of the return
match he was again reminded that ' defence is a part of
the game*. In another match of the same term his ' good
left-footers ' seem to have been useful. Looking back on
his play for the O.P.S. Mr. G. C. Vassall writes :
' His 15 tries v. St. Edward's are most often talked about,
but his effort v. Dunchurch in the same term is what I
remember best, and was the surest sign of what he was to
be as a football player.'
Ronald was given his colours in the Cricket XI in the
summer of 1901. He spoke of it in a letter to his brother
at Rugby : ' I have got my colours now : mine are blue
and yellow, but I believe yours were green and yellow.'
The letter continues to tell of school doings and other
doings mixed together with delightful inconsequence, as
for example :
4 Yesterday we played Cothill and beat them, it is the
first real match we have won. We had a ripping bath
afterwards. I hope you will give me one of your puss-
moths. I had four Poplar Hawk chrysalides but while
I was away it came out and died, the other three died just
as they were coming out : '
then by way of picnics and Wytham strawberry feast
back again to school. An earlier letter to his brother in
the summer of 1899 spoke of a visit to Youlbury, a name
that recalls many happy memories :
' I have been doing prep, at school for a week. We went
to Boar's Hill yesterday. Hilda and Margaret and Violet
Stark went on a bicycle and Janet went in the dog-cart
with Mr. Evans, and Miss Brown and I walked the Devil's
Back Bone way. When we got to Carfax we asked the
tram man if you had to go along by Christ Church or along
High Street, and Miss Brown said : " Which is the way to
the Devil's Back Bone the Water Works ? " "The what?"
said the man, and he laughed loudly ; of course he did not
know what Miss Brown meant. Mr. Evans has got an
50 THE O.P.S.
owl which lives by Mr. Evans's dog. I have forgotten the
name.'
The children had learnt to call the old and now replaced
curved footbridge over the railway at the waterworks by
the name used in my undergraduate days.
To return to cricket, Ronald did not do much in his first
season, but the Draconian says of him in 1902, especially
referring to a 34 not out against Summerfields on July 19 :
' A steady bat and very sound field, who showed on one
occasion that he could play a really good forcing game.'
He was captain of the Eleven in 1903, and Mr. G. C.
Vassall remembers that his powers of leadership were
noticeable even then, before he was fourteen :
' The cricket " characters " in the Draconian don't do
him justice, especially as a captain. He always got the
best out of his side and they would have followed him any-
where. Some of his innings in his last term against time
were wonderful ; especially v. Cothill, 60 odd in half an hour
to win a match.
' He was always the life and soul of the party when we
went by train or in a brake to play cricket matches. So
much so that we used to offer him 6d. if he could last for
five minutes without speaking ! Sometimes the rest of us
would go on talking ; sometimes we would all sit silent,
watch in hand but ne never won the 6d.'
The Draconian speaks of him in 1903 as ' the best bat
and field in the team ', and his total of 335 and average of
33'5 runs were school records. He gained the bat given
in memory of Alfred Spurling, O.D., killed in the Boer
War.
In hockey Ronald was in his last year the most success-
ful O.P.S. player, making 10 goals out of the 24 (against 3)
scored by the Dragons in three matches in March 1903.
As early as March 1901 he had been one of an ' A '
team which defeated the Christ Church Choir School
by 12-0.
As regards his athletic performance at the O.P.S., Ronald
took part for the first time in the Inter-School Sports held
1897 193 5 1
in March 1901, and was second (at 3 ft. n in.) in the high
jump under 12.
In the Summer Sports of that year Ronald, although
beaten by Claude in the 100 yards under 12, was very suc-
cessful in other events, with the best all-round record of
the day.
1902. In the Inter-School Sports Ronald made the
highest score for the Dragons (7 out of 25). In the
Summer Sports his ' record performances under 13 ' are
spoken of in the Draconian. His 15 ft. 7 in. in the broad
jump was a school record.
Mr. G. C. Vassall writes :
1 1 remember his surprise and delight when I showed
him that he must jump nigh if he wanted to jump far. He
was sceptical to begin with and finally made me change
into running shorts and spiked shoes. " I can see better
what your feet and legs and knees are doing, like that," he
said. Next day he came running up with : " It 's quite
true, I can do nearly two feet more." '
1903. In the Inter-School Sports the Draconian con-
sidered that Ronald's was the best performance. He was
first in the high jump under 14 (4 ft. 3^ in., in a high wind) ;
second in the 100 yards under 14 ; first in the 440 yards
(67 sec.) under 14 ; and second in the open broad jump.
In the gymnastic competition between the boarders and
day-boys Ronald obtained the third highest marks : 32, to
37 gained by two boys.
The Headmaster's Report on Games and Gymnastics at
Easter 1903 was : ' Very good indeed. Takes his success
with a most becoming modesty/
Ronald's last Summer Sports included a new school
record in the broad jump (16 ft. n in.) as well as the first
place in the 100 yards, quarter mile, and high jump (4 ft. 6 in.).
He was awarded the Athletic Cup, and, on the day when
he received his prizes, from the hand of his mother, I was
told by the Headmaster that he was 'the best all-round
athlete who had ever been at the school '.
The Reports on Ronald's work show keenness and
E 2
52 THE O.P.S.
brightness throughout, and a development in the last two
or three years that kept pace with his athletics. He was
most successful in the English essays on historical subjects.
Two of his very early efforts, ' Mary, Queen of Scots ' and
some verses on the ' Discovery of America ', he kept in his
scrap-book with the title ' A Prize Poem and Essay ! ! '
His mathematics were also praised in the Reports.
Ronald also received the second of two prizes offered to
the O.P.S. by his father for a natural history collection
with notes, to be made in the summer of 1900. He sent
in a collection of butterflies, and was awarded a prize
because of the full and careful data accompanying the
specimens. Later on he added a ' Prize Coll. ' label to
each, distinguishing it from the rest of his collection.
Ronald was a keen collector. He and his sister Margaret
encouraged each other in the development of an omnivorous
taste, as is evident from the following letter to his brother
at Rugby. The suggestion in it is delicately made for
a child of nine and a half:
March 7, 1899. ' I have not much to say but I wanted
to ask you about some coins in your Apotheke which is
hanging above my bed. Margaret and I collect coins in
our museum in the boys room. It is very tidy ; and we
collect butterflies and moths and magazines and crests and
stamps and shells and tortus shells and eggs and coins.'
Ronald often sang and recited in the O.P.S. concerts.
The Report for April 1903 speaks of his recitation as ex-
cellent and he received a prize for it at the end of the
Summer Term.
In his accounts of the years Ronald does not say much
about his work, but there is an amusing reference to one
of the masters. He was speaking of the Autumn Term of
1902 : ' I was for the first time wholly under Hum's [Mr.
A. E. Lynam's] mastership. I found [it] quite different to
what I expected. I expected great sufferings for me, but
he certainly did not give it.'
Speaking of one of the outside hockey matches early in
1903 he wrote of their opponents : ' It was a curious school,
18971903 53
chiefly comprised of Dukes and Lords, very luxurious and
expensive.'
' As to cricket ', he wrote of the 1903 season, ' we played
fourteen matches of which we only lost two. In the first
six matches, I played very badly, having an average of only
six, which is very bad for the captain of the eleven. But in
the remaining matches I had better luck. We bathed as
usual, though the water was much below its normal tem-
perature. The sports at the end of the term were favoured
by a very fine day. I gained a good deal of money in the
sports and also a cup. The next day we had the speech day,
my last day as a schoolboy at the O.P.S., but
The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
and I had to go to a Public School some time. But I was
very sorry to leave. I received three book prizes.'
I keep to the last one of the finest things done at the
O.P.S. and that is the acting of a play of Shakespeare just
after the Christmas holidays every year. The interest
spreads far and wide, infecting not only the whole school
but younger brothers, sisters, parents, governesses, nurses,
Oxford friends; also old Dragons who are lucky enough
to visit the familiar long-loved haunt at this electric moment,
who write prologues and are sometimes even allowed to
shine in minor parts. But this is the day of the young
Dragons and their sisters, and no important part will be
given elsewhere. Yet in spite of this, the Skipper con-
trives to make the parents and all the rest feel as if they
were part of the show, with every right to be very proud
of it. And this complacency is not confined to the Shake-
speare play, though it is especially evident on that great
occasion ; it is felt in everything, work and sport, that is
done at the O.P.S. It is one great secret of O.P.S. success.
So the great day conies round every January in accord-
ance with the Skipper's sound idea ' that an acting know-
ledge of at least one play of the greatest playwright of our
own, or any other country, should form part of the education
of every English boy '. And thus the Dragons have met
beforehand and continue to meet the sensible criticism that
54 THE O.P.S.
the beauty of Shakespeare's plays is often lost in an exces-
sive study of the notes upon them.
There is a most appealing incongruity in a Caesar of at
most fourteen extending his slender arm as he declaims :
Have I in conquest stretched so far mine arm
To be afraid to tell greybeards the truth?
Or in a stern bearded warrior of the same age hurling at
the trembling messenger :
The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon !
4 Not at all a nice story ' was the comment of a sister's
nurse on the play in which the line occurs, reminding one
of the Victorian old lady who said of Antony and Cleo-
patra :
' How unlike the home-life of our own beloved sovereign ! '
Ronald, who had acted minor parts in the plays of 1901 and
1902, was, in his last year, asked to take Mark Antony. In
1896, when the same play had been chosen as the first to be
acted in the newly built hall, his brother was Julius Caesar.
The following criticism of Ronald's part appeared in the
Draconian (Apr. 1903, pp. 608, 609) :
' As regards the performers there can be little doubt that
Mark Antony was facile princeps. I never remember to
have seen, even at the O.P.S., anything to equal his
splendid conception of this, one of the greatest of Shake-
speare's characters; the perfect taste of his elocution, his
command of pathos and of irony and his beautiful self-
restraint were indeed amazing in a boy of his age.'
Ronald was at the time thirteen and four months. In his
account of 1903 very little was made of his own doings. ' I
was given the part of Antony. The play itself went off very
well and the audience were very crowded.'
Below is the Prologue to As you Like It, played in
January 1918 written by Frank Sidgwick, an Old Dragon
(Draconian, Apr. 1918, p. 4043) :
Welcome, all friends! Once more we tread the boards,
Shepherds and ladies, fools and exiled lords,
18971903 55
Trusting that you with us may still rejoice
To hear the April notes of Shakespeare's voice.
Please you a little parody forgive,
And let me ask ' Who dies, if Shakespeare live ? '
Never again will one 1 who loved his plays,
Wrote us pur Prologues, gave the critic's praise
Never again may he rejoin us here
To watch the scene and give us actors cheer,
Never again : but though the voice be gone,
The spirit hovers, bidding us 'Carry on'.
Nor he alone, but all our loved and lost
Call us to effort, without count of cost.
Take we the burden they were bidden drop ;
Only the coward and the fool will stop.
Can we not find, then, if we humbly try,
More in this play than meets the ear or eye?
Reason to love our England more and more,
Some spur to make us better than of 3'ore ?
Come, to our duties, for the play's the thing.
Company, 'shun! God save our gracious King!
It would be a great mistake to suppose that because
boys leave a school at about fourteen the effects are likely
to be unimportant ; far from it, they may be lifelong. For
over twenty years I have tried to help and have been
helped by young British naturalists in many parts of the
Empire, especially Africa. Among the keenest of these
are two who in helping me came to know each other and
to realize that when they were about ten years old they
had been at the same school in Oxford and with a master,
the Rev. J. W. B. Bell, who had done his best to encourage
their fine latent powers of observation, and their love of
living beings. It cannot be doubted, I think, that their
whole lives have been coloured by this early education in
the strict meaning of the word, a true leading out of the
qualities that were in them.
1 Capt. Hugh Sidgwick, killed at the front in September 1917
one of the 64 Old Dragons who had fallen in the Great War at the
time of the beautiful Memorial Service on June 30, 1918 by the end
of the War 75, but the fallen O.D.'s in the French Army are not yet
known.
56 THE O.RS.
And this thought brings me back to the O.P.S. and the
words of Capt. J. C. B. Gamlen in a little sermon to the
school when on leave in the Michaelmas Term of 1917 :
'When I was a Dragon, we thought we had great
traditions, and we had, but they were not nearly so great
as yours to-day. For, in our time, the older Dragons who
had gone out into the world, and who had built up the
school traditions for us, had had no such opportunities for
behaving greatly as have been given by this great war.
With you it is different. To take but three names, you
have before you the examples of Charles Fisher [Lieut.
R.N.V.R., H.M.S. Invincible, lost in the Jutland battle],
and Ronald Poulton, and Hugh Sidgwick. 1 I choose these
names, not necessarily because they are the greatest, but
because I knew these men. Now, to belong to the school
which produced these men is just as though you belonged
to a school which had produced Sir Richard Grenville, and
Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Philip Sydney. Think of
these men, and of the other O.D.'s who have fallen, in that
way. Let them be your constant example, and, in order to
profit fully from that example, try to learn anything you
can about them. Try to discover what manner of men
they were; there are plenty of people who knew them
intimately and can tell you all about them ; about their life
here, and afterwards, and their great successes, and their
friends, and, most of all, about their views of life, and the
way in which they illustrated those views by giving their
lives in the greatest of all causes. If you learn this lesson
well, you, too, may one day, in some great crisis, have the
privilege of copying their example. You cannot do more
than that.' (Draconian, Dec. 1917, p. 4000.)
A few months after Capt. Gamlen's address was spoken,
Lieut. Martin H. Collier went for his last voyage, leaving
the most touching proof of the influence of school life in
early years. The words were written, on first receiving
the command of an over-seas submarine in April 1917, as
1 In the same number of the Draconian, p. 3095, Capt. W. H.
Moberly, D.S.O., also writes of Hugh Sidgwick : ' If I were asked to
illustrate the contribution of the O.P.S. to English life, and now to
England's sacrifice, I should be content to couple his name to that
of Ronald Poulton and to let the O.P.S. be judged by them.'
1897 193 57
part of a letter to his father and mother to be opened in the
event of his death.
' I don't think I fear Death ; there has been too much of
it during the last two and a half years to retain its old awe
and prestige.
1 1 have never talked much of Religion, but I think you
know I believe very firmly in the After-life, and look forward
to meeting all my friends, Berry, Spurling, Ronald
Poulton, Denis O'Sullivan, and many others who have
already "passed over" and you when you come/
With the exception of the first name, probably that
of a Naval friend, all were Dragons. Alfred Spurling was
killed in the Boer War, his brother Frank, also an O.D., in
the Great War, but many months after Lieut. Collier wrote
his letter; Denis died while still at the school. Martin,
a fine football player who often met Ronald on the field,
was always proud that it was he who persuaded F. E.
Oakeley, the International who fell early in the war, to take
up the Rugby game instead of Association.
The Dragon period must be completed by saying some-
thing of the holidays. St. Helens Cottage at St. Helens,
on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight, came into our
possession at the end of 1888, about a year before Ronald
was born, and the work and play there had an important
influence on his life.
It was here and at this period that he began to help in
the various building operations, and how much they meant
to him may be realized from his accounts of the years.
No one reading his story of the work done more than eight
months before, at Easter 1902, could doubt that it was
written by one with a very special aptitude for engineering
or some such practical profession. Another point comes
out. His words show that, at this early age, he wrote as
a comrade, with all the interest and sense of responsibility
of one who sees the work of his hands growing before him.
The details of the work would be wearisome, but some-
thing must be said of his bright willingness to help. Often
58 THE O.P.S.
in order to finish off a piece of work, or use up material
that was already prepared, he would get up at six or
earlier once, for a special occasion in 1900, at 4.45 and
work with me before breakfast. I always asked him if he
wished to do this and he was always willing and indeed
eager. Then the last mornings were ever the same. We
worked up to the last minute the evening before and got
up at six or earlier to clean and put away all our tools and
gear ready for the next holidays.
A bit of work in the summer of 1900 is very clear in my
memory. For several days we had been interrupted by
rain. At last, on Aug. 27, we declined to be stopped any
longer. Ronald and I got up early and, in spite of rain
nearly all day, built the whole of the retaining wall seen
above the seat in the accompanying illustration, and faced
the exposed surface with pebbles.
His love of building is shown in many a letter, and
especially in his regret when the increasing pressure of
scientific work encroached more and more upon the time
I could give to the strenuous recreations of St. Helens.
This was always distressing to him, although the old hours
could never have been continued as he grew older and
came with his friends for shorter periods, needing con-
centrated play rather than work. But he always regretted
it and loved to think of the old times. This was the mean-
ing of a lament many years later that ' things are not as
they were ', and of his letter to me from Salisbury during
the Army Manoeuvres of 1910 : ' I am looking forward to
seeing you all. It will be tremendous fun. And you
mustn't work very much while we are all together.' And
his friend Dick Dugdale remembered that he ' used to get
very worried about the way you never would take a rest,
even when you were there '. And always when he had
been out with his friends or for any other reason was not
working with me he would come round to see what had
been done, and, whatever the progress, his encouraging
words were the same, words that are ever with me
' O father, you have got on '. And I know well that the
WALL, BUILT BY RONALD AND HIS FATHER
At St. Helens Cottage, Aug. 27, 1900. The open two-foot rule gives the scale.
About J of the length, on the R. side was built by Ronald. From a photograph
by A. W. Wade of St. Helens, I. W.
Facing p. 58.]
1897 1903 59
sense of all that we had done together was with him when
he wrote on April 22, 1915, a fortnight before he was killed :
' You would simply love all the schemes for improvements,
and making dug-outs and improvements for drainage '.
But the holidays were never entirely devoted to building
operations and other such work. Much strenuous activity
was expended in games, as many a page of this book will
show. The favourite was hide-and-seek, and the garden
was very largely planned so as to increase the variety and
interest of the game. I have also a picture in my mind of
Ronald and Janet looking at each other after breakfast or
lunch and nodding sometimes towards the lawn for some
wild form of croquet ; sometimes towards the fives court
on the other side of the house for a kind of squash rackets.
Thus without wasting a moment in words they reached
agreement and started a game. But hide-and-seek was the
great game at St. Helens, enjoyed by our children more,
I feel sure, than any Inter- University or International
contest. The object of the hiders was to gain a base on
the lower lawn without being touched. The lower lawn
itself might only be entered by certain channels which the
seekers attempted to guard but were liable to be distracted
by concerted rushes. Running and dodging and above all
combination were the essentials of both attack and defence ;
hiding played a very minor part in the game. All the
strategic parts of the garden were known by special
names, rather puzzling to friends who joined in the game
for the first time. The excitement of capture and evading
capture was terrific, well expressed by Margaret, who,
when caught in a place from which escape was impossible
exclaimed :
' I feel as if I could break the world in two ! '
Quite apart from and beyond the building operations and
games in the garden, the swimming and golf, there were
the interesting features near at hand : the pool of the only
tidal mill George Darwin ever saw, at the bottom of the
field the other side of the road, the flint implements of
Priory Bay to the north, and the Tertiary Strata of White-
60 THE O.P.S.
cliff Bay to the south. It has been an ideal spot for the
holidays of children with a natural taste for work and play
in the open air and for science.
The accounts of the years were begun in 1899. Ronald's
occupies just one side of a sheet of foolscap and ends like
a letter, ' Your loving Ronald ' followed by' P.S. It is to
Mother to read' another little indication of his natural
timidity, which he could even then conquer when he felt
that something was required of him ; for to recite at the
mid-term concert, as spoken of in his account, would need
far more resolution than to read what he had written to
the very friendly and appreciative circle at home.
Among the doings of school and holidays which stood
out in his memory at the end of the year the only thing
which need be mentioned is the November night when ' the
shooting stars were supposed to come but they didn't '
a great disappointment to many as well as the writer.
No accounts were written in 1900, but they were resumed
at the end of the following year when Ronald wrote
a much fuller history. The slight impression made upon
him by the Boer War as an event seems remarkable.
There is no reference to its progress :
' On the i8th February came the news of Mr. Church's
death at the war. He was one of our masters. Some
time before had come the news of Queen Victoria's death
from anxiety. We had a whole holiday to see the Queen's
funeral, and we had the luck to get a window in London.
We also got a half a morning off for the Proclamation of
the King in Oxford.'
The account ends: 'Teddie got the Brackenbury
Scholarship for Science at Balliol for which we offer him
our best congratulations : it is an extremely good ending
to the year." 1
The story of 1902 again shows a great increase in length,
extending to nearly seven pages of foolscap. It begins
with the Christmas visit to Youlbury and the games and
acting there. Wedged into the account of the first term,
after it had been written, were the words: 'About this
time Peace was declared. There was a demonstration in
1897 193 6 1
Oxford.' This and 'the carpentering shop and Museum
otherwise known as the Church Memorial ' at the O.P.S.
are the only references to the Boer War.
There is an amusing description of his cousin Eustace
Palmer's wedding at Easter. Ronald speaks of the building
work in the garden at St. Helens being stopped
'by the invitation to Eustace's wedding, in which Janet
took part as Bridesmaid. The wedding was effected at
St. Marie's Church. Janet though almost ill with fright
still had enough in her to take the pretty bracelet which
was given her as a present. After supper Aunt Jean very
kindly sent us off to Ulysses, It was lovely, especially the
scene representing Hades.'
Ronald's account of the journey from St. Helens to
Oxford at the end of the summer holidays of 1902
referring only to Janet, Ronald himself, and the maids, for
the others were away reveals, I think, a power and sense
of responsibility unusual in one so young :
' After saying good-bye to all around here we started off.
I walked by the sea-wall. We got into a very crowded
train at Stokes Bay. At Fareham much to our surprise
we were told we had to change. There was a frightful
squash. We got into a first-class carriage much to the
disgust of the guard. We again changed at Eastleigh,
this time into a carriage where we hardly had standing
room. At last we reached Basingstoke only to find that
we had lost our train and must wait for an hour and
a half. After a long time we got into an almost empty
carriage with some ladies who greatly disliked our animals
and who threatened to call the guard. Luckily the guard
was not forthcoming. We again had to change at Reading,
making five changes in all. We at last reached Oxford.'
During his Dragon period Ronald remained unusually
nervous. His mother recalls that, in the early years, he
found great difficulty, owing to his timidity, in getting
' changed ' after games or bathing, and she well remembers
the quakings at breakfast on the first morning of the
school term after the holidays, the one breakfast at which
Ronald would not eat marmalade ! I think, however, that
62 THE O.P.S.
this form of self-denial did not last very long. The same
timidity appears in his account of 1901, when he said of
a visit to Wokefield Park at Easter ' Uncle Alfred very
kindly hired us two horses, but they were extremely fierce
ones '.
My own memories are of the little disasters of childhood
at St. Helens fortunately few and far between, so that
very little of his youth was clouded in this way. And
sometimes there seemed to be a special justification for
resentment against the fates. For instance, coming down
from his bedroom with bare feet he once trod on a ' sleepy '
wasp and was told that he had better put his shoes on
next time. But when next time came he felt justly
aggrieved that another 'sleepy' wasp had taken up its
abode in one of the shoes ! ' You told me to do it ', he said
reproachfully, and it was evident that the fact made the
pain all the harder to bear.
Margaret too remembers, in the wonderful games and
sports that used to go on, mainly under her leadership,
how Ronald took his failures very much to heart. He was
about ten at this time, and, although Janet was too young
and Ted and Hilda too old to join, the ' Black Demon
Band' was a formidable organization, including the cousins,
children of Dr. and Mrs. Waller, and the family of our
friend the late Prof. Gotch. St. Helens is an ideal place
for such romantic adventures sand pits for headquarters
where the trial of rebels could be conducted in secret,
deep dark thickets of gorse where it was possible to hide
from foes who were always seeking to destroy the band, so
that it was necessary to run from one cover to another
very stealthily and quickly : it was safest indeed to traverse
the dangerous open spaces in single file with the body
bent at a right angle so that the height was reduced to but
little more than half. And in order to be sure that the
Black Demons were thoroughly fit it was necessary to
subject them to certain tests which were carried out on
a little single-plank bridge with a narrow hand-rail on one
side. There was also the added fascination of danger at
1897 193 63
any rate to clothes, for the bridge spanned a little stream,
4 the heart of the river', and its banks of soft black mud,
picturesquely called 'the porcupine piggishness '. The
crowning feat was to walk along the narrow hand-rail.
When Ronald fell he would exclaim ' Oh ! I'm killed ', not
entirely in joke, and for quite a long time would lie
motionless in the ' porcupine piggishness '.
At Oxford too Margaret and Ronald used to have great
times in my workshop in the Dragon days, she doing her
carving and he pretending to be an inefficient workman
appropriately named Mr. Boosey.
It was in the year 1903, when he was about 13^, that
Ronald's personality first attracted the attention and the
surprise of his brother. Edward would no doubt have
recognized it much earlier but for the six years' interval
which prevented them from being at school together.
I remember very well the incident described in the follow-
ing memories :
1 1 think the first occasion on which I noticed there was
something different from myself in Ronald, at any rate in
regard to our effect on other people, was on the occasion
of our Easter visit to Paris, when there had been a row at
the O.P.S. The difficulty was that the Skipper had been
in the habit of asking various boys who were not in the
cricket eleven, to go with the team and watch matches
against other schools. This was looked on as a great treat
by the boarders, as it meant a change from the regular
routine. However, with many day-boys a Saturday after-
noon at home was more enjoyable than watching any
cricket match, and there was some grumbling.
' The Skipper was furious when he got to know about
it, and thought Ronald was one of the chief grumblers,
whereas, as far as I remember, Ronald did not mind very
much either way, in fact he rather liked going. The
Skipper one day told the school straight out what he
thought of the grumblers, and in particular told Ronald
what he thought of him. Ronald was much upset, and
eventually Father wrote to Mr. Lynam and explained
matters. When we were in Paris, Ronald received a most
penitent letter from the Skipper, asking him to reply as
soon as possible that he would forgive him for his suspi-
64 THE O.P.S.
cions, and make things all right again. Ronald began his
letter " Dear Scipper 'V and in a most matter of fact way
and quite unaffectedly said that things were all right. He
received a second affectionate letter of thanks. I well
remember the impression that these two letters made on
me that Ronald had succeeded in creating in another
man a much deeper affection than I had ever done, and
wondering what mere was in this small boy that made this
possible.'
From Mr. C. C. Lynam, the Headmaster of the O.P.S.
' I have been trying to put something down on paper
about Ronnie, but I find it impossible. There is so much
to say and yet one simply cannot say it. He was one of
those boys in whose presence it was impossible to say or
do anything nasty or offensive, and he seemed to raise and
purify the atmosphere of school life. I really do not
remember ever having had to find fault with him. His
smile and his clear bright look always made me feel that
one need never to ask, " Is life worth living ? " There came
a sort of breath of the Divine with him that dissipated care
and weariness and renewed one's faith in God and Man.
I am ever your debtor, my friend, in that you gave me
the privilege of intimately knowing and loving your dear
boy.'
1 He always spelled it that way when a Dragon. I remember that
his first sentence he showed me the letter was to this effect :
' I was very glad to get your letter for I was rather anxious.' He then
went on at once to our doings in Paris. E. B. P.
IV
RUGBY: 1903-1908
My memory of Ronnie and our school life together is very vivid in
my recollection. His death upset me more than anything which has
so far happened in this war, and he still lives in my memory and that
of many others of his pals as the finest fellow we have ever met.
Lt. C. C. WATSON, R.F.A., from the front, Jan. 24, 1917. Died of
wounds June i, 1917.
I can never forget the help he gave me and the influence which in
his unobtrusive way he shed around him at Rugby and in the School
House. I can but thank God that I have known him. THE LATE
HEADMASTER OF RUGBY.
THIS book was nearly finished when I read The Loom
of Youth, in which the author claims that English Public
Schools in general are fairly represented in the picture
of ' Fernhurst '. The picture is certainly false of Rugby as
Ronald knew it. Early in his time there was a boy at the
School House who in his exclusive devotion to games and
the style of his language was everything that the author of
the Loom presents as typical. But it is quite clear from
Ronald's correspondence with his older friend, H. F. Garrett,
that this boy was not only exceptional but also unpopular.
Garrett, who knew the boy when he was at the School
House, wrote from Cambridge a tolerant letter advocating
exceptional treatment for an exceptional class :
'All these men want is work they can get up an in-
terest for. Caesar and Xenophon never by any chance
could appeal to them ; and so, when they are at School,
every bit of energy or interest they have is concentrated
on games. It's not really their fault; they're made like
that. The sooner they leave a public school, the better
for themselves and the school, and I don't think a 'Varsity
is the place for them either.' At the 'Varsity, he said,
such a man ' is sure to find heaps of men who care for
66 RUGBY
games and games alone, and he will only get worse and
worse. Whereas, if he goes into some business and gets
to understand that there are other things than cricket and
footer in life, he is sure to improve, provided he has got
some of the right stuff in him.'
As regards immorality the picture in the Loom is even
less true of Rugby. C. P. Evers writes :
' Often when we met after school days we did not dis-
cuss serious matters to any extent when the meetings
were short there was no time for much more than ordi-
nary exchange of views, and we were so glad to see each
other that we spent a good deal of the time laughing.
' But we often did discuss things that mattered much
of it connected with school, the relations of masters and
boys, the duties of the Vlth, the curriculum, and so on.
Above all, we discussed moral questions. The following
letter shows how deeply he felt about this when he went
to Oxford and started work at the Balliol Boys' Club.
He felt strongly that boys ought to be warned of moral
dangers at school. We had some correspondence about
this. He was evidently so upset by his discoveries that
I did my best to comfort him. But we agreed that it was
a difficult subject to treat in the best and wisest way.'
Ronald's letter was written from Balliol on March 2,
1910:
4 What I want to ask you is, don't you think that grave
harm is done in Public Schools
' (i) By not explaining quite plainly all about it merely
from the material point of view of the boy to the boy
when he gets to a suitable age,
4 (2) by not being much plainer about it, and by cloaking
it under such vague terms as are used in the pulpit ana
elsewhere ?
' I am quite sure that the principle of keeping that kind
of thine dark must be wrong, when I say that I went right
through Rugby with only the vaguest ideas of what was
meant by immorality. Although I admit that certain words
from my Mother kept me straight before I went to Rugby.
What I mean is that had I gone wrong at Rugby, though
it would have been largely my fault, yet to a large extent
it would have been through ignorance of the harm I was
doing myself. Because our house, like all the houses at
I 93 1 98 67
Rugby, I hope, never opened any boy's eyes by any filthy
action.
' Excuse my talking, my dear Claude, on this sordid
subject. But after all in the slums of Oxford or elsewhere,
it is the only matter of desperate importance. What I ask
you can you think of this system of concealment of
knowledge, when one of our officers expressed surprise
because we were horrified when he casually told us that
he made a beast of himself?
' In a club of some forty or fifty boys I suppose we know
of some ten or twelve boys who have contracted the most
filthy habits. And there are probably many more.
' I am convinced that all that which is preached in the
pulpit about filling up your time, and never being idle, is
simply a gospel of cowardice. It teaches you not to face
the temptation, but somehow or other to get round it.
What I say is make the boy realize the wrong he does
himself, so that having realized it, he may be strong
enough to be able to be idle without harm.
1 After all as Rae * said, it is such a common thing, that
why should it be talked of in bated breath, and never
explained ? '
After speaking again of his ignorance of such things at
Rugby he continues :
' How can you expect an ignorant boy to ask about
things, about which there is such a mystery? Certain
people at School used to say how pi I was, and how
ignorant of things. And I ask you how can a member of
the Vlth do his duty in this business if he doesn't know
what to look out for ?
' I can quite understand the danger of making the whole
thing too open and obvious. But I would not let any boy
know anything about it till he comes to the age when the
temptation may assail him.'
In the concluding words of an article on the school in
Country Life for April 8, 1916, Alfred Ollivant sums up his
impressions of Rugby as he knew it and speaks of the
time that was coming the time of which some features
are, I hope, preserved in the following sections :
1 Ronald's Balliol friend Keith Rae, often spoken of in later pages.
F2
68 RUGBY
'Dr. Percival killed the heavy swell. Since his days
the ' buck ', as I believe the modern Rugbeian calls him, is
a boy among boys, and not a god among mortals. And in
the last twenty years the school athletes have excelled as
never before : Victor Cartwright, the two Stoops, Ronald
Poulton, Kenneth Powell, E. W. Dillon, all learned their
craft in the Close. Certainly the times have changed.
That lingering note of savagery which characterized the
upper classes, and therefore the Public Schools, through
the nineteenth century has died away. And it is hard for
us to conceive that there may be Rugbeians still alive who
remember when it was the custom for the fag to warm his
master's bed of bitter winter nights by lying in it before
the entry of his lord. In my time there was no bullying
at Rugby, but on the other hand there were no Ronald
Poultons, Rupert Brookes, and Kenneth Powells. These
men stand for something new in the history of the school.
They represent the spirit of the twentieth century,
a graciousness, a tolerance, a human sympathy, unknown
to us of the older generation.
' And these three great ones I have named, if they were
the chief, were also but the children of their time. All
three, with hundreds more who were used with them to
answer Calling Over in Old Big School, have fallen
victims to that eruption of animalism which is the anti-
thesis of everything for which their large and generous
natures stood. They and their fellows have fought the
good fight and finished their course, almost before the
echo of their schoolboy feet has died in Quad and Cloister ;
but they are surely with us still
Marching at dusk across the Close in column,
Mud-stained and triumphant from the trenches where they
bled,
Endless Battalions, in the listening twilight,
Swinging home at evening, the Army of our Dead.'
In writing the account of Ronald's schooldays I have
received much kind help from his friends among the
masters and boys, and have also consulted the pages of
the Meteor, especially for his athletic performance. But
I have chiefly relied on Ronald's own words in his letters
and accounts of the years. These will show that his
school life was not a thing apart but woven into one with
1903 6g
his family life. Quoted passages without any indication of
origin are always from Ronald's accounts of the years.
To Hilda.
'Oct. 4.
' I am getting on very well here thank you. I find it
much nicer than I expected it to be. The Sixth in our
dorm, is very young and rather strict, but he is very nice.
' Last Wednesday Bowring (Head of games) took me into
his study and told me all about what Mr. Lynam wrote to
him. He asked me who taught me footer, so I said
Vassall. He said " G. C. Vassall of Oxford. Oh, vou
must be well taught". This shows how famous Vassall is.
' It is very touchant (" tres touchant " to copy what you
said) to find I am at all missed by my elder sister.
4 / am an Alto in the choir. I sing most superiorly now,
and please tell Mother that I will sing alto with her in
church when I come home/
To Margaret at school in Paris.
1 Oct. 25.
'As I have not really written a decent letter this term
I must do so now. Thank you so much for your letter, it
was kind of you to write. I am sorry I have not written
before, but Sunday is the only day I can write.
' I am working very hard here to get out of my form
(Upper Middle II) next term, though I think this very
doubtful.
' Mr. Lynam wrote as you know to the head of the games
to tell him of our respective merits. In consequence
I play invariably now in " Belows" *, the top House Game.
1 In order to understand this and other football terms in use at
Rugby it is necessary to explain the system followed at the school.
My son Dr. E. P. Poulton has drawn up the following account :
' " Big-side " is an arranged game of football, on the Big-side ground
opposite the Tablet commemorating the origin of Rugby Football,
between the best two Fifteens in the school chosen entirely by merit
from any House. It takes place nearly every half-holiday, except
when there are foreign matches or House matches. During my last
years there were always two Big-sides, absorbing 60 players between
them. While Big-side is being played the first Fifteens of all the
Houses, without the best players who are in Big-sides, play against
70 RUGBY
I have not yet played in a House Match and I know
I shan't do so this year, but I played in "Counting Belows"
which is really a House Match without the five or six best
chaps.
' No end of chaps get " dished " (hurt) in footer. In one
game we played one man went off to the " San. " with
a sprained ankle, while four or five others stopped the
game at different times for about three minutes each. At
present in our house we have three members of the House
Fifteen in the San. besides one who has just come out.
But you needn't be afraid of me getting hurt, as it is
usually the forwards who get hurt and not the |s.
' Half term in two weelcs hurrah ! Then I shall see
Mother!!!!
That letter of yours was quite worth the money I can
assure you. I am becoming quite a letter-writer now.
I write about five to seven Tetters on Sunday, only five
to-day. You are coming home for Christmas I hope : as
I am looking forward to seeing you then. It will dis-
appoint me if you don't.
'Chapel bell just going for Evening Service. Please
write soon/
To Hilda.
'Nov. 24.
' " Mes felicitations " on your hockey career. How did you
play against the High School? I suppose you won?
(Don't show Janet this or she might get angry at me
taking it for certain that you won) (also please ask her
which [school] was founded first her's or Lynam's, and
which one copied its colours from the other.) We have
had a row here in the school generally, but as it is not
important to any one except those who participated in it,
and I wasn't one of those, it can wait till the holidays to be
told. The only inconvenience is that in consequence all
halves on Monday have been stopped which is rather
a blow.
each other. These are called " Belows ". The second and third
fifteens similarly play against each other and are called "II Belows"
and " III Belows " respectively. On certain days these Below
matches are arranged on a league, viz. as in an American tourna-
ment, and are called "Counting Belows ", " Counting II Belows", and
"Counting III Belows", so called because the victories count towards
the order of merit determined at the end of term.'
i93 7 1
' The Chemistry we do here is awful fun and if only
I had the apparatus in the holidays I could make heaps of
things. You are not doing Chemistry in the Museum are
you ? I wish you were because you and I could go there
together in the holidays to look around.
4 Last Wednesday we had a lecture on the Revolution.
It was a very good lecture [by Hilaire Belloc], but not very
interesting to some boys. I must say I rather liked it ; he
compared with our-time politics rather well and had some
amusing anecdotes to illustrate his words. Last Sunday
we had a lecture on the Mission in India. He showed
some very good slides. He also showed us two Lepers.
It certainly was a most disgusting sight : he apologized for
showing us them. It was a very interesting lecture.'
Lt. C. C. Watson, R. F. A., wrote from the front
Feb. 21, 1917 :
' My first memory of Ronnie is curiously enough, in
view of our later friendship, of the first day he was at
Rugby School. He passed well in the School into
"Upper Middle II" Mr. Hawkesworth's form at that
time and I can still see him distinctly sitting as bottom
boy of the class by the door, with his Eton collar and
rather long front hair generally a little low over his right
eye, and his knees stuck out at an angle of ninety degrees.
I remember him as rather a quiet shy boy at that time and
as I had been in the School a year then we had nothing in
common and I did not get to know him. Funnily enough
that was the only time I was in the same form as Ronnie,
as his progress was much more rapid than mine ; besides
which his specialization took him into a different sphere.'
The first mention of Ronald's football in the Meteor
(Dec. 22, 1903, p. 150) is in the description of School
House v. Collins' in ' Final Counting Belows '. In this
game, won by the School House, 39 points to i try,
he ' played very well at three-quarters '.
In the holidays he went with me for the first time to the
much-loved Magdalen Carols on Christmas Eve (p. 123).
Then there were happy days as of old at Youlbury and at
Marlston, where at the fancy dress ball ' I passed with
some success as a baby. I must give thanks to Margaret
for her kind help in getting me up '.
72 RUGBY
On his return to Rugby Ronald entered Form Upper
Middle I, from which he secured his remove at the end of
the term. He wrote to his mother on Feb. 7 :
' I am third this week in my form which is one better,
and I really think that I have quite a good chance of
getting out at the end of the term, then Hurrah ! ! ! no
more fagging.'
On Jan. 25 there was a school levee on playing Hockey
at Easter, and Ronald thought it a great pity that the game
was not given a trial, for he disliked the School Runs and
thought that most of the boys disliked them too.
' Later on in the term the Confirmation ceremony was
performed. As I was chosen one of the select choir I had
an interesting part in the ceremony.' Then came practising
for the Sports on March 23-24 in which ' I won some races
and so got afterwards a silver bowl Teddie came down
for the Sports and carried off the prize for the Old Boys'
Race with great eclat.' Edward gave a little account of
these sports in a letter to his mother :
'As you might imagine, Ronald did simply splendidly
and I am certain created a record for the number of prizes
he won in events under 16 years and 14^. He won every
event he went in for under 14^.
' His total number of prizes was 8 and I helped to bring
them back to his study after the races.
4 It was impossible not to be impressed with his great
athletic power, and he shows promise of being quite
Rugby's best athlete when he gets older. Of course you
know how entirely he is free from conceit of any kind.
You can imagine that I had one of the nicest days of my
life in watching him.'
The following account of his performance appears in the
Meteor (Apr. 16, 1904, p. 34) :
1 In the under events Poulton stood out pre-eminent.
He won the 100 yds. both under 14! and under 16, the
150 yds. under 16, the 300 under 14^, the Broad Jump
under 16, the Half-Mile under 14^, was second in the High
Jump and Steeplechases under 16, and third in the
Hurdles under 16, a wonderful all-round performance.
1904 73
His times in the 300 yds. and half-mile under 14^ were
excellent, and his winning two 100 yd. races one after the
other in 12 sees, was a very fine performance.'
Lt. C. C. Watson wrote :
1 1 remember towards the end of that winter term [1903]
that I heard his name mentioned several times as a very
promising football player, but the first time he became
really known was when he swept the board at the Junior
Sports in 1904. I took a special interest in the per-
formance, having done the same the year before, and
I remember being told by Kenneth Powell that I should
have to look to my laurels, which proved truer than I ever
dreamed of at the time.'
At these, his last athletic sports at Rugby, Kenneth
Powell won the Athletic Cup, with a total of 6|, while his
and C. C. Watson's House, W. G. Michell's, won the
Wrigley Cup with 195, although the School House was
close upon them with 192.
An amusing incident relating to these sports is described
by Ronald in a letter to Margaret a very unusual letter,
inasmuch as the circumstances led him to speak in detail
of his own performance.
1 1 have just been out to dinner with Mrs. Eden who
seems to know a good deal more about Father than I do.
She kept on asking me if Father had such and such a plant,
and I didn't for the life of me know.
4 It was funny ; an assistant master there was talking
about the sports, and he said that one of his (Eden's) boys
had run the half-mile in 2 min. 30 sec. He said he thought
that it was a much better time than the time of the under
14? half-mile at Rugby School, which he said was not at all
a good time and that it was over 2 min. 30 sec. The funny
thing is that I, who won that race, was in the room all the
time ; and as a matter of fact I did it in 2 min. 26! sec.,
which was better than the last two years times and the time
of the under 16. Rather a faux pas wasn't it ? I blushed
most mightily.'
Ronald found this vacation in 1904 'to be of greater
interest than many other Easter holidays, in that it was the
74 RUGBY
first time that the family with the exception of father found
and took up with Palaeolithic flint implements '.
Rugby in the Summer Term seemed to Ronald ' an out-
line of doings fogged and dimmed by a mass of ice-cream.
It is an extraordinary thing, but practically not a day
passed in which I did not regale myself with at least one
ice-cream '.
He was placed in Mr. Payne-Smith's form V2b, and
was extremely happy and interested in the work, although
disappointed in failing to get his remove. In cricket he
1 missed the House Eleven by one place. The evenings
were usually spent in going on "ends", that is playing
cricket in a net. As I had got my Young Guard, which is
a collection of boys under sixteen, I had an advantage in
that I could go when I wished to nets which had a special
professional to coach.'
On the breaking-up day he went to London with his
friends the Garretts to stay with them and see the match
at Lords, which was 'very depressing just as it was all
through, as we were so completely out-played '. One
evening 'we played bridge, but as they completely out*
played me, the game to me was a continual attempt to keep
down the number of my mistakes. Needless to say I failed
entirely '.
Among 'facts which must be mentioned: on June n
Sir Alfred Jones in fulfilment of his promise sent to Janet
a grey parrot. It is now quite a pet of the family '. The
bird, which speaks Ronald's name beautifully, was always
a great favourite of his, and is associated with him in many
memories, especially at St. Helens, where ' Pepper ' would
always be near us when we worked in the garden and
would be wheeled down to the beach on the barrow when
the tent was to be put up. On one occasion he was
frightened by a movement of part of the framework on
which he was sitting, and flew straight into the sea. Ronald
waded in to the rescue and found him floating very high in
the water and showing his alarm, not by loud and piercing
sounds, but by great rapidity of utterance. I also remember
I 94 75
Ronald, as he was sitting reading in the train on the way
to St. Helens, putting his finger through the bars of the
little travelling cage so that Pepper might be amused by
caressing it.
Janet was the great source of information about Pepper
and all the other animals. Thus, in 1905, Ronald was
told that
' Pepper is very well ; he says " Ronald " ; he tries to say
" Ronald you rascle ". " Prince" [Hilda's dog] is ill ; he has
bronchitis (I've no idea how to spell it).
' One of the baby pigeons died ; he was quite tame and
couldn't fly, and would not eat. I buried him in my
Cemetry, and put a slate up for a grave stone, and wrote on
it in red chalk :
In loving Memory of
BABS
only child of Clowie.'
Margaret too was always full of information about the
animals and once taxed his ingenuity with this statement :
' We have at present in the house thirty-eight living or beat-
ing hearts, counting humans, if you understand these
statistics.'
In the summer holidays, when the family was reunited,
an event happened by which Ronald was a good deal
upset. One special charm of St. Helens was its uncon-
ventionality. All the members of the family could do as
they liked and dress as they liked. But in the summer of 1904
a house in the village was taken by a pleasant friendly family
with different ideas. ' They were very fashionable but nice.
Their chief amusement seemed to be dancing.' Now danc-
ing at St. Helens seemed to Ronald the beginning of the
end of the old simplicity, and when an invitation arrived he
'was rather perturbed. It necessitated a journey to
Ventnor to get some articles of apparel. At length I was
persuaded and Margaret and I accepted. My view may be
summed up in a few words. I knew no ladies, I could not
then dance the waltz. The dance which finished at i.o
lengthened into a supper which lasted till 2.0. As I had
two suppers already with Margaret, I refused this one.
76 RUGBY
Margaret accepted it. In consequence I sat down on
a chair absolutely alone and surrounded by waitresses.'
Ronald's account of the summer at St. Helens starts
with :
.' One other topic of importance. That, of course, is our
find of Palaeoliths. We came expecting to find, and
strange to say we did find them. We went often several
times a week, and though on many occasions we were not
rewarded yet I should think we brought back trophies on
almost a dozen occasions. Mr. Baker J came down to visit
us. He was rather shaky in his belief with regard to
them. But one lucky day we set out and he found one.
This quite converted him. The rage grew on us in pro-
portion as we succeeded, even leading us to get up at
6.0 a.m. the day before we left.'
His account of the holidays ends : ' the night before
I went to Rugby we went to the " Lights o' London " a some-
what melodramatic but all the same pathetic play. I enjoyed
it very much.'
At Rugby he was still in V 2 b, under Mr. Payne-Smith,
who had been so Ronald found to his great surprise for
two years head of Wycliffe Hall, next door to his Oxford
home. ' He is an awfully nice man. The more 1 saw of
him the more I liked him.'
Ronald's place in the choir became rather uncertain in
this Advent Term, but he succeeded in keeping it, as he
wrote to his brother on Oct. 2, ' by a judicious oiling of
the voice. As a matter of fact I can sing alto quite well,
but I shan't be able to last on next term I'm afraid '.
The following letter, written to his mother on Dec. 18,
is fixed into his scrap-book, probably because of the early
reference to his dear friend William Temple :
4 1 have really had a most successful term's work and
play. Besides my form Prize, last Wednesday I was
approached by the Captain of Football and awarded my
Flannels (known as ' Bags ') a Distinction l next below
1 Prof. H. B. Baker, F.R.S.
1 The 'Distinctions' at Rugby are given in Advent Term for success
1904 77
a Cap. I know it 's a thing I oughtn't to be overjoyed at,
but I'm quite pleased. But I think there is too much fuss
made over it. For I am now in Hall, 1 that is a thing which
people of 7 terms are entitled to, and I can wear ' Barmaid '
collars, &c.
' Well, I am looking forward to see you all on Wednes-
day, I can tell you.
'Yesterday we had a game School House v. School
House Old Rugbeians. The O. R.'s won. There were a lot
whom I knew, the dear W. Temple and H. F. Garrett, &c.
Bye-the-bye H. H. Hardy 2 is here taking a form whose
master is away. I talked to him in the interval of the
Concert last night : he is awfully nice. The Concert was
quite a success and very novel a very good treble solo
and 4 Piano solos with strings. To-morrow there is a
short school Concert, in which there is going to be a piece
of 4 Pianos with two at each. I rather doubt whether it will
be a success.'
Ronald's account of 1904 continues :
' The night before breaking up an old custom was
observed, which is observed at the end of every term.
in Football. They are (i) ' Flannels ', commonly known as ' Bags '
the right to wear black stockings : there are about 30 of these in the
school at any one time. (2) ' Caps ', wearing white knickers, special
jerseys, and a gorgeous gold and silver braided tasselled velvet cap :
there are about 30 of these. (3) The XV, with a special band on the
straw hat, blue knickers, and crest on the white jersey.
The value attached to ' Distinctions ' may be inferred from a para-
graph in his brother's account of 1904 : ' It was a great pleasure to
find that Ronald had got his " Bags ", a Distinction which I just missed
getting all the time I was there. He is on the way to being a regular
blood, one of the right kind, combining powers of work with athletic
proficiency.'
1 William Temple kindly informs me that ' Getting into Hall ' at the
School House means the privilege of sitting at the middle table for
meals and of coming into the Hall and reading the papers after Prep,
in the evening, or between Lock-up and Prep. The only fire in the
House is there, so the privilege is worth something. The right of
using the Hall at other times, and of walking through or standing
under Hall Arch is confined to Sixths, Caps, Elevens, and the Head
of Hall, viz. the Senior boy, provided he holds a distinction of some
kind such as the Racquet Pair.
2 Capt. Rifle Brigade ; now Headmaster of Cheltenham.
78 RUGBY
I refer to the custom of ' knuckling down '. All the fags
are leaped over as in leap-frog (down a narrow passage
into which the dormitories lead) by the Distinctions. I had
to leap. I think it is a silly custom, as I got my toes hurt
against the sides of the passage several times.' "
In the Lent Term of 1905 Ronald was confirmed by
Bishop Mylne, whose impressive address I remember very
well. A little earlier in the term his friend H. F. Garrett
wrote to him from Cambridge :
' Just a short letter really a short one this time to give
you all good wishes for your confirmation and all it may
bring. I hope it will always be a comfort to you and a
source of strength in times of sorrow and temptation :
I am certain it can well be all this, and often is so.'
As regards work he 'entered Mr. Collins' form Va'.
The following undated letter to Hilda is shown by the
reference to hockey to belong to this term. The absence
of his sister's letter is to be regretted, considering the
nature of its effects.
' A sad fatality must be recorded :
'FROM THE BIDEE 1 ! NEWS.
SAD DISAPPEARANCE OF A
' RUGBY SCHOOL
' STUDENT
* 12.0 a.m.
1 It appears that on Monday last during breakfast in the
School House Rugby Hall, a student, whose name has
been ascertained to be R. W. Poulton, was seen suddenly
and with increasing celerity to be slipping below the table.
All efforts to save him were found impossible. He was
picked up almost unconscious. No further details.
' (Through Reuter's Agency)/
At the bottom of the front page, entirely occupied by the
above notice, was a reference to the last page giving later
news :
1 12. TO.
' All fears can be dispelled. The youth has recovered
and gives details. He says that he received that morning
1 A family word meaning mock sympathy.
1905 79
a letter from his sister E. H. P. which was so amusing and
so terribly funny and witty, that he laughed so hard that
he found himself slowly losing consciousness and sinking
below the table. Measures are being taken by school
authorities to open and destroy any too amusing letters
as being too funny for youths' precarious nerves.
'(Reuter).'
' Isn't it lovely about Hockey with regard to you and
Teddie ? I hear Teddie scored the goals against London
and you, you are playing vigorously. Bye the bye they
haven't elected you to play for the English Ladies' team
yet, have they ? Please marconigraph when they do/
The last paragraph referred to the selection of his brother
and eldest sister for the Oxford v. Cambridge teams. A
little later he wrote to his brother on his share in the
Oxford victory (3 goals to i) :
' Hearty congratulations on your brilliant victory. You
don't know how I swelled with pride when I read your
magnificent doings in the papers. They praised you like
anything. I should have loved to have been there to
watch. The papers said that your " fast passes and dash-
ing plav won the game ", or something similar. It really
was glorious, especially so, since the betting was for
Cambridge and against Oxford.'
His sister's match was less successful, for although the
score was the same, 3-1, it was unfortunately the other
way.
Ronald wrote of the Sports in his account of 1905 : ' our
House succeeded in winning the Wrigley Cup. I won an
event or two and bought a silver salver with the proceeds.'
The Meteor (April 4, 1905, p. 38) says of him : ' In the
junior events Poulton and C. C. Watson were, as last year,
unrivalled, besides being conspicuous in the opens as well.'
Ronald's performance in this and other years at Rugby is
tabulated on p. 105.
Ronald was, with two others, fifth for the Athletic Cup,
gained by M. B. U. Dewar. The cup is awarded for the
highest marks gained in open events, each first counting
i and each second mark.
8o RUGBY
The School House gained the Wrigley Cup with 256
marks, the next house, Donkin's, gaining 97.
Ronald played in the School XV in all five Rugby matches
of the term. In the first v. Cambridge O. R.'s, he had
Kenneth Powell as an antagonist. At Easter
I The search for implements went on, with varying luck.
Our enthusiasm was tremendous and compelled us to get
up before breakfast to prosecute our search.
' The summer term as usual went off absolutely unevent-
fully with cricket, work in Mr. Collins' form, bathing, and
bicycle rides with Mr. Payne-Smith. A bright and happy
spot in the term was the visit to Rugby by Mother, Hilda,
and Margaret a farewell visit before their African tour.'
On this subject he wrote to Margaret on July 16 :
I 1 must say I wish you weren't going, but it 's a selfish
wish and I retract it. But it will be a very different holi-
days to most, as we make so much of being all together.'
A little later, after we had started, he wrote to Janet, the
only sister left in England, on July 23 :
1 1 suppose you are the Mother I must write to now (only
I hope in that case that you will write to me as many times
as Mother does). Isn't it sad now they have all gone ? '
Towards the end of term Ronald received a letter from
the Skipper, referring to the three Old Dragons in the
School House W. T. Collier, Claude Hardy, and Ronald
himself:
1 1 want to tell you what a reputation you three in the
School House have to live up to. Dr. James wrote to me
the other day : " Your School House trio are excellent
fellows, good workers, manly, and altogether an excellent
element in it, so I am keen to get more." Give my love
to the other two and mind you all three live up to your
present character ! It is a long time since anything has
pleased me so much. Scholarships are nothing to it.'
On July ii Ronald wrote to his brother at Balliol, who
had been unfortunate in his class in the Final School of
Natural Science (Chemistry) :
'You really don't know how much I sympathize with
1905 8i
you, in not obtaining a first. Any one with a bit of an eye
can see that you are well worth it ; it is a pity. But after
all, I don't see that it makes so much difference except
with regard to Fellowships. But I am sure they won't
take much regard to your place when they know you.
I shall be awfully interested to hear about it when I see
you. But I can easily see from what Father said you did
not anything like do yourself justice. I think exams, are
such very bad tests of a man's ability, because it is only
a certain kind of examn. brain which can contract into
three hours all the amount of knowledge required. Here
I fail always.'
At the beginning of the summer holidays Ronald again
stayed with his friends the Garretts to see the match. He
then met his brother at Charing Cross and went with him
to New Romney for his first visit to the Rugby Mission
Camp. Thus, before he was sixteen, was born in Ronald
that enthusiasm which grew stronger and stronger with
each year of his life, becoming in the end the most power-
ful of all the influences by which he was swayed.
Later on in the holidays Ronald went to Carlisle ' to
meet Mr. Collins by whom I had been invited to visit the
Roman Wall stretching from Newcastle to Carlisle. We
stayed the night at Carlisle, and the next day trained to
Naworth, where we saw a splendid old abbey. We drove
along the wall, seeing some nne bits of Roman architecture,
till we reached Hexham. We saw Hexham Abbey, a fine
old building in the centre of the town, and early the next
morning drove to Chollerford for breakfast. This village
is on the river Tyne and is close to the bridge which the
Romans built over the river, the piers of which can be seen
still quite clearly in the water. We inspected this and then
drove along the wall till it turned away from the road to
scale some cliffs to the north. . . . We lunched in the Roman
fort of Borcovicus on the wall and walked back along the
wall on the top of some fine rugged cliffs, from which we
could see the Northumberland lakes very well. We arrived
back at Chollerford in the evening and the next morning
inspected a fine encampment near the bridge/
At school in the Advent Term : ' As I was head of games
in the house, I had a great many new duties to perform.
I was made a sixth power much to my pleasure and finally
82 RUGBY
joined the specialists and definitely started my extra work
in Physics and Chemistry. The work was of course quite
new and strange and the physics especially very difficult.
But by degrees it got easier and soon I began to see what
I was aiming at.'
In a letter to his mother, he spoke of the sixth power
and of his feeling of responsibility :
1 The House has only seven Vlths and so two more have
been made to look after the eighty boys in the house, and
I'm one. I am ever so glad. And Dr. James was very
complimentary when he gave it me. He made me quite
blusn ! I am head of games in the house, so that makes
the reason of me being chosen as one.'
During this term Ronald was given his ' Cap ' and his
'Colours' as one of the XV. His 'character* is thus
described in the Meteor (xxxix, p. 163) :
' R. W. Poulton, '05 (10 st. 3 Ib.) : A centre three-quarter
of great promise. Very fast, and has a useful swerve.
Plays a most unselfish game. His defence is not as strong
as it might be.'
His friend H. F. Garrett wrote from Cambridge :
'Well, very heartiest congratulations, Ronnie, on the
XV : not that of course it was ever for a moment in doubt
that you would get it this year ; but I know what a happy
moment it is one of the happiest in a man's whole life,
I should think when he gets that blissful little note.'
From Ronald to his brother :
' 1 think athletics are made too much of here, though
thank you for your congratulations I am certainly glad to
have got it. We had a lively argument in "Hall" last
night, which resolved itself into the importance of games
and work. I argued with vehemence against a man who
does little or no work, is keen on games, and reads the
Sportsman. It seems to me that if one works with the
same vigour as one plays games one can't go far
wrong.'
In the same letter he took occasion to say another cheer-
ing word about the disappointment in the summer class-list.
1906 83
Referring to a recent examination for a Magdalen Fellow-
ship he said : ' I am so glad you beat all the I Class men,
as it shows your superior worth to everybody who couldn't
see it for himself.'
' The year [1906] started by a performance of Our Boys
by the Poulton family at Wykeham House, before an
audience first of girl and boy friends and then before their
parents. The play was a great success and the staging
showed how wonderfully well a home-made stage and
home-made appliances succeed.' Ronald took the part of
Talbot Champneys, while his brother was Charles Middle-
wick.
Early in the term he wrote to Hilda, comparing their
work :
' How goes the Physics ? I hope well. I at present
am just finishing Heat and am to start on Higher Dynamics.
But I have got to do Optics and Sound and Light and
lots more yet. But in the holidays what fun we shall
have trying to beat each other in questions.'
The earlier pages of this book have shown that Ronald
was intended by nature to be an engineer ; and when in
course of time the question of his University career came
to be considered, we were faced by the difficulty that
Cambridge had a flourishing school in this subject while
Oxford had only made a tentative experiment, just draw-
ing to its close, in the same direction. From the educa-
tional point of view it looked as though$Ronald ought to
go to Cambridge. His own feelings were expressed in a
letter written early in the term to his mother : ' The more
I think of going to Cambridge the more abhorrent it is
to me. I only hope there will be some" way out of it.'
Fortunately for his wishes a way was found, and just in
time, so that Ronald became one of the first pupils of the
first Oxford professor, who came into residence the very
same term as Ronald and succeeded in persuading the
University to establish an Honour School of Engineering.
The incident is of some interest, showing, as it does, the
G 2
8 4 RUGBY
injury to British education that is threatened by those
who contend that each of the two ancient Universities
should leave to the other the representation of certain
important subjects. Many men go and always will go to
Oxford or Cambridge for reasons other than the educa-
tional equipment. Therefore every important subject must
be represented adequately not necessarily equally in
both Universities.
In the course of this term, when he was about i6|,
Ronald had his first experience of speaking in public.
Referring to the starting of a Debating Society in the
School House, he wrote to his mother on Feb. 25 :
' I am sure speaking informally like this makes one much
more a master of oneself when one has to make an im-
promptu speech.' A few days later he wrote : ' We had
a debate last night on the question, " Is sport cruel ? "
I spoke for it being cruel. It was very amusing alto-
gether, but we were badly beaten. I felt quite at home on
my legs, speaking. 1
Earlier pages show Ronald's great keenness and inter-
est in the flint implements found near St. Helens. In
the course of this term I wrote to him suggesting that
he should begin to prepare a paper on the whole collec-
tion, comparing it with those made in other parts of
England. He replied :
' Your letter filled me with pride, though I felt it
slightly undeserved ; for after all I have done very little
at present with regard to implements; but I really feel
very keen and shall just love to start this paper under
your directions.'
The same day he wrote to his mother : ' The more I
think of them, the keener I am to get to St. Helens to
start on my paper about them.' The work, thus begun,
was continued from time to time for many years, giving
him a great deal of pleasure and leading to developments
which will appear later on.
Lord Roberts visited the School early in the term
85
(Meteor, xl, pp. 1-2, 31-5), and Ronald wrote Feb. 18 to his
mother :
1 Lord Roberts came down last Friday and examined
the Corps, and we had ample opportunity of examining
him as ne several times stood just opposite us while we
were looking on. He really is rather nice-looking, and
extraordinarily upright and agile for 72, as I believe he is.
Afterwards he gave us an outline of his policy in Big
School. It was quite sweet to see the way he took on
his top hat when the band played the Grand Salute.
Altogether it was quite an interesting occasion.'
Although at this phase of his life Ronald had no inter-
est in military affairs, he was evidently impressed by
Lord Roberts's visit, for he wrote of it to Edward as well
as to his mother.
The Meteor (xl, p. 41), referring to the Sports towards
the end of term, mentions as ' Among the most notable
features : Poulton's Broad Jump (19 ft. 6 in.), Stoop's and
Poulton's High Jump (5 ft. i in.).' The details of his
performance are given on pages 45-8 with the following
summary : ' In the open events, Poulton was the hero of
the day, winning the Broad Jump, the 150 Yards, the
Quarter Mile, and the Hurdle Race, and being second in
the Hundred Yards and High Jump.' Ronald won the
Athletic Cup with five marks against three gained by the
second. He also won the Racquet Handicap (Meteor,
xl, p. 41).
He wrote on March 30 to his mother and father con-
gratulating us on our silver wedding, to be celebrated on
the following day.
To his Mother.
1 " Congraters ", as they say here, on your Silver Wed-
ding, and many happy returns of the day.
' Time seems to go faster and faster, and I remember
quite well, several years ago, reckoning up what year
your Silver Wedding would come in. And now it has
come. I only hope it will be a very happy one.
' With best love, darling, and many happy returns.'
86 RUGBY
To his Father.
1 Well, Father dear, first let me congratulate you from
my heart on your Silver Wedding.
' It was simply lovely to see you again yesterday, and,
as Mr. Collins said, you looked young enough to be my
brother. What a lovely time we do have together in
the I.O.W. and at Oxford, don't we? I am sure this
holidays will be no exception.
' I always feel so terribly sorry for the boys whom I
know, who have lost their parents, when I think what
you and mother are to me.
4 1 hope you will have a nice time in London and
thoroughly enjoy yourself. Please give me your impres-
sion of Nero, as a boy in our house is always talking
about the goodness and beauty of it.
' On Tuesday next I am going with Hugh-Jones to the
Lime Kilns, where they have found implements and
Elephas antiquus bones. I don't know whether we shall
find anything, as it all depends on whether a fresh face
of gravel has been cleared or not. Anyhow it will be
very great fun. When we get to the Isle of Wight we
really must investigate the Foreland locality, which Evans
mentions. We might quite possibly find another locality.
' I shall have to seriously start learning Geology now
that this paper is going to be written and that I may
definitely take it up.'
Towards the end of the Easter holidays Ronald deve-
loped mumps, and, as he wrote :
' Began on my paper on the palaeolithic locality in
Priory Bay, in fact of the whole Island.
' The work seemed easier, and I found I had quite got
the drift of the work, and I think I learnt quite a large
amount. The cricket was not particularly interesting,
and the scorer I am sure found it monotonous continually
putting down the same score against me. As a matter
of fact, for some unknown reason I was given my tie, a
distinction which I certainly did not earn.'
To Hilda.
1 1 may as well say straight away, that I only wish the
inventor of cricket had never been born. For some in-
explicable reason they thought fit to give me my " tie "
1906 8y
the lowest distinction but as my last scores have been
i 4 3> y u can see how little I am worth it. I got it
on the strength of an 81 I made.'
Towards the end of term he wrote to his brother :
' I simply must do some work in the holidays, and I
want you to do your best to force me to do so.'
' . . . Term ended, and I waited on an hour or two to
meet Father, Mother, Hilda, and Teddie at Rugby Station
all bound for the York British Association. It was my
first British Association, and a very interesting experience.
I went to several Sections and heard papers on Radium,
osmotic pressure, &c., and unfortunately just missed an
account of an implement locality at Ipswich. Hilda and
I varied our labours by delicious ices at a restaurant
near by. The second lecture Father and I cut and went
to the Silver King at the theatre as a pleasant diversion.
We went a fine expedition to Rivaulx Abbey all across
the moors, and had a splendid view of the Abbey from a
magnificent grass terrace almost overhanging it.'
Ronald was not yet reconciled to dancing. A letter to
Hilda shows clearly enough that he was still gripped by
the memories of St. Helens two summers before :
' Margaret and I will have a lovely time at Marlston, I
expect, barring the dance which is looming ahead. So
next Saturday or Friday, whichever it is, please think of
a poor chap, with a dinner jacket covering his brawny
shoulders, trying to dance one of the hundreds of valses
with some unknown lady partner. Ough ! ! ! (how do you
spell it?)'
But Margaret was quite equal to the occasion, of which
she wrote :
' I had to brace Ronald up, coax and cuddle him before
I could persuade him to attend such a mighty function.'
And in the end all was well, for he was able to write to
his brother :
' I really quite enjoyed myself. The dance went off
better than I could expect.'
88 RUGBY
Soon after the dance he went back to Rugby, and his
account continues:
4 1 found I had been placed in the Vlth and got through
a good deal of work in the term. In the football I played
in all the matches, and as Watson, the Captain, got crocked
in a game quite early in the term and was unable to play
again, I had to Captain the team in most of the matches.
' On the whole term I came out top of the Science
Specialists, which pleased me rather. House supper went
on successfully, and so the term ended.'
His mother wrote to him on Oct. 6 :
' Let me first congratulate you warmly on being in the
Vlth. I am sure you will help to make the Vlth a strong
and high-toned body, and you know as well as I do, that
Prayer to God is the real means which will give you
the power to do this. I can quite imagine how you will
enjoy the increased responsibility.'
The following memories of Ronald were written in a
central African jungle by one of his fags, who wishes
me to observe the Service tradition and withhold his
name :
'When at Rugby it was my good fortune to be his
" fag ", an honour of which I was, and always have been,
very proud. What chiefly impressed one was his cheery
manner and total absence of "side ". To his " fags " he was
invariably kind, considerate, and never patronizing; he
took the trouble to show interest in the small boys who
cleaned his study in the morning and made his toast in
the evening, helped us when in difficulties and was a
genuine friend to us. I have never known any one to
take advantage of his kindness to be familiar or imper-
tinent, but there was something in his manner towards
us " fags " which made us do our small duties for him to
the best of our ability, because one regarded him more
as a friend for whom one would gladly do anything than
as a " fagmaster " whose orders had to be obeyed. So
far as I know, he was the only " buck " (to use a school
term) who, realizing that the future of the house games
lay in teaching the small boys, used to take the trouble to
come down to our games in his spare time to instruct
us in the art of playing football. A word of praise from
1906 89
him on these occasions was more valued by us than the
highest commendation from anybody else.'
Letters from his friend H. F. Garrett show that Ronald,
in thus helping the small boys with their games, was the
inheritor of a fine tradition. Harry Garrett, one of four
brothers, all at the School House, was only at Rugby for
a year with Ronald. In spite of this short overlap, and
the four years difference in their ages, the boys became
great friends and often wrote to each other after Harry
had gone to Cambridge. One letter, which as it turned
out was prophetic, was written Oct. 18, 1906, when Ronald
was feeling rather despondent at the prospects of the
School House XV:
' Every hour you spend on coaching lower games, &c.,
this year will bear fruit next, and let 's hope you'll captain
a Cock House team your last year at School. You know
how keen I am about this coaching of the lower games,
and you may be sure of my best wishes and sympathy
whether we're Cock House or not. So buck up, old man,
and don't be disheartened.'
When the war broke out H. F. Garrett obtained a com-
mission in the 6th East Yorks. Regt. He was in charge
of a machine-gun section at Gallipoli, and was killed at
Suvla Bay on Aug. 22, 1915. The following extracts are
from a letter to his parents, written on the eve of his
landing and going into action for the first and last time.
The fearlessness for himself and the fear for his men are
characteristic of his unselfishness, courage, and modesty.
' H.M.S. Theseus, Imbros Harbour,
' August 6th, 1915.
' The great push has begun, and I write this (as you
see) from the boat which is taking us across. Long
before you get this letter you will know the result of the
move ; it is evidently a great effort. Our own part in it
(that of the Xlth Division) is to land and occupy Suvla
Bay (some miles north of Gaba Tepe), and then drive inland
from there.
90 RUGBY
' I am very excited and a little afraid not afraid in a
physical sense at all, I am curious to notice but a little
afraid about acquitting ourselves with credit, me and my
Section. Despite all one's efforts to foresee the real thing
and prepare for it in one's training, the real thing is going
to be something vastly different from anything we have
done.
' I have a great responsibility : I may have decisions
to make, and to make instantly, on which many lives will
depend, and that thought frightens me. There are many
fellows in the Section whom I like very much, and I
hate the thought that through some blunder of mine
their lives may be endangered.'
Ronald's play in the various football matches is described
in the Meteor (xl) which gives his 'character' in this
season as follows (p. 183) : ' R. W. Poulton, '05, '06 (10 st.
7 lb.). A really good centre three-quarter, with plenty of
pace ; has an excellent swerving run and makes good
openings, but is sometimes inclined to pass rather wildly ;
a good tackle and fair kick.'
In the course of this Advent Term Ronald first met on
the football field F. N. Tarr, who was to be a great friend
and comrade at Oxford. In this season and the last the
Rugby XV also included F. M. Stoop, who often played
with Ronald in later years.
The accounts of the years were not written by the family
at the end of 1907 or 1908, but an attempt was made to
write both these years, together with 1909, at the end of
this last year. Ronald's memories of the two earlier years,
as he recalled them after this interval, are therefore brief.
From Hilda in January, just after Ronald had gone to
Rugby :
' How am I to exist without a certain cheerful thin
bristly face, I don't know: I do so miss his curly little
fingers, which is all as if I would say that the house is very
different without you and I wish you were still here.'
91
Ronald's answer was certainly consoling and cheering :
' My dearly beloved foot-on-skate skedadler, I hope you
slide the light fantastic toe along the ice until you are
perfect in the three, not to mention the rocker, or bracket,
or grape-vine, or the homely simple spread-eagle. I had
a lovely day yesterday skating on this large lake. A long
row of about 20 of us used to join hands and skate as
hard as we could : then the man at one end would act as
a pivot and stop, and the other outside man would rush
round and usually land on his back. (Ha ! Ha ! howls of
applause.)
1 1 now do about 37 hours' Chemistry and Physics a
week, so I am turning into a regular Professor.'
I had suggested to Ronald that he should write the
article on flint implements for a new guide to the Isle of
Wight which was being prepared under the editorship of
Mr. F. Morey. When I visited Rugby for the Sports
Ronald showed me the correspondence and I wrote to my
wife : ' The Editor of the New Guide to the I. of Wight is
tremendously pleased with Ronald's article on the palaeo-
liths of the Island. He says " it will do admirably " '.
The full title of the book, which was not published till
1909, is : 1 A Guide to the Natural History of the Isle of Wight.
A series of contributions by specialists. . . . Edited by
Frank Morey, F.L.S.', Isle of Wight : the County Press,
Newport.
Pages 37-41 contain 'An Account of discoveries of
palaeolithic implements in the Isle of Wight. By Ronald W.
Poulton, Balliol College, Oxford ' : with two plates, of which
a description is printed on p. vii of the preliminary
matter.
The Meteor (xli, pp. 41-5) in the account of the Sports
says of Ronald :
' Once again, as we did last year, and as we seem likely
to repeat next year, we have to chronicle the phenomenal
success of Poulton ; his all-round powers are well attested
by his grand total of six-and-a-half marks for the Athletic
Cup, including, as it did, victories in the Half Mile, the
Quarter Mile, the 150 Yards, the 100 Yards, the Hurdles,
and the High Jump. . . .'
92 RUGBY
And again ' Poulton's Quarter Mile in 55 seconds came
near to breaking the record for the School Sports. . . .'
The School House won the Wrigley Cup by 168 to iu|
scored by Collins'. Ronald won the first Athletic Cup
with 6, S. E. Swann being second with 3^. Ronald was
also successful in Rackets, winning the School Tie Finals
with Cunningham (xli, p. 45).
1907 was the year of the Oxford Pageant, for which, as
Margaret wrote : ' we had rehearsed steadily through the
term in swamps of mud and rivers of rain.' Ronald came
over from Rugby to see it :
' It was a good show, particularly the point at which the
fellow on the motor car fell into the river. I came back
by 9.0 train, and when I got to the dormitory, I found that
they had fastened up the electric light switches, reversed
my bed, made an apple-pie, &c. But I got it straight, and
woke them all up, so it was about all square.'
In the Summer Term Ronald gained the Senior Prize
for Practical Chemistry. His cricket showed considerable
advance this year, and he was made successively a member
of the XXII (xli, p. 61) and of the XI (p. 85). His
average of 18-88 for 10 innings, twice not out, made him
third in the XI (p. 130). His ' character ' on p. 131 is as
follows :
' R. W. Poulton. An improving bat, who made some
useful scores ; was particularly conspicuous on the field
for his smartness in ground fielding and safe catching.'
An O. R. friend, Basil Cozens-Hardy, wrote : ' I had not
the opportunity of offering you a time-honoured " Allow
me " on getting your XL I said you would get it all right,
but your false modesty protested against such an idea ! '
Ronald's account continues: 'At Lords we gained a
sensational win over Marlborough, and I contributed 4
and 29 not out, and caught a couple of catches.' In this
match he played against his future Oxford friend Ronald
Lagden, who made i and 17 and also bowled for Marl-
borough.
RONALD, AT RUGBY
From a photograph by Geo. A. Dean of Rugby, 1907.
Facing p. 92.]
1907 93
' In September I went to Grasmere to join a party
consisting of Billy Temple, H. H. Hardy, Dick Dugdale,
"Ruth" Arbuthnot, 1 [Roger Gaskell and] H. W. B.
Joseph, on a walking party. We had a fine week in a
wet month, and had some splendid walks. We went to
Scawfell, Scawfell Pike, Bowfell, Helvellyn and many
others. At r the end of the stay Dugdale and I went to
Carlisle to meet J. Collins, who was taking us on the
Roman Wall. It was lovely renewing our acquaintance
with it. We had some gorgeous sunsets over the moors,
and the river at Chollerford was looking its best. Dugdale
and I returned to Carlisle, and, after a wretched music-hall
where a person sang a song in which she protested that
" she was fishing for us ", while she tried to throw a large
fishing-net over parts of the audience, we caught the night
train south.'
To Hilda from Grasmere.
1 This place is simply glorious. Grasmere is a beautiful
lake surrounded by nills, about 6 miles from Windermere.
The hills are simply lovely and the weather glorious. I
don't think I ever imagined there could be such a lovely
place. It was frightfully hot to-day, but there are sparkling
streams every hundred yards, and one can drink any time.'
To Hilda from Marls f on.
' Sept. 23.
' Well, we had a splendid time in the Lakes. I enjoyed
myself frightfully. We also had a ripping time on the
Roman Wall with J. C., who was kindness itself. We
saw some Roman excavations going on. They had dis-
covered masses of coin, dice, draughtsmen, &c. It was
very interesting.'
It was during this visit to the Lakes with a party brought
together by H. H. Hardy that Ronald first began to know
intimately Dick Dugdale (Rev. R. W. Dugdale, C.F., M.C.),
who became one of his greatest friends. The following
memories of the visit were written by Mr. Dugdale :
' Only a few incidents stick in my mind :
' (i) We had a competition as to who could get down to
1 Capt. A. H. Arbuthnot, London Regt, who was also with Ronald
at Grasmere in 1908, died of wounds May 15, 1915, ten days after his
friend's death.
94 RUGBY
breakfast first, because the first comer got a second helping
of porridge and cream.
1 (2) We nearly always shared the bathroom.
' (3) We used to take a double lunch each.
' (4) We each noticed that the other laughed uproariously
at the jokes made by learned members of the party and
were each surprised at the learning of the other. It came
out in confidence that we neither of us understood a single
word ! After that we had no difficulty in laughing.
'(5) I remember Ronald saying one day as we were
foing up White Pike (I think it was) in the sweltering
eat, " You don't mean to say you really like this." I was
young enough to pretend I did.
' (6) One very cold day at Grasmere we bet Ronald io/-
he wouldn't bathe in the stream by which we had sat down
to lunch. In half a shake he was practically undressed
and we had to offer him large sums of money not to do it.
4 1 am sorry I can't write better about these things but
I don't think anybody knows what friends we were to each
other. We both knew that we came absolutely first with
each other and therefore letter-writing and that sort of
thing didn't matter a bit. Our correspondence was always
spasmodic and very jerky : like our conversations. Our
conversations never ended : a serious subject nearly always
ended in the personal side which always interested us most
and therefore it is difficult to say what conclusion we
came to on any matter. We always felt there was plenty
of time a whole lifetime of intimacy in front of us : and
therefore there was no hurry. Things would develop of
themselves : questions and difficulties would solve them-
selves. We discussed every subject under the sun, except
football which came up very rarely : and then only if the
personal side of it happened to be interesting.
'On the whole I think the thing that started Ronald's
and my friendship was that we found we could both enjoy
things with the same keenness and also laugh about every-
thing in the same way. We had received the same training
at Rugby and therefore at bottom our "Philosophy of Life
was the same. We went for the same things and looked
upon life from the same standpoint. Hence nothing ever
jarred even in the most intimate talks/
Ronald's account continues : ' Soon after [Grasmere]
was back in Rugby for my last winter term. 1 1 was certainly
the term I shall look back on with the greatest pleasure.'
1907 95
Some of his impressions of it are recorded in two letters
to Janet, who had just gone to Wycombe Abbey for her
first term :
1 Sept. 29.
' I have just found out the amount of work I've got to do
this term and it perfectly appals me. Besides ordinary
work I've got to find time to do two three-hour papers
a week out of school and as much reading as possible. It
will mean a terrific grind and no mistake. So you won't
be the only hard worked one.'
' Oct. 13.
' Much as I should like to write to you every Sunday
I find great difficulty in getting time to write even every
other Sunday. However, a promise is a promise (curiously
enough) and I must do it, even if Dr. James says " Poulton,
I can't have you wasting your time writing to that small
(?! How dare you) sister of yours when you ought to be
working for a scholarship ", I should say " My dear fellow
(I always talk to him like that), you talk rot, which is the
most important, my big (that 's better) sister or the remote
and far distant chance of ever securing a scholarship ". So
you see what risks I run by writing to you.
' I am sorry England didn't ask you to play La Crosse
against Ireland last week. I have written to find out
why not.
'Well I am so glad you like the school so much.
I bet (naughty boy) you don't like it as much as I do this
ripping place. I shall be sorry to leave.'
To his Mother.
' Mr. Payne-Smith has come back to Rugby and I am
lunching with him to-day. To-night I am having supper
with Mr. Evers to meet Donald [Head of the Rugby Home
Mission] who is preaching this afternoon. And this after-
noon I am having tea with Hardy. So you see on Sunday
I do myself pretty well.'
Ronald's natural dislike of ceremony and display appears
in another letter to his mother, referring to a visit on
Oct. 25 (Meteor, xli, pp. 133-5) :
' We had a great fuss yesterday. Princess Henry of
Battenberg came down to open a new wing of the Hospital
96 RUGBY
here. We received her in the Close. Dr. James was
robed in the red robes of a D.D., and all the masters wore
their hoods, and the Head of the School presented an
address.
' The town was very gay, with painted scaffold poles and
imitation flowers, &c. Mr. Bradby said the poles reminded
him of cheese straws, and he always thought he smelt
cheese when he walked out. There were fireworks in the
town in the evening, but we weren't allowed down town
at all. It seemed an extraordinary fuss about nothing.
However, Rugby has never had a Royal personage for
hundreds of years, and so they wanted to make a fuss.'
The great feature of the term was the football, of which
Ronald wrote in his account of 1907 :
' Watson who had been Captain of the XV the previous
year returned, but very kindly shared the Captaincy with
me, or least I acted as a kind of secretary. We thought
the XV would be a good one, but it turned out to be the
finest the School has ever had. We won every match
except one, and scored about 250 points against 59. We
beat Uppingham and Cheltenham comfortably. At the
same time the School House was easily Cock House. We
won every match before time (with a lead of 35 points, the
games are always stopped) and we only had 5 points scored
against us/
Ronald's 'character' was described in the Meteor, in
prophetic words :
' R. W. Poulton (S.H.), '05, '06, '07. A brilliant centre
three-quarter. Holding the ball in both hands, at arms
length, he relies on his great pace and a most deceptive
swerve to get through, and seldom without success. He
gathers the ball beautifully, and has always combined
excellently with his neighbours in the line. If his tackling
improves, he will become a great player' (xli, p. 175).
The prospects of the team were discussed and the joint
captaincy criticized by C. A. L. Payne in the Tribune, with
portraits of C. C. Watson and Ronald.
Ronald referred to this criticism in the pencil draft of
a long letter intended for the Meteor, but I think never
sent. It was written probably in 1908 and is summed up
i97 97
in the following suggestions which I have slightly
shortened :
I. That a post of Secretary be appointed in addition to
the Captain.
II. That Remnants be managed by Caps, in order, each
taking a day.
III. That Distinctions be given on the three Bigsides and
the House Matches, and of course on any other games
which the Captain and Secretary may have observed, but
not otherwise.
' I have been led to these conclusions ', he wrote, ' by
the arrangements of 1907. Notwithstanding all that the
Tribune said to the contrary too many cooks did not spoil
the broth. There was, I feel sure, no friction whatever
between the two, and certainly it was a great relief to
both to have only half the strain.'
The following letter was written by C. C. Watson on
Feb. 21, 1917, a few months before he too gave his life for
his country and for the world. Throughout these memories,
recalled at the front, there breathes the noble and generous
spirit of English Public School life at its best and highest :
' I will now try to put down on paper some of my recol-
lections of Ronnie, though I fear it will be rather a poor
attempt and will in no way do him justice, while my own
school life was so intimately bound up in his, owing to our
friendly rivalry at all games, that I am afraid that my
memories will be too full of the letter " I ".
' With regard to his athletic career at Rugby the finest
performance 1 ever saw him make at football was against
University College, Oxford, in 1907 [Nov. 5]. They had
a very strong side indeed, having heard that we were out
of the ordinary, and five minutes from time were leading by
two points. Ronnie picked up the ball in his own twenty-
five and made the most marvellous run right through,
scoring the winning try. I remember standing in the
middle of the field letting out an increasing crescendo of
yells as he dodged man after man, being much too blown
to follow up myself and too excited to think what I was
doing. I have since seen him play for both Oxford and
H
98 RUGBY
England, but that was incomparably the best try I ever saw
him score.
' Ronnie's influence in all athletic matters had the great-
est possible results at Rugby. When I was a fag there,
and during my first two or three years, there was very
bad feeling between my house and the School House. It
began over a football House Match dispute and the feeling
was so strong that it was considered bad form to be seen
walking down town with a School House boy ! This was
naturally a rotten thing for every one and soon changed
when Ronnie got to the head of affairs. I remember one
most fierce and exciting House Match which we won by
a fluke by two points, and how in the last phase W. G.
Michell, my House Master and the finest fellow in the
world, raced up and down the touch line with tears in his
eyes, protesting that the referee had overstepped the time
limit by five minutes. Well, immediately it was over Ronnie,
who was captain of the School House and terribly dis-
appointed, came straight over to me and insisted on taking
me down town and standing me a feed, an example which
was followed by other members of the teams a pretty con-
siderable change from former days which a lot of us
remembered.
' Ronnie was always the peace-maker. For instance, to
tell a story against myself, a test game had been arranged
to try several promising players : Ronnie picked the teams,
he captaining one side and I the other. Entirely by
accident his side turned out very much the stronger, Robert
Cunningham who was Ronnie's greatest pal in the School
House playing with him, and I had rather a rough time.
Quite unjustly I thought Ronnie had done it on purpose to
rag me, and departed from the field very ruffled. He saw
I was annoyed and ran after me and I was very surly with
him indeed ; but he would not be denied where nine out of
ten fellows would have got on their high horse, and
insisted on carting me off with him, and I soon recovered.
It was little things like that which showed his character
and endeared him to us all.
1 Unfortunately I never came across Ronnie much
in the most intimate phase of school life, namely
in his house and study, as it was very rarely that we
had the opportunity pi spending much time in each
other's houses. Looking back on our school career as
a whole the one thing that strikes me above all else is the
fact that Ronnie was the perfect type of a " good winner ".
igo-j 99
Experience then and in other phases of life since has
taught me that the vast majority of men can be good losers,
but it is only the very favoured few who can be good
winners. Ronnie possessed that gift par excellence ; he
never had an atom of side, was always totally unaffected,
and although an easy first at nearly everything he put his
hand to, seemed unaware of the met altogether. As you
can well guess, that side of his character touched me very
closely, being as he was an easy first to my poor second in
nearly every way, and I think it one of the greatest tributes
to his character that he caused me to feel absolutely
unconscious of the fact so that it did not gall me in any way.
' I have not been able to get away from Ronnie's
character as it affected myself, and my own small doings,
but that is naturally how I have the keenest recollection of
him, and I cannot dissociate any memory I have of him
from it. I am very glad however to have been given the
opportunity of writing the above, and shall never forget
the pride I feel in having been numbered as one of Ronnie's
friends/
Returning to the Advent Term of 1907, the match
between the School House and M knell's was played
Nov. 25. Ronald wrote to Hilda of his anticipations :
'To-day we are rather excited as Cock House Match
begins at 3.0 and we haven't been C. H. for 6 years, and we
are going to be this afternoon for certain I think. [The
match was won 43-5.] If we are C. H. there are several
funny old customs here. First I shall go and be wept upon
by Mrs. Mclntyre who has been in a suppressed state of
excitement for days. Whenever you go into her room she
waves her hands and says " Are you ready for the Battle ? "
Then we have a tea in Hall with sausages broken
crockery paid for by the House. Then after tea we open
a tin box enclosed in the brickwork behind the wainscoting
in the fire-place, and put in a list of the House XV.
Finally after Prayers we have Quad.Cheering, which con-
sists of a five minutes rag in Quad. Then bed thank
goodness.
' Hurrah for Saturday fortnight or three weeks when you
will be down here.'
The last words referred to the House Supper, held in
the Old Big School on Dec. 18. 'We had a splendid
H 2
TOO RUGBY
House Supper ', he wrote, ' I had the usual speech to per-
petrate, but it was pretty easy this year.' Ronald spoke
for the ' House Games'.
All the term, in spite of the exciting events described in
his letter to Hilda, Ronald was working hard for the com-
bined scholarship examination in December. He had
written on Oct. 20, to his mother :
' With regard to preference for Colleges I put Balliol,
Trinity, Christ Church as the order I should prefer. I like
Teddie's idea and should of course love to go to Balliol
anyhow. It would be nice to keep up the connection.'
It was an especial pleasure to me that, in addition to
taking the regular scholarship papers, Ronald sent in the
manuscript of the original work he had done upon the flint
implements of the Isle of Wight. He wrote of the exami-
nation : ' I had a very nice week at home, though three
hours papers twice a day are not much fun.' On Dec. 9
we went to Rugby to see him play in the match v. Chel-
tenham and on our way home from the station called at
Balliol and found that Philip Guedalla had been awarded
a Classical Exhibition and Ronald the Williams Exhibition
in Natural Science. The Science Tutor, Mr. (now Brig.-
Gen.) Harold Hartley, told us that Ronald's work was
well up to Balliol Exhibition standard, and Mr. (now Prof.)
H. B. Baker, F.R.S., that the other colleges would have
been glad to take him as a scholar.
To his Father.
' Dec. 10.
' I am most awfully glad about the result, not so much
for myself as for you. When I first came to Oxford I
thought I hadn't got a ghost of a chance, when I finished
I thought I had a faint chance, but I assure you the Ex-
hibition was far more than I expected. I see they didn't
award the Scholarship to any one. Last night was I think
quite the happiest moment I have ever had. I got a tele-
gram merely " Congratulations, Butler ". I didn't know
whether for Balliol or the Cheltenham match ; but soon
I had Teddie's wire and Guedalla's. The masters here
1907
IOI
have been most awfully kind, and Dr. James is very
pleased. Well, this term has been a perfect dream. I
don't think any one has had a happier time here so far
than I have, and I am so thankful I came to Rugby.
'With much love darling and many thanks for your
letter.'
The letter enclosed A. D. Stoop's invitation to play with
the Harlequins, and asking what I thought of it. ' Of
course it is quite an exception, and I certainly should not
suggest doing it again. It only means half a day away.
1 should be back to dinner.' ' It would be awfully good
fun playing ' he had written to his brother earlier in the
term. In spite of these first thoughts Ronald finally de-
cided not to accept, acting on the advice of his friend
Mr. C. P. Evers, who considered that he was too young.
From the Headmaster.
' Dec. 10.
1 1 do most warmly congratulate you and Mrs. Poulton
on Ronald's signal success. I do not know when anything
of the kind has given me half the pleasure that this has ;
for when a boy who is a supremely good athlete is also
a conscientious worker, sets the highest possible example
of character and conduct, and is utterly unspoilt by all the
homage he receives in a school and world which crowns
and enthrones the athlete above all others one can only
thank God for his presence in our midst.'
Before returning to Rugby Ronald wrote to Mr. C. P.
Evers :
' We have just given two performances of two plays in
our house and have got jhj from them. The large part
goes to the United Girls' Schools Mission but I have pre-
vailed upon my sister [Hilda] to give me somewhere about
7 for the Rugby H.M. I want to know what to do with
it. Do you want it for the London or Birmingham Mission
or what particular fund is most in need of it? If you like
I will bring it back with me and you can take it and put it
into the fund you think most needs it. I am sorry I couldn't
grab more but I think my sister deserves the rest for her
mission for all the trouble she has taken. We did Browne
102 RUGBY
with an E and My Lord in Livery. They \yent off splendidly.
37 isn't bad for only two performances in a private house.
We got 150 people in the room which was a pretty good
squash.'
During this term Ronald left science and worked at
mathematics and modern languages :
' We had a good term's football and won four of our six
matches, but we had lost a good many of our team.
Dugdale did a record in the Crick Run [i hr. 12 min.
20 sec., on March 14. Meteor, xlii, pp. 46, 53]. For the
Sports we again got the Wrigley, and I got some more
medals. I successfully passed " Smalls " at the end of
term.'
Of a lecture given by Ronald on Feb. i (Meteor, xlii,
p. 5) C. P. Evers writes :
' Mention of the Roman Wall reminds me how Ronald
lectured on the subject while he was at school to the Rugby
School Natural History Society. There must have been
200 or more present including a good many masters. He
had a lot of beautiful lantern slides and gave the lecture in
a most lucid and interesting way. It was a great and
almost unique achievement for any member of the school
to lecture like that to the whole Society.'
On March i Ronald wrote to his mother in Italy telling
her of the Natural History Society's prize for his paper on
the flint implements of the Isle of Wight (Meteor, xlii,
P- 3) :
'Well, last night Mr. Gumming gave out the N.H.S.
prizes, and I have found that I have got the Distinguished
Work prize, which is worth 5. I am awfully glad because
it isn't always given, and only when the standard of the
work is high enough. I shall be able to get a nice lot of
books.'
He also wrote that, the day before, he had won the first
prize for a Drop and Place Kicking competition.
His mother wrote, referring to the match v. T. V. Tolson's
XV, on March 5 : ' I am thinking of you to-day, playing
your last match. All these last things are sad, but they
are stepping stones to higher things.'
1908 103
At the end of the football season Ronald received from
an unknown admirer a silver cigarette case with his initials
on it. An accompanying letter spoke of the pleasure the
writer had received from his play in the football field,
adding that his ' sporting all round play has had such an
influence upon the other players, that it has raised the
School XV far above the average '. Ronald's admirers
were by no means limited to the school, for Mr. LI. A.
Hugh-Jones well remembers ' how the townspeople used
to crowd the Close to see him play in foreign matches '.
On Feb. 20, Dick Dugdale persuaded Ronald to do the
thing he most disliked viz. to run in a long pounding
race. Ronald was twelfth in 58 min. 29 sec., Dick being
first in 49 min. 51 sec. (Meteor, xlii, p. 41) :
' Our last Easter Term I persuaded Ronald to run the
Barby Village Bigside Run. He had done everything
possible in the athletic line and I wanted him to run one
bigside before he left. Much against his will he did it.
You have to " come in " ten minutes after the first man to
count ; as the ten minutes was nearly up I saw Ronald
coming down the road very slowly towards the finish, and
by pacing him in we just managed to do it. I don't think
any one could have induced him to run another Bigside.'
' I was very stiff after it ', he wrote to Janet a few days
later. Then on March 18 he told her of another game in
which he represented the school, and here as in football in
company with the same great friend and rival, C. C. Watson :
1 Yesterday we played Cheltenham at Fives. We won, but
I bruised my hand pretty badly, and shan't be able to play
for a day or two.' The Meteor, xlii, p. 43, states that this
a love match but with each game closely contested was
the first time Rugby had beaten Cheltenham in the Fives
match.
To Janet, who had got leave from the Head Mistress to
go to the Rugby Sports :
' March 22.
' Many congratulations on your hockey success. I hope
you keep in the team all right. We shall soon see you in
the school team.
io 4 RUGBY
'No; I did not beat Watson [in the single fives com-
petition]. I don't know why you should think that I should.
I never thought I had a chance. However I very nearly
did beat him.
1 Hurrah for Friday. It will give you a lovely holiday
in the middle of the term.'
From the Meteor, xlii, p. 52 :
' As was predicted in last year's Meteor, we have again
to record the wonderful success of Poulton, who won no
less than six events ; for, although he lost the Half Mile
to Swann this year, he just succeeded in wresting the
Broad Jump from Watson, though the distance was less
than that of last year and the year before.'
Ronald won the first Athletic Cup with 6, against 4
obtained by the second, S. E. Swann. The School House
won the Wrigley with 174 against 89 gained by M knell's.
It will probably be convenient to recapitulate at this
point, and print in tabular form the whole of Ronald's
achievements in the Sports during his five years at
Rugby, omitting the 300 Yards under 14^, in which he was
first (39! sec.) in 1904, and the Steeple Chase under 16, in
which he was second in 1904 and first in 1905.
It will be inferred from this table that Ronald was
remarkable for his all-round powers rather than for great
success in any particular event. He was least successful
in the Half-mile and had no inclination at all to enter
for still longer races. He told me that he believed the
Quarter-mile was the event at which, with special train-
ing, he could do best ; and this and the 150 yards were
the two races in which he was always first whenever he
was able to compete at Rugby.
Mr. C. P. Evers remembers that in the course of this
term :
' Ronald came to me and said that he and R. Cunning-
ham had entered for the School Double Eton Fives, but
they did not know how to play ! they had never been on
an Eton Court in their lives, and did not know the rules !
So would I have a game with them and show them ? Of
105
3 M
EC
8.S
"2
iff
sa*
C. i-i
T3
C
&8
c/)
c/j
a
o ..
8
Si
<fi
..
2" 8 2
VO '=
~ a
'a
t-
I
o-S
C/3
S
. .
Ol'.S
"*>- J
"ntotl
O 01
2^
C/3
2*2?
io6 RUGBY
course I was only too glad, so I got some one else I
forget whom to make up a game. At the end of the
afternoon Ronald and Cunningham were quite expert, and
I believe I am right in saying that they won the competi-
tion. Probably the opposition was not very strong, for
Eton fives here has never been as popular as it deserves
to be. But anyhow it was rather a remarkable achieve-
ment.'
We now come to Ronald's last term at Rugby.
' We had a poor cricket XI ', he wrote, ' and won very
few matches. But with an unpromising House XI we
became Cock House, and thus had practically every Cup
in the School. It was a good ending of my time at
School.'
Ronald's batting average 27-96 for 20 innings, twice
not out was third in the School XI (p. 132). His best
effort was 33 and 89 against M.C.C. and ground (Meteor,
xlii, p. no), although he made larger scores in matches
with other houses 91 and 85 against Stallard's, and the
figure mentioned in the following letter from his friend
C. C. Watson, who had left Rugby and was on the Con-
tinent :
' July 17, 1908.
' I've never seen such a fellow as you ; you're always
working.
' I should think you are a bit more pleased with your-
self about cricket, you're too beastly modest for words. If
I'd made 148 in Cock House match [v. Collins'] I should
have told every one I met instead of saying I was " a bit
keener on cricket now " : I've just got the Meteor.
1 1 can really sympathize with you for the last few days
of next week, I know what it is ; it was awful.'
Ronald wrote of the Match at Lord's :
' We went up to Lord's the day before the end of Term,
and the next two days played the match against Marl-
borough. The papers will tell you of our failure in every
branch of the game on that day, and with scores of 14
and 4 I can hardly be considered to have showed great
promise.'
The Meteor summed up his play during the last season
1908 107
at Rugby : ' A vigorous batsman, but with a partiality for
the leg side, who has been very useful to the side on
several occasions. A very fine field at third man and in
the deep ' (p. 132).
Ronald wrote in his account of 1908 :
' I feel sure that no one enjoyed every moment at school
more than I did. I felt a pang at leaving, and the feeling
was increased very much when the school went back in
October. I made a large number of friends at school,
among whom were several masters, and it is pleasant to
think that one is at least welcome there at any time.'
To his Mother.
'July 26.
' My last Sunday here is nearly finished, and it makes
me feel very sad. I shouldn't think anybody could have
enjoyed his time more here than I ; and it is a pretty
big wrench leaving the place, but I suppose it has to
happen some time. We had a splendid sermon from the
Head Master this afternoon, talking all about leaving. He
put it very strongly that one's boyhood is over, and now
one has to make a start in life for good or for bad. I
suppose he is right, but certainly the boyhood that I
have had and am having has been a tremendously happy
one. And I am quite certain that there is no school
where a boy could get so much good as Rugby.
' There are such a crowd of ripping people I have got
to say good-bye to. It will take me all my time to-morrow
and Tuesday morning. I am out to almost every meal
now.
' With much love, darling, for the last time with this
crested paper.'
The following letter from his mother he always kept in
his leather pocket-case :
'This is probably the last letter I shall ever write to
you as a School Boy. I can't tell you what a joy your
School career has been to me, also dear Teddie's. I have
come to love Rugby and all belonging to it, and I am
sure you feel the same. I hope most sincerely that your
College life will be even happier.'
io8 RUGBY
Hilda remembered that ' after Ronald had been at Rugby
a little while, he absolutely loved going back and told me
that he looked forward to it and went off with no feeling
of regret at all. I don't think there are many other boys
and girls, even those who are supremely happy at school,
who do not rather hate having to go back after the holi-
days.' And even Ronald in the early years, as Edward
recalls, had rather a harassed, preoccupied look on the
last day.
The Headmaster wrote to us before the end of term :
' Though Rugby, I hope and think, has done no little
for your sons, they in their turn have done much for
Rugby : and in especial I can never be too appreciative
of what Ronald has done in my own House to keep the
tone and standard what they should be. It is an incal-
culable help when a boy of his athletic and intellectual
capacity sets an example of a blameless life and active
service in the Vlth.'
From Ronald's last Report.
1 We shall miss his cheery presence, his athletic capa-
city, his keenness for the House, and his high example,
more than I can say. But we shall all watch his Oxford
career with interest and (I am sure) with pleasure. He
has worked well and deserved success.'
From the School Marshal.
1 He was quite the leader of all that was good at Rugby.
He was kind and gentle in speech and manner, and yet
he commanded the willing obedience of the whole School.'
V
THE RUGBY MISSION AND BOYS' CAMPS: 1905-1908
Those who knew him and loved him will carry with them
memories of him till the end : thoughts of him will cheer them and
inspire them : they will thank God that he lived and was what he
was. From Report by Capt. C. P. EVERS, Hon. Sec., in 27th Annual
Report, for 1915, of the Rugby School Home Mission (p. 8).
THE suggestion that Ronald should join the 1905 Camp
was made by his brother Edward, and by Mr. C. P. Evers.
He was also strongly urged by H. F. Garrett, who wrote
in the course of the Summer Term giving full details of
the life, and the day after the Rugby-Marlborough match
travelled down to New Romney with the two brothers.
The camping-ground, which came into the possession of
the School in 1907, lies on the Kentish coast, about 12
miles west of Folkestone.
Capt. C. P. Evers writes :
' It was rather an experiment, for he was not yet 16, and
it is seldom that boys as young as that are quite at home
at camp. But the experiment proved a great success, and
after that he came regularly. His connexion with the
Mission was in every way a happy part of his life. Of
course every one there loved him and he was always of
the utmost help in looking after the games.
' During his first 2 or 3 visits to camp he was not
specially interested in the Mission work as such, or in the
boys themselves. Indeed he was too young to be able
to give much serious thought to the bigger problems of
Mission work. At the beginning he frankly came because
he liked the free and easy life, the games, the jolly spirit
which pervades camp, and the fellowship of other Rug-
beians who formed the staff. But it was the camp which
gave him, I think, the inspiration towards social work,
no THE RUGBY MISSION
which was beginning, at the end, to mean so much to
him. Towards the end of his time at school he was
beginning to think about the more serious side to our
Mission work, and in Jan. 1908 he was sufficiently inter-
ested to give to our funds part of the proceeds of some
theatricals at Wykeham House. From Rugby it was
natural that he should go on to similar work at Balliol,
with ever-increasing power and sympathy, and from
Oxford to work at Reading which seemed destined to be
of immense social value.'
Ronald wrote of the 1905 Camp :
' The Camp consists of 2 old connected coastguard
cottages, of wnich one is used by the Rugby Mission and
the other by an old sailor who lives there. It is only
some 3 yards away from the sea at high tide and in the
winter is often flooded to the second story, in fact only
last winter the sailor and his wife spent a sleepless night
standing by their upstairs bedroom window, prepared at
any moment to jump into a boat alongside and row to
safety. Our week there was a very enjoyable one. After
3 nights sleeping in a bed, I gave way to my superiors and
slept out on a straw mattress stretched on some concrete
which lay round the house. I had a bad night and was
finally driven in by rain, but all the other nights were
quite comfortable ones. As regards our doings during
the day, we played cricket and football on the beach,
and washed up, and many other such things. We went
expeditions to Lydd and New Romney to play cricket
matches, and altogether the whole thing was a great
success.'
A letter from an older Rugby friend who became
Lt-Col. C. Bushell, V.C., D.S.O., refers to the visit of the
Mission Boys to the School in the Summer Term of
1906 : ' I heard that you made yourself a most welcome
comrade to the Mission Boys ! Congratulations on so
doing and on storming so boldly the heights of public
opinion.' These few words are evidence of the zest with
which Ronald threw himself into this work before he
was 17, treating the Club boys as friends instead of in
the rather stiff manner due to shyness or to the fear of
what others might say and think which the average
AND BOYS' CAMPS" in
Public School boy would commonly adopt and consider
to be the proper attitude. Ronald's account of the 1906
Camp is very brief.
Towards the end of the Summer Term of 1907 Ronald
wrote telling us of his wish to go to the Camp for the Boys'
week. He had already written of this and the Mens' week
to his brother saying, ' I think you would, and I know
I shall, enjoy the Boys' week more.' As he was also going
to the Lakes in September we were a little restive at the
inroads into our family gathering at St. Helens. Ronald's
answer to a letter putting this point of view shows the
serious importance he already attached to the Mission :
' Don't think that when I made arrangements to go to
Camp, I did not long to be with you. It 's quite true I did
make arrangements and several boys from the House were
going with me for two or three days. I really thought of
going because it is very important to try and encourage
people to go while still in the School to make them see
something of the Mission which they are always sub-
scribing for.
' Hardy and Evers were very disappointed when I said
I couldn t go, but it doesn't matter a bit as others are sure
to turn up. We shall have a lovely time together and I
am looking forward tremendously to seeing you again.'
But much as we wanted to have him with us with only
one break, we could not persist, and so, early in August,
he wrote to C. P. Evers :
1 After many persuasions and talkings I have succeeded
in getting leave to go down to Camp from Monday next
till Thursday. It isn't very long, but I couldn't arrange
for more. I lose no time in getting down as I leave here
at 7.30. I suppose you wouldn't like to meet me. It isn't
a very suitable time, during lunch.'
Of the Camp in 1908, the first after leaving Rugby,
Ronald wrote to his brother: 'We have had a splendid
week at Camp. The weather was glorious, and we had
no rain. There were lots of very nice people there, and I
stayed the week-end with Hardy, Billy Temple, Hawkes-
112
worth, and several others. It really was a splendid time.'
' Quite the nicest Camp I have ever had ', he wrote to
C. P. Evers from the Rectory, Lydd, where ' last night I
got all the sleep I wanted '.
The Rev. C. S. Donald, Warden of Rugby House,
292 Lancaster Road, W., has recalled memories of Ronald
at the Rugby Mission :
' You ask a difficult task. It is not easy to be definite
and to give an impression of Ronnie is like having to
describe a fragrance or a luminosity. Wherever he was
and however many were present he always quite uncon-
sciously " occupied the stage ". He got nearer the ideal
standard than any other I have met, I think. The men
and boys of the club here loved him dearly: his death
made a deeper impression than any other event of this
horrible war.
' I first knew him at our Mission Camps when he was
still at school and it is typical that, of those early Camps,
he is the only one whom one remembers as having been
there (except the regular staff). An officer of the Wilt-
shires who was there in those days told me this week he
could remember no one by name who was there 8 years
ago except Poulton. He was even then the life of the
Camps lively enough any way and he was always " with
the boys " instead of shyly staying with the staff. This
was also typical of him.
1 He often when here, in Netting Dale, used to come
" visiting " with me in the poorest streets. I remember
taking him to one " furnished room " of the worst descrip-
tion here to see a sick boy, and his amusement at seeing
amongst the few wretched pictures on the wall, his own
portrait cut out of the Daily Mirror.'
The following letter from Mr. H. C. Bradby of Rugby
speaks of Ronald and the Mission Boys at the School :
' I cannot help writing, although a stranger to you, to
tell you how dreadfully we feel the loss of Ronald. I was
very fond of him and very proud of him as a Rugbeian. If
ever one felt despondent, as a schoolmaster and a lover of
Rugby, because of individuals whom one didn't care to
think of as representing the school in the outside world
the thought of Ronald cheered me up, and of all he was
AND BOYS' CAMPS 113
doing and going to do. I have known this place inti-
mately since I came as a boy in 1882 and I know of no
Rugbeian in all those years who had a wider or better
influence. It was better than a hundred sermons to the
school, who looked up to him as a great football player,
to see him come down with the Rugby Club absolutely
unpretentious and jolly.
1 It is very hard to go on with the old tasks while the
best and noblest to whom one looked with such hope
for the future are being swept away. It will not lessen
your sorrow but it may help you to bear it when you
realize how crushing the blow is to so many whom you do
not know.'
This section is brought to its close with thoughts
written down by Mr. C. S. Donald after hearing of
Ronald's death and reading the perfectly genuine but one-
sided accounts of him in the papers :
' On May 7 the news came that Lieut. R. W. Poulton
Palmer had fallen. Many of the papers published his
portrait with considerable description of his career as an
athlete of the first rank, the number of his international
caps and the unrivalled brilliance of his play. Some too
noted that he had lately inherited a fortune which he had
not lived to enjoy. The space which the Press gave to
his obituary is evidence of the interest which the world of
sport took in their favourite player. Thousands had seen
him play, and the notice of nis death must have recalled
many a tense moment when the crowded stands rose as
one man with " Poulton 's through " amid the long-drawn
roar of " Eng land ".
' One hesitates to say more of any one man in these
days when ten thousand unsung heroes are giving their
all that we may live, lest we injure that one by dispro-
portionate praise. And yet it seems a pity that that
section of the sporting public who were interested in
Poulton should not have the picture more complete and
should associate him only with dramatic football and a large
fortune.
' How many of those, escaping early from the office to
"bury an aunt" at Twickenham or motoring down by
road with imprecations on the goods van which blocked
the way, knew that the little chap in sackcloth apron and
leather cap hanging behind that same van had a similar
u 4 THE RUGBY MISSION
purpose in his small head and as fruitful a domestic
bereavement as their own ? All were going to see Poulton
play in the afternoon, but he was also going to play with
Poulton in the evening at his club. His portrait found a
place on many a greasy wall, and still I know is hid in
many a grubby pocket, and in many a boyish heart.
' How many of those who saw England play South
Africa, the match lost but ever memorable for one un-
equalled run, knew that the hero of that lightning move-
ment had climbed a crazy stair the night before to console
with his bright presence a dying coster child ?
' How many of those who knew him as a 'Varsity star of
the first magnitude knew that he was leaving the gates of
Ballipl, not for Vincent's or the Grid, but to spend the
evening with the paper boys and golf caddies in St.
Ebbe's?
1 He seemed an anomaly to them at first. Did not Blues
rag in the High o' nights? They soon discovered what
many, mechanics of Newton Heath, biscuit-makers of
Reading, the gamins of Netting Dale, the men of the
Berkshires, his intimates at Rugby, Oxford, and since,
have also discovered, that life had become enriched by
contact with a rare and most beautiful spirit, at the thought
of whose coming the blood ran faster, in whose presence
all that was mean and unworthy was impossible, and who
left behind him the freshness and joy of the mountain
winds. Ronald Poulton seemed crowned with all the
graces not only those which the world most covets,
wealth, athletic pre-eminence, physical beauty but with a
singular humility, purity and courage, and so wide and
generous a heart that it had to give itself everywhere and
most where such gifts were most wanted. Small wonder
that from many a van boy and coster, shopman and
mechanic, yes, even from the little tie-maker and laundry
hand, in one corner of London at least the word went
round in blank distress, "Mr. Poulton is dead". The
thought that he, and such as he, have " happened " is the
best corrective to pessimism. They are the true riches
which neither war nor death are able to destroy.'
S H
< ON
S M
H <
>< O
* g
Q r u
z H
a < *-
>. g
5 a
o S S
< >>
a -
Foci us p. 115 ]
VI
BALLIOL: 1908-1911
The world will indeed be a poorer place now that he is gone.
From the Trenches, May 24, 1915, by Capt. and Adj. ROBY M. GOTCH,
Sherwood Foresters, at Rugby S.H. and Oxford with Ronald. Killed
near Gommecourt, July i, 1916.
I think often of him and of you ; but of him with pride, and confi-
dence that if we could see all, even those who have most to mourn
would mourn ' not as men without hope '. THE MASTER OF BALLIOL.
BEFORE Ronald went up to Balliol, the party of the year
before met again at Grasmere, whence he wrote to Janet :
'Sept. nth.
' We have just come home after a very long day, but it
has been a glorious day the only day in fact that we have
been quite dry and warm. We first of all biked 6 miles,
then we walked 9 miles to Scawfell Pike, and then on to
Scawfell where people climb, then we walked down to a
beautiful lake called Wast-water, 6 miles, then a hard up-
hill walk of 9 miles. Then biked home and after dinner
to-night we walked for 5 miles in a perfect moonlight. It
makes altogether 30 miles walking and 12 riding. It has
been the day we have waited for.
' Well, Jane, many happy returns to you. By Jove, you
are getting old, aren't you ? let me see how much older
am I than you ahem ! I am thinking of buying some nice
surprise present at Oxford for you. I am coming home
Monday, so that I shan't be home much before you. I hope
you are having a ripping time. I expect you are, but
I guess you are never so tired in the evening as I am.
I am absolutely dog-tired, and my feet have very nearly
given way. I have several blisters and bruises on my
toes. Altogether it is a very strenuous life, but I have
never eaten as much as I do here. One is always thinking
of the next meal. To-morrow we are haying a slack day,
I think and hope : at least we are having breakfast at
9, which is a great thing.
I 2
n6 BALLIOL
' We shall have a nice holiday ending together, shan't
we? What day do we do the Franco-Brit.? We must
glance into the pictures and the machinery hall and some
other places before we start amusing ourselves.
' A man called Podmore has been walking with us [p. 6],
and his sister goes to Wycombe next term into one of the
Abbey houses. If she is as nice as he is you had better
cultivate her acquaintance.'
From Ronald's account of 1908, written at the end of
1909:
' On Thursday, October 8th, 1908, 1 slept my first night in
Balliol. Everything was very delightful and new. I
started with the Engineering School under Prof. Jenkin.
During the term I passed Chemistry and Physics pre-
liminaries and Additionals. The Engineering was very
interesting, but of course I didn't do much of it, as I had
the other exams, to pass.
' My diary for the term is uninteresting except in so far
as it gives a true record of the number of meals I partook
of at other people's expense. My first two or three weeks
were good days for my inside. I lived to eat rather than
ate to live. Thus on October iqth, i6th, and lyth I had 20
invitations to meals, 9 of which I accepted ! I accepted
three invitations to dance during the term, but cut mem
all, since, when it came to the point, I hadn't the courage
to go, as my knowledge of caracoling was somewhat rudi-
mentary. Later in the term I was elected in the Bracken-
bury Society and the Shaftesbury.'
Ronald brought forward his first motion at the former
Society, early in the following term : ' That this House
views with alarm the increasing luxury of the age.'
On Nov. I3th, Mr. Mott, founder of the ' World's Student
Christian Federation ', spoke in Balliol Hall and his address
made a great impression on Ronald.
Of three letters to Janet at Wycombe Abbey, the two
written in term give some account of his doings, but the
series is for the most part a touching crescendo of entreaty
for replies.
1 Oct. 28th, 1908. Balliol.
' I am almost too ashamed to write you, owing to my
long delay, but I must take courage and compose a peace-
1908
making kind of epistle. But, after all, am I always to start ?
You might have written first, and then, without fail, I should
have replied. But still . I am sitting here after having
been to a football practice and am patiently waiting for the
water to boil : then I can have a hot bath and so get clean.
It is just boiling now, so I shall get dressed and finish this
letter before rushing out to tea.
' I have now changed satisfactorily and am feeling fairly
clean, which is a great relief. I have to go out to-night at
8 and 9, and have to go to the Laboratory from 5.30 to 7,
and have to write an essay after all that, so you can realize
how full my usual day is.
' Are you going to get into the Lacrosse House Team ?
I Collier has just come to take me off to tea, but I am
determined to finish. On Monday I am going to Rugby
for the day, and am also, I think, going to stay the night.
I am very busy here going out to meals every day almost
and they take up so much time. No more now. Please
write me a letter.'
' Nov. Qth.
I 1 did write to you, didn't I ? But I have heard or seen
nothing of you. When I go home I ask " Is Janet alive
or has she gone to the South Pole ? " And I am told she
is very well, but complains that people don't write to her.
But, after all, you must return the compliment. Please
realize that this is No. 2 and you haven't written one.
' How is the world treating you ? You may have seen
that they have kicked me out of the team ; I don't know
whether permanently or not.
'Yesterday I went up to London to play against the
Varsity for the Harlequins. It was a beastly game, and
I should have much rather played hockey for the Varsity,
as I had been also invited.
' Are you in the Lacrosse Team for the house ?
' I am going to the " Mikado " Saturday with Harry
Tyndale, 1 and I hope to the " Yeomen of the Guard " on
Thursday.
' Much love and kisses.'
1 Lieut. H. E. G. Tyndale, King's R. Rifle Corps; wounded at
Hooge, July yst, 1915.
n8 BALLIOL
'Dec. I4th. Wykeham House,
' Oxford.
' Madam,
' I have waited many months in patience for a letter, but
none have been forthcoming. I say to myself Why is
this? What can have happened? Is she alive? The
answer comes back from the shades of High Wycombe
She 's a little bit of all right, but she hasn't time to write
to that absurd person who has only written 3 times after
all one must write 10 or 20 times to get one answer. She
is much too interested in a book, " ships that pass in the
day ", no " night ", to worry about you, you despicable
little anthropoid. So I answer sadly Right ho ! What
ho! Tatcho! Then I must write even again. I must
write for the third time and expect no answer, and in
addition I must prepare a little present, price 9^., for her
on her return on Thursday, so that she may just condescend
to notice the existence of a brother who after all is only
3 years younger (or older) than her.
' I hope this finds you Cock House at La Crosse, and
adorned with many cups. No more now, with much love,
' Your loving brother,
' (the second one. Do you ever remember ever having seen
him or written to him ?)
' Ronald.
' That ts his name, though you might not think it.'
The year 1909 opened at Morgins, where Ronald, Hilda,
and Margaret were having their first experience of Swiss
winter sports.
1 The New Year came in during our first night at
Moreins-les-Bains, Switzerland. We had a snowy journey
and found that everything at Morgins was suited for winter
sports. We skied, skated, tobogganned and danced every
day for a fortnight. I learnt the gentle art of dancing
through the kind help of Miss Manns, and certainly im-
proved in skating. Sid-ing I found difficult and aggravat-
ing, but also fascinating. We went expeditions up the
slopes for lunch. These were not particularly delightful,
as it meant carrying one lady's skis (usually Margaret's) up
the hill, and being unable, owing to the balling of the ski,
to slide down again. The objections to the place were
1909
minor ones, but pretty numerous. There was not enough
sun on the rink. The hotel was deficient in heat and
light ; and dry bread is not exciting food for tea. How-
ever, it was a lovely fortnight. We had a crowded journey
home. The trains were all full and I and many others
slept on the corridor floor.'
To Janet.
1 March i2th.
' So overjoyed am I at the delightful letter I got from
you to-day that I had to write off again to you. To-morrow
[ go to Leicester to play for the Harlequins against
Leicester. I return to beloved Rugby to stay the week-
end with the St. Hills. I have to come back anyhow
Wednesday to do a Viva for Divinity Exam. I have just
been in for. And then I go up to London to stay with
Teddie, and finally on Saturday I play for England v. Scot-
land at Richmond. The others are all coming up. I only
wish you could come. On Sunday morning 1 start for the
Pyrenees. So I am going to have a very busy time. But
I am looking forward to the I. of W. and seeing you, you
darling, most of all. Margaret went and watched the
Wycombe Abbey v. United yesterday. I wish you had
been well, and we could all have come and watched. You
see in the I. of W. we will play one match in the first
week, if we can raise a team, but without you and Teddie
it will be very difficult. Anyhow, after you come, we will
have a game and the side will be something like this,
I suppose :
Father.
Ernest. Margaret.
Teddie.
Hilda. Cardew. Ronald. Janet. Olive.
I don't know how we shall do it. But anyhow we must
get some games. With much love, darling,
' Your loving brother.'
At the end of the Lent term Ronald went down to Ber-
mondsey and stayed two days with his brother at the
Oxford and Bermondsey Mission. Then came the visit to
Vernet-les-Bains in the Pyrenees. ' There I met Mrs.
Temple and William, and we had a lovely week. We
J20 BALLIOL
worked about 6 hours a day and we walked, in weather as
hot as August, into the snow/
Mr. Temple writes :
' It was an altogether delightful time, but my clearest
memory is of his immense pride in his packing ; on the
journey home his bag was opened at least half a dozen
times and offered for our inspection ; it began as a real
pleasure in his skill, but went on as a game.'
Of the first Summer Term there was little to say :
' Free of all preliminary exams., I now had only my
finals to look forward to. That was the difficulty they
were so far off, but writing now [at the end of 1909] they
seem horribly near/
The following letter was written by Ronald in July from
Blaenau Festiniog, where he was working as one of a
map-making class :
' North Western Hotel.
' MY DEAR HILDA & ERNEST,
' I can think of no more perfectly sweet idea than of
writing to you both together. Isn't it too pathetic (pro-
nounced parthetic) ?
1 " Here am I, waiting at the Church ", l etc. No, trying
to see though eyes bleared by mud and fleas, no flies, and
seeds and rocks, and bricks and mortar, and straw and
nails, and motes and beams, &c.
' We have been that is Avery and a friend, in a car,
I with Baker, a Balliol man, on my carrier, Stark and a
friend on another motor bike. We went first to Conway
for lunch, and then to Menai Bridge for tea, and back for
dinner 83 miles with a man on the carrier. The bicycle
has now gone 283 miles without a breakdown of any kind
except a loose nut. By the bye, perhaps you didn't hear
of my delightful run from Rugby 150 miles, and here in
time for dinner.
' We work pretty hard here : go out at 9.30 and level,
survey, and triangulate in order to draw a map of the
district at the end. We get back at 6.30 and have dinner,
1 Hilda remembered that the words are part of a song beloved
by the boys of the Rugby Mission and a continual source of amuse-
ment to Ronald.
1909 I2I
and after dinner we draw out plans and play billiards. It 's
pretty dull, but it 's not at all good weather. It rains every
day and we are always getting wet. The country is very
fine, and it was lovely to-day by a lake at the top of Capel
Curig.
1 1 am in great fear of a policeman asking for my
licence, because I have lost it and haven't got my number
registered, so it will be rather a disaster if I am hauled up.
But we must hope for the best.
4 How are you getting on ? Many thanks for the card.
I thought the wedding a great success, and everyone
seemed very struck with your beautiful manly tone of
voice (Ernest), and gentle modulated accents (Hilda).
4 No more now. Xove to both/
Ronald wrote of his second Michaelmas Term :
' The Engineering went on. I started Thermodynamics
seriously, and we pretty well went right through it during
the term. At the same time I did a good deal of machine
drawing.
4 On Nov. 27th I went to Rugby and lectured on Sur-
veying to the N.H.S. The lecture must have been very
technical and boring, but they took it very well.'
Some of the lighter events of the term are described in
a letter to Janet :
4 Nov. ith. Balliol.
4 How are you getting on ? Thanks awfully for your
letter. But you haven't told me (i) Are you in the La
Crosse team ? (2) Are you going to Rhodean (or Rodean)
to play ? You are a great surprise I must say telling me
that you wouldn't get into the House I, II, III, IV, V; VI,
VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, &c. (I don't
know how many there are in a game). You're a marvel !
4 1 may come and see you on Dec. 2nd. What do you
think ? Term is getting on. What Ho!
4 If you want to see an account of a match in which
I played well, look for the Harlequins v. Northampton in
the papers to-morrow. I got in three times and dropped
a goal.
4 1 have got the sack from the 'Varsity, which is rather
annoying, isn't it ?
4 To-morrow, the Pelhams' dance : I have quite forgotten
how to, however. Tuesday, our College yearly dinner :
122 BALLIOL
Wednesday, dine Pelhams' : Thursday, Gondoliers at the
Theatre : Friday, Corpus smoking concert : Saturday,
Mi&ado. There 's a frivolous week. I mustn't do it. It 's
too bad. I must work.
'I do so much want to hear about you. Mother,
Father and Aunt Diana have just been in to nave chocolate
with me after the Balliol Concert.
' Well, Jane darling, much love.
' I hear you are playing; before the whole School. You
ought to play at the Balliol Concert. You are again a
marvel.'
Then on Nov. 24th, on hearing at last of the place in the
School La CrosseTeam, he wrote : ' Heartiest congratula-
tions. I only heard yesterday. It is perfectly splendid.
I am glad.'
After term came the Trial match England v. the South ,
and a visit to Rugby :
4 1 stayed with Dr. James for the end of term and his
leave-taking. He was wonderful. He made 4 speeches
at different occasions, and in each he was wonderfully
restrained, and kept clear of the personal element. I think
anyone who was in the house with him must feel a deep
affection for him.'
* At Christmas lunch, which was sumptuous as usual,
there sat down Father, Mother, Teddie and Frida, Hilda
and Ernest, Margaret and Max, Janet and Ronald Nos.
i, 2 ; 5, 6 married couples ; Nos. 3, 4 ; j, 8 engaged
couples ; Nos. 9, 10 on the shelf, as yet. The presents
were numerous, though as far as I was responsible not
particularly costly. And now I write this the day after,
with the effects of Christmas lunch still upon me, and I
cannot say what the last few days of the year will bring
forth for us. All I say is that we hope to play a Boxing
Day game of hockey to-morrow; and Father, Mother,
Janet, Max, Margaret and I hope to go to Switzerland to
celebrate the New Year among the snows.'
From Ronald to his Balliol friend, Keith (T. K, H.) Rae.
' Dec. 27th. Wykeham House, Oxford.
'Mv DEAR KEITH,
1 1 got your letter just as I came back from the Carols
at Magdalen. I don't know whether you have ever heard
1909 I2 3
of it. We meet in Magdalen Hall, in which is a huge
Xmas tree. The Magdalen Choir then sing the first half
of the Messiah. I never heard anything like the boy's
voice in my life. He was simply like a lark. He jumped
at the high notes and they came quite clear and loud.
After the Messiah we had an interval and ate sandwiches
and mince pies and had hot spiced drinks. Then the
lights were turned out and the candles on the Christmas
tree lit, and they sang Xmas Carols unaccompanied
mostly. About 10 minutes before" 12.0 they sang " Adeste
Fideles ". Then we waited quietly till the College clock
struck, then they sang " Gloria in Excelsis". As a fellow
said to me " It is the most reverent evening of the
whole year."
' I have been writing an account of the year all to-day.
We always do it in our family. And we all read our
accounts to each other to-night.
' Well, old chap, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year. I am quite sick of football and am going to Swit-
zerland for a week on Wednesday. I have had a talk with
Harold [Mr. H. B. Hartley], and I have got to work next
term, so I shall chuck everything that I can except the
[Boys'] Club. I want to stick on with it, though 1 shall
have to limit my number of attendances. But they shan't
be fewer than last term. I felt a beast at the end of
term. But one can't find time for everything one wants
to do.
1 1 am getting a bit fed up with all the engaged couples
hanging about this house. They are very jolly but they
don't want to see you, so you have to clear out. Luckily
I have got a room I can work in without fear of dis-
turbing anyone.'
During our stay at Wengen in January my wife
received the letter from her eldest brother, the late
Rt. Hon. G. W. Palmer, which led Ronald to think of the
Reading Factory as his career in life. There had been no
doubt from earliest childhood that he was extraordinarily
fitted by nature for the Engineering profession, but his
capacity and sympathies were so deep and wide that other
ideas were forced on the minds of some of his friends.
Those who met him in the O. T. C. thought that he was
obviously meant for the Army, while his friends at Rugby
i2 4 BALLIOL
were clear that he ought to be a Schoolmaster. And as
a matter of fact this last thought had taken a considerable
hold upon him in the Christmas Vacation of 1909-10,
having been aroused by overtures from Rugby and
strengthened by the merry party of Rugby friends at
Wengen. Ronald felt strongly, as he once wrote to
Keith Rae, that no one ought to be a Schoolmaster unless
he loved the work ; but he had no doubts about himself
on this score. However, his love for Engineering was as
strong as it could be, and knowing that no profession
could give fuller opportunities for influencing men and
boys, Ronald had no hesitation when the offer came. And
once the choice was made he never had any doubts ; his
way became clearer with each step that he took.
The great business, created in chief part by Ronald's
grandfather, offered endless opportunities certain to call
forth the powers of work and of sympathy with which
Ronald was so richly endowed; then too, there was the
appeal of family tradition. Thus it came about that from
this point, at first gradually but more and more fully as
time went on, Ronald's life became shaped and directed
towards the great work that a happier future would have
held for him.
My brother-in-law was anxious that Ronald should be
warmly received by the head of the Engineering Depart-
ment. But there was no cause for anxiety, for the manager
wrote after the interview, ' he is a boy after my own heart '.
Until the time when he became intimately associated
with his nephew, my brother-in-law had seen and known
little or nothing of Rugby football, and he naturally looked
for further evidence of Ronald's powers to succeed in the
career he proposed for him. So, soon after our return
from Switzerland, Mr. Harold B. Hartley, Science Tutor
at Balliol, wrote the following impression :
' You asked me to write a few lines giving my general
impression of Ronald's character and capacity; 1 have
spoken to those of my colleagues who have seen much of
him in College. I find they agree with everything I have
125
to say and would be very glad if necessary to support my
opinion.
' Ronald did some work with me when he was thinking
of taking up mining, and he was a most interesting and
receptive pupil. He has shaped well at Engineering,
especially if one considers how many outside interests he
has had during the last two years.
' He has a very practical mind and he should develop
into an excellent man of business; he thinks clearly, is
methodical by nature, and is receptive of new ideas.
' He has been a most valuable man in College, as there
is no part of College life into which he has not entered
with keenness. He knows almost everybody, and his
position both in athletics and as an Exhibitioner of the
College has given him much influence with different types
of undergraduates. It is some years since we have had
anybody who was so obviously fitted to take part in the
management of a large concern. Ronald has a genius for
dealing with men; his extreme modesty as regards his
own attainments, his tact and good nature win friends for
him everywhere.
1 1 feel that I have not put the case in his favour nearly
so well as I could wish, but I hope it is sufficient.'
Although Ronald's future was settled, there were still
two years before he would leave Oxford to begin his life
in Reading, and in the meantime his work in Engineering
for the Schools became of more importance than ever. In
the Lent Term of 1910 he wrote of ' attending lectures and
laboratory work on Freezing Machines, Gas Engines and
Turbines : all very interesting '.
During this term Ronald read a paper before the
Anthropological Society on our Palaeolithic finds, erro-
neously described as Neolithic in the account of the
meeting (Oxford Magazine, March 3, 1910, p. 240).
, To Janet.
1 March 27th. Eastbourne.
' How long is it since you and I corresponded ? Before
the days of steam engines I feel sure. Well, here I am,
and you haven't an idea what I am doing. Well, I will
give you an account of my doings up to date. When
126 BALLIOL
I last wrote I was in the J.C.R. of Balliol Coll. I suppose
I went to bed that night, and many other nights, and
finally, as always happens, term ended. So on Monday
I went to Rugby (I don't remember if I have ever been
there before) ; then I went north to Little Stretton, two
miles from Church Stretton, which is 10 miles from
Shrewsbury. There were 9 of us in an old farm-house
called the " Malt House". All the rooms lead from one
to the other, and we had feather beds! However, we did
8 hours' work a day, which was good; also we had
a game of golf in the afternoon on a perfectly precipitous
links. Well, yesterday I came down to Oxford. The
trains were Sunday trains, so I had a five hours' wait at
Shrewsbury. But I went up to the School and there met
a man I knew, and I was snown all over. Then I came
down, and stayed a night at Wykeham House with father
who goes down to the I. of W. to-day. Then this
morning I caught the 9.10 train and am now on my way
to Eastbourne to stay a week-end with the Rev. F. S.
Williams of Eastbourne College who used to be a tutor at
the School House. On Monday I am going to Broadstairs
on a reading party with Billy Temple, and then for the
I. of W. on Monday week, and then to look forward
to seeing you, you darling. Well, you are such a great
person now that I hardly dare write. Many belated
congratulations on getting in the Hockey Team. Try and
get into the Cricket Eleven too and then you will be an
awful dog. I shall really come and see you next term on
my new motor bike, which I have got no money to pay
for, but I am going to buy. I am going to write to
Margaret to get her to arrange some hockey matches at
Seaview/
Ronald wrote of the visit to Eastbourne College in his
account of 1910 : ' It was a most beautiful Easter week-
end, and it was nice seeing a new School/
On Easter Monday Ronald 'went to Broadstairs on
a small Reading Party with William Temple- a Queen's
party, splendid people. We worked quite hard, and, in
the afternoon, constructed enormous walls of sand to keep
back the sea, which the children much enjoyed.'
Mr. Temple writes : ' We had been there for a week
when he came, and it had been a very jolly time ; but his
1910 127
arrival made everything different. We immediately had
to buy enormous garden-shovels, and spent the afternoon
barricading the sea put from a tiny bay by making an
immense sandbank right across it. This might in itself
amuse me for one day or be tolerable for two. Ronnie's
amazing spirits kept us at it with infinite zest for a whole
week.'
Ronald's account continues : ' After the Sunday, when
I heard William Temple preach one of his best sermons,
I went across to the Isle of Wight.'
To Keith Rae.
'Aprils. St. Helens.
4 Dear Keith-face,
' I hope you will be able to look in upon us on your way
to Oxford. Evelyn Cardew turns up I hope on Friday,
and Billy Collier the next Thursday. So please yourself
and choose your date. But come as early as you can. No
day will be too early (pretty ! !) But we have no chocolate
cake. However, with what eagerness will we approach
the same in your rooms next term. If you are dropping
some things an3'where, don't bother to bring dress clothes
just one suit and then flannels, &c., grayers no collar,
golf knickers and shorts.
'Well, how goes it? You can bring a book or two to
study if you like as you will have lots of time. You shall
take us sailing and show us how it is done. I have been
working 8 hours a day (liar) well, about 7^ for 3 weeks,
and am feeling haloish.
'Well, farewell. Let me have a note in that familiar,
but appalling script.
' Yours ever,
' RONALD.
' I have lost your address so to Balliol it goes.'
In the Summer Term Ronald ' chucked cricket and got
fat and played occasional games of tennis. I worked
pretty hard at Hydraulics and turbine and steam nozzle
experiments. About the middle of term I went with
Mother to Mortimer and acted as Godfather to Denys
Gardiner. It was a nice little holiday, but these shows
come rather expensive in the silver mug department.'
128 BALLIOL
To Janet.
1 Listening to a rotten lecture.
' 9. 15 a.m. Monday June yth.
' You will say when you see this, what can have happened
because
' i. Ronald is actually writing to me.
' 2. What a curious piece of paper.
' 3. Why isn't he doing his usual hard work.
1 1. I meant to write to you in a day or so.
' 2. This is a piece of foolscap and I have no other piece ;
and I don't like to ask for a bit. He might not like it.
' 3. I usually work very hard of course, but this man is
more boring than any one I ever heard. He talks absolute
bosh. He is telling us with great gravity the work I learnt
my first term at Rugby.
' How goes the world with you ? We had a topping
dance on Thursday night at the Taphouse's room. I haa
about four a+ and a good many a dances.
' I am going to be here all the week, working hard, and
playing tennis in the evening, and then I shall go away for
week-ends. I am coming to you on the first Thursday in
July. I can take you out to tea, can't I? Then I am
going to Rugby for one week-end and also probably to
Marlston. Then I am going into the tennis tournament
here. I am playing in the mixed with May.
' To-morrow I am going to lunch with Hilda and then to
the Roosevelt lecture. It ought to be rather amusing.
' Term ends Saturday week, and then we go to Camp for
about 10 days.
1 You will have a lovely time in Brussels. I should love
to go with you.
'There goes 10 o'clock and I have to go to another
lecture. I will finish this there probably or somewhere
about.
' The next lecture was so important that I am finishing
this now just before playing tennis. To-night I and one
other man and the Professor are going into the " Broad "
to find the candle-power and illumination of the arc lamps
in the road. It ought to be very amusing. There will
probably be lots of people messing around looking on.
Now Jane I must stop. '
In the Long Vacation Ronald ' stayed up in Oxford all
129
July for an Engineering Summer Term extension, doing
laboratory work and helping in a bit of research on the
reaction and velocity of flow of steam at different external
and internal pressures, through differently shaped nozzles.
Some good results were obtained'. The work was not
altogether unrelieved by change and recreation, if we may
judge from the following letter to Janet :
'July 2nd. Wykeham House, Oxford.
' The night is quiet. I am in the schoolroom. Mother
is drinking coffee in the drawing-room. Father is dining
in Jesus with the Entomological Boys, and I have a full
stomach, and am drawn to write to you. Why is this
curious feeling of desire to write to that curious specimen
who disports herself at High Wycombe ? Partly because
I hear that she is afraid I am not coming to High Wycombe
on Thursday and partly because I believe she would like
a letter from the skinny-nosed individual whose pink face
is bent over this damask sheet. To set her mind at rest,
I have every intention of coming to see you on Thursday
on my Express Locomotive (3^ H. P.) If wet, I shall train.
I hear that May and Marjorie and Willie are coming also.
Then I say let us have tea together or lunch or something
and have a jolly party. I am looking forward to it. I shall
be so shy ??
' I got back from Camp [Aldershot] yesterday and am
still feeling pretty weary. We hadn't enough sleep, and
I went to sleep there at all sorts of odd times.'
Then a little later, on July I4th, he wrote from Marlston
congratulating Janet on being a member of all the three
school teams Hockey, Lacrosse, and Cricket :
' Many congratulations on the triple brooch. It is
splendid. I feel so honoured. All Oxford knows about
it ; Mother told several people and they all said that they
had heard it through Elsie or Doris or some one.
' Mother and Father started yesterday at 2.30 from
Oxford [in the dogcart] and got here at 7. I started [on
motor-cycle] at a quarter to five and got here at a quarter
to six. Some difference in speed, isn't it?
1 The cream and raspberries are all right.
' No more now,
' Your loving
4 RONALD.
1 (Brother of Janet.) '
K
130 BALLIOL
To Keith Rae.
' You may see a bedraggled object creeping down that
narrow lane to your house in the evening [of July 29].
I am afraid I shall have to leave on the 5th in order to get
to the Mission Camp at Romney. I will bring books to
Rhoscolyn. I should have to do a little work.
1 With love,
' Your friend,
' RONALD. '
The 'bedraggled object' did not reach Anglesey on
the 29th, but wrote instead from Shrewsbury :
' It is the eternal floater ! I am so sorry. I left Oxford
at 6.0 this morning : arrived at a point 6 miles from Stow-
in-the-Wold at 8.30. There I broke down : it would
misfire. I had to walk it to Stow : there I had breakfast at
10.30 and messed about with it till i.o; then I trained to
Worcester. There I thought I had mended it. But it was
as bad as ever on the way to Kidderminster which I reached
at my last gasp. There I went to a splendid garage who
put it straight immediately. The platinum points on the
magneto were worn, so I had to buy new ones. Then
I fizzed over here and am putting up at this small pub. It
is now 8.0 and I have had no food since breakfast. To-
morrow I shall be with you about 3.30. It is going top-
hole now. I am sick at being so late. I am very tired
but quite well.
' Best love,
' RONALD. '
A little later in the Long Vacation Charlie Symonds,
Dick Dugdale, and Ronald joined us at St. Helens. Ronald
wrote of the journey by motor-bicycle :
' It is interesting to recall that we left Oxford about an
hour before Dick's train, and got to the pier for crossing
an hour and 20 minutes before he arrived ! We stayed in
the island about 3 weeks, and it was a good time. We
read about 7 hours a day.
' On Sept. i2th I had a 2ist birthday. We had a splendid
picnic on Shanklin Down. The sea and cliffs looked all
right. The presents were too numerous and costly to
mention. About Sept. i7th Janet and I left for Marlston,
131
Janet by train, I by bike ; and though it rained hard, and
I broke a belt, and lost my way, and crossed in the same
boat with her, yet however, and marvellous to relate, I met
her as she reached the platform of Hermitage Station. It 's
marvellous but " ye can't do it yer know ! "
To Keith Rae.
4 Sept. 15th.
1 Marlston House.
' Thank you tremendously for the wire and letter. And
will you give jolly old Reiss my love, a kiss, a kick, and my
thanks for his participation in your wire.
' Aren't you looking forward to the digs. ? By Jove I am,
but as for the work, good gracious I shall put knowledge
into my waste paper basket of a head at the rate of 8 hours
a day.
' Came up here yesterday on the old machine, and am off
to manoeuvres as Motor Cycle orderly on Saturday for
a week. I have still 7 letters to write and have written 6,
so excuse this palsied script.
1 Much love, old thing, and kind regards to your people.
' Your affect, friend,
' RONALD/
Written from Oxford on October gth after Ronald had
received Orthodoxy as a birthday present from Keith :
' ME DEAR OLD MANNE,
' Thank you more than a little for the book. You will
not believe me when I tell you a curious story. I have
had a lot of books as presents, and as they are in the
schoolroom, where I work at present, in a caoinet next to
my brother's books, 3 or 4 days ago I was comparing them.
I found I had a better lot than his, but there were one or
two I wanted. One was "Orthodoxy". I said to myself
I will read it anyhow, and took it out to read it. The next
morning came your letter. Talk about Telepathy (but
we won't argue about it!) So it's splendid; thank you
again so much. It will be a nice little thing to remember
you bv when I am slaving in a factory, and you are getting
wretcned men sent to penal S. for millions of years.
' Saw Billy yesterday looking fit. No more. I am up
K 2
132 BALLIOL
to my eyes in correspondence and work. Hence this
measly scrawl.
' Much love,
' Yours oo which means
' yours to the power of infinity
' or yours x yours an infinite number of times. '
William Temple writes :
' In September 1910 I began my work at Repton. I was
on the way to Australia when I was appointed, and got
back a few days late for my first term. My mother was
anxious to get the books into shelves as soon as possible
and asked Ronnie to help her with them. Accordingly he
arrived after the boys got back but before I did. One
day, Jack Smyth, of the Priory \ who had been a Dragon
with Ronnie (Now Lieut. J. G. Smyth, V. C., and the hero
of many legends) ran into Mr. Vassall's study and said in
great excitement " Ronnie Poulton has just ridden down
the school-yard on a motor-bike''. I have always believed
that the immense cordiality of my reception two days later
was partly due to the proof of my friendship with so
popular a hero given by nis presence at that time. '
Ronald headed the account of 1911 :
' The year of the Coronation of King George V.
'This year has been as eventful as any up to the present
for me. In it, I have finished my " Schools ", thus probably
passing through my last competitive examination, and have
also completed my career at Oxford. I am not going to
become sentimental over my life at Oxford, but leaving
that to the imagination, merely point out that I am now at
a further point in my journey where I have to try to put to
some use the knowledge and experience gained at School
and College.
' The new year found me staying with Dick Dugdale at
Whitchurch, and working hard for schools. Indeed, the
history of my activities up to June may be condensed into
the phrase, " working for Schools ". I spent some time in
the laboratory and lecture room doing alternating current
theory and later the theory of structures with regard to
1 One of the Houses at Repton. It still contains some of the Norman
pillars of the old Priory from which it is named.
KEITH RAE BILLY COLLIER BIXO RAE RONALD
BINO KEITH RONALD BILLY
THE THAMES BACKWATERS BETWEEN OSNEY AND WYTHAM, OXFORD.
From photographs by Edward Rae in the Summer Term of 1911.
[Facing p. 133
191 i 133
bridge-building. I revised hard, and succeeded by June, in
having got most of the subject fairly clear. But mathe-
matics was my stumbling block. '
The following memories of Ronald at this period of his
Oxford life were recalled by his friend Dick Dugdale, not
many months before he was killed :
' i3th Wing, R.F.C., B.E.F., Febr. i, 1918.
' Perhaps it was rather rash of me to say I could tell you
a " good deal " about Ronald's working for his Finals, but
nowadays details are not as distinct as they used to be.
The particular period I was thinking of was the time when
he was digging with Reiss, Keith Rae, Cardew, and Billy
Collier in Oriel Street. He himself had chosen the smallest
little back room for working in, you remember. It had
a window looking up Bear Lane or at any rate in that
direction.
' I remember once discussing cricket with him, and asking
him why he had given it up : and he said because it took so
much time : tennis was not so exacting and his work was
to come first. Somehow or other I connect with that dis-
cussion his telling me a saying of yours that a man wasn't
really going to be good at his job until it came first in his
thoughts always : until he could think out problems con-
nected with it in his mind as he went about, as he dressed
or had his bath, &c. . . . Ronald, I remember, admitted
rather mournfully that Engineering didn't affect him like
that other things were so interesting : but that he saw
that what you said was perfectly true and I think he made
great efforts while working for his Finals to get into that
frame of mind.
1 Often I used to go into his little room and suggest
doing something or other (I had finished Mods, and Greats
had only just begun : so that is my weak excuse for it !),
and he would probably send me away : or come out for
a brief ten minutes. Often too, as I passed, I would see
him in the window sweating away at some work, and we
would pass the time of day. Generally my efforts to get
him out were unavailing. Then there was that visit to
St. Helens, when Ronald and I worked in that sitting room
over the stables. I think 7 hours a day was what we set
ourselves : but we often " cheated " about it : we used to
sit and work for some time and then find we had started
some engrossing subject of conversation and we had to
134 BALLIOL
begin all over again. Though on the whole we got through
a goodish amount of work. Looking back now I should
say that he worked for his Finals from the same point of
view as most people do. Theoretically he knew they ought
to come first and a strong sense of what is really important
and what isn't kept him at it. On the other hand he knew
that other things were much more interesting and the long
hours of work were really a trial to the flesh. Very few
work really hard for Exams, at Oxford because they haven't
learnt what hard work is : but many try to work really hard
because they know they ought, and Ronald was one of those
many. I know that what often kept him at it was the ideal
of hard work that he saw in your life. The conversation
used often to go back to that, and we used even to plot
how best to stop you working so hard because Ronald
thought it bad for you. But it was the ideal you set which
kept him to it. He had far more to stop him working at
Oxford than 75 % of the men there have and yet he main-
tained a pretty high level of work up to his Finals all the
time.
' These probably are not the sort of details you want at
all : but, as I say, details have for me gone into a rather
hazy background : only the salient facts remain with
Ronald in the middle of them as full of life and personality
as ever.'
It is very touching to read these words and to know
what I never knew in Ronald's life. I certainly never said
anything to him with the intention of spurring him on ; he
needed no exhortation and he received none from me.
Anything I may have said referred to original work and
not to preparation for examinations.
Among the few relaxations Ronald allowed himself was
the Winter's Tale acted by the O.U.D.S., where ' Hilda
as Hermione was the chiefest joy of all '.
' In the Isle of Wight we had some excellent games of
hockey. For the last week of the vacation I went North
and met C. P. Evers, R. W. Evers, and Roby M. Gotch at
Hexham, and started for a short walking-tour over the
Northumberland hills. It was a splendid week. There
was some rain, but the views were excellent, and most of
the villages, notably Alwinton, Otterburn, and Harbottle,
HILDA AS HERMIONE.
From a photograph by Hills & Saunders of Oxford.
Facing p. 134.]
135
most fascinating. We played a continuous game of Bridge
each night, and spent the last night at Alnmouth on the
Northumberland coast
' During the Summer Term I was hard at it. Among
the relaxations were a splendid dance at the beginning of
the Term, a beautiful row up the river for breakfast on
May morning, occasional games of cricket, and refereeing
at cricket matches of the Balliol Boys' Club. Just before
Schools I spent a week-end at Rugby and played in the
Old Rugbeians Cricket Match, which was a bold experi-
ment, as I had not touched a bat for a year.'
Ronald did not find the Schools in June so terrible as
he imagined. It is also pleasant to know that the strain
was by no means unrelieved.
' The mathematical papers were too much for me, but
I found I knew a good deal about the other subjects. The
second I obtained was really what I expected. In the
middle of the examination Janet and I went to watch
the Coronation. We had a fine view from a stand in
Parliament Square. The day after the last paper we went
to the Balliol Ball which was voted by all present as a
great success, and seemed to me to compare favourably
with the other balls of that Commemoration.'
Professor C. F. Jenkin wrote to me on June 30 ; I well
remember the pleasure given to my brother-in-law by the
letter :
' None of my men this year get firsts. Ronald is at the
top of the list of the Second Class. He has done his final
papers very well. He only worked for me two terms
really hard, and has done extraordinarily well in that time.
I have urged him from time to time to work harder, but he
has had so many other occupations that till the last two
terms he was not able to do so.
' As he does not need to hunt for a job and does not need
the special prestige of a First, I cannot think that he really
lost anything but rather that he has gained by all the other
excellent work which he has interested himself in.
' I have never met a young man I would more gladly
recommend for any post of responsibility. It has been a
great pleasure having him in my class.'
136 BALLIOL
Ronald's Science Tutor, Harold Hartley, wrote on
July 10 :
' Many thanks for sending me Jenkin's letter about
Ronald. I knew he had improved a lot in his last terms,
but I hardly expected him to go better than a " Second ",
as his time had been so much broken into in various ways.
But I would not have had him alter anything. He has
added a great deal to the life of the College and we shall
be very sorry to lose him in December. Classes are after
all only a small incident in a career. As Conroy said to
me " Their chief merit is that they justify a job ". There is
no need for that in Ronald's case so we need not worry.'
Mr. Hartley also wrote to Ronald on July 8 :
1 The College accepted my plan for your work next
Term. I am very sorry it is to be your last ; we shall miss
you in College and I shall always be glad to remember
that I had a hand in bringing you to Balliol.'
Except for the football, treated elsewhere, Ronald's last
term requires few words. He took his degree on Oct. 12,
and was in lodgings in Long Wall with his friends Dick
Dugdale and M. T. Collis. The rooms were uncomfortable
1 and but for the companionship of my partners would have
been unbearable. I spent a certain time in the Pitt-Rivers
preparing a paper on the I. of Wight palaeoliths. I also
prepared a paper on an Engineering subject to read before
the Physical Section of the N.H.S. at Rugby, but captaining
the team took most time.'
After the Schools and Aldershot Ronald ' went with a
party of Balliol friends, about seven in all, for four days
canoeing on the Wye. The weather was perfect, and this
with the excitement of rushing the rapids combined to make
the trip a great success. The views were wonderful and
the hospitality of the farmers remarkable/
The Rev. Neville Gorton retains vivid memories of the
expedition :
' It was a great time and I know the success was entirely
due to Ronald. Keith, Stephen, Ronald, Wertheimer, 1
1 W. T. Collier was also one of the party.
191 1 137
and I had all just taken Finals. Three of us had had
a sort of nervous break-down before or after and were
naturally as nervy and moody as we could be, and Ronald
kept us all going. I remember a desperate quarrel between
three of the party it was only that they were on edge from
being tired out over some absurd handling of the boat off
Goodrich, and Ronald's splendid healing influence as
usual.'
Lieut. F. Joseph Conway (Wertheimer), R. F. A., writing
from Bombay, July 27, 1917, and finding it 'difficult now
to recall particular incidents of Oxford days, which seem
immeasurably far away', has special memories of Ronald
on that camping expedition. After referring to the effects
of the examinations and the influence of Ronald's person-
ality, 'which might be described as magnetic; he never
allowed you to be annoyed with the world for long',
Lieut. Conway continues :
' The deeper side of his nature could be felt under the
cheerful, fascinating surface, but he never consciously
obtruded his real personality. His moral earnestness was
a factor for good and not for self-gratification : hence he
was anything but a prig. He was an influence.
' It seems to me that by their death men like Ronald
have illuminated very brightly the dark days in which we
live.'
A day or two after the expedition Ronald carried out
a plan proposed by his uncle and ' departed for a longish
stay in France with Madame de Montarby and her
charming daughter Marie Louise, at her small house near
Blois, in Touraine. There were two other English fellows
there, but I was honoured by being taught by the dark-
eyed Marie Louise. The heat was very great about 95
for five weeks. We never left the house till after tea, and
usually got in about 3 bathes in the River Beuvron which
flows beneath the garden wall. We worked in the
morning, read in the afternoon, played stump cricket in
the evening, and played spoof and demon patience after
dinner. On occasional cool days we visited the Chateaux.
Among others we saw Chenonceaux, Villandry, Blois,
Cour-Cheverny, and Amboise. We met some of the
aristocratic families of France who seemed united in the
endeavour to turn the Government out of the country but
138 BALLIOL
on no account to do any good to themselves or any one
else '.
The visit to France in 1911 was the beginning of a love
for the country and its people which deepened in Ronald's
mind each time he went there. Next to his own country
France stood alone in his affection there was no third
and the words written beneath his portrait at La Caillere
are just what he would have wished them to be :
' Mort pour sa patrie et pour la notre, 5 mai 1915.'
To his brother.
' La Caillere.
' This is a very jolly farm-house here, right in the country,
about 30 miles from Tours and 40 from Orleans. It
is about 2 miles from the Loire. All round are Chateaux
great and small. All the small are inhabited by Counts,
&c., and the big by Marquises or Princesses, or else
uninhabited. It appears to be nothing to be a Count here.
Even 500 peers in England won't make peers so common
in England as they are here. I haven't seen any of the
show Chateaux yet, because they are a good way off, and
it is very hot, but I have been to several of the smaller
ones. We went to one the other day. It is quite a big
house with a beautiful park, and a tennis court. The
tennis court was of sand with the oldest net I have ever
seen. It broke twice during one of our games. The
French are very annoying when playing tennis ; they will
treat it as an interlude to conversation. They often talk
during the rallies, when there are any, which was seldom
as they were very bad. You can imagine how this
annoyed us, who take our games rather seriously as
a nation.'
To his father.
'All the papers out here are full of war scares. I do
hope it doesn't mean anything. But they are very much
afraid here, because on September 20 the 2nd year men in
the army go home, and they will have to be kept to the
Colours. Much love, Darling
To Keith Rae.
'Aug. 28.
' MY DEAR KEITH,
' I have a good mind to write to you in French, but of
course you wouldn't understand it, you're such an exceed-
ign 139
ingly illiterate fellow, and am I not the Professor des
Beaux Arts de Rhoscolyn? By Jove I wish I was with
you now. You can imagine I am a bit dull here.
' First of all I see it was a second. I am very sorry, but
I suppose it was not exactly a disappointment to you as
you expected it. But still it is a nasty feeling to have
when with given luck in health and such things you could
have pulled off a first easily. Poor Gortey, I haven't
dared to write to him yet, but shall soon. And also poor
Stephen. But I suppose he wouldn't be so disappointed
as Grortey. I am so glad that Werters pulled it off.
' When you write please tell me about the digs you and
Billy have got. I am more than interested. Dick and
I have already asked more people for week-ends than
there are week-ends, which is a bit awkward. He and
I are going a short tour for a week on our infernal
machines round Nantes, Tours, Blois, Chartres, Caen,
Bayeux, Avranches, Mont St. Michel, at the end of
September, and then I come home the 3oth and Teddie is
married the 3rd of Oct.
' Well, now a little about my life here. This is a jolly
farm-house, quite small and simple. The garden is quite
nice, but of course completely burnt up. Madame here
is quite delightful and quite amusing. We work every
morning, and then we read in the afternoon and take some
form of violent exercise after tea and bathe before dinner
and when we get up. It is a quiet monotonous life, and
we get a bit tired of it. But about a fortnight ago I went
home for a week to see my people and to have a week-end
with my Uncle, and also to have 3 days with the boys
of the Rugby Club at Romney. It was all right, I can tell
you. We had 125 boys there and 95 the day before. I am
here now till the 2oth of Sept. before I go off on the tour.
' The other day I was in the garden waiting for dinner
when I heard a carriage pass in the road outside. It was
pretty dark, but I thought I heard a voice saying, " There's
Ronnie Poulton ". I ran out, and there was Bulkeley, 1 and
a fellow called Campbell who is at Magdalen, and crowds
more I didn't know. They had been to see a chateau near
here and were returning. It was a funny coincidence,
since we neither knew the other was out here. On the
Saturday I biked over to the chateau where they are
living.
1 1 had a long talk with Bulkeley about the Anna [the
1 Capt. V. F. Bulkeley-Johnson, Rifle Bde
i 4 o BALLIOL
Annandale Society at Balliol]. He was very sensible,
and would do anything to turn it into a reasonable club,
even to the extent of abolishing the table ; but he says that
and , though much more reasonable people than
they used to be, would oppose it, and they had a strong
following. But he is very keen not to allow freshers in
the Club, and is going to pill any put up next term. He
was very sympathetic and really quite jolly.
' Well, good-bye, old boy. Write a nice letter about your
doings and about the digs and about the Viva, and about
the river trip. Love,
' Yours affectionately,
' RONALD.'
The Annandale Society was started in Balliol about
1890, as a rival to the ' Dervorguilla ', by M. W. Mortimer,
who annexed for it the very attractive colours, black, grey,
and white, of an extinct society, the 'Bat Club', so called
because its members were given to nocturnal flittings, and
because they were not cricketers. The original Annandale
is remembered as a society with a serious purpose,
a living protest against the frivolity of the age, a meeting-
place chiefly for Scotchmen who debated Carlyle and
other weighty writers. Presently, captured in a humorous
spirit by a set with very different ideals, it became trans-
figured, and finally led in Ronald's time to a serious feud.
Capt. H. R. Bowlby, 8th Rifle Brigade, himself in favour
of a peaceful solution, has recalled memories of the
struggle :
' There may be said to have been two groups in the anti-
Anna section of the college :
(a) The extremists of whom Keith Rae was the leading
figure.
(b] Those who also profoundly disapproved of the Club
as being contrary to the spirit of Balliol, but were willing
to use the most tactful and peaceable methods in order to
bring about a conclusion satisfactory to the College as
a whole.
' The one standing visible grievance to all of us was the
"Anna" table. 1 We felt it to be contrary to all that
1 Originally a ' Dervor' institution, captured for the ' Anna' by an
inner ring of members belonging to both societies.
THE ANNANDALE SOCIETY 141
Balliol stands for a united and friendly society of men
from eyery class as well as from all parts of the Empire.
There is no doubt and I know Ronald felt this that the
table made a bad impression.
'The second grievance was the all too frequent dis-
turbance of College peace on Saturday nights. The climax
was reached when a leading member of the " Anna " rudely
interrupted the meeting in Balliol of a distinguished
University literary society the Shaftesbury at which
members of other Colleges were present. It was then felt
that serious measures must be taken. A formal meeting
was held in the Garden Quad on the following day, at
which Ronald, as the best known member of the College
as well as being intensely liberal minded, and Rae, as
a senior undergraduate and perhaps best known for his
rigid and consistent attitude, saw the intruder and threat-
ened serious measures if an apology was not forthcoming.
As matters then stood it is my honest conviction that
conciliatory methods were out of the question. Thanks to
these two an apology was given, and a serious "row"-
few know how intense the feeling was or how complete
the preparations was avoided. I have no doubt that this
was due in a very great measure to the respect in which
Ronald was held by every one and to the strength and tact
which lay behind his dealings with others.
' Although he was not at Oxford when the final events
brought about the doing away with the table, his support
was of great service to the opposition, and being the man
he was I believe he made certain members of the "Anna"
realize that there was something in the arguments put
forward by the opposing faction. Those who knew Ronald
and Evelyn Cardew must realize that they would not have
refused to join the Club had they not had well-thought-out
reasons for declining.
' Ronald's connection with this episode is I think all the
more significant because he was loved and respected by
members of the Club. It was as for all of us his indig-
nation at any slur being cast on the good name of Balliol
that led him to take a leading part in the suppression of
those who showed lack of courtesy and consideration to
fellow members of the College, as well as on the occasion
mentioned above to guests of the College.'
C. P. Evers writes : ' Ronald used to tell me a good deal
about difficulties at Balliol, especially in connection with
the rowdy set of " bloods ", who seem to have made them-
142 BALLIOL
selves particularly objectionable in his time. Most of the
leading men in Ronald's particular circle refused to know
them or have anything to dp with them. But Ronald him-
self was on good terms with many of them, and he was
a good deal exercised in his mind towards the end of his
Oxford days as to whether his friends had adopted the
right course. He was inclined to believe though I think
his friends did not agree that it would have been more
helpful if they had been willing to know the " bloods " and
had tried by personal influence and example to bring about
a better state of things in College. As it was, they cut
themselves completely aloof, showing that they despised
the " bloods ", but this did not really help matters. This
was Ronald's own view, and he expressed it to me during
(I think) his third summer, when I spent a night at
Wykeham House during Eights' Week. While some of
the party were at a concert I walked down to Ronald's
rooms in Oriel Street and he and I and Dick Dugdale
discussed the question for a long time. As it happened,
during the discussion one of the particular " bloods " in
question burst into the room after a Bullingdon dinner,
together with a visitor a young Guardsman, I fancy.
Both especially the latter were the worse for drink.
That was one of the few times I saw Ronald really angry.
He putthem both out of the room in the most unceremonious
fashion. The " blood " returned a little later, rather sobered,
and apologized for what had happened. Ronald was not
easily appeased, but the man was in a way contrite, and
was finally forgiven. But I think the interview confirmed
Ronald in his opinion that it would have been better to
recognize the existence of the " blood " element and to try
and win it away from its worst characteristics. '
The explanation of the ' Anna ' as a disintegrating force is
to be sought in an intolerant and aggressive spirit too often
found among men from a single school, and evident, I have
been informed, upon the banks of the Cam no less than
upon the Isis.
It will be clear to any reader of this volume that no one
could have loved his school more devotedly than Ronald
loved Rugby. His letter to his mother on leaving school
would by itself be sufficient to prove this. But his intense
loyalty and devotion to Rugby did not mean that he was
THE ANNANDALE SOCIETY 143
the less, but all the more, able to enter freely and sympa-
thetically into the varied life of the University, and to co-
operate in the most friendly spirit with men from every other
school or from no school at all. A false strain has crept
into the loyalty of some men from a great and ancient and
noble foundation. Let us hope that in the future those
who are responsible will see to it that Eton men are not
handicapped in playing their part in a world which is never
likely to be composed wholly of Eton men. In the end
the world will always cure those of them who are worth
curing, and they will play, as they have ever done, a splen-
did part in it; but after what unnecessary friction and
delay, and the loss of so much that University life could
give them, and with how much loss to others.
'All Keith's last year', writes his friend Neville Gorton,
' the " Anna " was a kind of nightmare to him. For months
he had the whole thing on his brain. He was extra-
ordinarily bitter. He felt that before he went down he
ought to smash it. It was a serious disintegrating influence
right through the College. One can't exaggerate the harm
it did, and the last two years I was up the whole College
was divided in the most bitter feud. Personally I used to
get frightfully worked up at times and then, as Secretary
for the Christian Union set in College, to doubt the wisdom
or Tightness of Keith's methods and waver round to other
methods, though I honestly think now Keith's was the only
way out. '
Although the feud between the leaders on the two sides
was so bitter, a beautiful and touching end was brought to
it by the stress and strain of the war. Even when things
were at their worst Keith Rae had clearly recognized great
and splendid qualities in the leader of the opposite party.
' If I were in a shipwreck or any danger of that kind
I would rather be with him than any one else', he once
said to the present Master of Balliol. But the protest and
forced apology were regarded as a lasting grievance, and
nothing more than a formal reconciliation and this much
later was possible at Oxford. Then came the war, and
the two opponents met as officers in the same battalion.
144 BALLIOL
Capt. Bowlby, who was with them, wrote of Keith to the
Editor of the Balliol Club Magazine : ' Those of us who
knew and loved him need not be told what a wonderful
officer and friend he proved himself to be " out there " '.
And so in those few short months these qualities became
also revealed to one who had never really known him, and
his old opponent sought Keith for a true reconciliation and
friendship. And when the end came with the first use of
liquid fire in the attack at Hooge, Keith and his sergeant
were last seen, unyielding and alone, defending an aban-
doned trench, while his new-found friend was killed, with
many another of our best and bravest, in the first ill-planned
and useless counter-attack.
Ronald was not one of those who take naturally to the
life of a soldier. When the question of his joining the
School Volunteers arose he wrote saying that he would
be rather pleased if we did not wish him to enter the
R.S.R.V.C. But the Officers' Training Corps had come
into existence on Sept. i, 1908, as the result of the inspiring
meeting in the Town Hall addressed by Lord Haldane in
the previous May, and Ronald, when he came up, was
convinced that it was his duty to join. He was extremely
interested in the great questions of military strategy and
tactics. Members of the family will always remember the
long evening hours he used to spend in the drawing-room
at St. Helens, reading The Times History of the War in
South Africa ; and his friends noticed the same keenness.
Thus Captain L. R. Broster wrote :
' I was surprised to find how keenly interested Ronald
was in Military strategy. For the want of something to
do I read Ian Hamilton's Russo-Japanese War and With
Kitchener to Khartoum, and found that he had studied them
long before.'
I remember too how much he appreciated The Defence
of Duffer's Drift, by ' Backsight Forethought', of which he
gave me a copy. One of Ronald's friends greatly admired
THE O.T.C. 145
J. A. Cramb's book on England and Germany, and I was
much interested to know what Ronald himself would think
of it. I found, as I expected, that he agreed with me in dis-
liking the eloquent glorification of war which is its main
thesis. After four years of the real thing even the military
chiefs of Germany, if they spoke their inmost thoughts,
would probably express only a chastened approval of the
views of their English apologist.
A brief statement of some experiences in the O.T.C. is
given in Ronald's accounts of the years.
He speaks of taking part on May 5, 1909, in ' the
review of the O.T.C. at Headington and shortly after in
a Field day at Claydon '. On June 19 he went with the
O.T.C. to Aldershot for a very enjoyable though very wet
week. Then in September,
' went for the day round the manoeuvres at Faringdon,
with Gerald Fisher on the carrier of my motor-cycle. He
expressed great knowledge of where the fighting would
be, but ultimately we motored 40 miles without seeing
a soldier. On Nov. 22nd I was examined for certificate
"A" O.T.C., and I hope I passed. 1 I certainly got through
the practical at Cowley Barracks.'
IQIO. ' About May i6th I was picked as a representative
of C Company to march in the procession through London
at the King's funeral. We stayed the night on the floor of
a Territorial Drill Hall. The standing in St. James's Street
and the marching with strapped overcoats to Paddington
was the most tiring thing I ever did.
'At the end of Term I spent the usual splendid and
damp week at Aldershot, where owing to shortage I was
forced to act as Colour-Sergeant of our Company, with the
advantage of not having to carry a rifle on parade.'
He wrote to his friend C. P. Evers on July 18 : ' I had
a gorgeous time at Aldershot and really am frightfully keen
on soldiering.' As a result of the Aldershot week Ronald
and his friend Dick Dugdale (of C.C.C.) were invited to
take part as Motor-cycle Dispatch Riders in the Autumn
Manoeuvres. Ronald's brief note was contained in the
1 He passed successfully.
L
146 BALLIOL
missing pages of his account of 1910, but I remember his
telling us of his capture and how it was cleverly effected by
converting a pony carriage full of ladies into a barrier which
brought the motor-cycle to a sudden stop. Before he could
turn and escape, the enemy appeared at close quarters
behind him and he had to surrender.
After the manoeuvres were over Ronald received the
following letter from H.Q. of the Southern Command at
Salisbury :
1 DEAR POULTON,
' Lt.-General Sir Charles Douglas wishes me to write
and thank you very much for the very efficient way in which
you carried out your duties as a despatch rider during the
recent manoeuvres. He thinks it was most patriotic of you
to give him your services at great expense and discomfort
to yourself.
' Yours sincerely,
1 R. S. MAY.'
In the Autumn Term of 1910 Ronald was elected Presi-
dent of the O.T.C. Sergeants' Mess ^Varsity, Nov. 17,
1910, p. 65).
After the Final Schools in June 1911, ' the next week was
spent at Aldershot, where we had an excellent week's
training, interrupted by a visit to Windsor for the review
of the O.T.C.'s by the King. This review of 22,000 possible
officers in any branch of the army of England was quite
a moving spectacle, only marred by the thought of now
few of those 22,000 will ever be fitted really to command.
But the importance of the whole scheme is shewn by the
fact that during the recent crisis, there were not enough
officers in England to fill up places vacant from the primary
wastage of war.'
Capt. N. Whatley has kindly sent me the record of
Ronald's Service in the Officers' Training Corps:
Cadet Colour-Sergeant R. W. Poulton,
Balliol Section, C Company,
Joined, Oxford Univ. O.T.C. 4. 12. 08.
Resigned 29. 12. n
with above rank.
THE O.T.C. 147
Passed Examination ' A ' and obtained the
Certificate Nov. 1909.
' B ' and obtained the
Certificate May 1910.
Ronald's record of Service and Qualifications of a Cadet
on leaving the Infantry unit, Oxford University Contin-
gent, dated Jan. 9, 1912, gives as his Qualifications
' General Efficiency, very good,' and, under Musketry,
* Fired Table " B ".' The Special Remarks entered are
4 Efficient, 1909, 10, n'.
Among Ronald's papers are a set of his answers to ques-
tions on ' Appreciation of Situation '. The careful marginal
and terminal notes by Capt. and Adj. R. Maclachlan 'just
back from camp fagged out ! ' show that he found the
answers satisfactory. Capt. Maclachlan's paper giving the
results of the examination for Certificate B is endorsed,
4 Well done. I know you cannot take a commission yet,
but enclose a pamphlet ! '
The Rev. Henry C. Wace (Maj. T.F.) has recalled memo-
ries of Ronald as one of a band of Balliol men who took an
important part in the earliest days of the O.T.C. at Oxford.
' Your son was one of the most notable leaders in Under-
graduate life who joined the Corps when it was recon-
structed as an O.T.C. under Lord Haldane : the whole
success of the movement depended on the way in which it
was backed up by men like your son. From the time he
joined, the Balliol Section became the most efficient and
vigorous section in C Company. Their position was on
the right, and I well remember the extraordinary succes-
sion of big vigorous men the College provided at the head
of the Company. They were big mentally as well as
physically most I think were Scholars. Names that occur
to me are D. R. Brandt [Lt. Rifle Brigade, killed July 6,
1915], L. U. Kay-Shuttleworth [Lt. and Adit. R.A., killed
Mar. 30, 1917], C. Fyson [Lt. Wore. Regt.], W. G. Fletcher
[2nd Lt. R. Welsh Fusiliers, killed Mar. 20, 1915], V. F.
Bulkeley-Johnson [Capt. Rifle Brigade]. In the first camp
that your son came to it must have been 1909 he was,
I believe, in a tent at the end of one of the lines opening on
to the centre street. He was with Brandt and Kay-Shuttle-
L 2
148 BALLIOL
worth and another. I remember the tent well, and watching
with some anxiety to see whether they approved of our
methods of running the Company or not. It was the first
year we had had men of that stamp, in any numbers, in the
Corps, and one was very anxious as to how it struck them.
I don't think I am doing them an injustice if I say that, as
far as I remember, some of the small details of Camp life
such as keeping their buttons clean, &c. rather bored that
particular tent ; but when it came to real work they would
do anything, and they backed one up absolutely to the last.
I never had a man who worked more loyally under me than
your son ; I cannot recall a single instance in which we
were at loggerheads. Busy man as he was, he took an
infinity of trouble over the Corps, and I believe that, despite
his many engagements, he hardly missed a single field day
during term time.'
Memories have also come to me from one who served
in the O.T.C. with Ronald J. Mostyn Silvester, Jesus
College, A.D.C., resident when he wrote at Machakos,
British East Africa :
'Your son was of course a good deal senior to me at
Oxford, but he was Colour-Sergeant of our Company in
the O.T.C. , and never shall I forget the constant considera-
tion and kindness which he showed to all of us, whether
we were from Balliol, B.N.C., or Jesus [the three
Colleges combined in C Company]. We would always
far rather do anything for him man for our officers. I only
knew him in just that little corner of life in camp, but there
he won my admiration and respect. As Colour-Sergeant
he was the senior Non-Commissioned Officer, and com-
mands, orders, &c. passed down through him to us, while
all requests for leave, &c. went up to the C.O. through
him. I remember very often in those dreary marches over
Long Valley and Laffan's Plain, when returning to camp,
how he would buck us up with a few words or would start
a song to get us along on the campward road.
' The next year he had gone down and another man
occupied his place. Somehow things were often wrong
that year, and again and again one heard, "If only old
Poulton were here it would be all right". I think that will
show you in what respect and affection he was held.'
It was from his experiences in the O.T.C. and the re-
THE O.T.C. 149
suiting association with professional soldiers that Ronald
came to realize, before he left Oxford, that war with
Germany was inevitable. Thus the Rev. C. S. Donald
writes :
' I once stayed with Ronnie at Oxford, a short and
jolly visit. I well remember being introduced by him on
the Oxford platform as I left to a Staff Officer. As the
train was coming in I remember Ronnie saying, "He's
a splendid fellow. He is absolutely certain that the Ger-
mans mean war in a few years: it's as certain as the
sequence of night and day. :
And these are the words with which Ronald brought to
an end the account of 1911, his last year at Oxford:
' Before closing I must mention the fact which has made
this year stand out in every Englishman's mind. This fact
is the appalling proximity to a European conflagration
during July and August. At one time we were within
24 hours of war with Germany, and only by a certain
amount of good fortune was it avoided. It is interesting
to inquire what one would have been doing now, had that
crisis not passed ; and it is important to consider what
course one will pursue if any crisis of this kind is not
surmounted in the future.'
Vll
BOYS' CLUBS IN OXFORD YEARS
There is nothing that is not fresh, happy, and beautiful in his
memory. I can never think of any sorrow cloud passing over the
sun in that wonderful life except sorrow for the sufferings of others.
It is a memory to cherish as one of one's dearest possessions.
2nd Lt. T. K. H. RAE, Rifle Bde., Balliol, from the Flanders front,
July 9, 1915, three weeks before he was killed.
I so often think of those three great friends, Ronald, Keith Rae, and
Stephen Reiss, and like to imagine them as in the old days working
together elsewhere. How I miss them ! Capt. H. R. BOWLBY, Rifle
Bde., Balliol.
EDWARD in his account of the year speaks of various
meetings, held in Balliol during the Michaelmas Term of
1906, under the presidency of the present Master, to
discuss social questions. As one result it was decided to
start the Balliol Boys' Club in Oxford.
In Ronald's first term Stephen L. Reiss was President,
Keith (T. K. H.) Rae Secretary, and Neville Gorton
Treasurer. These and all the other officers of the Club
during the whole of his Oxford days H. R. Bowlby,
W. T. Collier, G. M. Hamilton, and R. Wodehouse were
among his most intimate friends. Ronald was Secretary
Oct. 1909 to June 1910.
On one occasion when an officer was absent Ronald
took the notes but added, 'To Mr. Wodehouse, who is
I believe Secretary of the Balliol Boys' Club ', and ' I have
done this for my dear friend, and I hope he finds it a clear
and concise account of what happened. Signed R. W.
Poulton (Ex-Secretary that's how I learnt to do it).'
Keith Rae, the leader of the group of friends who
BOYS' CLUBS IN OXFORD YEARS 151
managed the Balliol Boys' Club, was a year senior to
Ronald and a little older, having been born May 24, 1889.
One of his brothers being too delicate to leave home,
Keith stayed with him and was educated by a tutor,
attending classes at the University of Liverpool. Unlike
Ronald, he had had no experience of Boys' Clubs before
he went to Oxford. It is interesting that one whose
education had been so different from that of most English
boys should have quickly taken a leading place among the
Balliol men of his time. Ronald's letters show how
much he looked up to Keith and how highly he valued his
friendship. The leading part taken by Keith Rae is well
shown in a paragraph from Ronald's letter of March 2, 1910,
to C. P. Evers, of which nearly the whole has been quoted
on pp. 66, 67 :
'We are making a great effort to fight against the
immorality of the boys, whether Club boys or not. Rae,
our President, in the weekly officers' meeting (boy officers)
told them perfectly straight what he thought and knew
about it, and in consequence we got their confidence and
shall I believe be able to do much good.'
Ronald kept up his active association with the Club to
the very end of his Oxford life, attending the Committee
meeting on Jan. 21, 1912, a few days before he left for
Reading.
It was during his Oxford residence that I learnt some-
thing of Ronald's work at the Club and in Camps. I re-
member his once telling us of a boy, who, having been
turned out for making himself a nuisance, showed his
defiance by spitting into the room through the keyhole.
I wondered whether such a boy would ever be any good
in the Club. ' Rather,' said Ronald ; ' why, when you've
once got hold of him he'll probably make the best of the
lot'. The same spirit of humour and creative optimism
appears in a letter to Janet written from home, Dec. 14,
1908, at the end of his first term :
' Yesterday I went down to St. Ebbe's, where the Balliol
Boys' Club is, and took the service and made them a little
152 BOYS' CLUBS
sermon. I think it was rather successful, and they were
fairly quiet, that is to say they only whistled and talked
and threw chairs about.'
So Ronald while still an undergraduate had found for
himself the truth stated by Baden-Powell, ' that the worst
hooligan soon makes the best Scout: he only needs
direction for his adventurous energy and attractive pursuits
to fill a void' (Times, Oct. 10, 1916). That there were
several such boys in the Balliol Club may be gathered
from a letter written by W. T. Collier to Keith Rae, just
before the beginning of the Autumn Term of 1909 :
' The Club is open now every night. I rely on you to be
here on Thursday, as I have told two or three boys to
come and see you. I must confess I shall be rather glad
when Term begins, as it is rather a sham in the vac. One
or two of the boys are rather out of hand, notably ,
whom Poulton chucked out last week, who has been
behaving rather like the and type : he has been
going off steadily the last 2 or 3 weeks, and , who
is the limit : I put him out last night, though he ought to
have been out before.
' Poulton has brought down a new game Puff-billiards
which has caught on tremendously. He has been up
to the Rugby Mission in London and is full of schemes
of reform. 1 must say I agree with him, if it would be
possible to make them work smoothly. He suggests that
the first part of the evening should be given up to learn-
ing something useful, i.e. carpentering, boot-mending, &c.,
and the second part to amusement, &c. Of course it
would need considerable thought and money for this, but
I am sure that we ought to start something in that way,
which might be really useful to the boys.'
From his Mother.
' Ronald often talked to me about the boys, and some
of them I knew, as they lived in my district. When he
came home on Sundays he would talk to me about what
he should say to them when he took the Sunday service.
We often also discussed their future life, and their em-
ployments, and he and I used to argue the question as
to whether we ought to keep a house-boy. I think, in
IN OXFORD YEARS: 1909 153
the end, he was convinced that the training we gave these
boys did help them in their future careers. I loved all
these talks; he always had such sensible and practical
views/
The generous share of the year allotted to vacations
enabled Ronald to spend much time at the summer
Camps, which were his special delight. In his first year,
before he had settled down to serious work for his Final
Schools, he not only worked hard for the Balliol Club,
but at Easter 1909 visited the Bermondsey Club, while
the Long Vacation Camps form a large part of his account
of the year. On June 29, the day after Hilda's wedding,
he started on his motor bicycle for Beaulieu in the New
Forest and the Balliol Boys' Club Camp, of which he
wrote : ' The weather was beautiful, and it was an inter-
esting and instructive experience sleeping in the tents with
the boys. One gets to know them much better that way.'
Lt. G. M. Hamilton (Graves Regn. Comn.) writes :
' I fear I can remember little enough about it, except
the pleasure it was to have him with us. Two things
remain with me his anger and disgust with a boy who
was ill-treating a crab, and his intense enjoyment of an
early morning walk through the New Forest which ended
with a visit to the beautiful ruins of Beaulieu Abbey.'
Later on, there was New Romney and, as he wrote :
' My fifth consecutive visit. I was there right through
the fortnight except for one brief interlude. 1 even came
in for the last day of the girls' week. This caused some
embarrassment when I went down to Netting Hill later,
to be welcomed at various turns by some unknown young
ladies, and I had to reply appropriately.
' It was a splendid week and absolutely perfect through-
out. The nights on the beach were lovely and called forth
a song of which the chorus was :
You may like your feather bed
Where you cannot turn your head
To see the moonbeams silvering the sea ;
You may talk of dell or dingle,
But a bed upon the shingle
Is the only bed worth sleeping in for me.
154 BOYS' CLUBS
' I never feel so perfectly the delight of living as at 6.0
in the morning on the beach at New Romney, with the
waves lapping at my feet, and the sun high up over
Dover pier.'
In the middle of the stay Ronald motor-cycled north
to act as groomsman at the wedding of his friends Miss
Nancy Mann and Mr. Hawkesworth. He gave a graphic
account of the return journey from Oxford to New
Romney :
' I left Oxford at 4.30 by Carfax clock. I passed Henley
after tea, looking lovely, and passed through Twyford,
Wokingham, Bagshot, Bisley, Guildford and Dorking. At
Dorking I had some dinner, and as it was such a perfect
night I determined to go on. I had to change the belt as
the other was slipping, but otherwise all went well. I went
through Redhill, East Grinstead, and finally reached
Tunbridge Wells with great difficulty at 2.30 a.m. The
difficulty was that I could not find my way. I found a
policeman who directed me on. I got through Lamber-
hurst, but finally came to a stop at 3.30 at a big cross
roads, because I hadn't any idea where I was, and my
back tyre was punctured. I stuck up the bike and went
to sleep for 2^ hours on a heap of stones. Among other
excellent things that a motor bicycle does for you, it
never fails to make you sleepy. The next morning I
mended the puncture, and found my way through Rye to
New Romney in time for breakfast. The motor bicycle
was very popular, as I was able to give a lot of rides to
boys along the sands/
The following memories of Ronald at the New Romney
Camps of 1909 and 1910 have been recalled by his Oxford
friend, Capt. C. P. Symonds, R.A.M.C., whose engagement
to Janet was such a pleasure to him during the months
of training at Chelmsford :
'I find it very difficult to put down on paper any
definite impressions of Ronald as I knew him. I know
that some of the happiest days I have ever had were
spent in his company, while all the times were so jolly
that I was too happy to think much or analyse my feel-
ings, but was content to love him and enjoy it, as every one
NEW ROMNEY
RONALD ON THE BEACH WITH HIS BALLIOL FRIEND NORMAN F. SMITH.
From a photograph by A. L. N. Russell, 1909.
RONALD JUDGING IN A TUG-OF-WAR.
From a photograph by Rev. C. S. Donald, probably 1910.
Facing f>. 154.]
IN OXFORD YEARS: 1909, 1910 155
else who knew him did love him ; so now I have to cast
back and try and unravel why so much of the brightness
and friendliness in the air were due to him.
' He was certainly the most attractive of all men to meet
for the first time. Although we were at Rugby together
I never really had more than a nodding acquaintanceship
with him until the Romney Camp of 1909. He and I were
both included in a party of some half-dozen of the Staff
who went down a day beforehand to prepare things : I had
never been down there before, whereas he and the others
were old hands, and I felt at first rather shy, but by the
end of the journey down in the dirty S.E. carriage I knew
I was going to enjoy my fortnight there. I well remember
that when I got into that train I was filled with apprehen-
sion, and when I got out of it, I felt as if I'd known every
one in the party for years and that they were all splendid
people. And now as I look back on it, I believe it is a
good instance of the atmosphere of friendliness that Ronald
created wherever he went.
' I was a new-comer, and a stranger in an intimate party,
and quite naturally and unselfconsciously Ronald made me
of it, and put me at my ease. Wherever he was he was
radiant of good spirits and could make people "rag", and
in the most diverse companies could create in no time a
spirit of good fellowship. Before that Camp was finished
I came to know him as intimately as I think only Rommers
(or war) can bring people together in so short a time. We
used to sleep next one another on the shingle, and talk
as we went to sleep and here he introduced me to some
of his ideas about Boys' Clubs : they were then quite
vague, but he obviously felt that Boys' Clubs were one of
the institutions worth living for.
' He was always at Rommers, in those days, the Camp
carpenter, and used to spend the mornings very happily
repairing wrecked furniture always with some one to
help him. I believe he hated doing things alone, but as
long as he had a congenial spirit with him, no task was
dull: and he had a way of finding congenial spirits.
' With the boys he was a great success ; to start with
his natural athleticism appealed to them, and he was as
unselfconscious and jolly with them as he was with
others : he never pretended to understand them when he
didn't.
' The best picture of him in my memory is of a blanket-
wrapt figure on Romney beach early in the morning, and
156 BOYS' CLUBS
a perfectly red unshaven face with an enormous grin of
satisfaction at having shirked a cold bathe and scored
another half-hour's sleep.
'And I remember turning him out of his nest in the
shingle and the fight that ensued. He was a priceless
friend.'
After a visit to New Romney in the autumn of 1915
Capt. Symonds wrote :
' We enjoyed our bathe on the old beach at Rommers,
though it made me feel very sad to look on all the old
places and think of the men who were gone.
' Rommers made me think much of Ronald, and of the
last week-end I spent there with his club : I am surprised
to find how very deeply I love a man of whom compared
with my other great friends I saw really but a little. When
peace comes and with it Romney Camp again, I know his
spirit will be with those of the old crowd with whom he
spent such glorious days.'
In 1910 Ronald, who had gone with the Balliol Club
boys to London in the course of the Summer Term, felt
that he could not manage to be at the Camp in the last
Long Vacation before his Final Schools. But when the
question was discussed in February, he, being the only
member of the Committee who knew the Rugby Club
camping ground at New Romney, suggested that the
Balliol boys should go there.
There is no doubt that the choice was a mistake in view
of the fact that not one of the Staff accompanying the boys
had been to New Romney before. But Ronald could
not do more than see the party off with Keith in charge,
at Charing Cross, and he did not learn till July 10, when
the Camp was over, that the result had not been a success.
The following letters show how distressed he was at the
possibility of any misunderstanding between him and
Keith, and especially between his two friends, Keith and
H. H. Hardy, the Treasurer of the Club.
IN OXFORD YEARS: 1910 157
From W. T. Collier to Keith Rae.
'July n, 1910. Oxford.
'I had a call from Ronald yesterday. He was rather
upset about New Romney. He was very anxious you
should not write too strongly to Hardy, as the latter was
rather put out already and has a fairly useful tongue:
however, I told him I thought you were a match for most
people in that department.
' I am awfully sorry you weren't fit during the week :
I am afraid it made you look rather on the dark side of
things. However, " Experientia docet" (who said I wasn't
a Latin scholar?).'
From Ronald to Keith Rae.
'July 14, 1910. Oxford.
' I was agreeably relieved during the week to get a p. c.
from George Allen to say how much they were enjoying
it all, and so the news I heard from Billy's cousin who was
calling last Sunday sent me off on my bike to Billy, where
I heard the dismal story, which even his customary cheer-
fulness could not hide. I may say I left him feeling very
wretched, and when I think of it I still feel pretty bad.
' My dear Keith, I am frightfully sorry it was so un-
successful. I do wish you had wired to me to tell me to
come down as / told you either that Saturday or during
the week. The wratn of the Professor would have been
preferable to the regrets I now feel. I do wish I had come.
But I imagined that all was well as I didn't hear. I am
sick about it all. And I am certain that the weather and
the kit and the few rows you did have made you look at
the locality with a dismal eye. I know that it is ideal for
a camp, provided that you are comfortable, which you
obviously were not. Do write and say you forgive me.
Please write to me and be kind. Billy has been very
sweet.'
But he never would admit that the place itself was
anything but perfect : ' I still firmly stick to the opinion
that the place, as I saw it last, was perfectly ideal for such
a camp, at least as ideal as any sea-side place in England.'
And he spoke of the hold it would have on H. H. Hardy,
who, at Lydd, 'has lived all his life on the marsh and
i 5 8 BOYS' CLUBS
knows, as some of us are learning who go there year after
year, some of its beauty and wonder.' And later on, when
he had been to New Romney, he wrote to Keith Rae from
Marlston, Sept. 15, 1910 :
'Camp was as good as the Rugby Camp always is.
I cursea them all for giving the Ballipl Club such a rotten
time, but I must say we had a topping time. We found
the water splendid and didn't boil it ; yet no one was the
worse for it. Of course the important thing, the weather,
was very kind to us, though it wasn't as warm as usual.'
On the same day he wrote to C. P. Evers :
'About the Religion Question at Camp I did speak
a little to you about it at Camp, and I absolutely agree
with you. More should be made of this at a time when
one has most influence over these boys. And I feel quite
certain we ought to sleep in the tents with the boys. If it
is arranged I shall hope to get a tent. I should love to
talk to them on things that matter. Of course with the
bigger boys it will be more difficult, but it ought to be
possible to put the more experienced staff to look after
them.
1 It was a splendid Camp and I enjoyed it as usual no
end. Charlie and I helped clear up on the Saturday and
didn't get off till tea-time, so we slept at Cranbrook in
Kent for the night.
' Two boys missed their train, so I put them on behind
and motored them to catch the train at Ham Street : rather
good, wasn't it ? '
The present section is brought to a close with the
memories of friends who were associated with Ronald in
Boys' Clubs during this period of his life.
From Alfred Ollivant, whose earliest memories of
Ronald are of the three days which, in the midst of his
summer in France in 1911, he could not resist giving to
Romney:
' I remember well the kind of thrill that went through
that August Camp when the men knew that " Mr. Poulton "
was coming. He came with his friend Dick Dugdale.
And I remember now the keenness with which he flung
IN OXFORD YEARS: 1911 159
himself into the rough football on the dunes on those
glorious summer evenings.'
From Captain W. T. Collier, R.A.M.C.:-
'Our last year at 15 Oriel Street was the best of all.
We were most of us pretty busy during the day, and I was
amazed at his power of application ; for at a time when he
was Captain of the XV, he did a regular 8 hours' work
a day. But when one or two of us returned from the
Club, as we often did, about half-past ten, we would all
gather round the kettle either on the stairs or in the
dining-room for a last cup of cocoa. And I remember
how he would laugh at some small event of the day or of
the evening at the Club. For he had, in no small degree,
the power of appreciating the humours of every-day
existence one of the things which helped to make him so
cheerful and so human a companion.'
From 2nd Lt. Keith Rae, writing to Ronald's mother.
Capt. H. R. Bowlby, who was with Keith at the time,
remembers his despair at the news of Ronald's death, a
few days before he went out.
1 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade,
'35 Rushmoor Camp, Aldershot.
1 May 7, 1915.
1 1 hope you will forgive me for intruding upon your
sorrow, but I could not go abroad without writing to you.
No one who loved and admired Ronald as I did, or who
owed him what I do, could possibly say nothing.
' I shall not attempt to express what his friendship
meant to me. I have been indeed lucky beyond descrip-
tion in the friends I have had, but I have never met a
more beautiful nature than his. It is when we meet
such as Ronald that we can begin to see beyond this sad
life and understand what they are like who live with Him
for ever. Truly " of such are the Kingdom of Heaven ".
' For Ronald himself the only cruelty is that he was
cut off on the threshold of a great life.
1 Death has no terrors for such as he. It is for those
he has left behind that the sympathy must be. It cannot
comfort you altogether to think of the splendid way in
which he laid his life down. It will however help you
to know how he was loved by all who knew him. He
160 BOYS' CLUBS
has left the world richer by his splendid life. Death can
never deprive us of a happy Past with all its beautiful
memories. That is the great consolation of this terrible
war. Strong as Death is, Love and Goodness are stronger
still.
1 Please forgive this letter, but I felt I must write to you
to-night. Will you please tell Professor Poulton now
deeply I feel for him at this time and how earnestly I pray
that God will comfort you both.
' Believe me, dear Mrs. Poulton,
' Your very sincere friend,
'KEITH RAE.'
From Keith Rae, who had asked through his father if
I could tell him the position of Ronald's grave. ' He
had a great love for Ronald and has felt his loss sorely/
It was written a few weeks before Keith's name appeared
on Aug. i in the list of those ' missing, believed killed ' at
Hooge.
' Dugouts, 8th Battn. Rifle Brigade,
'B.E.F.
'July 9, 1915.
1 Many thanks for your letter. I was very anxious to
go to Ronald's grave if I could, and leave a few flowers
there. But it does not seem at the moment possible.
I cannot say where I am, but I am many miles away at a
very notorious and unpleasant spot. You know I will
take any chance I have of getting there, and will let you
or Mrs. Poulton know the moment I have done so.
' I cannot realize yet that Ronald has gone and I do
not attempt to do so. For I firmly believe that Death is
at most a temporary parting and that we may meet those
we love after the grave.
' I wish I could tell you and Mrs. Poulton how deeply
I feel for you in your sorrow. For us others it is so
much easier. As Billy Temple put it, we can try to
follow in his footsteps.
' You ask me to write a few of my recollections of
him. I would most willingly try, and, if it please God to
bring me safely through this war, I will. But life here is
so arduous and so distracting that it would be almost an
impossibility to do so now. There is but seldom time to
call one's own, and one is never " off duty ".
IN OXFORD YEARS 161
' It is a time of sorrow and tears for us all, is it not ?
I believe that the Clouds will lift and that the Sun will
shine forth again.
' Will you allow me to send my love to Mrs. Poulton ? '
From Keith Rae to the Rev. E. C. Crosse, C.F., D.S.O.
(8th Devons), written July 16, 1915 :
' You see that dear old Bussell and Bob Brandt have
gone? It is terribly sad, but nothing can come as a
surprise since Ronald has gone.'
I conclude this section with words written by Cyril
Bailey in The Balliol Club Magazine (1915, pp. 4-6). Here
Ronald is remembered, as he would wish to be remem-
bered, among his comrades and friends in the work.
Eighty-five members of the Club, officers and boys, were
known to be serving in the Army or Navy by March 1915,
and, in addition to the officers who have fallen, H. R. Bowlby
and W. T. Collier have been wounded.
'The war, which has brought mourning to so many
homes, has not spared the Club, and has indeed taken of
our best. We have lost four former members of the
Committee, including an ex- President and an ex-Secretary.
... If we are to find the kind of comfort which shall
make it possible to say of us, " Blessed are they that mourn, "
we must let our thoughts dwell not on the blank that we
feel now, but on the good days when they were with us.
We must try and remember what manner of men they were
and let their spirit become, as it were, part of our lives,
that we may be able to feel a little as they felt and perhaps
to do some small part of the work they might have done,
if they had been spared to us.
' Of the four Druce Robert Brandt was the least in-
timately associated with the Club. He was a great scholar
and a good athlete he kept wicket for Oxford against
Cambridge in 1907 and a man of very many interests and
quantities of friends. His life in Oxford was always
a busy one, yet he found time in it to be with us often in
the Club. And what we probably remember best about
him was a most infectious energy and a plentiful sense of
humour and behind it a strength of character, which
almost unconsciously made anything mean or unclean
II
162 BOYS' CLUBS
impossible for him. No one could be with him and not
feel lifted into a more vigorous and healthy atmosphere.
' Ronald William Poulton Palmer, or " Ronnie Poulton ",
as all his friends called him and many to whom he was
only a great name, was also a man of many great gifts
undoubtedly the greatest Rugby football-player of his
generation and the most popular man wherever he went
yet his absolutely unaffected humility and his power of
sympathy made him the truest of friends to " all sorts and
conditions of men ". He was very much in the Club and
was an obvious idol: nothing could have been easier for
him than to let himself be the centre there of a cheap
popularity. But with us he was always just one of us
known to all and ready to throw himself into anything that
was going on. Only those who knew him well know how
much he gave up for the Club, and how he valued his
hours there. . . . lie said himself that the Club had helped
him, as nothing else could, to understand different people
and different points of view.
' Of the other two it is harder to speak, if only because
their days in the Club are more recent; and each of us
will have his separate recollections of them. To those who
were in Camp last July, its most prominent feature, as we
look back on it now, will probably be the presence there
of Stephen Reiss. He had been prevented by illness from
going to the front with his regiment, and chose to spend
with the Club the last days of his leave. He came almost
silently and seemed to take no very leading part in what
was going on he was still weak but every one felt his
presence. And so it was always : he was naturally a shy
man and hated any kind of self-assertion, but his friend-
ships were deep and strong, and it was impossible not to
feel his profoundly religious nature. Not that he often
spoke of his religion though few who were there will
forget the night in Camp when he spoke to us at prayers
but in a very rare way he lived it. One felt that he
attached other values to things than the ordinary man, and
that the spiritual side of life was always with him. He
gave the Club of his best ; and those wnp knew him in it
must see to it that something of his spirit remains with
them.
' It is many months now since we heard that Keith Rae
was " wounded and missing ", and we can hardly dare hope
that we shall see him again. His connexion with the Club
was closer and longer than that of any President we have
IN OXFORD YEARS 163
had, and extended over nearly the whole of its existence.
He devoted himself to it in a way that was almost
marvellous. H e knew not only every member as a personal
friend, but the parents and home of almost all of them as
well. He was in a very peculiar sense the life of the Club,
and it would almost be true to say that the Club was his
life : certainly nothing was dearer to him. He too was
a shy man, but one of those whose shyness makes them
talkative, and this habit sometimes gave people a wrong
impression of him. . . . His manner was so courteous
and deferential to every one, that sometimes one asked
whether he really understood men and distinguished
between them. But these doubts were soon dispelled
when one came to know him ; few men had a clearer or
more serious purpose in life than Keith Rae, few knew
better the men and things which he liked and loved and
those of which he disapproved for he could hate too and
burn with anger where he thought there was injustice.
And it was because he was so definite himself that he was
able perhaps more than any one else to give us the ideal
of what the Club might be, a place where amid much
diversity of lives and occupations and interests the mem-
bers might be united in a fellowship stronger than all
differences, where behind all the bustle and noise and
variety of our energies we might know the power of
friendship and feel the presence of God.
1 Of those who have known these four in the Club, some
are still in Oxford, many are fighting, as they fought, for
our country and for ideals even greater than country;
wherever we are, let us from time to time allow our
thoughts to dwell on these leaders whom we loved in the
Club and we shall be stronger to meet what may come
to us. '
M 2
VIII
RUGBY FOOTBALL AND OTHER SPORTS IN OXFORD
YEARS
How often in that poplar-haunted space,
Athwart the meadow mist, the westering sun,
We watched the mimic battle sway and roll
This way and that; and loved his gallant grace,
The swift elusive swerve, the buoyant run,
The breathless sudden glory of the goal !
R. FANSHAWE in the Oxford Magazine, June 18, 1915.
It is quite impossible for me to tell you how much I feel for you.
The news came as a terrible shock to me, for I, too, have suffered a
great loss. Lt. F. N. TARR, Leic. Regt. (with Ronald in the 1909
Oxford Rugby Team, and International Teams in 1909 and 1913),
killed July 10, 1915.
DURING his first term, Ronald suddenly became the
centre of much controversy in the public press and in foot-
ball circles everywhere, especially at Oxford. Up to this
time he had kept in the comparative quiet of school life and
avoided publicity as far as possible. It is stated in the
News of the World, May 9, 1915, that he refused to send
his photograph for reproduction to the editor of an illus-
trated paper, saying ' that he was sorry not to oblige, but
he did not approve of schoolboy players being made so
much of in the Press '. But this quiet enjoyment of the
great game with his friends was now over. The constitu-
tion of the University Rugby Team to play against
Cambridge is the most exciting athletic event of the Autumn
Term, and Ronald, who had often encountered Oxford
College teams, was almost certain to be discussed, and
discussed he was as few boys of nineteen have been.
But he took it all very easily and lightly, paying little
attention to it, and continuing to play as well as he could
whenever he was asked.
SPORTS AT OXFORD 165
It must not be supposed, however, that he neglected
competent criticism. Hugh Martin (Major, R.F.A.), who
was at Balliol and in the 1909 'Varsity team with him,
remembers that
' Ronnie and I used to train together in the Balliol field
when there was no 'Varsity turn-out on. We would run up
and down the field together, passing and repassing, as he
said he must learn to combine.
' He was the cheeriest and most delightful of men to
play on the same side with, always apologizing for a pass
that went astray, often when it wasn't his fault even. He
was never depressed, and never thought he was beaten till
the whistle went.'
It is natural enough that Ronald's play should have
provoked differences of opinion. His Dragon and Rugby
records show that he was a remarkable all-round athlete,
who, almost from the first, had shown a peculiar aptitude
for three-quarter play. I think it likely that the early
development of his powers of running, dodging, and
feinting in the dearly loved game of hide-and-seek with his
family and friends at St. Helens helped him to become
what he was. It is probable that in most men such
individual powers would be the expression of an indi-
vidualistic temperament : it would be natural when watch-
ing some brilliant display to assume that Ronald was an
individualist by nature. But, as those will know who
have followed his family and school life, this was the exact
opposite of the truth. All Ronald's happiness in life was
social in games as in deeper things. Athletic competition,
the most individual of all sports, he never cared for,
although he excelled as a boy, and might have excelled as
a man, in more than one event. Rugby Football he loved
far more than any game just because of the combination
which is its essential feature.
Sir Godfrey Lagden, writing on 'The Game and its
Ethics ' in The Rugby Football Annual, 1914-15 (pp. 19-22),
finds the qualities required to be those
' which Punch, the truest interpreter of British character
166 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
and moods, has given in reply to the question " What is a
Sportsman ? " " As I understand the breed, he is one who
has not merely braced his muscles and developed his
endurance by the exercise of some great sport, but has in
the pursuit of that exercise learnt to control his anger, to
be considerate to his fellow men, to take no mean advan-
tage, to resent as a dishonour the very suspicion of
trickery, to bear aloft a cheerful countenance under disap-
pointment, and never to own himself defeated until the last
breath is out of his body." '
When to these great qualities we must add another and
that the most essential of all the instinct of combination,
the direction of thought and effort for one's side rather than
for one's self we recognize that, in Sir Godfrey's words,
'there is in Rugby Football something noble that counts
for more than winning goals and points '.
One little indication of Ronald's feeling for the side
rather than for himself has only become known to me as
I have been writing the story of his life. When a team is
photographed it is usual for the captain to hold the ball.
It is evident that Ronald did not wish to be distinguished
from the rest of his side in this way, but preferred to appear
like any other player in the team. I infer this from the
Oxford group in 1911 and from all the groups of his
International captaincies that I have seen. But in his last
game before the war, when he captained a scratch Isle of
Wight team at St. Helens, he held the ball for the post-
cards of the village photographer, who probably thought
that they would be more marketable if the captain was
marked out in the usual way.
Alfred Ollivant, writing of Ronald as he first knew him
as the Oxford captain in 1911, shows the inner meaning of
qualities that brought success in football and would have
brought it in greater fields :
'Then, as at other times, I was impressed by what was,
I should be almost inclined to say, his dominant quality-
his unconscious humility. I think it was in that his
strength lay, his power over other men, his immense
promise as a leader. He was on terms of absolute equality
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 167
with all men. He impressed one so much because he
never sought to impress one at all. There was no egoism
in him. He would never have sought honour, place, and
power. They would have come to him. And the judge-
ment and balance which made him what he was as a captain
on the football field would have ensured him in time a place
as a leader in other and more important spheres. He was
the one young man of his generation who seemed to me to
have the power and the will to lead the young men of his
day in what I believed to be the right way. And he would
have done it too. He will do it still indeed but in the
spirit now. '
Towards the end of his Oxford life Ronald told me that
he did not enjoy Internationals nearly so much as 'Varsity
matches. He said that the standard of play was of course
higher, but the members of the team did not have the same
chance of getting to know each other or each other's play. I
think he felt the same in his first term, when he remembered
his great school team in 1907 and contrasted it with the new
and, for the time, unfamiliar surroundings. And later on,
when he came to know and be known more widely, he
thoroughly enjoyed the International matches. How
much the social element entered into his pleasure is shown
by his remark that he enjoyed the match v. Scotland, on
March 18, 1911, chiefly because of the number of Oxford
friends in both the teams. And later still when he became
the English captain, and in the great matches just before
his captaincy, I am sure that he derived the greatest
pleasure from the games. By that time all controversy
about his methods had died down, and his powers of
leadership were fully recognized apart from his play. But
of more importance to him was the fact that he knew his
team so well and not only his own team but the rival
teams also.
In the Autumn Term of 1908 Ronald, with all his
capacity for doing the unexpected, was tested with men
who knew each others' play far better than they knew his,
and it was only natural that a satisfactory combination
could not be effected at once. Nor was it possible at first
i68 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
to know that he united qualities which are often irrecon-
cilable, that his originality and opportunism were all for
his side and never for himself, that, whether he achieved
it or not, he always desired success in combination with
others rather than success gained by his own unaided
efforts. In the end all this was fully recognized, and
every lover of the game felt that 'There was no more
thrilling sight to be seen on any Rugby ground than a
tricky run by " Ronnie " finished off by an unselfish
reverse pass and a colleague's score ' (Daily Mail, May 8,
Ronald's play has been described and discussed by
exponents and critics of the game times without number,
and the impressions of many experts, including a full
account kindly written by Mr. A. C. M. Croome, are
quoted in various parts of this and the next section. It
is therefore quite unnecessary for me to say anything
about its technical aspects a task for which I am quite
unfitted. But I remember what Ronald said on the rare
occasions when he talked to me of football, and these
memories have now a special value. He once said that
fast running was not as important as people believed, and
he instanced A. D. Stoop, who although not a fast runner
was very successful in getting through. This, Ronald
said, was often achieved by a deceptive pace that was
slower than it appeared to be, so that an opponent,
running to intercept, overshot the mark and crossed
Stoop's track at a point he had not yet reached. There can
be no doubt that, in this and in other ways, Ronald's play
had been much influenced by his early association with
the great Harlequin leader. Thus his deceptive pace is
spoken of in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
for May 15, 1915, as well as his ' peculiar ability of being
able to run at high speed and to swerve to either side
while doing this '. This reference to Ronald's high speed
recalls the fact that critics differed widely on this very
point, some maintaining that he was not really a fast
runner, pointing in confirmation to the ease with which
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 169
he was overtaken in the International match v. South
Africa in 1913. His athletic record proves beyond doubt
that he was fast in all short races, but the Rugby player,
handicapped by carrying the ball, naturally comes to rely
on his swerve and feint rather than on speed. In the
match just referred to Ronald was overtaken at the end
of a very long run, started soon after a successful try, and
was probably too tired to keep up his highest speed to
the last.
The following memories of Ronald and his play have
been kindly written by George Cunningham, I.C.S., the
Oxford captain who first gave him his ' Blue '. They
are dated July 7, 1915, from Kohat, NW. Frontier
Province :
1 So much has already been written of Ronald Poulton
as a Rugby footballer, that I despair of saying anything
fresh or original about him, but I am grateful for the
opportunity of adding a word of admiration for a player
whom I now regard as the most brilliant who played in
Oxford during the five years I was in residence from
1906-1911.
' Poulton's talents were well known at Oxford before he
came up to Balliol in Oct. 1908, and in any ordinary year
he would have been certain of a place in the XV. That
season, however, the solitary vacancy in the three-quarter
line was filled by C. M. Gilray who had brought a great
reputation from New Zealand, which he completely justi-
fied. He was an older man and more seasoned than
Poulton, who had not then grown to his full strength.
The same four three-quarters returned the following year,
1^09-1910, and it was only shortly before the match with
Cambridge in December 1909 that Poulton was assured of
his place in the XV. Once he began to play regularly, it
was hard to realize how we had ever got on without him.
' That year against Cambridge he played on the wing
and played magnificently, scoring five tries. Of all his
many achievements this was perhaps the most memorable,
and Poulton was the first to acknowledge the credit due to
his centre three-quarter, C. M. Gilray. Poultpn's position
in this match raised the question whether his real place
was on the wing or in the centre. There is no doubt that
the eccentric course he sometimes took when placed inside
170 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
disturbed the orthodox ideas of his wing three-quarter, and
he was often charged with spoiling the combination of a
three-quarter line. In my opinion his occasional "unortho-
doxy " was almost invariably justified by results. But as
a matter of fact, force of circumstances were alone respon-
sible for his ever playing on the wing. F. N. Tarr and
Gilray were obviously centre three-quarters and too
valuable to be neglected. Gilray had indeed played in
earlier matches on the wing with Poulton next him in the
centre, but this was never a comfortable arrangement ; the
centre was faster than the wing. Their places were there-
fore exchanged, and in the Inter-'Varsity match, which
I think was the first time Poulton played on the wing, the
new arrangement was a great success. Yet I have no
doubt that Poulton's peculiar talents really found larger
scope in the centre, and the methods which sometimes
confused his own wing three-quarter disconcerted his
enemies far more.
' He had a fine easy swerve to which he trusted, rather
than to his pace. In fact he was not unusually fast. His
long stride and supple body enabled him to thread his way
through a crowd of opponents with an ease surpassed by
no recent player except perhaps K. G. Macleod. He ran,
as every one remembers, with a curiously even, yet high-
stepping motion, his head thrown back, the ball held in
front at full arms' length. He missed few passes, and
could pick up the ball from the ground with remarkably
little change of speed. He kicked accurately, but never
far ; when he " punted " the ball, his knee was always too
much bent. His defence was, as far as I remember, weak
when he started to play for Oxford, but it improved
quickly, and in his second season was as good as that of
any one in the Team.
'The most dramatic of his runs that I can remember
came a few minutes before the end of the match between
Oxford and the Glasgow Academicals in Michaelmas
Term 1909 [Oct. 30] on the Iffley Road ground. The
Academicals were a point or two ahead, and had been
pressing hard on the Oxford line for 10 or 15 minutes.
The ball came out of the scrum on the Academicals' side,
but a pass was missed. Before we had realized that our
opponents were not scoring another try, Poulton had
fathered the ball 10 yards from our line and dodged the
alves and three-quarters. Once in the open he easily
evaded the full-back, and ran the rest of the field followed
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 171
by a vain pursuit. Such was the suddenness of the run
that I doubt if more than one of his own side had reached
the half-way line by the time Poulton was placing the ball
behind the goal-posts. So the match, which had been
given up for lost, was won.
' Invariably cheerful, seldom without a beaming smile
on his face, Ronnie as we all knew him was a welcome
companion on the football field and everywhere else.
With all his qualities and gifts of which his skill at foot-
ball was only one he was the most modest of men, simple
and sincere. I never knew him speak harshly of any one,
and his reward was that he was admired and loved by
every one who knew him.'
From Grahame Donald, Assist. Surgeon R.N., H.M.S.
Meteor :
' It was wonderful to play on the same side as Ronnie
the result of the game was always open until the very last
minute. I don't know if any one else ever felt the same as
I did, but it always seemed to me that when I was playing
on his side I was playing for him : the side was a secondary
consideration.
' There are very few men one meets of whom it can be
said one loves them. But Ronnie's was such a wonderful
character one couldn't help loving him.'
The following impression was written by the Rev.
Garnet V. Portus, a Rhodes Scholar from Sydney Univer-
sity, who played for Oxford and England, and was a
contemporary of Ronald's :
'He's away! He's right! Oh-h-h-h! There! What
did I tell you ? That was a common sequence of expres-
sions at the Iffley-road ground in Oxford, in the winters of
1909 and 1910. It centred round the doings of Ronald
Poulton, once the wonderful schoolboy from Rugby, now
the proved three-quarter of Oxford, and presently to be
the idol of English International crowds. It is hard at
this distance to analyse the charm of him. It was not
unconnected with his physical presence. Tall and lithe,
broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped, fair-headed and blue-
eyed he was, and he easily took the eye of the crowd.
Once attracted by his looks, the crowd were not disap-
pointed in his play. Sometimes he was beautifully ortho-
172 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
dox ; he would do the correct thing most efficiently take
a pass on the wing, race swervingly along the side-line,
slip round his opposing three-quarter, dodge the full-back,
and trot around behind the posts with the crowd roaring
their delight. But at other times he was entirely unor-
thodox. Playing in the centre, he would abandon an
attack developing towards the wing three-quarter, and go
threading his way between the centres and halves and
breaking forwards of the opposing side, until, having
lost him in the melee, your eye would catch his fair head
emerging through the defending fringe, side-stepping,
feinting, swerving, and ever with the ball characteristically
held with both hands, at half-arm's length in front of him,
and his head swaying from side to side with his swerve.'
(The Referee, Sydney, N.S.W., Aug. n, 1915.)
'OCTOBER MEMORIES.
' From a Billet in France.
'A bright crisp October day, when the hoar-frost still
hangs faintly on the grass, in spite of the afternoon sun,
already, about half-past two, preparing for its setting
a day when the cobwebs gleam along the ground and
catch round one's shoulders or in the eyes, when there is
enough nip in the air to make you shrug your shoulders,
and enough sun to make you glad you are alive. The
crowd pours through the gate. Every moment a taxi or
hansom drives up, and discharges its burden of dames and
their squires, or of luxurious undergraduates, whose legs
cannot support the ennui of the walk down the Iffley Road.
If you be of the elect, you pass to the left and find a seat,
if you are in time, in the covered stand ; if you be of the
humbler sort, you pass to the right and so on round to
the standing room against the ropes, and keep yourself as
warm as may be by patient stamping of the feet. In the
stand, North Oxford is in force. Regius Professors sit
side by side of the dames and daughters of retired army
colonels and captains. All the latest " Rugger " gossip
goes round. " So-and-so is being tried on the wing to-day.
" It seems pretty hopeless against Cambridge if we can't
get more weight in the scrum." "Oh, well, you never
can tell. Do you remember the year Cartwright was
captain ? " and so on, and so forth.
' Ten minutes and a quarter of an hour pass, and the
impatient look at their watches. Then two or three figures
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1908 173
run down the steps of the Pavilion in the right-hand corner
of the ground, followed by more. The ball is kicked down
the ground, and the visiting team stretch their legs before
the game. Directly after, the covered stand and the
" ropes " allow themselves to become enthusiastic as any
Oxford audience can, and clap their hands as fifteen
figures in dark blue, every one hands in pockets, step with
studied nonchalance down the steps in their turn. Instantly,
the well-informed identify to those around them the various
heroes. " That 's Lagden, 1 that very big fair-haired man."
" Bain ? 2 Oh, yes, there he is, dark with longish hair.
Tackles like a bull-dog gripping your leg." " That little
sturdy chap with thick legs is Dingle. 3 A jolly good
' three '. very likely to get his International." " Do you
see that enormous red-haired forward? Thomson* of
Univ. that is. Regular Scots forward." "Now, that's
Poulton. That thin, wary sort of chap. Goes delicately,
like Agag. Extraordinary chap, simply can't get hold of
him. Now, look, he 's got the ball. There he is! "
' Yes, there they are ! Memories ! '
J. M. ELDRIDGE, Maj., R. Berks.
(From the Oxford Magazine, Oct. 29, 1915.)
In the following pages I have set down memories of
Ronald's football in his Oxford years taken in order, and
especially of his three 'Varsity matches.
Before Ronald left Rugby he must have known that
his chances of getting into the 'Varsity Team in his first
term were very doubtful; for H. A. Hodges, 5 the captain,
1 Capt. R. O. Lagden (4th King's Royal Rifles), killed at S. Eloi,
March i, 1915. A forward in the Oxford Teams of 1909-11 ; English
International, 1911.
2 Capt. D. M C L. Bain (srd Gordon Highlanders), killed in Flanders,
June 3, 1915. A forward in the Oxford Teams of 1910-13, captain in
1913; Scottish International, 1911-14.
3 Capt. A. J. Dingle (6th E. Yorks.), killed in Gallipoli, Aug. 22, 1915.
R. centre three-quarter in the Oxford Team of 1911 ; English Inter-
national, 1913-14.
4 and Lt F. W. Thomson frth Royal Scots), killed in Gallipoli,
June 28, 1915. A forward in the Oxford Teams of 1912-13.
5 Captain, Monmouth Regt., twice wounded, twice mentioned in
dispatches, killed March 24, 1918.
i 7 4 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
had a three-quarter line of unusual reputation. C. C.
Watson, who had gone to Cambridge, wrote to Ronald
from France, July 17, 1908 : ' I only wish you'd come to C.
You'd simply walk into the Rugger team there, while at
Oxford you'll have some difficulty next term as they've
got such a good lot.'
In this, Ronald's first term, we made a point of being
present to see him play. For this reason he told his
mother directly he was out of the team, adding that he
was 'going to play against them on Saturday', referring
to the match v. the Harlequins on Nov. 7. Except for
this and a few words written to Janet at school, I do not
believe that Ronald ever said a word on the subject to any
of us, either at the time or later on when the great match
came off and H. H. Vassall crocked after ten minutes, and
the Oxford team so strong on paper was lucky in secur-
ing a hazardous draw, lucky because K. G. Macleod only
just failed to drop a goal which would have given Cam-
bridge the victory. Nor did he say anything about it to
his Oxford friends, as I infer from the words of the Rev.
Garnet V. Portus in The Referee (Sydney, N.S.W.) of
Aug. n, 1915:
' But great as was Poulton's popularity with the crowd,
who dearly loves to have a hero who looks like a hero, it
was nothing to the affection he inspired off the field.
" Sunny " is the word that best expresses Ronald Poulton's
nature. He was always sunny, so that he rose superior
to most of the littlenesses of men. He came up to Oxford
with the reputation of being the school's football prodigy of
that generation. Every one had heard of him. But, con-
trary to expectations, he was dropped from the 'Varsity
side that year. In a small way, I had had much the same
experience, and I fancied I knew how he would feel about
it. So, as it behoved an older man, I sought him out, full
of sympathy. But I left him without saying that I was
sorry for him, for the simple reason that he was not sorry
for himself. He believed the selectors had done the right
thing ; he was looking forward to success and a ' Blue '
later on, if it came his way, and he steadfastly refused to
sulk in spite of the persuasions of his friends. At the
same time, he was very ready to be sorry for me.'
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1909 175
Ronald's account of football in the exciting Michaelmas
Term, 1909, and up to the end of the year, is very brief
and matter-of-fact :
1 1 played regularly for the 'Varsity till the middle of the
term, when I got kicked out. On Nov. ist I captained the
O. R. team at Rugby, but could not stay the night. On
the i3th I played for the Harlequins against Northampton,
in a game which was one of the most enjoyable I have
ever played in.
' On the Monday [Nov. 29] I was back in Oxford and
played for the 'Varsity against Monkstown. On Thursday,
I got my " Blue ", and in the evening went to the Lynam's
dance, which was good fun, but would have been better if
every one had been there/
'Term ended on Dec. 4th. I went up to Boar's Hill
with Mother and Father to Mr. Evans. It was a jolly
three days.'
Then a night with Stanley at Goring and home at
Oxford again till the Saturday, Dec. nth, when 'we went
up to London to play against Cambridge. It was good
fun playing but a very easy game to win '.
Concerning the events which immediately preceded the
final selection of the three-quarter line, there is no reason at
all for it reflects credit on every one concerned why
I should not tell the story just as Ronald heard it from his
friends and told it to me at the time.
The Committee of the O.U.R.U.F.C. consisted of
G. Cunningham, Captain; C. N. Jackson, Hon. Treas.
F. H. Turner, Hon. Sec.; H. H. Vassall; C. N. Cronje;
F. N. Tarr; and R. V. Stanley, Representative of the
Rugby Union.
George Cunningham had made up his mind the final
decision probably influenced by the Monkstown match
coming after the previous defeats that Ronald ought to
play. In this decision he was supported by some of his
colleagues, as I have been told by Mr. C. N. Jackson.
Capt. R. V. Stanley, too, informs me that after the Black-
heath match he strongly urged in Committee that Ronald,
who seemed to be much stronger than in 1908, should be
176 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
played in place of Vassall. Cunningham accordingly wrote
to Vassall telling him that he would not be in the team.
But it so happened that Vassall was away from Oxford on
that day and the letter was brought back to the writer.
Then Cunningham, having once taken the plunge, felt that
it was too much to expect him to do it again. To enter
into the spirit of the story one must remember the youth
of the actors, and realize how much these things mean to
them and to their friends so much indeed that they are
felt as responsibilities probably heavier than any to be
borne in later years. George Cunningham explained what
had happened to his Committee, Vassall being absent, and
told them what he felt. Then F. N. Tarr said, ' Well,
Poulton ought to be in the team and I will give up my
place to him.' But this was not to be, for Cunningham,
stirred afresh, determined to write to Vassall again, and
this time the letter was received. And the best part of the
story is its end, which came in a note from Vassall sending
Ronald his heartiest congratulations, wishing him the best
of luck, and telling him to go in and win. Ronald told me
of this letter, and I could see how very pleased he was to
receive it. To understand what it meant we must re-
member that Vassall, with his high reputation as a player
and the added lustre of a great name, was in his last year,
while Ronald was only beginning his second. Tarr's self-
sacrificing offer was an example of that modesty and
reticence concerning his own accomplishments spoken of
by the ' Varsity of Jan. 27, 1910, in an ' Open Letter ' to this
fine player.
The letter from Cunningham Ronald fixed in his football
scrap-book.
'O.U.R.U.F.C.,
' Magdalen College, Oxford.
' Tuesday.
' DEAR POULTON,
' Heartiest congratulations on being chosen to play
v. Cambridge. Go to Castells as soon as possible and get
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1909 177
your clothes. No smoking except pipes in moderation !
(after meals).
' Yours ever,
' G. CUNNINGHAM.
' Get to bed by 10,30 and up at 8.'
'Tuesday' (Nov. 30) was probably written in error
instead of Thursday (Dec. 2), for the selection appeared in
the press of Dec. 3, and most of Ronald's congratulations
were of that date.
The great day came on Dec. n, after lots of rain and
much anxiety as to whether play would be possible.
Ronald had chosen for his mother and me two of the best
seats, in the front row opposite the middle of the ground,
and marred only by the stream of late-comers apparently
inevitable at the Queen's Club passing in front and hiding
the play at critical moments.
This, the thirty-seventh encounter, was the first 'Varsity
match I had seen, and to me the most thrilling of all
matches before or since. Many things combined to in-
crease the excitement the unexpected failure of the year
before when the Oxford team was so strong on paper, the
keen controversy over Ronald's play reflected in his
entrances into and exits from the team in 1908 and 1909,
with the dramatic selection a few days before the match.
Then, on the day itself, there were the ominous looks and
forebodings of an Oxford expert I happened to meet on
the ground, the anxiety lest the turf should be too soft and
muddy for play, lest the mist thicken into a fog, and the
fear that these precarious conditions might be more to the
advantage of the rival team.
Almost as soon as the play began all doubt was at an
end. Within five minutes Ronald had made the first try,
converted by Cunningham, and, before the interval, had
scored the second and fifth (unconverted), the third being
made by H. Martin and the fourth by Purves for Cam-
bridge, both unconverted. Thus the game stood at the
interval: Oxford 14, Cambridge 3. In the second half
178 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
Ronald made the sixth try, converted by Cunningham, and
the ninth, converted by Ronald Lagden, while Martin
made the seventh and tenth, unconverted, and the eighth,
converted by Lagden. So Oxford won by 4 goals and
5 tries to i try 35 points to 3 an easy record. The
previous record was also created by Oxford, in 1883,
under Grant-Asher's captaincy 3 goals and 4 tries to
i goal, or 27 points to 5.
My friend the expert who had been so gloomy before
the match told me he had never known one side so
completely on the top of another. Even the points scored
give an inadequate impression of the difference between
the teams, for Tarr broke his collar-bone after ten minutes
of play, while soon after F. H. Turner damaged his knee,
and Cunningham and C. M. Gilray were also knocked
about rather badly. At one time Oxford was left with
only six forwards, but even then Cambridge could do little
against them. Ronald on the left wing and Martin on the
right owed their successes to the two centres, Gilray and
Tarr, replaced after his injury by Buchanan, and to the
half-backs, as much as to their own fine play.
In Ronald's packet of letters of congratulation was one
from a clerical friend : ' You played like an angel, in fact
probably better.* The balance and caution of the expert
are delightful.
Among telegrams was one from the O.P.S. : ' Warmest
congratulations. I felt very proud of my old pupil.
SKIPPER.'
Ronald's record in his first 'Varsity match, coming just
when the controversy about him was at its height, combined
with the attractive features of his play to render him, from
this time onwards, probably the most conspicuous figure in
the football world.
In the Lent Term of 1910, after our return from Wengen,
where I had been unlucky at skiing, I heard that one Oxford
undergraduate said to another : ' I'm told that Poulton 's
broken his arm.'
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1910 179
' WHAT ! ! ! ' said the other ; but presently when he met
his friend again he said :
' Why, I thought you meant THE POULTON : I hear it 's
only his father.'
It must have been a year later that the son of an old
friend had a dispute with a school-fellow upon the relative
distinction of their friends and acquaintances, and finally
settled the matter by saying :
1 Well, look here, my father was at school with Poulton's
father!'
' Do you mean the Oxford Captain ? '
'Yes.'
After that there was nothing to be done except by silence
to accept defeat.
In his second 'Varsity match, Dec. 13, 1910, Ronald
played left centre, the line being W. C. Allen, F. G.
Buchanan, R. W. Poulton, W. P. Geen. The Oxford
Magazine gives the line in reverse order, making Ronald
right centre. The 'Varsity claimed that it had first
publicly advocated the arrangement of Ronald and Geen.
The contest was in every way different from that of
1909, for, contrary to expectation, the sides were evenly
balanced and the result in doubt up to the last moment.
Oxford began by scoring 10 from two tries by W. P. Geen,
both converted by F. H. Turner. Then A. B. Ovens
gained a try for Cambridge converted by J. B. Lockhart,
and Geen another try, unconverted, Oxford being thus 13
points to 5. After this, Cambridge forged ahead, gaining
two tries, by B. R. Lewis and Ovens, both converted by
Lockhart, and the first half came to an end with Oxford
2 points down 13 to 15. After the interval Lewis gained
an unconverted try, making the Cambridge score 5 points
to the good, and soon after, about midway in the second
half, had to retire from the field, a great loss to his side.
Finally, as the contest was nearing its close Ronald gained
two tries, both converted by Turner, the first making the
scores equal, the second winning the game with 23 points
N 2
i8o RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
to 18. The aggregate score, 41, was a record for the
'Varsity match ; and it was also the first time that a side
scoring as many as 18 had been beaten.
Although not so thrilling to me as the previous 'Varsity
match, the part that Ronald played was far more important,
and 1910 was in a truer sense ' Poulton's match ' than 1909.
All who saw it must have been inclined to ask the question
put by the 'Varsity (1911-12, p. 131): 'What other player
could have won the match as he did in the last ten minutes ? '
Ronald's account of athletics in his last term at Oxford is
naturally restricted to his responsibilities as captain of the
Rugby Team. The new members of the Committee of
the O.U.R.U.F.C. for 1911-12 were L. G. Brown as Hon.
Sec., H. S. Sharp, and D. McL. Bain. R. O. Lagden
served on the Committee with Ronald in this season as
well as last. Ronald's account is as follows :
' I must admit that the larger part of my time was spent
on work connected with managing the Rugby Football side
at Oxford. There are so many more things to do than
people imagine, and even the choosing of a team in a year
as difficult as this has been, requires a considerable amount
of labour. We had various disappointments in the trial
matches during the term, thougn on occasions we had
good wins. Fortunately the team came on well at the right
time, winding up with 3 or 4 wins, and decisively beat
Cambridge by 19 points to o.
'Just before the 'Varsity match eleven of the team spent
a week-end at Cleeve Hill, near Cheltenham. It was just
what was required to give us a lively feeling of fitness and
to allow us to get to know one another really well. And
as a team, apart from the consideration of their play, they
were as nice a lot of people to be with as one could wish.
After the match the team toured in Ireland and Liverpool
and Manchester and were royally treated, and every one
seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly.'
The great match came off on Dec. 12. Ronald chose
seats for us in the same place as in the two previous years.
He played in the same position as in 1910, viz. as left
centre with W. P. Geen again on his wing, and made the
first try within five minutes of the start. The 'Varsity
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD. 1911 181
gives the following account of the play (Jan. 25, 1912,
pp. 122-4) :
' The ball was kicked off, there was a scrum, a short fly-
kick, and Poulton was over. Try No. i. In another three
minutes Steyn had emulated his captain's example, and
then, after another glorious run by Poulton, Bullock threw
himself over the line for the third try. Nothing could have
surpassed the wonderful speed with which each movement
was executed. . . . We remember nothing like it in a long
series of inter-'Varsity games.'
Of these three tries, two, including Ronald's, were uncon-
verted, one(Steyn's) converted by Lagden, making the score
n-o at half-time.
Twenty-eight minutes from the start Ronald had one of
the very few pieces of bad luck which came to him in the
game he loved best. One of his swerves was a little too
sharp, overstraining a muscle at the back of the left thigh,
and some of the fibres were torn. It was the one match in
which he would have wished to be perfectly fit to the end.
The injury was by no means serious but painful, and it
quite prevented him from playing his usual game. Carried
to the pavilion by Brown and Lagden, he was only off the
field for a few minutes while his thigh was bound up, and
I feel sure that, as The Times said, he could not soon have
forgotten the roar of cheering which welcomed him when
he returned. His presence on the field encouraged his
men and he was able once or twice to tackle effectively,
but his running was at an end for the day and for several
days after that.
In the second half, Dingle, after a fine movement in
which Knott had an important share, and, later on, Bullock
gained tries, the first converted, the second unconverted
by Lagden. Thus the game ended in an Oxford victory,
19-0.
The critic of the Oxford Magazine considered that
Ronald's play was splendid up to the time of his injury,
and also thought ' that Poulton and Knott (by his clever
kicking of what The Times writer in a brilliant account of
182 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
the game described as " googlies ") decided the issue in the
first ten minutes.' The Times takes the same view :
'Thus Oxford won by 19 points to nothing; but the
defeat of Cambridge was more crushing than these figures
suggest, for if there was one point upon which the critics
were agreed it was that Oxford's chance of winning was
bound up with the form shown by Poulton. Perhaps,
however, they were right, for the Cambridge men never
recovered from the panic into which he threw them in the
first few minutes. Long after he had been rendered
useless it seemed that "his spirit went marching on",
swinging the ball from side to side as if he were rhapso-
dizing on a concertina, compelling the defence to follow
him spellbound.'
At the end of the same article The Times sums up the
part played by Ronald in the four 'Varsity matches of
1908-1911 :
' He has been the dominating personality in the Univer-
sity match since he went into residence, for even in 1908
it was his exclusion in favour of a notoriously brittle player
which cost Oxford a victory. In 1909 he scored no less
than five tries; in the following year all the points by
which Oxford gained her narrow victory were made by or
through him ; and in yesterday's match the effect of his
first charge over the line can hardly be over-estimated.'
After the match came the tour of the team. Ronald
went with them ' to look on ' ; as his thigh still prevented
play. Some of their doings are described, with notes on
the 'Varsity match, in a letter to the Rev. W. J. Carey,
written by Ronald after the return home :
' Wykeham House, Oxford.
' Dec. 22.
' DEAR CAESAR,
'Thanks so much for both your two letters. The
first cheered us at the start and the second cheered me
when it was over. Frankly they played splendidly. The
forwards did everything that was wanted. They came
across to a man and heeled quickly. Cheesers [Chees-
man] said he had the easiest time this term getting the
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1911 183
ball away. And Thomas did well in my place. Knott
was very good. His first two kicks were gems. And
Dingle showed up unexpectedly. His try was magnificent.
Of course the Tabs got their tails down after our good
start. Everything happened as I had hoped. I told our
fellows to risk everything for a score. So we simply
hurled the ball about to start with. And I made Steyn
and Bill [Geen] stay near the touch line, and so Lewis
and Ovens were forced to turn in every time, and we got
them in the middle.
'We had magnificent fun on tour. We had an awful
crossing and they were bad against Dublin the next day.
But after that they played well ; and some of them played
every game !
' Well, here we are about to celebrate Xmas. My leg is
much better, and I can run about slowly. I am afraid I
must stay for that trial and so shall not get to Miirren till
the 7th. However I shall have ten days.
' Thanks so much for all your kindness and help to us
last term. When we were a bit down in the mouth, you
gave us cheerful advice, and I am sure it was through you
that the Team this term has been the large happy family
it turned out to be on the tour. 1 They are the best of
people. Good luck for Christmas. How did the [Bolton]
Mission go ?
1 Yours affectionately/
Speaking of the match, Ronald told me that Cambridge
had taken quite the wrong line in continually playing for
safety and kicking into touch after his injury when the
score was against them. The time had come for them to
risk everything for a score, and he said how surprised and
pleased he was to see them playing Oxford's game. The
Times makes the same comment :
' The chief fault of Cambridge was that they were pre-
occupied with stopping Oxford and never developed a
game of their own. When nothing mattered except
scoring they (the faster side) actually went in for touch-
kicking very good touch-kicking, but useless in practice
1 To this his friend remarked : ' Of course this is not true at all. It
was owing to Ronald himself entirely, but it is just like him to impute
his own good influence to others. W. J. C.'
184 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
and most encouraging, morally, to their outnumbered
opponents.'
Ronald's skill in Hockey was very soon realized when
he came up. It is interesting that in his first game for the
'Varsity, v. J. L. Stocks's team of Old Rugbeians, on
Feb. i, 1909, he was playing against his brother. It was
a very close game, but the 'Varsity lost 2-3. The prophetic
comments of the ' Varsity were amply fulfilled in the match
against Cambridge : ' R. W. Poulton made a satisfactory
first appearance in the team, and it seems that his inclusion
will strengthen the forward line considerably. He and
Ball should make a very dangerous left-wing.'
The 'Varsity match on Feb. 24 ' was a great game and
brim-full of incident up to the last'. At half-time Cam-
bridge led 3-2, but Oxford scored all the four goals in the
second half, Ronald shooting two in the last ten minutes.
It was Oxford's first victory since 1905, and the total of
9 goals was a record for the 'Varsity match. Ronald
played in the forward line, as left inside.
Thus Ronald became a 'Half-Blue' for Hockey as his
brother and eldest sister had been before him. To the
same game Cambridge awards a full ' Blue ' ; for the two
Universities unfortunately cannot agree upon a uniform
system.
The 'Varsity Hockey match of Feb. 23, 1910, followed a
course curiously like that of 1909. Well into the second
half of this ' very close and exciting game ' ( Times), Cam-
bridge were leading 3-2, but Ronald, playing centre
forward, brought the turning-point when he 'took the
ball more than half the length of the field with a wonderful
run. Though robbed at the last minute, Marcon secured
and scored, thus bringing the totals level ' (' Varsity). After
this Oxford scored two more goals and Cambridge one.
Thus Oxford won 5-4, and the record number of goals in
1909 was equalled. Although Ronald did not score, the
Field considered that, after Leighton, who shot 3 goals
for Cambridge, he was perhaps the best forward on the
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 185
ground ' whose splendid efforts in the later stages of the
game had very much to do with Oxford's victory'. In
this game and in 1911 Ronald Lagden played for Oxford.
4 This splendid all-round athlete ', as he is well described
by C. J. B. Marriott in British Sports and Sportsmen, was
even more versatile than our Ronald, for he represented
his University in Cricket and Rackets as well as Rugby
Football and Hockey.
In 1911 Ronald played Hockey as centre forward in
the 'Varsity Team whenever he could spare the time from
his work for the Schools in June. The 'Varsity match was
played as usual at Beckenham, on Feb. 22, and Cambridge
won 4-1. Oxford's failure was no doubt largely due to
Ronald and Lagden having so many other claims upon
their time : in fact the full side had only been together in
two of the matches before the great event. Up to seven
minutes before time Cambridge had made all the goals, but
at this point a rush by Ronald and Marcon ended in a goal
by the latter. The Oxford team then pulled itself together
and only just missed another goal.
Although Ronald had such a remarkable record for
Athletics as a Dragon and at Rugby, Inter-' Varsity Foot-
ball and Hockey were quite enough for him at Oxford.
What he might have done if he had chosen to train
seriously may be guessed from the following recollection,
probably of the year 1910, by his friend C. P. Symonds of
New College :
'I remember an incident, trifling in itself, which im-
pressed me very much at the time, illustrating his lack of
nervousness and the robust constitution of his inside.
I had asked him and a number of others to lunch, and, after
he had had at least two helpings of all the indigestible sort
of dishes provided by the Common-Room, he suddenly
remarked that he must go, or he'd be late for the Balliol
Sports at which he did a better time for the quarter than
had been done in the 'Varsity Sports! '
It was the same with football. Capt. S. E. Whitnall,
R.A.M.C.,writes :
'of early days when we lunched with him and Bruno
186 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
[L. G. Brown] in Long Wall before a match Bruno serious
and grave, he by contrast gay, and even before great contests
as free from care and as nappy as though but going for
an afternoon's run. Then, he never seemed to be training
I think he was always at the top of his form. I remem-
ber Bruno lunching off a tomato and a glass of water,
whilst Ronnie cheerfully joined us in the pheasant and
claret he had provided for our fare.'
Statements, made in some of the papers, that Ronald
was a Hockey International and that he competed in the
'Varsity Sports are erroneous. In the 1909 Freshmen's
Sports he did well in the 100 yards, beating the winner in
one of the heats, and in the Lent Term of 1910, his friend
Mr. C. N. Jackson of Hertford, the kind and efficient
organizer of all things athletic, seriously pressed him, in
the enforced absence of the second string, C. Howard
Smith, B.N.C., President later on of the O.U.A.C., to train
for the Quarter-mile in the forthcoming 'Varsity Sports.
Ronald was very unwilling to give the necessary time and
attention to the, to him, uninteresting routine, and he
exacted a promise that if the original runner reappeared,
he should be let off and so, after a short period of train-
ing, it happened. I remember the incident well, for
Ronald talked to me about it a good deal, and I, knowing
that he would never care unduly for Athletics, and that
a double ' Blue ' was a fine thing in itself, encouraged him
to do as Mr. Jackson wished; but I saw that nothing
would move him from the condition he had made.
Ronald enjoyed playing Lawn Tennis just as he enjoyed
all games with his friends, but he was not a good player.
This was probably due to the other attractions of
St. Helens, which gave him little chance of playing the
game in his boyhood. After he grew up I only played
with him once, when we were staying at Marlston in July
1910. We had 3 single sets one afternoon and 3 more the
next morning. I managed to win four but it was very
hard work.
In Ronald's brief account of his athletic pursuits in his
first Summer Term he told us that he tried his ' luck at
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 187
Cricket and made a very flukey innings of 83 in the
Freshers' match ' : also that about this time he took part
in the founding of an Oxfordshire Football Club, requiring
many committee meetings.
In addition to the 83 in the second innings of the
Freshmen's match on May 6, in the Parks, Ronald made
16 in the first innings, his total of 99 being just the same
as that of Ronald Lagden 3 in the first, 96 in the second
innings. But our Ronald was not a cricketer, like his
friend : he once said to me, ' I've a good eye and can hit
the ball, but it 's not my game ' and he would have agreed
with the criticism of the Magazine which speaks of ' a big
innings by Poulton ; but, apart from its great service to
his side, his batting was not of a very high class. He can
hit the ball very hard, but at present he applies his power
in the wrong way ' (xxvii, 1908-9, p. 295).
In this Summer Term he
' bought a motor bike and found it an unqualified success.
It never broke down ; I never put any improvements on it ;
it saved me railway journeys, gave me any amount of
pleasure, and the total cost, beside the cost of running, was
only five pounds. I bought it for 35 and sold it in
October for ^30. '
Just after Ronald had gone down the ' Varsity for Feb.
29, 1912, brought out an etching representing four of the
chief athletes in the previous season R. C. Bourne (Lt.
Herefordshire Regt, wounded), Ronald, A. H. G. Kerry
(Lt. R.E., Motor Cyclist Section), and C. W. S. Marcon
(Lt. Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.) all except Bourne born in
Oxford, all except Kerry Old Dragons. The journal truly
remarked on p. 184 that ' it is a unique circumstance, and
one unlikely to take place again, that the President of the
Boat Club, and the Captains of the Rugger, Soccer, and
Hockey teams should all be the sons of Oxford residents '.
The remainder of this and a large part of the following
section contain a full and critical account of Ronald's Oxford
i88 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
and International football, very kindly contributed by my
friend Mr. A. C. M. Croome. This division of each section
into two parts necessarily implies that the same episodes
are described twice, but it will be realized that they were
seen from different points of view. I feel sure that
Mr. Croome's able analysis and discussion of the great game
in the years before the war, and of the part taken by one
well-loved player, will bring to many the gift of bright and
thrilling memories, recent indeed in time as measured by
dates, but, because of all that has come between, dimmed
and often lost as in the mist of far-off years.
RUGBY FOOTBALL AT OXFORD: 1908-1911
BY A. C. M. CROOME
Ronnie Poulton when he came up to Balliol from Rugby
in 1908 immediately became ' the most discussed footballer
of the day '. That means a great deal when it is remem-
bered that Adrian Stoop was still developing the Harlequin
style of play in the London district, and that the critics
were still occupied in analysing his methods and were by
no means agreed about their value. Poulton had, of
course, imbibed some of Stoop's ideas while he was still
at Rugby. Consequently when he came into 'Varsity
football he was fitted by knowledge as well as by Nature
to be the Oxford exponent of his mentor's teaching.
Oxford is frequently described as the home of lost causes.
The description may be partially true of the attitude
adopted by many members of Convocation with regard
to political and intellectual questions. But in practical
matters such as Rugby Football it can be proved to
demonstration that Oxford men do not cling to obsolete
practice merely because past generations found it satis-
factory. A Ranji or a Stoop will find there a general
readiness to test his innovations by experiment, and no
obstinate conservatism will hinder their adoption if they
pass that test. Poulton provided an unique opportunity
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 189
for such experiment in 1908. He came up a Harlequin
born and made. If there had been no Stoop to start the
New Football he would most certainly have taken on the
job. Inevitably his performances were the subject of
constant and sharp discussion in a place where keen wits
specially trained to logical analysis of observed phenomena
are gathered together. Here it may be remarked that
Ronnie's attitude towards the discussion which his play
evoked was extraordinary and altogether charming. He
paid due attention to well-informed criticism, but his head
was not turned half an inch up or down by the knowledge
that thousands more words were spoken and written every
week about him than about the Vice-Chancellor or any
other resident member of the University. Spoken criti-
cism is now a mere memory; the written remains, and
makes amusing reading, because in the body of it may be
found a surprising number of mutually contradictory state-
ments. ' Poulton's pace on the wing was a valuable asset
to his side ' is a phrase which occurs in a report of a match
played early in the October Term. Next week the paper
which printed it says that ' Poulton is by no means an ideal
wing, because he is not fast enough to keep up with Tarr '.
' It 's no use playing that Poulton against Cambridge : he 's
too fragile ', said a man taking his tea in Vincent's, where
there is much expert knowledge of Athletics to be found.
' Fragile be blowed! ' said his neighbour, ' Have you noticed
that he is always first up after a tackle ? And nobody has
taken the ginger out of him yet, not even the Scottish. '
The truth is we can see it now that a genius had
appeared in Oxford, and even Oxford, where such creatures
are by no means unknown, could not immediately place
him.
The Oxford Rugby team had a very good season in
1908 ; Ronnie played in seven of the October Term matches,
and in all of them was on the winning side. At first he
was tried on the wing, but against Liverpool, Richmond,
and Blackheath he was placed in one or the other of the
centre positions, where Stoop and other London team-
190 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
builders preferred to put him. Unfortunately he selected
the Blackheath match at the Rectory Field on Nov. 28 as
the occasion for his one bad game. Blackheath was the
last fixture but one on Oxford's card before the all-important
match with Cambridge. Consequently his comparative
failure mattered more than it would have if it had occurred
earlier. Moreover, Ronnie was playing at inside right, the
only place on the three-quarter line about the filling of
which there was much doubt. Martin was firmly estab-
lished at outside right. Tarr and Gilray had proved a
great left wing pair. The only question for Hodges, the
captain, to decide was whether he should play Vassall inside
to Martin or experiment with Poulton. Vassall was brittle,
Poulton eccentric. In the Blackheath match Martin and
Poulton did not hit it off. This was rather curious because
they were both Balliol men and used to practice combina-
tion at odd moments. Finally Vassall, admittedly a centre
three-quarter of the best International class, was reported
sound. Hodges's choice was indicated. With Vassall fit
and well no sane captain could have disturbed the com-
bination between him and Tarr, the best pair of centres
who had played for Oxford since the adoption of the four-
three-quarter formation. Gilray on the left wing was at
his very best. He was some years older than the ordinary
freshman, and, well as he subsequently played for Oxford
and Scotland, he never improved on his 1908 form. In
fact his running seemed to become a trifle more laboured
and slower in subsequent years ; for proof see the gradual
deterioration in his performances on the Athletic ground.
Moreover, he undoubtedly possessed the weight and
strength which Ronnie was considered by many critics
to lack. In that season Ronnie looked like a boy playing
with men. Undoubtedly appearances were deceptive. He
was not found wanting in the International matches in
which he took part during the Lent Term, and, thinking
things over, I arrive at the conclusion that the daintiness,
characteristic of Ronnie on and off the football field,
obscured to some extent the solid merits of his play in
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 191
defence. To the end of the chapter the smashing tackle,
which caused a runner to remember the occasions when
he tried to get past Gamlin or Lyon, was foreign to Ronnie's
methods. But he seldom let an attacker through when he
had a reasonable chance of stopping him, and, if he missed
him first time, his amazing quickness often enabled him to
retrieve the error. Later, when Ronnie had grown to his
full strength, and, like all great athletes, 'stripped big',
no one was under any illusion about his defence, least of
all the rushers or runners who tried to get through it. His
one weakness was to be found in his kicking. I never
saw him use his right foot or get great length with his left,
and, for a man pre-eminent for his quickness, he wanted
a surprising lot of room if he was to get in his kick at all :
artists like Strand-Jones or the late Arthur Gould could
punt in half the space required by Ronnie.
The other adverse criticism passed on his play in 1908
was really a compliment in disguise. It was said that he
was liable to spoil the combination of the three-quarter
line. This simply means that he already showed the
genius for doing the unexpected thing, which subse-
quently made him the greatest match winner of all time.
In any walk of life, when a genius appears, his innovations
on established practice are not immediately rated at their
true value ; and every time he fails to bring off one of his
peculiar coups, there is a general wagging of orthodox
heads. If Ronnie during his first term occasionally tried
to do too much on his own, which I am not prepared to
admit, his attempts were not prompted by selfishness or
conceit. But I can well imagine that a sound and orthodox
three-quarter, playing with him for the first time, might
quite frequently have been left guessing by the unexpected-
ness of his manoeuvres and the speed at which they were
executed. The defending players also had to guess, and
more frequently guessed wrong.
As all the world knows, Oxford failed to win at Queen's
in 1908 because Vassall broke down. In point of fact they
would have been beaten, if the referee had been the other
192 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
side of the scrum when the movement started which led to
their solitary score. Hearne, the Trinity Cabby, and the
other enthusiastic supporters of Oxford football, must
remember the horrid feeling of disappointment when they
saw Martin shorten stride to keep behind his centre, who
was bravely but vainly trying to make use of an opening
which would have meant a certain try but for his injury.
If Ronnie failed to get his Blue in 1908 he was first
reserve for any one of the four places in the three-quarter
line, and we should have won the 'Varsity match with him
at inside right. Next year there never was much doubt
about his playing against Cambridge, and it was felt that
he was quite likely to decide the issue of a hard-fought
match. As a matter of fact Oxford ran up the record score
and gave an exhibition of Rugby Football which I have
never seen approached.
Before the end of the season 1908-9 Ronnie was given
his International Cap and played against France, Ireland,
and Scotland. Adrian Stoop's influence had much to do
with the selection ; it was a bold act to recommend, or pick
a man whose physical strength had not fully matured, and
who had been left out of the Inter-' Varsity match shortly
before. But Stoop is a remarkable judge, and an equally
remarkable trainer, of footballers, and Ronnie completely
justified his selection.
No extraordinarily large measure of that vanity, which
is among the mainsprings of human action, is needed to
make a man regard the Cap as a more desirable distinction
than the Blue. Not so Ronnie. Professor Poulton, sum-
marizing his own observations of his son's actions, recalling
his talk, and confirmed in his judgement by the letters of
many intimate friends, concludes that Ronnie's pleasure
in games was mainly social. Of course he loved Rugby
Football for itself, its pace, which he did so much to increase,
the unique opportunities which it gives for exercising
certain gifts of body and mind. So do men, horses, hounds,
and even, it may be, foxes, love hunting. But Ronnie found
his chief pleasure in playing for and with his friends, and
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 193
he was keenest about those matches in which no member
of his side was a stranger to him. Had he been a golfer
he would have preferred a good foursome before a cham-
pionship single. There is something ironical about the
fact that a man of this temperament should have been
persistently blamed, during his first season of 'Varsity
football, for spoiling the combination of the outsides by
his eccentricity. We can see the truth now in the light of
later experience. The presence of an exceptional genius
in a football team does not immediately improve combina-
tion. But when it is realized that the object of combination
should be to afford opportunities for genius then the best
results follow. At Rugby Football, genius is the faculty
for doing the unexpected thing, and doing it successfully.
The man who departs from current canons of orthodoxy
sets both his own and the opposing side guessing, but his
colleagues learn to guess right sooner than his opponents.
It was not to be expected that a 'Varsity team with a pre-
ponderance of Internationals among its backs should im-
mediately feel impelled to ' play to ' a Freshman three-
quarter. But later Oxford and England fifteens learnt
that it was profitable to give Poulton all possible chances
of winning matches for them. He rarely, if ever, let them
down. Times and again he scored himself; but even more
frequently the actual try was made by another after he had
cut out the opening ; and with him playing openings often
came when the odds against their development were heavy.
Latterly Poulton was ' marked ' by the opposing side more
closely than any other player in the United Kingdom.
Having an instinct for combination he made use of the
enemy's tactics for the benefit of his friends. In the Welsh
match of 1912 at Twickenham he and Birkett worked
together cleverly and successfully. Several times Birkett
got the ball and ran in a direction which indicated a pass
to Poulton, who took up the proper position for receiving
it. The markers were on to him like flies round a jam
pot. Birkett either went on himself, or, missing Poulton
out, flung a wide pass to Chapman on the wing. Ronnie
o
194 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
delighted in combination of that sort. His part in the
movement, though absolutely essential, was quite unob-
trusive. But his side profited, and his friends achieved
merit.
Ronnie ' going through the brown ' provided as wonderful
and as exhilarating a spectacle as has ever been seen on any
field of play. Polo cannot provide its equal because there are
not enough people on a polo ground. And all other ball
games must be ruled out because they are comparatively
sedate. Every one who has played Rugby Football knows
that occasionally, once or twice in a lifetime it may be,
a man sees a lane through the serried ranks of opposing
forwards and backs. When that happens he is over the
line for a try. Ronnie was always seeing lanes.
Capt. L. R. Broster, R.A.M.C., contributes a description
of Ronnie's running, and concludes it with the expression
of personal affection for the man which appears in every
expert's tribute of admiration for his football. He says :
' About Ronnie's method of play it is difficult to speak
because he was far too modest to talk about it ; and nobody
but himself is capable of analysing it. One just has a vivid
impression of him running his head back, the ball pushed
out right in front of him, his knees up, and always
finding touch with his left foot. It was rather curious
that in his first year the Oxford Committee should have
thought him too much of an individualist to break up the
existing quartette, and that the English Selection Com-
mittee should have received him with open arms. In fact
this delusion existed even till the next year when they
played him wing three to Gilray, till he finally crushed it
by scoring the record of 5 tries !
'The development of the Harlequin three-quarter game
was largely due to him. He was the most dangerous
offensive player of his time, with such a natural swerve and
gift for opportunism that he turned the scale in many
a hard-fought and closely contested tussle.
' In the Oxford side it was always a case of " get the ball
to Ronnie ". He was the most delightful person to play
with, and as a skipper he was ideal. With him it was
always " well played ", or " bad luck " when you did
wrong.'
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD 195
The notes which above all distinguished Ronnie's foot-
ball, its daintiness and its wonderful quickness, were both
the product of perfect balance as well of mind as of body.
Short analyses of his technique contributed to this book by
expert Rugby players show clearly enough that The Times,
always cautious in the use of superlatives, had reason when,
writing on May 8, 1915, of his three-quarter play, it said
' his name will go down to posterity as probably the greatest
player of all time '. But when all is said it was not solely,
or even mainly, by technique that Ronnie caught the
imagination and won the affection of the crowd. The late
Dr. H. S. Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity, in a few
exquisitely chosen words has expressed the feelings of
numberless inarticulate enthusiasts. I cannot conclude
this introduction better than by quoting his letter to
Ronnie's parents :
' To my grief and to my regret, I never once had an
opportunity of speaking with your boy. Often, through
Neville Talbpt, it was proposed : but we never met.
1 1 knew him, therefore, only from the Football Field
that is all.
' But I have never seen anything athletic rise to such
a height of beauty, as your boy in the great game. Every
motion that he made was the perfection of grace and force
combined.
1 1 used to say that I now know what the onset of
St. Michael must mean, as I saw him flash down the field
through the thick of his foes, like a swaying yision, as their
clutching hands slipped off him as by a miracle, and he
shot and swung and swerved past them all with some
rapturous " touch down ".
' It was a sight to thrill the yery bones.
' And, somehow, one loved him personally for giving one
the joy of such a sight.
' I loved saying his name. It was the symbol to me of
something so fair and gracious. He carried the mere game
up into the region in which the pure works of art are a joy
for ever, and hold our affections enthralled.'
Ronnie's play in his first Oxford Term has been sufficiently
described in the preceding introductory pages. We come
o 2
196 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
to the October Term of 1909, a period at which considerable
interest attaches to the history of Oxford football, because
Cunningham was much embarrassed in the choice of his
three-quarters by the presence of so many players of
capacity far above the average. At the beginning of Term
Vassall, Tarr, and Gilray were in residence, but Vassall was
not very fit and could not turn out in the earlier matches.
In his absence Ronnie was played at inside right with
Nicholas outside to him, though in a couple of matches
Maritz took Nicholas's place. Then about the middle of
term Vassall took his place. Ronnie was left out for him,
notably in the Richmond match at the Old Deer Park.
But in that game Nicholas was injured. On the following
Monday the Edinburgh Academicals came to Oxford. As
Vassall was also unable to play Gilray was placed inside
left, the position in which he had done so well for Scotland
during the previous spring. Ronnie played outside to him
and Maritz crossed to the other wing. The Academicals
were unmercifully thrashed, and the Poulton-Gilray com-
bination proved highly satisfactory. In the course of that
week Martin unexpectedly came up, and the Old Line,
Martin, Vassall, Tarr, Gilray, turned out on the next
Saturday against the Army. Their attack was good enough
but there was an ominous breakdown in defence towards
the end of the game. And on the following Monday the
team received, from Edinburgh University, its first defeat
of the season. The same four three-quarters appeared for
Oxford, and again the tackling was not all that it should
have been. It was also noted that Gilray was beaten for
pace on the wing. Another defeat from Blackheath con-
firmed the impression that the Old Four did not provide
the best available combination, and against Monkstown the
line which eventually played against Cambridge was tried
for the first time. A heavy score was made, and the
figures were impressive, although the Irishmen were
unluckily weakened by injuries in the course of the game.
The last of the trial matches, that against the London
Scottish at Richmond, ended in a victory for Oxford, but
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1909 197
disclosed nothing to disturb the Captain's conviction that
Martin, Tarr, Gilray, Poulton formed the best three-quarter
line available. Vassall acquiesced in the decision with the
ready cheerfulness natural to so good a sportsman.
In the 'Varsity match of 1909 the Cambridge line was
crossed nine times, and each try was gained by a wing
three-quarter as the result of a movement which started
somewhere near the centre of the ground. This is proof
positive that the heavy scoring was the result of perfect
strategy perfectly carried out by all concerned. No one
Oxford player can be singled out as mainly responsible for
the achievement of the side. Yet it is tolerably certain
that if anybody but Ronnie Poulton had been playing on
the left wing there would have been no record-breaking.
I say this not because he scored five of the nine tries him-
self : a very ordinary performer could have taken three if
not four of the openings made for him : but because the
first of the five, the score which gave Oxford the start, and
made Cambridge anxious, was one of the most brilliant
ever seen. When he got the ball, the defence was well
placed. Cambridge, not Oxford, had the extra man on the
map. But he went through the lot practically untouched
and planted the ball between the posts after running well
over fifty yards. I had a perfect view of the performance.
I was sitting on the grass behind touch in goal at the
pavilion end. From there I could see that Ronnie ran
almost straight : the defenders seemed to do the dodging.
Here I may admit that I go to Queen's to see Cambridge
beaten rather than to watch a first-class game of football.
Any one who brings about the desired result, even if he be
the referee, earns my lasting gratitude. That amazing try
of Ronnie's immediately made me his debtor, and the debt
became the greater as the tale of points increased. The
burden of my debt was increased in 1910, and in 1911
adequate payment was finally rendered impossible.
When Ronnie stepped on to the field on October 22,
19*10, to play against the Old Merchant Taylors many of
198 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
the spectators had not seen him ' changed ' for more than
six months. He made one appearance on the University
Cricket Ground when he made 83 runs in the Freshmen's
match by cheerful but promiscuous hitting. Since then his
summer games had been played in private. It was com-
monly remarked that in the interval he had filled out
considerably. He very soon showed, by going practically
untouched through the O.M.T. team, that increased weight
and strength had not diminished his old slipperiness.
Oxford's captain in this season was F. H. Turner, a re-
markably good leader of forwards, and a very shrewd
judge of back-play. He placed Ronnie at left centre with
W. P. Geen as his outside. Geen was a Welshman, who
had in the preceding season made something of a reputa-
tion as a centre three-quarter in Welsh Club football. His
experience had taught him to regard combination as the
greatest of all possible virtues in a Rugby player. Perhaps
his training had made him peculiarly capable of anticipating
the movements of his reputedly ' difficult ' centre. At any
rate the two soon reached a very high standard of combi-
nation. Buchanan on Ronnie's right also showed that it
was not impossible, or even difficult, to combine with him,
especially if the object of combination were borne in mind.
That object is, of course, to give the ball at the right
moment to the player most likely to make the best use of
it. By this time there was very little doubt in the minds
of Oxford players and spectators that when Ronnie was
engaged in a match the profitable policy was to play to
him. It is also noteworthy that the critics of his play now
cease to suggest that he was weak in defence. With
increased weight and strength he found it easier to effect
the smothering tackle which abruptly ends an attacking
movement. There were other Rugby players whose
methods would have satisfied a referee experienced in
administering the Football Association's rule about 'un-
necessary violence '. But most, if not all, of them were
less effective in defence. It has not escaped remark that
Ronnie suffered very few accidents during his career as
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1910 199
a footballer. He wrenched a leg muscle in the 1911
'Varsity match, and his mother recalls an occasion when
he returned from an International match lacking some
of the skin from his leg. There is only one other mention
and of this the details are forgotten in all the material
collected for the making of this book of any mishap
occurring to him in a game of football. Yet he was most
persistently marked by opposing sides. The explanation
is that the exquisite sense of balance which produced his
bewildering swerve enabled him to save himself in
a tackle: he was always the first of the two parties
concerned to resume the upright position. His personal
popularity was a negligible factor in the case. Pylades
and Orestes, if playing for opposing sides at Rugby, would
put one another down mercilessly. Yet there is not much
deliberate savagery in modern Rugby : for one thing the
pace is too great to allow time for deliberation. But first-
class teams play terrifically hard. Geordie Cunningham,
after passing his I.C.S. examination, came up to Oxford
for a fifth year. On Saturdays he generally played for the
Scottish. When Oxford had a Wednesday match he
would watch it. One Wednesday afternoon at tea in
Vincent's he said he must give up going to the Iffley Road
ground. He feared that the spectacle there presented
might spoil his nerve. Some teams are rougher, some
more chivalrous than others. Roughness produces rough-
ness, chivalry chivalry. Prof. H. S. Holland's above-
quoted appreciation of Ronnie's play indicates clearly
what his influence on football manners was.
From the start of the 1910 season the Oxford team
showed signs of the weakness which nearly proved their
undoing when they met Cambridge. They could score
heavily themselves but could not keep the other side out
as a really great team should. During the first half of the
season, up to and including the 'Varsity match, Oxford
scored 342 points, of which Ronnie was directly responsible
for 59, and had 88 scored against them. Perhaps the
figures hardly bear out the suggestion that the tackling of
200 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
the team was weak, but figures are notoriously deceptive,
and their evidence is of less value than that of trained
observers. The critic of the Field on four several occa-
sions notes that weak defence placed Oxford in danger.
He specially exempts Ronnie from blame in this respect.
Turner's team had only been beaten once when they
met Cambridge : the Harlequins had scored 13-0 against
them at Twickenham in a match which provided the
referee with a severe test of lung power ; it was contested
at tremendous pace, and he frequently needed breath to
blow his whistle. The two great matches of the October
Term were those against the United Services, hitherto
unbeaten, and Dublin University. In both the Oxford
team fairly rose to the occasion. Against the Services,
Buchanan and Knott got most of the opportunities to
distinguish themselves in attack and made the best of
all of them. The two tries which Ronnie scored were
both made for him by one or the other of these two, but
he and Cheesman did great work in defence that day, and
suffered not at all by comparison with Lyon, the famous
full-back of the Services, who was at his very best : he
twice stopped the two Oxford centres when they were
clear. Many good judges thought that against Dublin
Ronnie played better than he ever had before. An
instance of his often noted genius for doing the unexpected
thing successfully is thus described :
' Dublin dropped out from the 25. Sampson (full-back)
caught the ball and ran towards the open. There Poulton
clamoured for a pass and got it. Instead of running to the
right, where he was expected, he swerved to the left
through the surprised Dublin forwards. This brought
him among his own forwards, to whom he passed, and
a couple of them handled. Meanwhile Geen, quick to
detect his chance, sprinted up the left touch-line, and
arrived just in time to take a wide pass and cross in the
corner. It was a triumph of unorthodoxy. The chief
credit belongs to Poulton, who played magnificently all
through. He was equally great in attack and defence, and
after Knott was injured he did the work of two.'
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1910 201
In the 'Varsity match so nearly lost, and so hardly won,
Ronnie reproduced the form displayed against Dublin
University, and even improved upon it, although his side
failed to play up to its proper form. The tackling was
lamentably weak, with the result that Cambridge were
five points up midway through the second half.
' The strength of Oxford ', says the Field in its account
of the game, ' was founded on the possession of a player of
genius in Poulton, adequately supported by Buchanan
and Geen.' The detailed report which follows gives
chapter and verse to justify this assertion, and shows that
Ronnie was mainly responsible for all Oxford's five tries.
Three times he put Geen in, and when the game seemed
lost he scored twice himself from positions impossible to
any other player. One of these two tries was almost
miraculous. Half the Cambridge pack was rushing at him
when he got the ball, and he was standing still. But when
they dived for him he was not there. Once through them
and in more open ground, he made the backs look like
guide-posts to direct his course into goal. The reason
why I choose the word ' miraculous ' to describe his run is
that I have never seen an extremely difficult feat performed
so easily and certainly. The one small blemish on his
performance was that he had a kick charged down. It
was an expensive mistake, for Cambridge scored a goal in
consequence of it.
Ronnie played little football in the Lent Term of 1911,
though he took office as Captain of Oxford. He took his
place, however, in the Hockey team, which was beaten 4-1
by Cambridge, and was considered by the critics to have
tried to do too much on his own. He certainly displayed
inexhaustible energy, especially at the end of the game,
when most of his colleagues were run off their legs by the
faster Cambridge men.
In the October Term of 1911 Oxford were less successful
than usual, and, before the match, the general opinion
was that they would lose. The best-informed judges, such
202 RUGBY FOOTBALL AND
as E. H. D. Sewell, Hamish Stuart, and Ernest Ward, all
assured me that Cambridge must win, unless they all put
in that proviso Poulton could beat them on his own.
Ronnie, I fancy, had come to something like the same
conclusion, and determined to risk everything for an early
score.
In the course of the Term the team played thirteen
matches, winning eight and losing five ; and they scored
289 points, Ronnie's share being 64, against 105. One
cause of their comparative ill-success was the injury sus-
tained by Knott in the Guy's Hospital match. He was
kept out of the next five fixtures, but took part in the
brilliant victories over Edinburgh University and the
London Scottish which immediately preceded the 'Varsity
match. At Queen's he was at his best and how good his
best was! But before the all-important game started
Oxford's supporters were rather anxious about him.
Another thing that proved an occasional source of weak-
ness was a certain loss of form on the part of Geen.
Certainly he scored a large number of tries, but he had to
some extent lost his eye for an opening. Times and again
he hesitated on occasions when his captain had cut out
a reasonably good opening for him; in the preceding
season he would have been in for a certainty. But Geen
was also inspired to greatness against Cambridge. In fact,
at Queen's the whole team fairly rose to the occasion.
The forwards, extraordinarily well led by Brown and
Lagden, packed well, got their full share of the ball, and
heeled smartly. In loose play they were wonderfully
good. Their rushes were as skilful as they were vigorous,
and there was none of that horrid loafing offside, and
waiting to cut into a rush started by others, which charac-
terizes the play of many packs reputed to be good in the
loose. Cheesman worked the scrum wisely and well.
Knott was, as has been said, at his best. The three-
quarters were brilliant, and Sampson at full-back never
put a foot wrong. The men themselves were in no doubt
about the source of their inspiration. It came, they agree,
OTHER SPORTS AT OXFORD: 1911 203
from their captain. Ronnie himself, until he was injured,
played better than he ever had before. He stood out by
himself in the contest of brilliancy. It has already been
suggested that he had some doubts about the soundness
of his side and had made up his mind to take all manner of
risks from the kick-off in order to establish an early and,
as he hoped, demoralizing lead. His tactics succeeded
perfectly, carried out as they were by himself and others
whose opportunism had been developed by his precept
and example.
The first time Oxford got to the 25, and their forwards
got the ball, Knott punted low over the scrummage to the
Cambridge full-back. It was a risky bit of play because
a return kick might have sent Oxford back to the half-way
line. But Knott had pitched the ball exactly right. It
would have * yorked ' the full-back if he had tried to catch
it, so he was obliged to wait for the bounce, and Ronnie
arrived simultaneously with the ball. How he got there
no one will ever know. He must have given Knott, who
followed up his kick, at least five yards and a beating.
His mind must have moved even quicker than his feet.
Anyway get there he did and the ball bounced kindly!
Not long afterwards the same pair repeated the manoeuvre.
Again Ronnie was in time to rush the full-back and Steyn
dashed up to score. But the match was by no means over,
and at a very critical moment Ronnie was injured and
helped off the field. He was soon back, but limping badly.
It seemed long odds that Cambridge would make good use
of the advantage accidentally gained. But once Dingle
averted disaster with a run worthy of his captain. On
another occasion Ronnie saved the situation by a smother-
ing tackle. He could hardly walk, much less run. But
somehow he managed to cover ten or fifteen yards in
impossibly quick time, and down the man with the ball
before he could get into his stride.
After the match the critics, especially those who had
with some confidence anticipated defeat for Oxford,
blamed the Cambridge backs for standing too close up to
204 RUGBY FOOTBALL
the scrummage in order to spoil their opposite numbers,
instead of adopting a formation better suited to enable
them to score. The criticism is sound up to a point.
The Cambridge team was behind on points. Manifestly
their game was to rub off the deficit if they could, and to
take large risks in endeavouring to do so. But at all
games a side only plays as well as the opposition allows it
to play; and the opposing captain has a large say in
determining the amount of latitude allowed. Even an
Oxford man may feel a certain amount of sympathy for
Scholefield, who played magnificently, and his colleagues.
They were in a most awkward situation. The first two
tries scored against them had resulted from quite un-
promising openings. They had opposed to them Knott,
Poulton, and Dingle the last-named on the day almost as
clever an opportunist as the other two. It is excusable if
they had visions of a record score, and played to cut their
losses. Even after Ronnie was injured it would have been
dangerous to sacrifice defence to attack; so well did Knott
and Dingle carry on. Moreover, the reports of the match
are full of notes such as : ' Poulton, though very lame,
retained much of his peculiar gift for being in the right
place at the right moment.' It cannot be for a moment
maintained that if the teams had met on half a dozen
occasions Oxford would have averaged 19 points more
than Cambridge. Perhaps that margin flattered the
collective ability of the winners in their single encounter.
But the fact that the points were scored is a part of the
evidence on which the general estimate of Oxford's captain,
as player and leader, is based. This match finished
Ronnie's career as an Oxford footballer, and in a few
weeks after it he had ' gone down '.
A. C. M. C.
IX
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND OTHER NON-UNIVER-
SITY FOOTBALL: 1908-1914
The news came as a tremendous shock to me, for once again this
cruel war has robbed us of one of the very best sportsmen who ever
lived. Whether playing against him or with him, he was always the
same, and Rugby has been deprived of a personality that will never
be replaced. Capt. R. A. LLOYD, the Irish Captain in the season
before the War, writing, when wounded, from Lady Muriel Mason
Nursing Home, London.
RONALD played the first of his many games with the
Harlequins a few weeks before he entered the University.
Mr. Ernest Ward writes :
' When I went to Richmond Athletic ground to see the
Harlequins trial in September 1908 I was welcomed by
Mr. Smith (perpetual president of the Harlequins) in this
way: "Come and see a future England International.
Young Poulton of Rugby is playing to-day. Adrian is
trying him in various positions. He is the greatest ' find '
that we have had for years ". Ronnie was tried in all sorts
of positions outside the scrummage and, in every one, to
use that oft-quoted Baconianism, "succeeded excellently
well." 3
His selection for his first International was also due to
Adrian Stoop. The following letter was written by Ronald
to C. P. Evers from Balliol, on Jan. 24, 1909, a few days
before the match v. France :
'I went up and played for the 'Quins v. the Scottish
yesterday. It was a splendid game, and we won 8-5,
though I think a draw would have been fairer. I am
trying to play hockey as well this term, though I don't
think I shall be able to manage both. I am playing for
the 'Varsities v. London at hockey to-morrow in London.
2o6 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
' Don't spread it about, but I believe that I am playing
for England v. France on Saturday. I was picked reserve
two or three days ago, and Vassall scratched, and I was
officially so don't say anything to any
like to play, as if I could play fairly decently I might play
against Ireland. No more now.
' With kind regards to Mrs. Evers and three kisses for
Sybil and baby,
1 Your affectionate friend.'
Ronald's seventeen International matches are tabulated
on p. 229, and Mr. Croome's critical account of them forms
the concluding part of this section. In the earlier part,
chiefly personal memories are recalled with here and there
quotations from letters and from the football press.
Ronald's impressions of his first game, against France,
won 22-0, were not very favourable, for his mother wrote
to Janet : ' Ronald said he did not really do very well at
the match. He felt very nervous; and the ground was
terribly hard. He got a big knock on the nose which bled.'
His second International, v. Ireland, on Feb. 13, won
11-5, was the first victory on Irish soil since 1895.
Ronald, who helped towards Palmer's try in the first half,
leading to the only English goal, was evidently in good
spirits after the match, and his mother's letter to Janet
seems to have suffered in consequence :
' If I make a lot of mistakes, you must excuse me ; for
Ronnie is here, and he and the two girls are ragging
terribly. Ronnie came back this morning, having done
very well, and not being much injured, only a bit of skin
taken off one leg. Ronald and some others took a jaunting
car on Saturday morning, and drove much the same way
as you and I did all round the Phoenix Park, saw the place
of the murder, and then ended up with the Zoo.'
The match, v. Scotland, played at Richmond, and lost
8-18, was the first of his three Internationals in which
England was beaten.
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1910 207
The experiences of 1910 were summed up in his account
of the year :
4 1 had to come back after a week [at Wengen] to play
in a trial match in London. We were badly beaten, but
I succeeded in staying for the Welsh match a week later.
After that they had no further use for me.'
The circumstances that led up to the match were
curiously indicative of the plethora of Rugby players in
England, and the difficulties of the Selecting Committee.
The Rugby Union had chosen a side which, in the
absence of some selected players, had easily defeated
first the North and then the South. Yet, when the
selected players were restored, it was, as Ronald states,
badly beaten by the Rest on the Saturday before the
match. So, at the last moment, the team was reconsti-
tuted and made to include more than half of the side
which had beaten it. The game was the first played on
the Rugby Union Ground at Twickenham, and England
won 1 1-6. This was the only International match in
which Ronald played on the wing.
His account of athletics during the first six months of
1911 is confined to these characteristic words on his fifth
and only International match in this year :
4 1 played for England against Scotland, and enjoyed
the game chiefly because ten members of the teams were
Oxford men, and seven were personal friends.'
The match was played at Twickenham on March 18, and
Ronald was Right Centre. Ronald Lagden played as a
forward in the English Team. England won 13-8.
Ronald, although he made no tries himself, was concerned
in two of them. The second is thus described in a paper
I have not identified :
4 Then came a brilliant bit of work by the much-criticized
Poulton. At half-way Stoop kicked across. Coming up
at top speed, Poulton cleverly took the ball, beat the
opposition, and unselfishly passed to Birkett, who ran
208 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
round behind the posts. Lagden easily kicked a goal.
It was Poulton's try, however, and it was Poulton who
was acclaimed by the crowd.'
His sixth International, v. Wales, won 8-0, was played
on Jan. 20, 1912, a few days before he went to live in
Reading. He had rather a strenuous time over it, as he
was travelling home from Switzerland, sleeping in the
train, on Jan. 18 and 19, and was met on the platform and
hurried off to practise with other players the evening
before the match. Then, after it, he went with Dick
Dugdale and me to Bunty pulls the Strings, and returned
to Oxford by the midnight train.
During his residence in Reading, Ronald played in
seven International matches. Something of his methods
of training may be gathered from the Berkshire Chronicle
for Sept. 12, 1913 :
'A local yeteran Rugby player asked him last winter
how he trained. "Come to Kendrick Road at seven
o'clock to-morrow morning, and I'll show you," he replied.
The veteran went, and saw him "fly" between the lamp-
posts with a speed he could not imitate.'
It is also stated in the Manchester Courier of May 10,
1915, that he 'instituted a series of training runs in the
early mornings, and it was wonderful the number of young
men who rallied round him and turned up for a spin
between five and six o'clock '.
He also often played for the Harlequins. His friend
R. W. Dugdale remembers Ronald saying, ' I'm quite
willing to play for them if they want me, but I'm not
going to give up my work in order to play.' Accordingly
he would catch the first train after his work was over,
and then change as he was being rushed up to the ground
in a taxi, appearing only a few minutes before the game
began. Some of the players were annoyed at his cutting
things so fine, as they thought, but Ronald felt that life
was much too full and too interesting to be wasted in
doing nothing before a match. The same spirit may be
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1912 209
inferred from Mr. Charles Marriott's 'usual' kindly ex-
postulation, well remembered by Ronald (p. 211).
The feature of Ronald's seventh match, v. Ireland, was
the failure of the place-kicking. England won by 15-0,
the points being gained by 5 tries, not one of which was
converted.
The eighth match, v. Scotland, was lost 3-8. The Times
considered that
' of the three-quarter backs only R. W. Poulton added
to his reputation ; his tackling and touch-kicking were
admirable, and he was half the English defence through-
out. He made what he could of a bewildering variety of
sloppy passes, and on several occasions one of his short
swerving runs would have set a dangerous attack going
but for the blunders of the other backs.'
Before his next International, Ronald played twice
against the South Africans for the East Midlands at
Northampton, Nov. 2, 1912, and for London at Twicken-
ham, Nov. 16. In these and all later International matches
he played left centre. Of the second match, won by
London 10-8, The Times considered that the South
Africans
' neither gave nor took their passes well ; and, as their
back division trusts entirely to speed, any inaccuracy was
fatal. . . . This weakness in tactics was emphasized by the
ingenuity of Poulton, who has never wanted more looking
after. Time and again he beat two opponents, and it was
to the fact that three had to be told oft to stop him that the
success of London was largely due. His defence also was
excellent.'
This must have been the match about which his friend
Dick Dugdale wrote to him from Bombay on Jan. 3,
1913:
' Your football : Very different accounts from your own
reach me at intervals, my dear old man, + a full-page
illustration or caricature in the Tatter : with the usual
overlong chin development. They never will give you
a decent chin piece.'
2io INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
Ronald's ninth game for England, the third consecutive
match v. South Africa, played at Twickenham Jan. 4,
1913, was his greatest up to that time, and the third
and last of his Internationals to be lost 3-9. His two
famous runs in the first half, one of them scoring the
only points made against the South Africans in any Inter-
national match during their whole tour, have often been
described and will be long remembered.
We were in Switzerland at the time, but his uncle
George was present and full of enthusiasm. He had
quite got over his feeling that International play would be
inconsistent with Ronald's position in the Factory. At
first indeed my brother-in-law felt this so strongly that he
wished Ronald to defer the beginning of his work until
after the 1912 match v. Ireland, and assumed that it would
be his last. But he soon came to see that the play was a
source of pleasure and pride to the men and increased
Ronald's influence, also that the only cause for anxiety
was lest he should work not too little but too much.
The memories of Ronald's friend, Capt. S. E. Whitnall,
cluster round this match :
' Great days at Twickenham I remember : it was made
the annual gathering of our intimate group. I remember
going up in a crowded taxi and ragging mat they'd have
to wait till we got through with him anyway! Then
sitting and listening to the comments till the teams poured
out eager heads stretched forward : "That 's Brown and
Lagden ! " then the roar " Poulton ! Ronnie ! " ; and oh !
to have seen the sight of him in his wonderful baffling
swerving run broad shoulders, head crouched back be-
tween ; the fine limbs curiously high-lifted knees faster
really than he looked arms at length swinging the ball
from side to side. That never to be forgotten run that
just failed on the very line to score after a superb and
absolutely typical " Poulton " run all the field seemed
stationary gazing at him and McHardy in outstretched
pursuit.
'Then there were days when he and Lagden walked
over here on an early Sunday morning for breakfast,
tennis, and a bathe ; and when we sat in the sunshine on
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1913 211
the lawn and talked of great questions of the future and of
social problems. I remember Maclagan 1 killed also in
France who had never met him away from football before,
saying afterwards, " Well, that young fellow has got great
and good ideas, and a great and good mind ! "
' All my remembrances are clothed in the spirit of his
gaiety and joy of life his ready laughter, his cheerfulness,
his happiness, his extraordinary modesty.'
A fortnight after the South African match came Ronald's
tenth International v. Wales at Cardiff, Jan. 18 another
of his greatest games. I have been told that on the morn-
ing of the day Cardiff was placarded with the exhortation
to ' watch R. W. Poulton '. Over 20,000 spectators were
present who, in the most sportsmanlike spirit, cheered the
good bits of play even when they meant the defeat of
Wales on a ground where Wales had learned to expect
and had hitherto gained nothing but victory. England
won by 12-0, all the points being made in the second half.
Ronald scored 4 by a dropped goal.
E. W. Ballantyne wrote in the Sunday Observer :
' Poulton was the most remarkable man on the field.
Whether attacking or defending he won the highest
admiration, and the 1913 Wales-England match might be
referred to in years to come as roulton's match' the
third game in succession of which these words were used.
A story, told in the Oxford Times for Feb. 22, 1913,
perhaps refers to this match. A man set to mark Ronald
and reproved for not stopping him is said to have replied :
' How can one stop him, when his head goes one way, his
arms another, and his legs keep straight on ? '
To conclude the account of Ronald's International play
during his residence in Reading, a part of his own review
of the 1913 games including the three v. France, Ireland,
and Scotland, not hitherto referred to is reprinted below.
' " Oh, there you are, my dear fellow. Hurry up, you'll
miss the train ! you're always late ! "
1 In these words (as usual), I was welcomed by our
1 G. S. Maclagan, Lt. R. Warwicks, killed Apr. 25, 1915.
P 2
212 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
anxious Secretary, Mr. Charles Marriott, on joining a
merry party of some two dozen souls bound on January
lyth tor Penarth, there to obtain the rest necessary for our
great encounter with Wales at Cardiff the next afternoon.
On assembling at breakfast the next morning we found
that rain was falling steadily, and all hope of a dry ground
and ball was given up. The morning was spent in
animated discussions of numerous devices for winning the
match, none of which by any chance came off during the
game itself, except the oft-repeated injunction of our
Captain, " Remember your feet and use them, and don't
forget the watchword" but that, I fear, is unprintable.
However, after a game played on a ground where the
blades of grass seemed with difficulty to be holding their
heads above the ever-rising flood, England emerged
unrecognizable but victorious by 12 points to nil.
' On February 8th England met Ireland at Dublin. The
passage of the Channel (the sea was perfectly smooth) and
a troublesome wind during the game, are not sufficient
excuses for the poor display given. England, it is true,
won by 15 points to nil l , but the remark of a member of the
English Selection Committee, at tea after the match, was
perfectly true, " Well, I've only seen one team play worse
than you did, and I've seen that team this afternoon."
' The Scotch match, or, as the papers love to call it, " the
contest for the Calcutta Cup ", was played at Twickenham
on March i5th. After a poor game England, though often
in desperate straits, won by a try to nil. A less satis-
factory match, from the point of view of the three-quarters,
can hardly be imagined. The almost total lack of com-
bination among the English outsides stopped many
promising movements, and the Scotch three-quarters,
though snowing fine defence, were never dangerous in
attack. The Scotsmen, however, deserve great credit for
the close fight they made, as they had numerous dis-
appointments in the composition of their team.
'Against France, at Twickenham, on January 25th,
England, playing poor football, won by 20 points to nil.
'The Rugby Football Season of 1912-13 was made
memorable by the visit of the South African team. I
suppose, to be in keeping with Imperial imagery and ideas,
we must call the members of this team our children, and
fine, strapping children they were ! You feel there must be
1 Ireland made 4 points, by a dropped goal.
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1913 213
something extraordinary about the climate of South Africa,
when you are easily given twenty yards in a hundred by
a McHardy or a Stegmann, when you see the ball propelled
infinite distances with perfect accuracy by a Morkel, and
when you feel the weight of a Morkel, a Van Vuuren, or
a Shum deposited on your chest.
'On January 4th, England met South Africa in a
desperate effort to avenge the defeats of the three sister
countries. It was the first International of the season, and
certainly produced the finest game. The English team
was fortunate in finding; itself in the best of form, though
perhaps not experiencing the best of luck in the field.
I have not space here to give an account of this match,
with its many thrills and incidents, and can only state that
South Africa won by i try and 2 penalty goals to a try.
' Every Rugby Football player will join me in congratu-
lating Mr. Millar on the success of his team, and not a
few, in meeting them, have added considerably to the circle
of their friends.' (Rugby Football Annual, 1913-14, p. n.)
Ronald's football in the Reading period came to an end
with one of the games into which he always entered with
special zest. The village team at St. Helens plays the
Soccer game on the Green and is very successful in
winning its matches with other Isle of Wight teams; but
Bugle-major C. Jacobs, custodian of the Golf Club and
active organizer of the village sports, the Territorial sports,
the cadets, the rifle range, and other movements to benefit
the community, felt that it was not for nothing that the
village owned, and that he had known from childhood,
a Rugby International already spoken of as the probable
English Captain in the forthcoming season. So, to aid the
Territorial Sports Fund, he got up a Rugby match at
St. Helens, to be played in the Easter Vacation of 1913,
between the masters of the R.N.C. at Osborne and a team
selected and captained by Ronald.
Hilda had vivid memories of the great gathering of
Rugby Internationals and other players that assembled for
the week-end at St. Helens Cottage :
1 In the evening we had the most amusing dumb charades.
One scene was very funny : it was a debate in Parliament
2i 4 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
on the " Naval estimates ". Bruno [L. G. Brown] was
Winston Churchill and Ronald his opponent, and they
kept on jumping up alternately and gesticulating wildly,
Bruno holding up a toy boat. It is impossible to describe
how funny it was, but bowler hats came into it. Bruno
has a very large head and he had Ronald's small hat and
Ronald his big one, and they kept bobbing up in turn to
" speak " and taking off their hats.
' On the Sunday evening Ronald firmly set us all on to
paper games, and I remember noticing how different the
atmosphere was from the first night before Ronald had
arrived, and I should never have dared to suggest anything
so childish.'
During his residence in Reading Ronald raised the
burning question of ' payment for broken time ' in the
following letter to the Sportsman :
*THE RUGBY UNION AND PROFESSIONALISM.
' It is with much apprehension that I read this morning
the finding of the General Committee of the Rugby Union
concerning the charges brought against certain players in
Devonshire clubs of having received money for "broken
time". If it is the desire of the Rugby Union Committee
practically to limit the game to players who learn it at the
rublic Schools, and in the Services and Universities, such
a finding is reasonable. But I cannot believe such is
their desire. Was not this, then, the opportunity to put
the game on an immovable basis among all classes of the
community by making an alteration in the laws of the game
relating to professionalism, so as to legislate for a carefully
arranged payment for " broken time " for men who are paid
weekly or monthly for the hours they work ? And it is
difficult to see how such an offence can be construed as
professionalism. A man does not, or under careful regu-
lation would not, receive any addition to this normal
weekly wage, but would be paid merely for the hours of
work missed through football. Such hours of work would,
of course, not include " overtime ".
1 He would then be exactly in the position of many busi-
ness men who, in the enjoyment of a settled income, leave
their work an hour or so earlier to catch the necessary
train to the match.
' The most optimistic must feel that such an action as the
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1912 215
R. U. Committee have taken will do much to prevent
the expansion of the Rugby game, and so reduce the value
to England of the most democratic of sports.
' I only venture to write this to find out if there are
any other present or past players of the game who think
as I do.
' Yours truly,
1 RONALD W. POULTON.
' 16 Portland Place, Reading,
1 December 2.'
Ronald talked with me on the subject, and I know that
his feeling was that, since expenses were repaid to Rugby
Union players, it was only just that working men should
be repaid for the loss of wages, to them very necessary
expenses, without which many of them could not play.
He was eager to increase the facilities which would bring
more and more men under the influence of this noble
game. He believed ' that Rugby was too good a game to
be confined to any particular class ' (' Ixion ', in the Sports-
man, May 8, 1915).
These were his motives in raising the question, motives
in harmony with his whole outlook on life ; but there was
the object-lesson provided by other sports, and the problem
whether grave dangers could be avoided if this concession,
reasonable as it seemed to be, were made. A writer in the
Yorkshire Evening Post for May 15, 1915, states that ' the
arguments laid before him sufficed, I know, to make
Poulton change his mind', and the fact that the subject
never reappeared in our talks together supports the same
conclusion ; for Ronald would not, I think, have dropped
the subject if he had retained his opinion.
The four International matches of the last season before
the War, under Ronald's captaincy, were played during
his residence in Manchester. When he went north in
September 1913 he found so many old friends in the
Liverpool Team that he was glad to accept the invitation
216 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
to play with them. There was Dum Cunningham, one of
his greatest School House friends at Rugby; Freddy
Turner, his Oxford Captain in 1910 ; Tracey Fowler, who
had played against him for Cambridge and also at hockey
for Seaview ; and Dick Lloyd, the Irish Captain, who had
played against him in International matches in 1912 and
Thus Ronald became one of that wonderful northern
team, captained by F. H. Turner, a former Scottish
Captain, and including the captains of England and Ireland,
as well as International reserves for England (Fowler) and
Scotland (Ross). The team, in the season 1913-14, scored
the record number of 838 points against 229.
His Manchester friend, Mr. Delahunty, remembers that
Ronald 'had great praise for the excellent treatment
received from the trainer attached to the Manchester
United Club ground '. The hours of work at Mather and
Platt's were sometimes a difficulty ; for the rules prevented
him from leaving the workshop before 12.30 on Saturdays,
the very time at which the train started for Liverpool.
' W. L. S.', in the Athletic News for May 10, 1915, tells of
one occasion when Ronald made the journey in a taxi,
accompanied by his foreman, Mr. J. Mundy, strict enforcer
of rules but enthusiastic lover of football, and of how, just
as Ronald was in the middle of changing his clothes, they
were held up at a level-crossing in a crowd of factory girls
waiting to cross the line. Mr. Mundy, so Ronald told us,
was rather shocked at the effect of Trial matches and
Internationals on the hours of work, and on one occasion
asked him what his people thought of it. ' Oh, they don't
mind', was his reply. The foreman thought a moment
and said, ' Well, I'll let you go, Ronnie.'
In the Trial matches of the season Ronald played at the
top of his form, and before Christmas it became known
that he would captain the English Team.
The first of the four great matches was that against
Wales, played in the presence of 30,000 spectators at
Twickenham, Jan. 17, 1914, and won by England by
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 217
a single point, 10-9, viz. by 2 goals to i goal and i dropped
goal. Ronald's play in this, his fourteenth International
match, is thus spoken of by The Times expert :
' In the circumstances of this game England's victory
was alone made possible by the soundness and resource of
the greatest three-quarter back that the country has had
for a quarter of a century. . . . Did ever man do so much
for a side as Ppulton ? When over and over again England
looked to be in extremis it was some wonderful kick by
Poulton, some electrifying cut through, some clever steady-
ing influence among the backs that kept the Fifteen to-
gether. . . . Wales, the better team of the day, retired beaten
by fate and Poulton.'
This match is one of the few in which I am able to quote
Ronald's comments. He wrote to his brother-in-law,
Dr. Ainley Walker, from Manchester, Jan. 19 :
' Yes, it was a baddish game, at least the play was not
very high class, but there were purple patches, especially
when I kicked the ball into the other fellow's stomach,
and he only had to walk over!! Howeyer on the game
I was satisfied personally, though not with the forwards
by any means. Got back yesterday. Millions of letters
to write and I fear the Curate is going to call ! I must try
and get to Oxford at time of Irish match.'
Ronald's fifteenth International was the match v. Ireland,
Feb. 14, 1914, the last International played at Twickenham.
The attendance is said to have been a record, The Times
estimate being 40,000. Ireland made 7 points in the first
few minutes and was leading 7-6 at half-time. Although,
as one of the critics said, this ' would have broken the back
of many a side', England finally won by 17-12, viz. by
i goal and 4 tries to i goal, i dropped goal, and i try.
Referring to the anxious moments in the first half The
Times remarked : ' It was inspiriting to see how the winded
men pulled themselves together, encouraged by the voice
and nursed by the touch-kicking of their captain.'
Capt. R. A. Lloyd, ist Liverpool Scottish, the Irish
captain, player in seventeen Internationals of which five
218 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
were v. England (1910-14), has written from the front his
memories of Ronald and of this great match :
' I think, as I have probably played more games both
with and against Ronald Poufton than most men, I may
be permitted to pen these few remarks about his play.
I think that during my experience of Rugby Football,
Ronald Ppulton was the greatest player I ever came in
contact with : it was the glorious uncertainty of his play
which always appealed to friend and foe. I think I might
sum him up in saying, it was not what he was doing, but
what he was going to do which made him the great player
he was. I studied his play very carefully, and I don t ever
remember him doing the same thing twice.
' During the Season 1913-14 when I played in the same
Liverpool XV I used to try and follow his movements
when once he got hold of the ball, and I am perfectly
certain that it was only by being a born footballer he could
do the things he did. I never knew where he would be or
what he would do when once he got the ball : his swerve
made him so hard to follow even if you were playing with
him, not only if you were unfortunate enough to be playing
against him.
'We had a great trick together which we used to call
the " Scissors " : it brought in many tries and I am sorry
to tell it for it is against myself as he played it on me
once too often.
'The "Scissors" trick was this: when I had the ball,
and Ronald was running beside me just as if he was going
to take an ordinary pass, he would suddenly change his
direction and come racing straight across at me and
practically take the ball out of my hands, and breaking
clean through would run right across to the opposite wing.
It was a favourite trick and nearly always brought a try, as
I used to try and follow him up and take the pass if he
could not beat the back. Well, the Irish-English game at
Twickenham in 1914 came off and I warned the two Irish
Centres to watch for the " Scissors" as he was sure to try
it, and well on in the 2nd half Ronald worked it on us as
well as ever he did. He took the ball from Davies the
English outside half and cut through beautifully, and we
never saw the way he went till he handed the ball to the
ever-handy Pillman to score the try which practically
decided the game. This try was one of the best I ever
saw him make and we always used to rag each other about
RONALD DICK LLOYD
THE ENGLISH AND IRISH CAPTAINS IN THE SEASON BEFORE THE WAR.
From a photograph by the late D. Cunningham, at West Derby, near
Liverpool, March 1914.
Facing />. 218. ]
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 219
it afterwards, as before the game we both said we each
knew the other's favourite tricks.
' He was a player who always played for his side and
never for himself, and he loved his football as it ought to
be loved. It will be a very long time before a Rugger
crowd will have the pleasure of seeing another Poulton, as
he was a born genius when once he got that ball into his
hands. It was as much a pleasure to play against him as
with him, for he was always the same fascinating figure,
apparently doing nothing but always doing a great deal.'
It is as it should be that memories cling round the last
International on the London ground of the Rugby Union.
Mr. Alfred Ollivant wrote May 24, 1915, of an incident
described later on in his beautiful picture of Ronald ' The
Cost' in the Atlantic Monthly for February 1916:
'Last year in the spring when I heard that England
v. Ireland was to be played at Twickenham I went to see
him play. It was the last International played there, and
everybody agreed that it was his day. A little incident
of the game stays with me. Ronald and an enemy three-
quarter emerged out of some kind of death-grapple ; and
the enemy three-quarter gave Ronald a little pat that was
clearly a caress as he retired to his lines. Another man
might have evoked a caress but not of the peculiar kind
that lingers with me still. There was more than friend-
ship in it : there was affection.'
Before the game the teams lined up and cheered the
King, and the captains were presented and shook hands
at the interval. The ceremony had its humorous side,
described by Ronald to Mr. Delahunty : ' He seldom spoke
of football, though I am keenly interested in it. But he
did speak with evident relish of one occasion when he was
called from the field to be presented to His Majesty, and
all he had time to do was to wipe his hands, which were
very dirty from handling the ball, on the back of his shorts.
He would smile delightfully when he demonstrated exactly
what he did, though he confessed to feeling very nervous
at the time.'
This was also the match after which Ronald, while taking
220 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
his bath, discussed theology with his friend the Rev. W. J.
Carey, who has described the incident in the Church
Times of May 14, 1915. I can imagine the scene as if
I had been present; for it was my privilege, as the
captain's father, to visit more than once the English
dressing-room after a match and to see fifteen of the finest
young men the country possessed, some taking baths,
others strolling about or sitting, chatting and smoking
cigarettes, displaying the while a magnificent muscular
development in all its glory. I remember, too, Mr. Carey
joining us at tea, laughing heartily at the scene he had
just left, and telling us of the systematic soaping of
Ronald's head during the discussion.
The match v. Scotland, Ronald's sixteenth International,
was played at Inverleith, March 21, and won by England
16-15. It was tne forty-first match between England and
Scotland and attracted the biggest crowd, over 25,000,
ever seen at a Rugby game in the north. In the first half
Will gained an unconverted try for Scotland and Lowe one
for England. In the second half England with two con-
verted tries by Lowe and one unconverted by Ronald was
leading by 16 points to 6, for Scotland had meanwhile
scored only 3 from an unconverted try by Huggan. Then
came a mighty effort, and with a dropped goal by Bowie
and a converted try by Will the Scottish score rose to 15,
and the great game came to an end in a desperate struggle
in the course of which Pillman's leg was broken. The
English team was also unlucky in that Maynard had
strained his knee early in the game.
Dr. Edward Gane, who saw the match, has written of
Ronald's leadership :
' In the early part of the match the English team seemed
quite disorganized and a thorough beating seemed likely.
But the Captain rose to the occasion. It was thrilling to
me to see the coolness and resource he exhibited. The
effect on the team, quite apart from his brilliant play, was
obvious, and an experienced Rugby player and I came
away from the match (won at the last moment) with an
increased admiration for a player in whose Rugby career
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 221
I had always been interested. And it was his personal
influence over those whom he led, even more than nis play,
that won my regard. '
Ronald's old Rugby friend Lt. C. C. Watson, R.F.A.,
wrote from the front Feb. 21, 1917:
' The last time I met Ronnie was at the Rugger Inter-
national at Edinburgh in 1914. My wife and I had a long
talk with him before the match, and he was the same
unaffected boy as ever, though captaining the English team
at the time. I little thought it was the last time I should
see him. '
The correspondent of the Morning Post, in the issue of
May 8, 1915, expressed his belief that this was the cap
Ronald prized most, and said of the match that it was ' one
of the most brilliant games ever played '. There is this
evidence to show that the game had a special place in
Ronald's memory: it was the only International Team
since his sixth, v. Wales on Jan. 20, 1912, of which he
obtained a photograph. It shows him without the ball,
and with L. G. Brown in his usual position on Ronald's
left.
A few days before the match v. France, Ronald was the
guest of the evening at the Annual Dinner of the Clifton
Rugby Football Association, on April 4th. The following
report of his speech from the Bristol Times and Mirror of
April 6, I owe to the kindness of Mr. E. S. Bostock-Smith
and Mr. J. Evans. In reply to the toast of his health
Ronald said :
' In his early days he was nearly discouraged from
playing football. When he was eight he got into parental
disfavour for kicking stones along the road, and later, at
school, there was the son of a South African Chief who
believed the principle of the game was to regard the ball
as of no importance, but rather when the two sides were
drawn up to lay out all his opponents and most of his own
side. He remembered very clearly being chased down the
field by the fierce black, and he was faster than the speaker
(laughter). He was now the ex-Sultan of Zanzibar.
Referring to the International matches this season, he said
222 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
he did not think there had been any captain of an Inter-
national team which had won the triple crown by such
a narrow margin of points. In a way it was a misfortune
they should have won by only the narrow margin of seven
points ; but he thought in the three matches they were the
oest side. He pointed out that one of the best signs of
prosperity of Rugby in England, and other countries as
well, was that the Selection Committees had such great
difficulty in picking their teams. In their own case they
could have picked two or three teams, which he believed
would have gone as far with one exception, and that of
a gentleman* present whose name he would not mention
in order to spare his blushes (applause). As another
indication of the Rugby revival, he instanced the re-starting
of the Tyldesley Club one of the oldest clubs in England,
which was resuscitated two years ago. It seemed the
game, as played by certain clubs, was tending towards
playing rather to score tries than to prevent being scored
against. Whether it was good or bad he did not know,
but he had watched Northern Union clubs, and he certainly
thought that method made the more attractive game to
watch, and he believed it was the more attractive game to
play. In conclusion, he made a plea that in districts where
clubs were numerous and strong they should help the
clubs in outlying districts.'
Ronald's seventeenth and last International Match was
that v. France, played at Colombes, about 8-10 miles from
Paris, on Easter Monday, April 13, won by 39-13, viz.
6 goals and 3 tries to 2 goals and i try. Ronald made 4
tries, 2 in the first half and 2 in the second, all converted
by Greenwood. His fourth try was the last score in the
last International match.
The Field of Apr. 18, after discussing the game, says of
the English Team of 1914 :
4 ... As, in spite of changes, the character of the team
was maintained, it is difficult to ascribe this to anything but
athletic ability combined with good generalship. This last
quality was particularly exemplified by R. W. Poulton. . .
. . . who may challenge comparison with any English
international player for general utility. His chief quality
1 W. R. Johnston, of Bristol, the full back.
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 223
has this season been his quick apprehension of every
emergency and opportunity in defence and attack. Much
has been said of his dodging, but his effectiveness has
really lain more in his promptitude in discovering the
right direction for his runs and the point at which he could
best support his comrades. '
' With England's victory over France,' said the Sporting
and Dramatic, ' . . . the curtain may be rung down on the
most successful Rugby season of recent years.'
Full accounts of the match appeared in the French
journal Sporting for Apr. 15, and I'Aero for Apr. 14. A
few paragraphs quoted below are sufficient to show the
generous spirit in which the French accepted the defeat.
The first three extracts are from I' Aero :
' S'il peut etre pour nous une consolation au desastre
d'hier, nous la trouverons dans le fait que nous avons eu
devant nous une merveilleuse equipe, qui comprend
quelques joueurs qui resteront dans les annales du rugby
britannique ! '
' Ce Poulton, notamment, est impressionnant, magnifique,
charmant. Et 1'envie vous prend de lui chanter: "Cest
Poulton charme que je t'aime. "
' Poulton est bien reellement le plus joli attaquant que
nous connaissions, et ses feintes, ses crochets, ses trouees,
rapides et elegantes, font de lui le meilleur centre operant
dans une equipe europeenne. A cote de lui, 1'etoile de
Watson ne paht nullement, et ce joueur fut bien le digne
auxiliaire du grand Poulton. Comme lui, il attaque dans
un style eblouissant. '
The following are from Sporting:
' Les spectateurs de ce match ne s'en plaindront pas.
Vingt mille personnes ont enfin pu contempler du beau jeu,
du vrai jeu classique, simple, emcace du rugby de grande
classe.
' Certes, cela faisait mal au coeur de voir cette ligne
anglaise penetrer dans nos rangs avec une facilite derisoire
et une quietude complete ; mais quelle sensation n'eprou-
vait-on pas a admirer cette rapidite de conception, cette
surete a'execution, ce chic, ce fini dans tous les mouve-
ments !
' Pas une faute dans la position des hommes, pas un
224 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
rate : le ballon partait raide de la melee, parvenait a Davies,
lance a toute voice, qui filait droit dans un trou et sans
feinter, par une simple deviation de course, ce dernier
amenait sur lui toute notre defense, Caujoles compris.
Une autre fois, c'etait Poulton qui redressait d'un seul
temps 1'attaque et semait nos pauvres trois-quarts en
"swerwant" au milieu d'eux par des dehanchements de
buste des plus harmonieux.
' La demonstration fut vraiment splendide, elle fut con-
duite par des virtuoses, et nous devons nous incliner
devant ces maitres qui rappellent les plus grands tenors
de 1'ecole Galloise/
' Eh bien, Messieurs de France, dont j'excepte Andre,
avez-vous vu comme ceux d'Angleterre " ils s'en allaient ",
comment un Poulton ou un Lowe, ils " savent courir en
premiere, deuxieme ou troisieme vitesse a volonte".
' Comment 1'un des " huit" de la melee sait, a 1'occasion,
piquer un sprint, fut-il de 50 metres.
1 Avez-vous vu ? '
The front page of Sporting bears the illustration, repro-
duced opposite page 230, of Ronald swerving away from
Andre. The great French three-quarter was for long
a prisoner at Erfurt, having been captured, wounded in
the heel, in an ambulance, during the early weeks of the
war. Ronald was so pleased with this instantaneous photo-
graph that he wrote to the office of the journal in order
to obtain copies, ' parce que c'est la plus belle representa-
tion de ma "swerve" que j'ai jamais vue.' His letter is
reproduced in the issue of April 29, p. 272.
As a further comment on the match, Sporting of April 15
published, on p. 242, the amusing illustration here repro-
duced. The three pupils, accompanied by the Gallic cock,
are the leading members of the Central Rugby Committee
of the ' Union de Societes fransaises de Sports athle-
tiques', the foremost being M. Charles Brennus, President,
the second M. Bernstein, and the last Allan H. Muhr,
Secretary. Bernstein went to the front ; Muhr, an Ameri-
can, entered his country's Ambulance Field Service;
Brennus is above the age of military service.
Accepting seriously the hint of the humorists, Sporting
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL
225
invited Ronald to contribute a criticism of French Rugby.
This article, in the issue of May 27, p. 340, summed up an
experience going back to the Anglo-French match of 1909.
The French forwards, he considered, had made the most
rapid progress far more so than the three-quarters.
LA DROUTE DE COLOMBES CE QU'EN PENSENT NOS HUMORISTES.
Entrez-donc, vous n'etes pas de trop.
' Us ont appris la valeur de la vitesse dans le jeu ouvert,
ils savent pousser des " rushes" tres effectifs et leur jeu a
la main est en tres gros progres. Ils savent, en un mot,
aider de parfaite fa$on leurs trois-quarts.'
On the other hand, in the formation of a compact scrum
and in getting hold of the ball in the scrum they had much
to learn.
Q
226 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
' Les avants paraissent ignorer les principales regies de
la melee, qui sont : une formation rapide et compacte, une
dure poussee, en meme temps qu'un talonnage rapide et
enfin une sortie de ballon tres nette, nullement ggnee par
les talons. En appliquant ces regies, seulement vous
pourrez donner une chance a vos demis.'
The three-quarters, he considered, were excellent in
defence and had greatly improved in their passing. Their
failure was in attack.
' Je reproche aux trois-quarts deux fautes tres graves.
' La premiere : une tendance a courir en travers du
champ.
' La seconde : un manque de " personnalite ".
' Certes, les combinaisons sont indispensables au succes
d'un team, mais il est reconnu que c'est une erreur, une
tres grosse erreur, de passer le ballon a un partenaire,
quand Ton n'est pas certain que ce dernier est dans une
position plus favorable que la sienne.
'Je dis une tres grosse erreur, car c'est donner a un
autre homme la responsabilite d'un mouvement qui ne
sera peut-etre pas conduit comme vous pouviez le faire.
' Dans chaque mouvement, il est essentiel que 1'une des
deux methodes suivantes soit mise en pratique. Ou bien
le demi fera une ouverture pour son centre, ou bien le
centre rendra ce meme service a son ailier.
' II n'est pas difficile de faire une ouverture si vous
suivez certaines regies.
' La plus importante consiste a courir a toute vitesse et
" droit" sur 1'homme que vous voulez annuler et de passer
le ballon, quand vous le voulez. II est difficile alors a
votre adversaire de savoir de quelle facon vous le passerez
et cjuand il le voit il lui reste trop peu de temps pour se
decider. Mais si vous courez en travers du terrain, il est
tres facile de vous arreter, car il suffit de vous pousser
simplement en touche.'
He had no criticism to pass on the play of the back,
M. Caujolles, to whom he offered respectful congratu-
lations.
In conclusion, Ronald spoke of the pleasant memories
of the match, the hospitality of the French Rugby Union,
THE LAST GAME BEFORE THE WAR, APRIL 16, 1914, AT ST. HELENS.
From a photograph by A. W. Wade of St. Helens, I. W.
[Facing p. 227.
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 227
and the generous attitude of the French Sporting Press.
He felt, however, bound to answer the criticisms on the
referee printed in some of the papers.
'J'ai lu des critiques sur 1'arbitre dans plusieurs jour-
naux; on Taccusait d'avoir favorise 1'Angleterre et Ton
reclamait pour 1'avenir un arbitre fran9ais. Quoique je ne
sois pas enthousiasme pour cet essai, je tiens a protester
centre la premiere insinuation. Tous les arbitres anglais
sont de bons sportsmen. Us ne pourraient arbitrer s'll en
etait autrement. Et tous les veritables sportsmen arbi-
trent le jeu honnetement, pour la cause et le bon renom
du rugby et sans aucune consideration des clubs ou des
nationalites des teams opposants.'
Three days after the match v. France, i.e. on April 16,
the Thursday in Easter week, Ronald was playing his last
game of football before the War and visiting St. Helens
for the last time. For the same excellent purpose he
desired to help the year before, Bugle-major Jacobs had
persuaded Ronald to get up and captain a scratch Isle of
Wight Rugby team against a visiting team, captained by
R. Watney. The weather was fortunately a great contrast
to that of the year before, and the attendance was good.
The visiting team won, but it was a hard struggle. Ronald
always threw himself into a game of this kind, got up on
the spur of the moment and including many inexperienced
players, just as keenly as into an International match, and
it was fitting that his last game before the War should be
of this simple kind. It was the last time that any of the
family saw him play, and on that small ground the looker-
on could appreciate the methods of his leadership. ' Now 's
your chance ' I remember hearing him say, as he saw an
opening in front of one of his men, and then ' Too late '
as the inexperienced player failed to take advantage
of it. And in this and all that he said and did there
was the quietness spoken of by Alfred Ollivant in ' The
Cost':
4 The strain, the ferocity, the contortions and grimaces of
Q2
228 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
others who indulge in that heroic and elemental tussle
which is Rugby football were not for him ' words amply
supported by the illustration facing p. 230.
He was with us at St. Helens Cottage from the i4th
to the 2oth, and in the evenings there were the usual
family charades. A counterfeit Ronald picked his team
and a member of the family was shown playing a trick
on his anxious wife in order to become a member of
it ; while another scene took us to Mather and Platt's,
where Joe Mundy expostulated with Ronnie but finally
let him go. The ' Ronald ' of the charades was Dick
Dugdale, whose likeness to his friend always marked him
out for the part when he was with us. Simple happy
memories are recalled by thoughts of Ronald and Dick at
St. Helens, and it is fitting that the doings of these last
days there should be of them.
In bringing to a close the account of Ronald's Inter-
national play it will be of interest to summarize the whole
in tabular form.
This account of Ronald's career as an International
player may be fitly concluded in the words of his friend
Mr. Marriott, quoted from British Sports and Sports-
men:
' LIEUT. RONALD WILLIAM POULTON PALMER (Rugby),
Royal Berkshire Regiment (T.F.), was the most con-
spicuous figure in the Rugby football world at the close
of the season immediately preceding the outbreak of war.
In addition to his great personality as a player, he had
just captained the English team which had been victorious
in all its four International matches. The following
excerpt from the Rugby Football Annual for that season,
when war was undreamt of and therefore the description
is not influenced by posthumous regard, conveys some
idea of his capabilities : " As a three-quarter back he is
unique, and his name will be handed down as an epoch
maker in that department of the game. Already he has
had many imitators, but no one has equalled him in his
distinctive style and opportunism. As a captain he is a
born leader, never overwhelmingly confident, never flurried,
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 229
England
V.
Date.
Place.
M
O
06
g
to
'?
bC
Ronald's
points.
Ronald's
position
as 3-qr.
1909
i. France
Jan. 30
Leicester
Won
22
O
R. centre
1909
2. Ireland
Feb. 13
Dublin
>i
II
5
11 11
1909
3. Scotland
Mar. 20
Richmond
Lost
8
18
11 11
1910
4. Wales
Jan. 15
Twickenham
Won
ii
6
L. wing
1911
5. Scotland
Mar. 18
11
13
8
R. centre
1912
6. Wales
Jan. 20
11
11
8
o
11 -i
1 1912
7. Ireland
Feb. 10
11
11
15
3 (i try)
11 11
1912
8. Scotland
Mar. 16
Inverleith
Lost
3
8
11 11
1913
9. S. Africa
Jan. 4
Twickenham
11
3
9
3 (i try)
L. centre
19*3
10. Wales
Jan. 18
Cardiff
Won
12
4 (dr. goal)
11 11
ii. France
Jan. 25
Twickenham
f j
20
3 (i try)
it '
1913
12. Ireland
Feb. 8
Dublin
,,
15
4
,.
1913
13. Scotland
Mar. 15
Twickenham
,,
3
o
1914
14. Wales
Jan. 17
11
10
9
11 11
1914
15. Ireland
Feb. 14
11
,,
17
12
11 11
1914
16. Scotland
Mar. 21
Inverleith
16
>5
3 C 1 try)
11 11
1914
17. France
Apr. 13
Colombes,
39
13
20 (4 tries
11 11
near Paris
converted)
Totals . . .
226
107
36
and always at his best in pulling his team together when
the score is against them. These attributes were fully
seen in all our international victories last season, as in
each match at certain periods of the game the points were
against England." He was in wonderful form all through
what proved to be his last season. Against Scotland and
France we have vivid recollections of his initiative and
combination with Watson, Oakeley, Dingle, and Lowe.
Alas! only one of the five is now alive. . . .
'Well, nis useful life, so full of promise, has been
230 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
ungrudgingly given for us. ... Sans peur et sans reproche
may well be written of him. Though carried off m the
flower of his age, his pure, unselfish life leaves a high
standard for future generations at Oxford to aim at.'
R. W. P. P.
(Killed in the Trenches.)
Ronald is dead; and we shall watch no more
His swerving swallow-flight adown the field
Amid eluded enemies, who yield
Room for his easy passage, to the roar
Of multitudes enraptured, who acclaim
Their country's captain slipping toward his goal,
Instant of foot, deliberate of soul
'All's well with England; Poulton's on his game/
Aye, all is well: our orchard smiling fair;
Our Oxford not a wilderness that weeps ;
Our boys tumultuously merry where
Amongst old elms his comrade spirit keeps
Vigil of love. All's well. And over there,
Amid his peers, a happy warrior sleeps.
ALFRED OLLIVANT.
The Spectator, May 22, 1915.
Facing /. 230.]
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1909 231
INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL: 1909-1914.
BY A. C. M. CROOME.
Ronnie is not the only University footballer who has got
his International cap before his Blue. The distinction is
shared by W. Cobby of Cambridge. Both were markedly
individual players, and in neither case does the action of
the English Selection Committee prove beyond possibility
of controversy that the judgement of the University cap-
tains was badly at fault. Ronnie's selection to play against
France at Leicester, on Jan. 30, 1909, was based on his
play for the Harlequins, which had made a deep impres-
sion on the captain, Adrian Stoop, who rightly carried
much weight in the Council Chamber of the Rugby
Football Union. The English team did not exactly cover
itself with glory in the match. Several of the men seemed
to be on the look-out for opportunities of ' stunting ' and
were inclined to omit the solid work which is essential as
the preliminary to a display of fireworks. It was quite a
long time before the three-quarter line got going, and all
through the game the quickness of the French forwards
was liable to spoil their movements. Ronnie played inside
right, the other centre being Tarr. Simpson and Mobbs,
the latter destined to earn high distinctions in the War,
were the wings. Simpson played outside right during the
first half, but subsequently changed places with Mobbs,
and the rearrangement worked well. Tarr was easily the
best of the four. He scored a couple of tries himself, and
had a hand in two others, nor were any of the mistakes in
passing obviously due to him. Ronnie was generally
regarded as showing immense promise, but it was con-
sidered that on some occasions he trusted too much, on
others too little, to his own peculiar powers. A player of
his type is always open to criticism of that kind. Although
French teams have frequently shown that their attack is
formidable there still exists a feeling that the selected
representatives of the older unions ought not to allow
t
232 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
them to score. On this occasion they several times came
unpleasantly near to crossing the line, and the English
team owed its clean sheet at the finish to the opportunism
in defence which brought Poulton and Mobbs to the
assistance of Jackett, the hard-pressed full-back.
Ronnie's retention of his place for the Irish match was
due at least as much to the defensive work done by him in
his first International, as to the success which he achieved
in attack. Tarr could not play against Ireland, and his
place at inside left was taken by C. C. G. Wright, who
always played outside for Cambridge. But, as has already
been noted, a great three-quarter can play anywhere on
the line. The match was won by the pace of the three
wingers, and Ronnie, who might almost be considered a
fourth. Again the inside left was the star artist. Wright
played magnificently, and the other three gave him capital
support. Ronnie had no chance to score himself, but he
pleased the critics greatly by his persistency in stopping
the rushes of the Irish forwards. He helped to get one of
the three English tries by joining in the manoeuvre which
he enjoyed above all others. Wright got away and by all
the rules of strategy should have passed to his fellow-
centre. Ronnie encouraged the opposing three-quarters
to mark him, and when they were all on the top of him, a
wide pass to the outside, Palmer, did the trick.
The result of the Irish match raised confident hopes
that Scotland would have to leave the Calcutta Cup
behind them at Richmond. But the tradition that Scottish
teams play more effectively in England than they do at
Inverleith was followed; and, after England had estab-
lished a lead of five points, the Scottish forwards took
charge for some twenty minutes. Tennant, their brilliant
half-back, and others of the outsides, joined in the swift
fierce rushes of the forwards, and three apparently soft
tries were scored against England. For the rest of the
time the English three-quarters were constantly trying to
wipe off the adverse balance of points, but the tackling
was strenuous and what luck there was favoured the
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1910 233
defence. It was not a game in which three-quarter backs
had much chance of distinguishing themselves, and all that
can be said of Ronnie's share in it is that if he did nothing
to increase his reputation, he could not justly be blamed
for dangerous unorthodoxy or expensive mistakes. When
he did get the ball it was generally after slow heeling
by the forwards and subsequent slow passing. But, even
so, the Scotsmen found him slippery to hold.
In accordance with the form shown during the season
1908-1909, and with his performances for Oxford, especially
in the great game at Queen's, Ronnie was duly selected to
play against Wales in the first International match decided
at Twickenham. It was a vigorous and rather unpleasant
game, frequently interrupted by the referee's whistle and
ensuing free kicks. Ronnie figured at outside left, with
Solomon as his centre and Birkett and Chapman on the
other wing. As sometimes happens, the English line of
attack went entirely one way. Whenever the forwards
managed to give the ball to the backs the preliminary
scrummage had invariably been formed close to the left-
hand touch-line. Consequently the passing was to the
right: Ronnie got not a single pass the whole afternoon.
When he was in action he spent most of his time stopping
the Welsh forwards. Mostly his job was to fall on the
ball, but twice he managed to pick it up and elude a
number of tacklers in his inimitable way, and several times
he got in useful kicks from awkward positions. To one
thinking things over after the game it was rather remark-
able that Wales had lost. The probable explanation is
that the English team was man for man considerably the
faster. It was also very well served by the strategic
moves of Stoop at outside half. It was a most thrilling
spectacle to watch, but the incidents of it are not of
surpassing interest for the purposes of this book. Possibly
because Ronnie was, through no fault of his own, out of
the picture against Wales, he was not chosen for the Irish
match, which resulted in a pointless draw, nor did he play
against France in Paris when England had quite a hard
234 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
match and won by a comparatively small margin. He
had no share in the victory over Scotland at Inverleith
which gave England the championship, even though a
substitute had to be found for one of the originally selected
three-quarters.
In the next season, 1911, Ronnie did not appear in the
team until he was welcomed back to his place at inside
right in the Scottish match at Twickenham by his
colleagues and by an enormous crowd of spectators.
The game started in surprising fashion, Scotland scoring
a rather fortunate try in the first few minutes. The
Englishmen might easily have got rattled, but they were
very shrewdly captained by Gotley, who had Stoop,
Birkett, and Poulton immediately behind him and all at
the very top of their form. The two centre three-quarters
had to do more than their fair share of defensive work,
but their speed and stamina soon enabled them to turn
defence into attack, and then it was all up with Scotland.
Ronnie made one mistake of judgement : he passed once
when he probably had the better chance of scoring him-
self. Otherwise his play was technically perfect. It was
also characterized by his own peculiar and baffling tricks.
The crowd fully appreciated his play and fairly rose at
him during and after the match. This was the first Inter-
national in which he had been enabled by circumstances
and opportunity to give of his very best. Thenceforward
his place in England's best Fifteen was absolutely assured.
The English team won their first match of 1912 against
Wales at Twickenham comfortably enough at the finish.
But for a long time the outsides, acting, no doubt, under
instructions, tried to make their superiority in pace tell by
kicking into the open instead of running with the ball. The
result was that Bancroft, the Welsh full-back, seized his
opportunities to play the game of his life. There was less
than twenty minutes to go when they began to mend their
ways. Then Ronnie, who was still playing inside right, set
Chapman going, and backed him up to take the return pass
and change the line of attack to the left. As a matter of
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1912 235
course he found Pillman lying handy to pick up anything that
might be going, and Brougham intelligently cut in behind
Pillman to take a pass on the right and leave the defence
standing. That settled the issue, but England scored again
when Ronnie found touch a yard from the line and Pym
dived over it from one of the ensuing scrums. This was the
match before which Stoop solemnly buried a leek thrown at
him by a Welsh spectator while his team was being photo-
graphed. Although England's first try was a perfect beauty,
the outstanding feature of the back play was the defence of
of the centre three-quarters, Poulton and Birkett. The
Welsh outsides made no mistakes, but they were never
allowed to put into practice any of the artful and complicated
movements which they had undoubtedly prepared and
practised. They simply had not the time. Their opposite
numbers were on to them in a flash, and forced them either
to act where they stood or to run sideways into the bottle-
neck. Welsh cleverness has seldom been reduced to such
complete impotence.
After this victory it was natural that practically the same
team should be chosen for the match against Ireland, also
played at Twickenham . But two changes were made outside
the scrummage. Chapman could not play and Roberts took
his place, while Coverdale was substituted for Stoop at out-
side half, as being better suited to cope with the rushing
tactics of Irish forwards. And the Irish forwards did rush
that day, at least for the first half of the game ; in the second
they had more or less exhausted themselves, and England
scored four tries after half-time, a substantial addition to
the one which was all they could manage previously. That
try was the result of the tactics which had failed against
Bancroft. Ronnie, playing inside right, punted high and
Roberts followed up to secure the ball and fall over in the
corner. Possibly more points might have been scored before
half-time if Coverdale, Birkett, and Poulton had not been
a trifle inclined to hang on to the ball too long. But that is
hypercriticism. The great merit of the English back play
was the really amazing speed with which attacks were
236 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
delivered. For instance, there was one movement started by
Coverdale and Poulton which seemed to have culminated
in narrow failure when Brougham was downed in the left-
hand corner. But before the spectators quite realized what
had happened Roberts was in on the extreme right, and
Coverdale and Poulton had again been active in the interval.
On the whole Ronnie played even better in this match
than he had against Wales, and it was appropriate that he
should score the final try with one of his most delightful
runs.
After this the English team were hot favourites against
Scotland, but things went wrong for them, and it must be
admitted that the majority of the men played just a trifle
below par. Moreover they early lost King, one of their most
useful forwards. Although they had the wind against them
in the first half Scotland did most of the attacking, and at half
time there was no score. So far Ronnie had done well in
defence and had also made four or five characteristic dashes
through the Scottish forwards. Unfortunately his passing
was less accurate than usual and all possibly useful transfers
to Roberts were ruled ' forward '. After half-time England
scored first, Brougham making an extraordinary run from his
own goal line to the other end, but Scotland were soon at it
again and ultimately won by a goal and a try to a try. The
quickness of the Scottish forwards and the unusual slowness
of the English halves gave the three-quarters few chances
to get off before the tacklers were on to them. Ronnie did
not play in the match against France in Paris, and was
not unlucky to be out of it, for the ground was grassless and
as hard as iron.
So far Ronnie's career as an International player had
been successful without being extraordinarily remarkable.
Henceforward he was to be the dominating personality of
the English team in every match. The first played in
1913 was the memorable game between England and
South Africa at Twickenham. The pace, weight, and
muscular strength of the South Africans were quite
unusual. They were perfectly trained and they required
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1913 237
no teaching in the science of Rugby Football. Against
this combination of qualities the English backs were on
the whole ineffective, though Lowe and Coates, the wing
three-quarters, played with any amount of fire and dash,
and the halves, behind beaten forwards, did as well as
could be expected. But Ronnie was inspired that day.
The South Africans knew all about him, and marked him
for all they were worth, but times and again he slipped
them. They had to guess and guessed wrong. Who that
saw it will ever forget that run of his which produced the
first score of the match. The opening was made for him
by quick heeling from the scrummage and smart passing
by the halves. But two South Africans reached him
almost simultaneously with the ball. They found only
themselves when they dived for his heels. In a flash he
was through the three-quarters and had left the full-back
standing on the wrong foot to watch him gallop under the
posts. Shortly afterwards he made a similar, but longer,
and, if possible, more brilliant run. He got the ball at
a place short of half-way, and somehow slipped through
the forwards. A feint to kick beat one three-quarter and
a swerve another. He was clear and men's pulses were
beating in time with his flying feet. But the swerve had
lost him a yard or two of ground, and McHardy's great
pace and fine resolution enabled him to overhaul him and
pull him down from behind. Things had happened so
rapidly that no Englishman could get up to complete the
barely missed try. Shortly afterwards the South Africans
equalized and finally a couple of penalty goals gave them
the match. They never played quite so well again, or
came so near to being beaten by the individual efforts of
one supreme player.
After this the English team had to go to Cardiff and play
on a ground which looked like the entrance of a water-
meadow after a herd of cows had been forced to pass
through it against their will. England had never won at
Cardiff, and the conditions underfoot were all against them.
But they did the trick this time. Ronnie dropped a
238 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
beautiful goal, and was the prime cause of a try by a piece of
dribbling worthy of G. O. Smith. Even when he was not
personally engaged in an attacking movement he contri-
buted indirectly to the success attending it, because at
least two Welshmen had to be kept out of action to watch
him. This enabled Davies to present Coates with a try by
missing out the heavily-marked centre three-quarter and
slinging a long high pass to the wing. Neither in defence
nor attack did Ronnie make a mistake throughout the
match, and the way he kept his feet and retained his power
to start quickly and swerve bewilderingly on the slough of
mud, caused the Welsh critics, as severe as they are well-
informed, to become quite lyrical in their eulogies of his
play.
In the match against France the Englishmen were
successful in proportion to their superior strength, and had
an afternoon's bad practice. The effect was apparent when
they met Ireland in Dublin. Certainly they won by
a handsome margin of points (15-4), but their display was
by no means convincing. We have now arrived at the
' even Poulton ' period of Ronnie's football history.
Henceforward the critics, commenting on an unsatisfactory
exhibition given by his side, invariably put the qualifying
word before his name when they record that his play was
not immaculate. This time ' even Poulton ' dropped some
passes. But of course he did all sorts of brilliant things
as well, especially when he put Coates in at the finish of
a long corkscrew run. The International season finished
with a narrow victory over Scotland at Twickenham, and
Ronnie was as hard worked as ever he had been in a game
of football. The halves played to him exclusively, and so
did the opposing tacklers. The pressure caused him to
misfield a pass or two, but otherwise he was up to his
normal standard of excellence. He it was who made the
run which produced the only score of the match, and his
tackling was superb. The crowd were wild with delight,
for England had not beaten Wales, Ireland, and Scotland
all in a single season for many years. None had any
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 239
doubt about the individual player best entitled to wear the
4 Triple Crown ' if it had actual existence.
The first of England's matches in 1914 was played against
Wales at Twickenham, and a very remarkable match it was.
The Welshmen had the ball most of the time, and rarely did
the wrong thing with it. Yet England won by 10 points to 9.
Pace was the determining factor in the result Pace and
Poulton. Players, spectators, and Press agreed with singu-
lar unanimity that the victory of the English team was mainly
due to its captain. And yet he nearly had the bad luck to
give the game away. Wales scored first, Hirst dropping a
wonderful goal from the touch line. England soon took the
lead with a goal kicked from a try which shall be described
later. The Welsh forwards, who packed and dribbled mag-
nificently, worked the ball into the English 25, where one of
the English halves, neither of whom was equal to the great
occasion, passed wildly. Ronnie did good work by securing
the ball, but he did not get enough loft on his punt, which was
charged down by Watts. The ball bounced kindly for the
charging forward, who fell over the line for a try near the
posts. Thenceforward England always looked to be the
more likely to score, partly because the Welshmen, having
got the lead luckily, were trying their utmost to sit on it.
They even condescended to give away free kicks in places
out of range of their goal, sooner than let the English out-
sides have a chance to get going. Time was slipping away
and attack after attack broke down. Suddenly Ronnie
punted high and followed up his kick. He rushed Bancroft.
Pillman, Brown, and Watson carried on until Ronnie got the
ball again and punted sideways. This fairly tied up the
Welsh defence, and Brown put a clever foot-pass over the
line for Pillman to touch down after outpacing Bancroft.
That was a clever bit of opportunism, but it was nothing to
England's first try, which resulted from one of Ronnie's
most unforgettable efforts. The Welsh forwards had the ball
in the middle of the ground, and his first attempt to stop their
combined rush failed. He doubled back and picked it up
off their toes. At the moment he was running the wrong
2 4 o INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
way, but somehow he slipped the men who apparently had
him at their mercy. The next thing anybody knew was that
he had flitted through the thick of the Welsh team like a
butterfly and was bearing down on Bancroft. He beat the
back with a sideways punt secured by his own forwards, who
passed back to him. Again he slipped the defence and on
the line gave the ball to Brown, who carried it, and incident-
ally two Welshmen, overfor aglorious try. Ronnie's defence
was as good as his attack that day. Thanks to him, Chap-
man, and Watson Lowe never got a chance of doing
anything remarkable the Welsh three-quarters were made
to look very mediocre performers. The forwards were
the danger ; but their rushes, their dribbles,and their passing
movements were stopped at the earliest possible moment
by intuitive anticipation, absolute accuracy in fielding, and
it goes without saying unfaltering courage.
Against Ireland, also at Twickenham, the team was
strengthened by the inclusion of the Navy halves, Oake-
ley and Davies. The game was a contest between old-
fashioned and modern methods. The Irishmen relied on
the driving power of their pack, supported by a succession
of kicks into touch by their outsides. Contrariwise, the
English team constantly endeavoured to get the ball loose
and to score by a series of quick passes delivered and
taken at full speed. But they rather overdid their tricki-
ness on this occasion. It is impossible for the members
of an International team under present conditions to
acquire that intimate knowledge of one another which
was one of the great assets possessed by Gallaher's New
Zealanders. When a man passes in the less obvious
direction, his dodge must be expected by his own side,
unexpected by the opponents, if it is to succeed. Another
cause that kept the English score down was the fact that,
with the exception of their captain, the English three-
quarters were not quite at their best. While they were
fresh the Irish forwards took charge, but at the finish
they were run off their legs, by their fierce rushes and
their persistency in getting back to help the defence
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 241
against the combined runs of the Englishmen. Lloyd
soon dropped one of his extra-special goals, and wild
passing between the English halves their one mistake
of the afternoon gave the opportunity for a fifty yards
rush to the Irish forwards, from which an unconverted try
resulted. Then from a scrummage Oakeley passed back
to Davies. By the time the ball reached the outside half
Ronnie was at his side. Together the two charged
straight forward and at the right moment Davies handed
the ball to his partner. The defenders, with the exception
of Lloyd, who knew what was coming, streamed to the
right ; a reverse pass to Davies and a long throw to the
wing gave Roberts a clear run in at the corner, Lloyd
arriving to tackle him just as he crossed. Then another
try, gained by bewildering back-play before half-time ; and,
after the interval, so soon as the slightly refreshed energy
of the Irish forwards was exhausted, England took charge.
Although they threw away numberless chances they
scored three more tries, one by Ronnie's pet trick of
getting himself missed out by his fellow centre. Ireland
were consoled by a surprise try gained after some particu-
larly fine kicking by Lloyd, who, in spite of Ronnie's
presence on the ground, was perhaps the star player of
the day. By the way, one of England's later tries was
gained by an unfulfilled threat to repeat the 'scissors'
trick (p. 218). Davies beat the defence by a whole series
of dummy passes to the supporting Ronnie, and went
through on his own. Meanwhile, Lloyd was hurriedly
occupying a strategic position to stop the wing three-
quarter in the corner.
No such crowd had ever been seen at Inverleith as that
which assembled to see Scotland tackle the best Fifteen
which had represented England for many a long day.
The issue was decided by a single point, England scoring
two goals and two tries to a goal, a dropped goal, and two
tries. But an unprejudiced spectator must admit that the
winners might easily have had a more substantial margin
of points to their credit, and never were in any real danger
R
242 INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND
of being beaten, although the Scots made a remarkable
rally in the closing period of the game. The English
centre three-quarters gave a wonderful exhibition. Ronnie
was at his best, and Watson was at least as good as he,
equally quick and guileful. Whenever they got the ball
there was always a chance that a try would result, par-
ticularly as Lowe on the right wing was at his fastest and
slipperiest. The strong wind which blew straight down
the ground was all against the visiting team, because the
more complicated the machine, the more likely it is to be
put out of gear by comparatively trivial causes. Scotland
had the wind at their backs in the first half, and all the
ground which England could gain by a series of half a
dozen quick passes, perfectly timed and unerringly fielded,
would be retaken by a single long punt into touch. Scot-
land scored first, but Ronnie and Watson put Lowe in for
the equalizing try before half-time. Immediately after the
interval Scotland got the lead again through a typical
forward rush. But during the next twenty minutes the
English team gave a dazzling exhibition of modern Rugby.
Lowe twice and Ronnie once scored at the finish of move-
ments in which practically every Englishman bore some
part, and the match seemed all over. But Scotland twice
reached the enemy's 25, and each time scored. Once
Bowie, their scrum half, dropped a clever goal, and the
other time he fairly bamboozled the English centre three-
quarters with a dummy pass and slipped between them to
put Will in under the posts. All through the game Bowie
had played quite extraordinarily well. There was now
but a short time to play, and before a couple of minutes
had passed Pillman broke his leg. A badly led side might
have broken down, but the Englishmen carried on with
supreme confidence and kept the Scots on the defensive
till the whistle blew. At least twice they came near to
increasing their one-point lead.
At the end of the season France was decisively beaten
in Paris. But the match had to be taken quite seriously.
The French forwards were fast and heavy, and the whole
NON-UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL: 1914 243
team showed great improvement in tackling and marking.
In point of fact their three-quarters marked Ronnie and
Watson almost too well for a time, with the result that
Davies was able to give the wings some pretty chances.
Towards the end of the game the defence distributed itself
more evenly, and Ronnie skipped through twice. In this
match the Frenchmen had the satisfaction of scoring first,
and of regaining the lead after England had equalized,
while their third try was the result of a passing movement
which could not have been better executed by the English
halves and three-quarters.
This account of Ronnie in International football has failed
dismally unless it has brought out clearly his gradual but
sure progress from strength to strength. He was given his
cap while he was still little more than a boy, and lacked
experience. But he never played a bad game for England,
though at the outset he was occasionally left out of the
side after being included for one of the earlier matches.
Latterly, when the extent of his powers was fully realized,
the English team went on to the field purposing to play to
him whenever they could. In match after match he jus-
tified their confidence. In fact it is generally believed that
they had not in five years plumbed the depth of his
capacity, or fully tested his gift of leadership. Nor in all
those five years had any opponent caused him to lose his
temper, or any referee found him question the correctness
even of an obviously wrong decision.
A. C. M. C.
R 2
READING: 1912-1913
Many hopes perished with him. He seemed destined to become
the first citizen in Reading and to exert upon a large community his
singular influence for good. The Reading University College Review,
Sept. 1915, vii, No. 21, p. 146.
IN January 1912, just before he went to Reading, Ronald
joined us for a few days at Miirren, to enjoy alpine winter
sports for the third and last time. He was very successful
in ice-hockey, and won, I think, every event he competed for
in the assorted sports got up one evening at the hotel.
I remember well his desperate struggle in the pillow-fight
with Tom Gillespie. 1 Dr. Bullock, the Rugby forward, sud-
denly appeared at Miirren and I happened to be present
when Ronald came upon him all unexpectedly : ' Why it 's
old Bulljohn ! ' he said, with a few good blows on the chest,
given and received in that quiet spot as a token of the
camaraderie of the team.
One of the scenes in that happy time is shown on the
accompanying plate, from a snapshot by Capt. N. Whatley.
' Good fun it was ' in the words of another of our party,
the Rev. W. J. Carey ' It isn't really gone ; it 's a per-
manent possession of happy memory.'
After returning from Miirren for the match England v.
Wales on Jan. 20, Ronald was engaged in packing and
going over to Reading to arrange his little house at
16 Portland Place. When on Jan. 27 he first went to
sleep there we walked together to the station, going by
the canal paths and talking of his future life and of the
1 Lt. K. O. Scottish Borderers, killed Oct. 18, 1914.
RONALD AND JANET AT MURREN. SKIERS PICNICKING IN THE SNOW.
From a photograph by N. Whatley, Jan., 1912.
Facing p. 244.]
1912 245
past. We were both feeling the big break in his life and
prolonged the little walk as much as we could.
Ronald's account of 1912, the last written by him, was read
on Christmas Day, all the family being present and reading
their accounts, except Edward and his wife, who had left
the day before. Ronald wrote to his friend Neville Gorton
on Dec. 24 :
' We have here now for the first time all the family five
children and three in-laws and a baby and four dogs. Not
a bad crowd !
' We had a jolly time at the 'Varsity match. Keith, Billy,
Stephen, G. M. Hamilton, self, and Henry Bowlby went
with Stephen's people to The Eldest Son Galsworthy
very interesting.
' To-night I am going with father to the Magdalen Carols,
a most ripping evening.
' Goodbye and good luck. If you are ever down south
remember that I live at 16 Portland Place, Reading, and I
have two spare beds.'
This was the last of three Christmas Eves on which
Ronald and I had gone to the Carols, and it was Ronald's
last Christmas at home. His story of the year gives a good
account of his new life in Reading :
' This year has seen the end of my Oxford days and the
beginning of a more or less definite business career.
I must at the outset confess that certain misgivings that I
had at the start as to whether this work would be congenial
or interesting to me, have been removed after some ten
months' experience of it. The personal side of the work
appeals very greatly to me, and of course, working side by
side with large numbers of men and boys day by day
tends to emphasize this side in one's mind. At the same
time the business itself is very interesting. The methods
of manufacture, the various ingredients, the ideas of the
managers, and the peculiarities of all and every person on
the place, have to be studied. The work, all manual, and
often extremely mechanical, tends at times to become
monotonous, but when this is so, one can move on. For
instance, I have done for the last three weeks an operation
which is performed eight times in five minutes and this
without a pause of any kind, while I am in there.
246 READING
' But the work of the year, in the Factory, has been one
of training, and of picking up in a practical manner all the
knowledge, obtained apparently experimentally, and often
in a somewhat haphazard way, which cannot be found in
books or elsewhere. At the same time I have come to
know a fair number of men and boys, and to find a large
number of good friends among them. I have also had
chances now and then of seeing something of the engineer-
ing side of the work, and I am looking forward greatly to
doing more of this.
' Outside the Factory, I have been engaged in various
ways in Reading. It was not long before I was roped
into various jobs too many as I now find. I am at
present
Captain of the Reading Athletic Club.
2nd Lieut, in the 4th Koyal Berks.
Connected with College Boys' Club in Newtown.
On Committee of N.U. of Old Scholars Club for Reading.
And all these take up too much time.
' My real interest is the College Boys' Club. This is
run theoretically by the College, practically almost entirely
by myself. Here I have the opportunity of getting to
know the factory boy away from his work (the necessary
discipline of a factory preventing one doing anything in
work hours), and incidentally I get a large amount of know-
ledge of what the typical boy thinks of his work and his
employers, and of his general outlook on life. They don't
realize my position, and most of them think I am destined
in the distant future to be an under-manager. So luckily
they are delightfully unrestrained in their remarks and
opinions.
' The constitution of the Club had to suffer some recon-
struction, so as to allow me to take part in it, and I was
put on the Committee. What really happens is that I go
down twice a week (it is only open twice) and the College
sends down some helpers with more or less regularity.
But it is sadly hampered by want of helpers, and better
accommodation. The week-end camp was a great success,
and I hope we may have another this next summer.
' St. Giles' School has recently started an Old Boys' Club,
and I had to make a speech at the " Kick off". It will be
interesting to see how it works.
' I have found the Factory Recreation Club very interest-
ing and useful. During the summer we had lots of
splendid cricket games, and it was very pleasant going
1912 247
down there in the late evenings, practising at the nets, and
playing rag stump cricket matches.
'The Reading Athletic Club was very busy during the
summer. We had a Committee meeting almost every
fortnight, and about five evening sports meetings, and also
a dinner in the summer. This club is flourishing chiefly
in its old grey-headed members, who tell us their experi-
ences in the early forties. The young members, for whom
the Club should exist, are not very numerous. But we
console ourselves by saying that track athletics is dead all
over England ever since betting on the course was abolished
and fathers ceased to train up their sons, like whippets, to
run in boys' races, going round about the country, and
dyeing their boys' hair a different colour every day.
' The 4th Berks. Battalion is a highly efficient battalion
of Territorial Infantry, but if compared with any other
standard than that of the Territorials, it must fall far short.
I joined it, with the mistaken idea that in no other position
could I so place myself that my training at Oxford might
be made use of in a future war. But soon after I bought
my uniform I discovered that I could have enrolled myself
with one of Haldane's numerous reserves, one of the
many patches, comprising old volunteers, old soldiers,
Crimean veterans, and any living Pre-Napoleonic and
Pre-Waterlooan Centenarians, which go to make up the
Volunteer Territorial quilt.
'I fear to confess that I have little interest in things
military, and thus it is fortunate that I warned the C.O. on
joining that I should have no time to help in the Head-
quarters work. A territorial officer is bound by regulations
to do ten drills a year, to attend camp for a minimum of
eight days, and to shoot a simple musketry course. Besides
he is expected by the War Office and by his Commanding
Officer to do the following things :
(1) Pay uniform 35 (Govt. returns 20).
(2) Pay innumerable subscriptions to Goose-funds, Prize
shoots, Boot Clubs, Sergeants' Mess, &c., &c.
(3) To go to one or two staff rides of four days a long
week-end. These take place usually in the Mid-
lands.
(4) To go to two week-end camps, Friday to Monday, at
Churn.
(5) To appear every Tuesday to help in the drill, after
January.
(6) To lecture N.C.O's periodically.
248 READING
And several other extras. I ask is it fair? Anyhow
I foresee that in my case the War Office regulations will
be my guides, philosophers, and friends. The camp, how-
ever, was the best of fun, as the officers are a verypleasant
lot, but it is slightly embarrassing to command a Company
which includes two Sergeants with South African war
experience, and a Colour-Sergeant with a Volunteer long-
service decoration.
4 Large numbers of evenings were spent in going to
dinner parties, &c., in Reading, though I am glad to say
that lately I have got fairly clear, chiefly I venture to think
because I have never replied with a call, such a thing
being impossible for me.
' Indoors the house needed a certain amount of arranging
at the start, and slight improvements are always being
made. I was always bothered with correspondence, which
is annoying as my spare time is so limited. Even on my
spare evenings, I only get about two hours, as one must
go to bed early, when one has to get up at 6.0. My free
evenings worked out on an average about two every three
weeks, so I was only able to get a little serious reading
or writing done. But in the New Year I hope to make
arrangements so as to get two evenings a week to myself.
' This gives a rough idea of a very busy year. Full it
has been, but everything has taken place in one spot, and
so every day one's interest increases. There is certainly
plenty of room in Reading in which to do things, and this
year has only shown that unless one is careful, one gets
saddled with too many jobs, and one appears a fraud in
most. The New Year is an exciting thought for me, and
with the hope that we shall all surmount its difficulties
I shall close this account.'
To Ronald's remarks on his Army experiences it is only
necessary to add that his Commission as Second Lieutenant
in the Territorial Force attached to the 4th Battalion,
Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment),
was granted June 3, 1912, and dated from Apr. 30 of the
same year. The Report of the O.C. dated July 27, 1912,
gives 'Very Good' for ' Industry, punctuality, and! attention '
and for ' General proficiency attained in the subjects of the
course ' of instruction from July 1-27, at the Depot of the
Regiment, at Reading.
IQI2 249
Ronald was gazetted Lieutenant July 24, 1913.
In accordance with his uncle's wishes Ronald rented
1 6 Portland Place and engaged a man and his wife to look
after him and it. With his strong desire for simplicity he
was at first unwilling to take a house and to be looked
after so thoroughly ; he would much have preferred going
into lodgings. He often spoke to his friend Dick Dugdale
and to me on the subject. But in the end he saw the
wisdom of his uncle's advice, and, as he wished to entertain
and put up friends as often as they could come, it was
obviously by far the most convenient arrangement. Then
there was the motor-bicycle to be cleaned, and later on the
motor-car to be cleaned and driven, and in all these things
as well as the garden Brown was able to give him very
necessary help. The association meant too an addition to
the large circle of his friends. The words written by
Mrs. Brown when the sad tidings came ' We loved him
well 'summed up memories of the three years in which
they had been with him.
No. 16 Portland Place is a small 36 house, with the
dining-room opening into a little garden at the back, just
800 yards from the Factory gates and less than 200 from
the Reading College, formerly 'The Acacias' where his
mother had lived from childhood till her marriage.
From Alfred Ollivant.
4 The last time I saw him to speak to was at Reading in
1913. I was standing in an archway on a wet day with
a little crowd of others waiting to go over Huntley and
Palmers' works when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It
was Ronald. He asked me in to supper. I remember he
was delightfully shy and apologetic about the luxury of
the very humble little house in which he was living. He
<quite clearly thought that I should expect him to be living
in a doss-house ! '
With all these feelings about the house in which he
lived by himself, Ronald had thoughts of the time when he
should be married and would need a permanent home,
250 READING
which he had quite determined should be as near as
possible to the Factory. Mrs. Harrison Jones remembers
a conversation with him in 1912, in the course of which he
said that he "had been thinking of an old house, Watlington
House, opposite St. John's Church, and only 350 yards
from the Factory main entrance, and that he would very
much like to have it at some future time.
Settling down in his little house in Reading, with endless
work and engagements filling up and over-filling his time,
Ronald had hardly any opportunity, outside his Boys'
Club, for the fun and games with children and young
people which had entered so largely into his earlier life.
He told us of some pleasant talk with two little girls he
overtook on their way to school when he was walking to
the Factory after breakfast. But this delight was soon
ended when it became evident from their cold standoffish-
ness that they had been told not to enter into conversation
with a strange man ! Things improved later on as he came
to make many friends in Reading. The following letter
written in the summer of 1912 shows a friendship, which
I am sure gave him much pleasure, with a little girl of
twelve, Joyce Haslam, who had written to him on fancy
note-paper. He had asked her to go in for a Jack and Jill
race with him at the St. John's Gymkhana, but she had
sprained her ankle and had written to tell him of another
partner.
' DEAR JOYCE,
' I don't see why you should be the only person who has
beautiful birds on the top of her paper, so here are mine.
This is the greater Dodo. They are very wild, but
delightful when you make pets of them. But their beaks
take up too much room ; and must always be left with their
umbrellas in the hall, when they come out calling.
' Yes, please thank your mother very much and say that
I shall be round as quickly as possible, but I fear I shall
have to go off early to do a drill you see I am a soldier of
the King (now and then).
' But will you bring or get my fair and beautiful lady
partner, or will she not be there ?
1912 251
' What very beautiful writing you have got. I suppose
that comes from learning the guitar. And now I know
how to spell Gwyneth.
' Now you know I haven't time really to write all this,
but I feel that it is bad luck that you can t run in the sports
(like this. [Pen and ink sketch.] This isn't very good.
You see your hair is not really half so long and beautiful
as this, and altogether this is too flattering of you ! !)
' Well good-bye and give my respects to your sisters, and
accept love from
' Your obedient servant,
' RONALD W. POULTON.'
Living so near Oxford it was easy to see a good deal of
his old friends. Keith Rae was still in residence, but
thinking of his future career. Ronald wrote to him from
Marlston, June 9, 1912 :
1 MY DEAR KEITH,
' Thank you ever so much for your little letter. I feel
I must answer it, and I want you to realize that such
feelings are at any rate reciprocal.
' It has been good to know you, good purely from the
point of view of enjoyment of your society, and good from
the strength it has given me, at various times. That is
particularly why it would be a crying shame if you were
not to undertake some walk of life in which the personal
relationship was of great importance. I don't know what
the result of the Maryborough interview is, but what I say
is only do the Public School idea if you are keen on it.
( If not do the job you are keen on, i. e. what Alec
suggested. Those are my humble opinions. And now
we must take care, that though possibly far away we see
something of each other now and then. We aren't good
letter writers so we must make it up by actual visiting.
I shall see you next Sunday if I can, to find out how you
got on.
' Yours affectionately.'
Their letters evidently crossed, for the next day Ronald
wrote from Reading, having heard that the Maryborough
mastership was decided : ' So you've taken it on. Good.
It will show you how you like it, won't it ? I am so glad
anyhow that you have something definite settled. '
252 READING
A few days after writing to Keith, Ronald came to us
for the week-end and played a part in an amusing well-
remembered scene. It happened that on that Saturday
night Keith Rae and W. T. Collier, who shared rooms,
were expecting a raid from some men to whom they had
administered a well-deserved reproof. Stephen Reiss
helped them to get together a defence party, three of whom
came late and were mistaken for the raiders by Mr. Rae,
who was staying with his son and happened at the moment
of their arrival to be alone in an outer room. With icy
politeness he asked the leader, Norman Smith of Balliol,
what they wanted.
' Rae. '
'/am Mr. Rae.'
' I want Keith Rae.'
' I am sure my friends will be delighted to see you. '
The cold and dignified tone, heard through the half-open
door, revealed the misunderstanding to those within, who
could not restrain their laughter, thus leading to further
misunderstanding, for Mr. Rae thought they were jeering
at the discomfited invaders.
' Perhaps my son will introduce me to these three
gentlemen ', he said.
Keith began, ' This is Mr. Smith, father '.
' And is this another Mr. Smith ? ' said Mr. Rae, pointing
to one of Norman's companions then he realized his
mistake.
But other mistakes were to follow, for soon noises were
heard as though a dozen men were running upstairs. At
last they thought the time had come. The door was
thrown open and an apparently drunken man with his hat
over his eyes rushed for Keith. Stephen, sitting next the
door, hit him as hard as he could on the side of the head.
It was Ronald, who could not resist the fun of impersona-
ting the enemy when he heard that his friends, unaware
of his presence in Oxford, were waiting expecting an
attack. I well remember his glee in telling me the story
and how I was rather surprised, for the humour was more
1912 253
Hibernian than was usual with him. Mr. Rae remembers
Ronald seizing Keith round the legs, and was much
impressed by the instantaneous revelation of ferocity in
a quiet man such as he believed Stephen to be.
Touching memories of Ronald in the summer of 1912
were recalled by his mother's nurse :
'June 8, 1915.
' I too, dear, have a very sweet memory of the last time
I saw him. It was at Marlston. There was a large party :
a storm was coming, the visitors all hasting away. I was
on the lawn ; Mrs. Palmer called " Nurse, come in, it's going
to rain ". Mr. Ronald at once came to me, said " Let me
help you, Nurse ", drew my arm within his, helped me up
the little hill, and took me right in, then wished me
good night. Can I ever forget that bright happy face?
Oh, he was good and kind to every one. How proud you
both must be that you were parents of such a son ! No
one that knew him can ever forget him I am sure.
' Reggie cut his photo out of the paper and framed it.
Of course, dear, it is not very good but we like it.
1 Ever yours affectionately,
' Nurse Bitmead. ' l
There is no doubt that Ronald attempted too much in
Reading, keeping at high pressure for too many hours
in the day and getting insufficient sleep. His brother
writes :
1 The strenuousness of playing for England required his
keeping in first-class training. Instead of having long
nights in bed, he had to get up at quite an early hour for
his factory work, which lasted the whole day. In the
evening there was frequently the boys' club, and when he
got back home, he had to begin his private correspondence,
which was pretty considerable in amount, as he did not
employ a secretary ; as far as I remember, he rarely got to
bed before midnight, and I remember on more than one
occasion remonstrating with him for this.'
1 ' Mary Bitmead, . . . for 50 years the faithful and devoted friend
and nurse in the family of the late Mr. George Palmer, M.P., of
The Acacias, Reading, in her Qgth year ' (Times, Mar. 2, 1918).
254 READING
After a year and a quarter he broke down and had to
take a complete rest. Hilda wrote :
'A few weeks after our Easter at St. Helens Ronald
came to us in Holy well for a week-end and we noticed
that he was not looking well, being very thin and hollow-
eyed. For a long time he had been short of sleep, sitting
up very late and then haying to be at the Factory early
I think 6.30. Then too it was quite an ordinary thing for
him to act as he did on leaving St. Helens. He, Waldy,
and " Wally " [Ronald's West Highland terrier] did not start
till after dinner, and rode all through the night, getting to
Reading just in time to be at the Factory the next morning.
On the Sunday in Holy well, after a great deal of persua-
sion, he had breakfast in bed and stayed in with us through
the day instead of rushing off to the river with Billy Collier
and other friends as he had planned. Some University
Rugger players were, as it happened, coming to lunch that
day, and their delight at meeting Ronald was of course
very great. '
From W. T. Collier to Keith Rae at the Institute Tilley,
Berlin :
' May 9, 1913.
' Ronald did not come with us. They have come to the
conclusion that he is suffering from a year of " late to bed
and early to rise " which I snould think is probably true.
His sister therefore kept him in bed in the morning and
they were trying to induce him to take three weeks off-
advice which I think he will probably take. It is remark-
able that he should have stood a year of it so well, for he
seems to manage to get all sorts of things in. Even two
nights a week at his Club must be a considerable strain.'
His uncle was much perturbed by Ronald's breakdown
and at once arranged the journey described below. Italy
was a new experience in Ronald's life and his first intro-
duction to the world of art.
From his Mother.
4 1 naturally jumped at the idea of having Ronnie all to
myself for a fortnight and also at George's attractive plan
for us that we snould visit the Italian Lakes where he
had so often been. George took the greatest interest in
19*3 2 55
our journey and arranged all the details for us. We
travelled straight through to Cadenabbia on the Lake of
Cpmo. It was perfectly delightful being and travelling
with Ronald. He never got disturbed over any little
contretemps which is bound to happen now and then on
a long journey and one felt so absolutely contented and
happy with him. And to me he was always sweet con-
siderateness itself. I often used to think what a lucky girl
she would be who became his wife.
' Ronald was not really ill ; he only wanted plenty of
sleep, and he got plenty on the journey for we passed all
our time reading and sleeping. We were unlucky in the
weather at Cadenabbia for it rained nearly every day of
our week there. One day I persuaded Ronald to leave me
and go for a scramble up the hillside at the back of the
hotel/
Ronald wrote on a picture postcard to his brother-in-law
Dr. Ainley Walker, on May 15 :
' This is the great place ! It is bung full of people and
I think we shall have exhausted its possibilities by to-
morrow. It is very amusing trying to keep up appearances
here. I think we can only do it by dint of coming down
very late for meals.'
His mother's account continues :
1 Ronald had always loved beautiful scenery but on this
journey he began for the first time to take an interest in
pictures and old furniture, starting with the contents of an
old palace, now a museum in Cadenabbia. I had always
hoped that he would begin to study the Old Masters, and
now his first chance had come when we were together
alone. It was this which determined us to visit Milan
before our return. But first we went for a day or two to
the Lago d'Iseo which Mr. Cyril Bailey had told Ronald
we ought to see. We here had a lovely view of the little
lake and the mountains all round. Ronald used to read in
the large verandah and once I took a photograph of him
with his pipe. Here too the walks were more interesting.
I remember once when waiting at the landing stage for
a returning steamer I told him of incidents in my early
childhood and of his Uncle George's youth and how
intensely interested he was.
'We then went to Milan, leaving the clouds and rain
256 READING
behind us. Here we studied with the greatest energy,
beginning with the early art in the great galleries and
working our way up to the modern examples.
1 We used to test each other's memory of what we had
seen by asking questions. The whole study was a great
delight and indeed a revelation to Ronald. At the Cathedral
I actually struggled once more up on to the roof. One day,
never to be forgotten, we went to the wonderful monastery
Certosa de Pavia with the paintings in its marvellous
Church and the old monks' dwellings. It is unique, and
our love of it together is one of my most cherished
memories.
' I remember on our last day, Corpus Christi Day, Ronald
said he must go once more to the Cathedral ; so he went
off alone while I was packing.
' On our way back we stayed in Paris and spent a day
at Versailles which Ronald had never seen. We looked
at the pictures pretty thoroughly and then drove to the
" Farm " and the " Petit Trianon " and tried to conjure up
the ghost of Marie Antoinette. It was very sweet going
over the familiar ground with him. I shall never want to
go there again.
' In Paris we made quite a study of the Louvre, trying
to trace the development of art as we had done in Milan.
We had great talks about his going to Manchester in the
autumn and the coming interview with Sir William Mather. '
The Italian journey was not the only relief from the
stress and rush of Ronald's life in Reading. There were
brief delightful intervals of rest and play at St. Helens in
the spring and autumn of both years, when he would
generally bring his friend C. T. Waldy with him. There
were great hockey matches on the sands in April 1912,
when all the family were at St. Helens except Margaret
and her husband, who were close by at Seaview where the
games were played. Then in the autumn Ronald with his
chief friends Claude Evers and Dick Dugdale played golf
and swam and helped us shift trees and shrubs with huge
and weighty masses of earth round their roots. For the
autumn of 1913 I specially reserved for his visit the moving,
and raising to a higher level, of a large bay tree with an
immense disk of earth and clay. These feats of garden
2 57
engineering strongly appealed to Ronald, and I always
looked forward to the joy of doing them with him. This,
on Aug. 27, less than a year before the War, was our last
piece of holiday work together.
Ronald's letter to Janet printed on p. 265 shows clearly
enough that, when once he was well again, he could not
help working at high pressure.
Hilda remembered a walk by the Thames in July 1913,
and how interested Ronald was in the Fours rowed by
Reading men ; she ' could feel that he had thrown himself
heart and soul into the interests of the town and how much
he already loved it '.
When he had been a few weeks in Manchester, Ronald
wrote to his mother, on Oct. 28, words with which the
general account of this happy strenuous section of his life
may be brought to a close : ' I hear from Waldy about the
Club which is going on well, but I do wish I was back
there. I do love Reading.'
WORK IN HUNTLEY AND PALMERS'
FACTORY
The Rev. William Temple has recalled impressions of
Ronald's thoughts about future work and responsibilities.
He first noticed that Ronald's mind was thus occupied soon
after his visit to Repton in September 1910 (see p. 132),
that is when his future career had been decided for several
months and he had had time to think about it :
'At first it was merely an anxiety to use his oppor-
tunities rightly. The fact that he was likely to have
a large income seemed to him so unreasonable that this
alone disposed him at first to a socialist view. Probably
the sympathies evoked by, and expressed in, his work
at the Rugby and Balliol Boys' Clubs encouraged this.
Consequently when he first got to Reading and became
familiar with the employers' point of view, the mere
novelty of it carried nim right away. Of course it was
necessary and right that he should go through this phase,
even if for the moment he was carried away by it.
258 READING
' In the natural course of events I was seeing less of him
at this time. He had started on his work and no longer
had vacations coinciding with school holidays. He came
to me at Repton for one night on September 14, 1912 ; for
two nights on Nov. 22, 1913; for one night on March 6,
1914. Also he took me out for a drive in his two-seater
car on the afternoon of a Sunday in July 1914 when I was
preaching both morning and evening in Manchester. These
meetings were so short that we hardly got beyond the
inevitable gossip about our friends, our own doings and
old reminiscences. But he was plainly recovering his
balance of mind and eager for some means of bringing the
different classes of society into such contact as would lead
to mutual understanding. He was increasingly clear that
our social evils are not due to deliberate wickedness, nor
necessarily to a bad system, but to ignorance and conse-
quently lack of sympathy between employers and employed.
Consequently his earlier interest in socialism did not
return ; he was quite prepared that a changed spirit (due
to better mutual knowledge) should lead to a changed
system, but he did not care to tinker at the system until
the spirit was altered.
' It must have been about the spring of 1913 that he first
fully realized the possibilities of the W.E.A. as a means to
what he most desired. He had been interested in its work
before, but I think I am right in saying that the farewell
supper to Mr. and Mrs. Mansbridge on the evening of
April 22 of that year, when they were about to start for
Australia, was a revelation to him. The health of the two
guests was proposed by Sir Robert Morant and Mrs. Bar-
ton a working woman from Sheffield ; " National Educa-
tion " was proposed by Mr. A. L. Smith of Balliol, and the
Lord Chancellor of England Lord Haldane replied ;
Mr. Clynes (the Labour M.P.) proposed "The W.E.A.",
and the reply was made by the Bishop of Oxford and
Mr. Goodenough (organizer and "agitator among colliers) ;
the Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions
Mr. Appleton proposed "The Universities" and Sir
Henry Miers replied. It was a wonderful gathering which
witnessed strikingly to the power of the W.E.A. to over-
come class-distinctions and create real fellowship. Ronnie
had come to London to attend it, and I am pretty sure that
it clinched his growing belief that the W.E.A., more than
any agency of which he knew, could help him and others
in the great aim which was now consciously before
1912 1913 259
him. His experience of its work in Manchester greatly
strengthened this belief and hope.
' In the small opportunity which was all that time allowed
him he had got wonderfully far himself. I have heard that
one of the most prominent men in the Factory who at that
time were adopting an antagonistic attitude towards the
management, said that Ronnie's death was to him the loss
of a personal friend. It is impossible to doubt that just by
being his own lovable self in his dealings with them, he
would have allayed all bitterness and suspicion, have
understood their point of view while enabling them to
understand that of the employers, and so have healed any
wounds in that industry at least and have shown the way
to heal them in others.'
I may add for I saw its instant germination and rapid
growth that the recognition of the employers' point of
view meant that Ronald realized, for the first time in this
new sphere, the essential importance of pride in the
traditions of a great business, and the inestimable value of
a sense of responsibility the conscience of power. What-
ever may be true of Germany, the power to manage his
own show will always command an Englishman's best,
while the socialistic ideal of a State-directed industry will
very often command his worst.
The change in Ronald's views spoken of by Mr. Temple
is indicated in the following passage in a letter to Neville
Gorton, written Dec. 24, 1912 :
'This is to wish you a very happy time, next year at
Mirfield. Your letter was very interesting and gave me
quite an idea of your life. Quite the reverse of the hard,
commercial conditions of my existence (vide all Socialist
press). But really I have a very pleasant time. There is
an extraordinary amount of the personal element in my
work. I am with the men all day, and have really learnt
to appreciate them. And the boys are simply ripping.
Besides the business itself is deeply interesting : perhaps
you don't realize how exciting the manufacture of (biscuits
can be.'
Ronald's interest in the W.E.A. was greatly deepened
by his experience in Manchester. Early in his time there
S 2
260 READING
I have heard him criticize the principles of a business
management which considers the provision of general
comforts of more importance than the payment of
generous wages. He maintained that the employees only
required the means in order to provide comfort and re-
finement for themselves. But later on he mixed with
numbers of men for whom organized labour had secured
ample wages as well as power and independence, but he
looked in vain for refinement and comfort in their home life.
The remedy for this, he felt, could never be found in
management or anything that it might do. A change of
heart was required in the worker, and for this Ronald
looked to the W.E.A.
A few of the men with whom Ronald worked have
written of his friendship and all that it meant to them.
The following memories are recalled by Mr. W. Povey,
who has worked in the Factory for over fifty years. I have
often heard Ronald speak of the writer and his regard for
him:
' From our first acquaintance your son and I were on
very friendly terms. My first experience of a ride on his
motor-bike was when we were at Broadmoor at a Cricket
Match, and he told me I should have the ride he had
promised me. I told him I wouldn't trust myself on that
thing. He said, "Well, Bill, I thought you were a good
old English sportsman : I often used to take my little sister
on the back of that bike." I consented at last and he gave
me a cigarette and said, " Light this fag, Bill ", and I put it
in my mouth and we then started off, and I shall never
forget it. I hung on to him like a leech and he said
I nearly strangled him. And when we came back they all
shouted " Good old Bill!"
'On another occasion we were leaving the Cricket
Ground and he said, "Are you going home, Bill?"
I said "Yes, Sir," and he asked me if I cared to ride with
him, and I said I didn't mind riding through the town with
him, and he said " where shall I put you down ? " and
I replied, " at the pump where all teetotallers stop ".
' One Saturday we were in a hurry to get finished at our
work, and he came down to me and said, " Bill, I am come
down to help you " ; and I said, " I beg your pardon, sir,
1912 1913 26 1
but I don't require your help. " But he said, " I am going
to help you " ; but I said, " I am in a hurry and you must
clear off" ; and he said, " I am not going to clear off till
I like ", and I said, " If you don't go you will soon be on
your back ". Then there was a tussle and we both came to
the ground. After dinner when we were on the Cricket
Ground and he was dressed in his flannels he said, " Bill,
I am going to get my own back." And we had another
tussle, and of course I came off second-best. " Never
mind, Bill, " he said. " You have got plenty of life in you
yet, and it is a case of youth against age."
' One night I was leaving the firm at 7 o'clock and he
said, " Bill, are you going home?" I said "Yes, Sir, and
you will feel it an honour to walk home with me, won't
you ", and he said, " I shall, Bill ", and he told me to walk
on up Sidmouth Street and come in if I liked. By the
time I got to his house he came out dressed in his sweater
ready for a run, and we walked up Kendrick Hill talking
about Rugby. When we got to the top of the hill he said,
" Good night, Bill, " and set off for a sprint from lamp to
lamp, and down Redlands Road, indoors, and changed his
clothes and back into the factory again. In the morning
I asked him if that was how he trained for Rugby, and he
said, " That 's it, Bill, and I am in the pink of condition now
and ready for you if you like " ; but I said " No thanks,
Sir, I am not taking any. "
' I once told him that I had a good Old Dutch at home
who looked after me, and he said, " Bill, I don't quite
understand you " ; and I told him I meant my wife ; and
he often used to ask me afterwards how my good Old
Dutch was, as you will see he did in his letter.
' In all my eighteen years' experience as umpire to the
first team at our firm I have come in contact with a great
number of gentlemen, but never one whom I loved more
than I did your dear son, and I cannot even now get him
out of my memory. I have in my possession several letters
which I have received from him, one of them congratula-
ting me on my anniversary of fifty years' service.
'I am afraid I can't remember all his kindnesses to me.
I was first introduced to him by Mr. G. W. Palmer, whilst
acting as referee at a cricket match at Heathlands, and
Mr. Palmer asked me if I thought he would be of value to
us in the cricket field, and I replied that I thought he
would, and I soon found my surmise was correct, for he
proved a very valuable asset to our team. I have a photo-
262 READING
graph of him and Mr. Howard Palmer taken on that day
by Mr. G. W. Palmer which I shall keep as one of my
proudest possessions.
' I next came in contact with him in the firm when he
came into the mixing department to learn the work, and
I found him to be a very amiable and pleasant young
gentleman. During the time I was working with him
I fell sick and he very kindly came to visit me at my home,
and on one occasion he stopped to tea with me, afterwards
having a tune on the piano, and singing a song. On our
week-end cricket matches, he often took me to and fro on
his motor-cycle or his car, once taking me to Newbury,
when we were met by his Uncle and Aunt, Mr. and Mrs.
G. W. Palmer. You will probably remember, Madam,
when he introduced you to me at the mixing pan when you
visited the firm. He also introduced your daughter to me
on another occasion.
' As we were leaving work one night it was raining very
fast and he told me I was in for a wet shirt, as I had no
overcoat with me at the time, but he asked me to wait for
him, and we could go out together, and when we got out-
side the Factory, it was still raining, and he insisted upon
my having his waterproof, remarking, " Take this, Bill, as
you are an elderly man, and I shall soon be home and get
a good rub down, and shall take no harm from a wetting ",
and he himself put his waterproof on my back, telling me
to bring it back when I liked. You must admit, Sir, that
there is not another gentleman in a thousand would have
done this to a workman, but it was his nature to be kind
and generous to all with whom he came in contact.
' I have a grandson who spent some very happy times
with him in his boys' camp at the seaside on two occasions.'
I have also heard that a man at the Factory once asked
Ronald why he was not at overtime the night before.
Ronald, who had been at the Boys' Club, replied, ' Because
I was looking after your children'. Others too have
spoken of his visiting the men and taking tea with them.
The following letter was written by Ronald to Mr. Povey,
from Manchester, on March 16, 1914 :
' DEAR BILL,
1 This is written in a train so it may be difficult to read.
I have been meaning to write to you a long time to send
1912 1913 263
you word as to how I was getting on. I heard from
Mr. Waldy that you had retired in favour of Bert Owen,
to whom please give my best wishes, and were cutter
cleaning.
' Are you down in the corner with Viner ? I hope it suits
you, though I expect it 's a hard job after your slack one at
the pans ! ! I don't think !
' I am doing engineering up here. I get up at 6.30 and
get to work at 8.0 and work till 12.30, and then from 1.30
to 5.30. I have been doing fitting and turning, and now
I am doing work in the electrical department. It is
interesting work. And I find time to play a bit of
football!!
' Do your best for the old factory at cricket next summer.
I wish I was going to be with you.
' Well, goodbye and good luck. Remember me to my
friends in the South Factory. How is the Old Dutch?
Well, I hope.
' Ever yours,
' RONALD W. P. PALMER.
' You see my name has been changed from Poulton.'
From a prominent worker in the Factory unknown
to me :
' It was not my privilege to be personally acquainted
with Mr. Poulton Palmer, but I can give you the impression
he made upon me, and I think I may say upon many others
employed in the great Firm of which he was qualifying to
become a Director.
' When he first came there he was only known to the
majority as one of the finest athletes in the Kingdom,
a reputation which was more than confirmed.
' I think one thing that struck most of us was his quite
natural unassuming manner, his lack of pride, and his
infectious laugh, also his evident desire to brighten and
edify those with whom he came in contact; for not only
was he a good sportsman but he saw there was something
in this world for him to do ; there were others who, though
living in a lower sphere of life than himself, he thought it
his duty to assist, and there are now many lads who will
sorely miss him ; especially I have in mind the boys of
Albert Road ; they have indeed lost a good friend, but the
good work done by their late benefactor will not lie
264 READING
dormant in them but will bear fruit and be the means of
making them grow up to be better men and worthy citizens.
' Probably no event in the war caused more consternation
and regret than when his untimely fate was reported ; and
it was realized that in responding to his Country's call he
had made the greatest sacrifice it was possible for man to
make, he had given his life.'
Another Reading working man, also unknown to me,
said of Ronald that he would not ask any one to do anything
he was not prepared to do himself.
Mr. Cyril M. Byham, the then manager of the Engineer-
ing Department, writes : -
' Ronald had great ideas as regards the social side of
the big concern in which he would have taken such a
prominent part, and had already interested himself in the
Recreation Club, and instituted a Departmental Cricket
League ; and now, owing to the war, tnese Departmental
matches are the only ones being played. We made no
programme as regards matches with other teams. Still it
was felt that for those of the employees who had not
joined the colours and some 25 % have already done so
[Aue. 15, 1915] one should keep the ground open, and we
are nolding these Departmental Team Matches, as I am
certain he would have wished.'
When Ronald had been at work for fourteen months, his
uncle and he had a talk about his future movements and
plans. He wrote to his mother April 10, 1913 :
' Uncle George lunched yesterday, and we had a good
talk. He suggests that after coming back from Manchester,
I should do a three months' trip round the world, finishing
up with three months in Byham s department. This sounds
very cheery but it will depend a lot on whether I can get
a congenial soul to go abroad with.'
As regards his work at Reading it was estimated that
Ronald would have completed his training in the manu-
facturing processes by Aug. i, 1913. Notes of the conver-
sation with his uncle, preserved by Ronald, show that he
was to have worked in Manchester from mid-October 1913
till about mid-December 1914, and that he would start in
1913 265
the Engineering Department of Huntley and Palmers on
Jan. i, 1915. On Feb. 6 of that year he would have
completed three years' training from the day when he first
entered the Factory. The programme as shown in his
notes must have been modified, if three months' travel
were to be included. His uncle's death in October 1913
made it necessary for Ronald to shorten his time in
Manchester, and, if war had not broken out, he would have
settled down to regular work at Reading in the autumn
of 1914.
His uncle wrote, April 22, to Sir William Mather, whom
he had known in the House of Commons :
' During the last eighteen months Ronald has been at
work in our Factory, starting at 6.30 a.m. and with his coat
off (as I did 44 years ago ! !) and learning the practical details
of our business. I want him to get some practical know-
ledge of engineering, a wider experience ol men, &c., and
also attend some classes in the evening at the School [now
College] of Technology in Manchester.'
An interview, arranged for the end of May, led to
Ronald's residence and work in Manchester, which forms
the subject of a later section of his life.
The following letter from Ronald in Reading to Janet at
the British Association in Birmingham gives a graphic
picture of his work at the Factory within a week of the
date when he left Reading for the north :
'Sept. 12, 1913.
1 16 Portland Place.
' On this, the auspicious occasion of the 2ist anniversary
of your birth, allow a brother to pour out the depths of his
fraternal heart in earnest congratulations, and all that sort
of stuff!
' May you have a happy day full of presents, and full of
promises of presents (like mine), and may you never look
older than you do to-day, and when your hair must come
white, let it come white suddenly (i.e. stop dyeing).
' You seem to be having a gay time from your letter.
For which many thanks. I haven't read O. Lodge [Presi-
266 READING
dential Address] for which please thank mother with her
letter, but I hope to soon. My birthday was thus spent :
(1) Got up sleepy at 6.20 : Factory till 8.20.
(2) Breakfast: paper.
(3) Factory till 12.50.
(4) Lunch : Bruno, Cuthie Holmes, and Kirby at lunch :
very jolly : port and cigars.
(5) Factory till 6: very hot baking petit beurre! with
brother of the butler at Wokefield ! whose grand-
father was the first original helper to grandpa at
the very start !
(6) Bath 6.10 to 6.20.
6.20-6.30, writing this letter.
i) 6.30-7.10. High tea (very high : the partridge whiffs
like anything);
(9) Committee of Boys' Club 7.15-8.
(10) Boys' Club 8-10.
(n) 10. Look in Factory on overtime.
(12) Bed 10.45.
(13) Alarum at 4.0.
(14) In Factory 4.30 a.m., &c.
4 1 will write a line to mother on Sunday. Much love.'
THE READING BOYS' CLUB CAMP AT NEW ROMNEY: June, 1913.
- r.~
'iSmmmm
a?J58
Ronald, with his terrier ' Wally ', near centre. Rev. R. W. Morley beside
him in upper, with W. Dimbleby at top of lower group. F. Covey against
R. lower window pane. At least 13 of the 29 have been killed.
[Facing f. 267.
XI
THE READING BOYS' CLUB: 1912-1913
His memory is as fresh as ever here. It cannot pass ; even though
his old boys are all away sadly many now away with him. The
Rev. R. W. MORLEY.
IT has been shown that one of the last things Ronald did
before leaving Oxford was to attend a meeting of the
Balliol Boys' Club Committee, on Jan. 21, 1912 ; and he
had no sooner gone to live at Reading than he got into
touch with a Boys' Club there. Mr. W. Dimbleby has
kindly written the following note about its history :
' The Reading Boys' Club existed before Ronald came
to the town, but his advent and association with the
Factory, added to the fact that the Club was situated in
a district largely inhabited by Factory workers, resulted in
fully 75 % of the members being Factory boys. But the
Factory had absolutely nothing to do with the Club and had
no possible control over it. There was no restriction as to
the district or parish, but boys living in St. John's parish
were given preference as members; and as there was
always a waiting list, residence in the parish came to be
regarded as a qualification for membership.'
Of this Club no log or other record existed at the time,
and Ronald, who knew the value of tradition as well as of
information on all the details of club management, deter-
mined to supply the deficiency.
Boys' Clubs, such as this, had begun, by August 1914,
to play an important part in the development of the best
type of citizen animated by a spirit of brotherhood,
friendliness, and fair play, eager to defend the cause of
justice and right, as the records of the War abundantly
prove. And the same influence will be needed, more
needed than ever, in the years of trial and stress which the
268 READING
future surely holds in store for us. It will, I believe, help
on this good work if Ronald's methods in the management
of the Club, as described in his own words, are made
available for those who are inspired by his ideals. The
same trials and difficulties encountered in the future will
surely yield to the same patience and good sense, the same
faith and hope securely founded on love.
As regards the doings of the Club in 1912, a week-end
Camp was arranged by Ronald in a field at Sonning, July
26-28. Ronald and his friends Dick Dugdale and
C. T. Waldy were in charge, and 10 boys were present.
Writing to his mother Ronald said : ' It was a roaring
success, even though it rained a great deal ; particularly at
night. We bathed lots of times, and played cricket and
football ; and had a singsong, and on Sunday a little service.'
It was of this camp that the Rev. T. Guy Rogers
wrote :
' I remember in the early days, when I knew him first,
going out one Sunday afternoon to a week-end Camp
which he was running for the lads near Sonning. After
a glorious bathe I lay on the grass with the fellows while
Ronald took a short service and spoke to them so straight
and so well. He was able to touch their lives at every
point and to touch them with sincerity and truth.'
When the Club was reopened, after closing Aug. i to
Sept. 6, Ronald took nearly all the evenings and was in
entire charge. The attendance was excellent, an average
of 32 being kept up for some weeks. The usual games
were played, varied by occasional concerts, charades, and
a mock trial. In November troubles began and some boys
had to be turned out, but were later on readmitted. On
Jan. 29, 1913, an entertainment was given to the parents of
the boys in the Club. ' If you can't leave the baby, bring
him or her with you ' was printed on the invitation card.
His friend Mrs. Haslam kindly helped in making up the
actors and in preparing the humorous programme.
Mr. Dimbleby tells me that this entertainment, ' Lost in
the Wash ' was, he believes, written by one of the Rugby
BOYS' CLUB: 19121913 269
masters, but Ronald touched it up for the occasion, intro-
ducing local allusions and topical songs. It was such
a success that the company was asked to repeat the
performance a fortnight later for the Factory Recreation
Club, when they were helped by some of Ronald's Oxford
friends, composing the ' Flannel Fools' Band '.
A letter to his sister in Manchester shows how immensely
pleased and proud Ronald was at the spirit with which the
boys played their parts and the keen enjoyment of actors
and audience. His mother writes :
' One night, towards Christmas time, in 1912, Ronald had
invited 8 or 9 special boys to his house ; they were learning
their parts for a play, to be performed to the parents.
The object was to encourage interest in the club on the
part of the parents, and to help the boys to collect money
for their summer Camp. We gave them cocoa and cakes.
Ronald had marvellous influence over them. He never
allowed too great familiarity, and yet one could see how
friendly they felt towards him. On another occasion
(Feb. 24, 1913), I gave the whole club a lecture on our South
African journey in 1905, showing them slides. How I had
looked forward to telling them about our Australian trip !
After the lecture, to which the boys listened very well,
I played the piano for the closing hymn, and Ronald said
the prayers. I could see a great improvement in the boys'
behaviour, since my former visit. One evening we had
arrived rather too early, so we walked about the roads,
and he told me about certain boys who had given trouble.
He was always keenly sensitive to the particular difficulties
they had to contend with, in order to keep straight.'
The regularly kept log, beginning Feb. 3, 1913, was
preceded by a series of photographs taken at a camp held
in the summer of 1911 by Mr. Heaton. On most nights
there were games and competitions of various kinds. An
air-rifle was very popular and one of the boys was put in
charge. ' This was a great success, and encourages me to
think of making some officers among the boys, which is my
present ambition* a scheme soon put into operation.
Then there were competitions with teams from other
associations, his mother's lecture on South Africa, and
2 7 o READING
Janet's playing on the violin. Nearly the whole log up to
Sept. 15, 1913, the last meeting before he left Reading
for Manchester, is in Ronald's handwriting. The numbers
crept up to 37 on Apr. 28, with this entry : ' The club is
now as large as we can hold. As it was to-night there was
a bit of ragging.' On Apr. 19 W. T. Collier was present
and ' said afterwards that it was the most cheerful Club he
had been to, which was high praise '. He not only used
these cheering words to Ronald, but wrote of the Boys'
Club to Keith Rae on May 9:
' From what I saw of it, I think it could give quite a
number of points in some directions to the Salliol Club,
although he runs it practically single-handed.'
Then just before Ronald left for the north, Stephen
Reiss's name appears in the log for September 5. This
was no doubt the visit to Reading of which he spoke in his
letter (p. 19).
Ronald's account of an unsuccessful evening, with the
suggestion of a remedy, appears under June 6 :
' Nothing much on : consequently noise and ragging.
I must get some new things up. Prayers were very noisy,
and I told them what I thought of them. Afterwards they
said they wouldn't play cricket tomorrow to spite me we
shall see.'
All the boys except two turned up for a cricket match on
June 9, when the Club was 'nice and quiet, and prayers
were splendid.'
The Camp at New Romney, discussed and planned on
many a Club night, was held June 21-28, 1913. The 26
boys who took part are entered under their names, nick-
names, and reference numbers for the group fixed in the
log-book, which also contains photographs of the sports
and each of the 5 tents with the boys who slept in it.
The Rev. C. S. Donald and Mr. A. D. Stocks, of the
Rugby Club, Notting Hill, came down to prepare before-
hand and help at the start, and the Rugby Club allowed
the use of equipment at a reduced rate. Two members of
BOYS' CLUB: 1913 271
the Reading Club, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Dimbleby, had
also arrived by an earlier train and were found hard at
work when the party arrived with Ronald in charge on
Saturday evening, June 21. The cook, Frank Covey, a
member of the Balliol Boys' Club, was very friendly with
the boys and extremely popular.
Ronald's very full account of the days in Camp is in
large part reprinted below. Some of the paragraphs have
been placed in a different order, and here and there the
wording has been slightly changed, but the few alterations
are only such as Ronald would have made if he had had
time to reconsider a report hurriedly written down just as
it came into his head.
' Cheerful and hungry we arrived at No. 27 Station in
the evening, made beautiful by the setting of the sun
beneath a bank of dark grey clouds, by the tassled grass
fairly smothered by a gorgeous blue purply flower (called
Bugloss), and by the singing of numberless larks, whose
nests we were for ever finding round our camping ground.
' Having eaten an enormous meal of ham, bread and
butter, cocoa and jam, we had prayers, and were soon
in bed.
' Having elected to sleep with Stocks on the straw stack
we were both woken about 3.0 a.m. by the shouts of the
boys as they woke and rushed off to the shore. Apparently
Dimbleby and Tucker (who chose the beach) were in the
same plight (Tucker afterwards confessed that he never
slept a wink all night), for on turning my head towards
the bungalow about a quarter of an hour later, I saw
Dimbleby busily tidying up, and Tucker completely dressed,
even to a pair of bicycle clips, gazing mournfully out to sea !
This was highly refreshing, and later Stocks supplied
sufficient amusement for the day by describing the scene,
and speaking of Tucker as "my immaculately dressed
young friend opposite ".
'After the first day it was always necessary to rouse
the tents, and not content with the night, they often slept
during the day, showing the effect of food and a bracing
climate upon them.
'How to describe those days! That Sunday was
gloriously fine, and everybody got burnt brown. That
athe will always be remembered ; how Burt began to
272 READING
learn to swim, and Bushell and Fred Harding tried to
emulate the feats of Burgess.
' A short evening service closed the day. The weather
kept fine though the wind was cold.
' We lost Stocks the Sunday evening and Tucker Monday
morning. That morning Maurice's knees were swollen
and on the doctor's advice I had to take him home.
Luckily catching a friendly traction engine we caught an
early train and after a few changes I saw him in a Reading
train at Redhill and returned alone to Camp. On the
way he and I made up a topical song the only effort,
and a poor one at that, made auring Camp. And to think
I missed the stew ! Morley had arrived before me and our
staff was three strong again.'
The topical song, written at the end of the Camp diary,
is printed below :
(Tune: Yip-i-addy)
I
At Reading one morning, 'bout six in the morning
Some boys were just going to work,
They were awfully sleepy, and always were yawning,
Their work, they felt ready to shirk ;
But suddenly one of 'em, I don't know which one of 'em,
Which it was, I do not care a hang,
Awoke with a start, and stepped out from amongst them,
And these were the words that he sang :
Chorus. We're going to Romney, to-day to-day ;
We're going to Romney to stay,
We shall play games, we shall eat, we shall sleep,
We even shall swim on the blue foaming deep,
Yes we're going to Romney to-day
Yes we're going to Romney to stay.
Think of joy, think of bliss, but there's nothing like this,
That we're going to Romney to-day.
II
At Romney, next morning, well I s'pose it was morning,
If it was I'm not ready to say ;
But I'm perfectly certain the day was not dawning
When their shouts woke me up as I lay,
BOYS' CLUB: 1913 273
As I lay on that straw stack, so cold on that straw stack,
Oh what did I hear on the shore
It was brought on the wind, that came, whistling down my
back,
And these are the words of their roar :
Chorus. (Same as I, substituting 'are' [or rather 'now']
for 'shall'.)
Ill
At Rpmney, this morning, that's Monday, this morning,
A quite different tale I've to tell.
If tney woke me again, I had given them warning,
I'd give them one hard on their well !
But breakfast was ready, yes perfectly ready,
Before any boy thought to appear.
Their eyes were all sleepy, their heads were all heady,
But these were their thoughts, I am clear.
Chorus, as II.
IV
On Saturday morning, next Saturday morning,
And we're packed, and quite ready to clear,
When we're leaving for Reading, hearts dismally mourning,
And hardly restraining a tear.
Then thoughts of the future will slowly come o'er us,
We'll look forward to Romney, again,
As we're leaving the station, I hope it won't bore us,
If we hear this again, in the train :
Chorus. We've been to Romney to stay, to stay,
We've been to Romney to stay,
We have played games, we have slept, we have
ate,
We even have swum in the sea (oh so wet !)
Yes we've been to Romney to stay,
We've been to Romney to stay,
Think of joy, think of bliss, but there 's nothing like this
That we've been to Romney to stay.
'Tuesday [when the staff was increased to five by the
arrival of Mr. Truelove and Ronald's old Oxford friend
Gerald Fisher] was to be the day of the Marathon, but
slackness was in the air, and mere were not enough
entrants. So we had a tent shooting match which was
274 READING
won by No. 2 Tent. The shooting was curious, as all
those who thought they were some use obtained noughts
(shouts of "Tinno" or "Woodo" referring to the wood
outside the target, tin in the Club room), including the
quasi-military members of the party who are qualified to
teach musketry to Territorial Recruits. After tea football
was always the order of the day. Horace appeared to be
a great exponent, and his tricks with his legs left us less
skilled people standing gazing. Why doesn't he have his
half day on a Saturday, and we should have a good team
next winter ? Singsong followed and bed.
' Wednesday was the great cricket-match with the New
Romney Club. Their class was too high for us, and their
kind Secretary Mr. Williamson will give us a team more
suitable the next time we meet. Our chaps said " That 's
no go why there was a chap there who 's been tried for
Kent (a slight exaggeration), but we could take them on
at football ". We had a fine singsong that night arranged
by Mr. Fisher, and he told us his tiger stories in India.
'Thursday was the day put aside to go to Folkestone,
but suddenly the previous day they seemed to have changed
their minds. It is difficult to understand this sudden
change. One chap said it was because they weren't
pressed enough : others that they couldn't afford the
necessary shilling. Thursday accordingly became the day
of the sports, held in the morning on a strip of sand.
They were quite well contested, but I don't think the
Reading boy is as vigorous as his London brother.
' Friday was spent quietly, bathing and playing football.
The boys made great journeys to New Romney to buy
mementoes of the Camp, and staggered back with large
numbers of china vases, &c. The evening was spent in
a grand and final singsong. At the end Princess Henry
ofbattenberg (Mr. Dimbleby tastefully attired in a skirt of
a military rug, a plumed hat, and short jacket) gave away
the prizes for the sports. She was greeted by the
guard of honour under the command of Lieut. R. W.
Morley.
1 Everybody seemed to be rather sad and quiet.
' The next morning we were up at 4.0, and soon hard at
work. By breakfast time everything was cleared away
and we caught the train comfortably. A hot stuffy journey,
during which we mostly slept, brought us at last to
Reading.
' So ends a Camp enjoyed by all, which encourages us
y-t"-:^i-.
/M4< I/
TiA
Su.lt-
Aty(/U*J
Atru**
QoiCeJ
TlA
I
7<A
in ^CtU-*^- /frtw-*i-y
[Facing p. 275.
BOYS' CLUB: 1913 275
for the future, and makes us realize that our friendship for
each other is no unreal and formal bond.'
The menu, drawn up by Mrs. Dimbleby and written out
by Ronald, is reproduced on a smaller scale on the opposite
plate. With slight alterations it was used for the 1914
Camp.
Ronald's words about friendship recall Hilda's memories
of a walk with him in July 1913, when they came across
a number of boys, quite twenty of them, fishing along the
Thames below Reading. He knew all their names and
talked to all of them ; and afterwards told his sister how
important it was to take an interest in the men and boys
outside their working hours and in all their lives. He said
that it was a great mistake to look on this as any special
merit or even as an act of kindness. The gain was his, he
said, for he found them full of interest and loved them for
themselves. He told her of one consumptive boy he had
been to see at his home a boy who was just then without
any medical help, as the panel doctor was away, and how
brave and splendid he was. Going back through Newtown
Ronald showed her the homes of the young fishermen
and especially pointed out that of a red-headed boy and his
brothers who were particular friends of his.
Ronald entered in the log a full and detailed account of
the expenditure (31. 195. lod.) of the Camp, accompanying
the statement by remarks which would be of great help in
other years. Twenty-six boys contributed 6s. each, the
remainder of the sum being chiefly provided by his uncle,
his friends, and the Vicar's Allotment Fund.
I think it was a letter from Frank Covey, written from
Cromer on Aug. 17, that was Ronald's happiest reminiscence
of Romney Camp in 1913 :
' I expect the boys will think of Camp for some time to
come yet : I know I very often think about it and it often
cheers me up when I am feeling a bit downhearted.'
The first Club meeting after the Camp was on June 30,
and the excellent results are apparent in the entry : ' Very
T 2
276 READING
excited after Camp. This Camp has made an enormous
difference in our relations. We really begin to know each
other. They already want to begin paying in for next
year.' Then a few days later there was all the excitement
of looking at the proofs of the photographs taken in Camp.
The Club was now evidently on its way to success, and
Ronald was anxious, especially in view of his departure
for Manchester in the autumn, that its continued growth
should be assured. With this object he attended a meeting,
held at Wantage Hall on June 30, of members of Reading
University College who were interested in the Club. The
history was briefly outlined by Childs and then Ronald
gave an account of its recent progress, of the Camp and of
the position in the following October when he as well as
Childs would be leaving. He urged that, being a Club
connected with Reading University College, it should be
managed by a College man. As a result Mr. B. Perkins
agreed to undertake the position, and other members
volunteered for occasional visits. Ronald's note concludes
with the words' The tone of the meeting was sympathetic
and augurs well for the future.'
Sept. 15, 1913, just before Ronald's departure for Man-
chester on the i8th, was the last time he took charge of
a Club evening and the last time he wrote the entry. He
spoke ' a few words describing what the future of the Club
was to be and how important it was to keep order'.
Following the entry is this paragraph :
'[Personal note: I can only say that it is with great
regret that I write here for the last time for I hope that
when I return, the Club will be so firmly established in
the thoughts of the Reading College, that one of the
students will always be found to take the helm. But these
records hurriedly written, remind me of a lot, mostly
pleasure at an occasional successful result, while the dis-
appointments at many failures soon grow dim. So I pass
this on the record of things achieved, and things attempted,
and I hope to find in it, when I see it again, a record of
many more things attempted, and many more achieved.
R.W. Poulton.]'
BOYS' CLUB: 1913 277
The following words were written to Ronald by
Mr. Benjamin Perkins, on Nov. 12, from St. Patrick's
Hall, Reading:
' Before I close my letter I will thank you personally
for your untiring work for the Club, and on behalf of the
minute passed by the Committee, I can assure you as one
who has now learnt the inward working of the Club
generally, things could not have been left in a better
condition, and my success with the Club if there proves
to be any will be entirely due to the state you left things
for me : everything was ready for me to take up and I only
hope that I snail follow your example.
' My one hope now is that before long we shall have you
again down here to help us.'
At this point, which marks the end of Ronald's manage-
ment, I place the following notes kindly made by Walter
Dimbleby :
'As I only came to live in Reading at Midsummer 1914,
my experience of the Club prior to that date was confined
to an occasional visit when I stayed with Ronald for the
night and my going to Camp with the boys to New
Romney in June 1913.
' Ronald's influence with the boys was very remarkable.
With the type of lad to be found in such Clubs physical
prowess carries great weight. Almost all of them were
keen football players ; their game of course being ' Soccer '.
Ronald's fame as a Rugby International gave him a great
hold over the boys in the early days of their acquaintance.
When they became more intimate with him this fame
rather receded into the background, and his sympathy and
charming personality made him beloved by all the boys.
Ronald was endowed with the gift of adaptability. He
was equally at home and his own unconscious self with all
sorts and conditions of humanity.
' The following is a fair description of an average Club
evening: The boys would come in about 8 or 8.15,
crowding into the little room where Ronald would be
ready to mark off their names in the register, he giving
a smile, a word of chaff or a nickname to each. If a Friday
evening, the half-penny for the week's contribution was
demanded. There was little probability of getting this
except on pay day (Friday).
278 READING
'As long as Ronald was with them the boys seemed
reluctant to leave the little room, the atmosphere of which
by this time would be decidedly "thick". However, Ronald
would order a move to the big room and arrange sides for
football or cricket, devising many novel rules to add to the
interest and excitement.
' Strenuous games of football were played, many of the
boys being remarkably clever in "footwork". Quieter
games would be in progress in the small rooms upstairs.
At 9.45 all those remaining in the Club would meet in the
big room for prayers, the rule being that every one wishing
to leave before prayers must be out of the Club premises
by 9.30, after which time the doors were closed and all had
to remain and be present at prayers.
' Ronald usually took prayers himself. A hymn would
be sung, then either a few verses read from the New
Testament, or a word or two of advice and helpfulness,
and finally three or four short prayers. Ronald preferred
that these should be extempore and adapted to the neces-
sities of the Club and its members.
' Tournaments of games would be arranged and carried
out. Camp was always a fruitful source of conversation
both for many weeks before the event and for several
weeks after.
' The boys contributed 75. each to the 1914 expenses. The
cost per boy averaged aoout 205. or so ; the difference in
the 1914 Camp fell chiefly on Ronald. He was the life
and soul of the two Camps at which I was present.
' Ronald's interest in the boys was not confined to
Club nights and Camp. He made a friend of each and
endeavoured usually successfully to gain his confidence
and obtain knowledge of his home life and surroundings
and his ambitions for the future. Practical help was
frequently given, and each boy knew that in any time of
difficulty he would have in Ronald a sympathetic helper.'
I may add to this account some evidence of the serious-
ness with which Ronald considered and sought advice
upon the most suitable parts of the Bible to read to boys
and the right things to say to them. He asked the help of
his friends, the Rev. W. J. Carey, as recorded in The
Church Times for May 14, 1915, and the Rev. J. G. Bussell.
We may be very sure that his ever-present sense of
humour guarded him against a too-great length and a too-
BOYS' CLUB: 1912 1913 279
excessive solemnity. The following words were written
at Aldershot, May 18, 1915, by Mr. J. G. Bussell (Capt. 7th
Bn. Roy. Sussex Regt.) not many weeks before he was
killed, on June 28 :
' His loss has saddened me more than any in this war.
Such a life as his is a lasting inspiration. I am going out
in a few days and I know I shall fight the better for him
not of course in mere revenge.
4 It annoys me so much to see a notice of him as a mere
player of Rugby football. He was so much besides that.
I have had talks with him which I shall not forget talks
which showed that there was in him a sort of anxiety for
others, and especially the working classes, and that the
desire to serve them was almost a passion with him.
'"What do you say to boys?" he once exclaimed,
speaking of his club, and of the best way to help them to
some idea of God.
' No, he will not be forgotten, either by them or any
other of his friends/
Among those who helped Ronald at the Club and whose
names are recorded in the log, were the three elder sons
of Mr. Leonard Sutton of Hillside, Reading, of whom two,
Eric and Eustace, have, with their younger brothers,
Victor and Alex, given their lives for the liberty of the
world. Noel, the eldest, after three years in the East, was
saved by swimming when his ship was torpedoed on the
voyage home. In June 1915 Eric wrote that he and
Capt. J. G. Bussell had just visited Ronald's grave together.
XII
MANCHESTER: 1913-1914
Although he was only with us for a short time, Mr. Fanshawe and
I both loved him. I often used to think how proud his mother must
be of him. Mrs. FANSHAWE, in whose house Ronald lived at Man-
chester.
RONALD'S residence in Manchester was at the very outset
overclouded by the death of his uncle. On Sept. 30
Mr. G. W. Palmer, who the day before had never seemed
stronger, was prostrated by a stroke which came on as
he was dressing in the morning. He died without fully
recovering consciousness on Oct. 8.
Ronald seemed to feel from the first what the end would
be. He wrote on October i to his mother from
Manchester: 'It is so heavily on my mind. Oh, I do
pray for good news. I don't think I realized before how
much he meant to me. And there is such a lot that I hoped
he and I would do together in the factory in a few years
time.' Very soon he was at Marlston to be a great comfort
and help to his aunt in her sore trial.
The will was a great surprise to Ronald and at first
rather a shock. He felt very deeply the responsibility of
his position as well as the much greater responsibility that
lay in the future. His brother well remembers walking
with him along the drive at Marlston and how Ronald said
more than once 'It is awful'. He also remembers, after
the funeral on Oct. n, going towards the little Marlston
church that they might revisit the grave together, and that,
when they saw from the gate many of the villagers and
members of the household, paying their last respects,
1913
Ronald at once turned back, saying that if they went on
the others would not like to remain.
So many inaccurate and conflicting statements about the
will have appeared in the papers that it is well to set the
matter at rest.
His uncle had no power to confer on Ronald any
position in the firm of Huntley & Palmers. The decision
lay with the Board of Directors. There was, however, an
understanding between his uncle and the other Directors
that Ronald would be made a member of the Board after
three years apprenticeship.
Under his uncle's will Ronald would have become the
tenant for life of the Marlston Estate only on his aunt's
death, but tenant of the residue of his uncle's property,
real and personal, on his aunt's death, or when his aunt
should determine, or under any circumstances in twenty-one
years. In the meantime the income of the estate was,
subject to the payment of annuities, to accumulate at
compound interest, and, during this period, Ronald was to
receive an annuity of 3,000 a year as well as the interest
on 25,000 bequeathed to trustees upon trust to pay the
income to Ronald during his aunt's life. This latter
provision, the cause of much misconception, is, I under-
stand, a well-known legal precaution viz. to set aside upon
trust a portion of an estate, so that, whatever may happen
to the residue, an income will be provided, so far as human
foresight can ensure, for a particular purpose in this
case for the maintenance of the future tenant for life.
The practical result was an immediate income of 4,000
a year. If the estate had accumulated for the maximum
period of twenty-one years, the income would have been
such that Ronald, at the age of 45, would have had oppor-
tunities given to very few ; and that he would have used
them wisely and well is the confident belief of all who
knew him, young and old.
Sir William Mather remembers
'a long conversation in the course of which the matter
of Ronald having inherited his uncle's large fortune
282 MANCHESTER
caused me to remark that this would probably make him
alter his career. His reply was that it would make no
difference, for he knew his uncle's wishes, and having
promised to carry them out before his uncle's death, the
fact of being heir would make no change. He regretted
having been left so much money and did not need any, as
his determination was to make a career for himself and
earn his own fortune.'
Mr. C. J. B. Marriott has written in British Sports and
Sportsmen (London, 1917, pp. 19-20) : ' We well remember
his wise and modest rejoinder, so characteristic of the
man, when offered congratulations on his good fortune.
" Yes," he replied, "but what troubles me is the responsi-
bility of how to use it for the best. " This was probably
the true form of a rather bombastic remark, very unlike
Ronald, attributed to him in some of the papers, at the
time of his death.
His uncle's sudden and unexpected death prevented any
discussion of the will with Ronald. If happily he had
lived and the older and younger man had worked together,
understanding and sympathizing with each other more and
more fully as the years went by, they would no doubt have
talked over the will and Ronald would have had the
opportunity of expressing his thoughts, which were all in
favour of equality and the free use of wealth, and all
opposed to the monopoly and the restrictions of primo-
geniture and entail. But the opportunity was denied by
fate and Ronald became the instrument of a system with
which he had little sympathy. He therefore felt free to try
any legal means by which the situation might be changed,
and he told me that he hoped, if he had a son, to bring him
up in his own way of thinking, so that they could cut off
the entail.
On Oct. 21 Ronald wrote to me from Manchester,
referring to a conversation at Oxford with his brother-in-
law Dr. Ainley Walker : ' Now Father dear, after think-
ing over the present financial position, I had in my mind
a vague idea which curiously Ernest struck exactly, in
1913 283
a suggestion to me last Thursday morning.' And then
he developed the idea that he should transfer a certain
proportion of his income to his brother enough to
render him free to pursue his work without anxiety on
financial grounds. This payment he wished to be put on
a legal basis so that ' once settled it would be nothing to do
with me '. He said that he knew his uncle George would
like the idea. His brother, he went on, ' has worked far
harder than I have and while he has not had much finan-
cial recompense, I have had an undue amount '. He spoke
with much delicacy of feeling of his brother, hoping that
there would be no awkwardness of any kind between them,
and expressing anxiety that no one should know of the
arrangement.
In reply to my letter he wrote again saying how happy
he felt that both his mother and I were so happy at his
proposal. The whole matter was soon settled, and, as it
was necessary to secure the permanence of the yearly
payments to his brother, he insured his life for a capital
sum sufficient to yield the amount. The effect was to
absorb considerably over a quarter of his income.
Ronald's determination was entirely unexpected by his
brother, who writes :
' I can well remember my surprise at suddenly receiving
his letter suggesting and even pleading that I would take
a share of his annuity. It was a surprise because any such
thought had never entered my head, but it was no longer
a surprise when thinking over his generosity to all sorts of
people. This generosity was very characteristic of him,
and it was shown in his work for the Boys' Club at
Reading, which was a matter of sheer altruism.'
Four years earlier Ronald had written from Balliol,
congratulating his brother and speaking of a possible long
engagement: 'After all, three years isn't so very long.
Nothing like me who won't be able to think of being
married till I am about 55, as I shan't have more than 2d.
a week till then ! ! '
284 MANCHESTER
His friend the Rev. W. J. Carey wrote from Pusey
House, Oxford, on Nov. 15 :
' MY DEAR RONNIE,
' I see by the paper to-day that you are quite a rich man.
I don't suppose you'll alter your personal mode of living,
I hope not, but I congratulate you on having the means to
do things which otherwise you couldn't do. Most of us
have aspirations and no means to carry them out.
' I'm afraid that you'll now make acquaintance with a new
class of people beggars high and low it is a great thing
if one can prevent oneself becoming cynical when one
finds how many there are who try to exploit one but
I don't suppose you'll ever get cynical. I don't know
exactly why I am writing except that this will make some
difference to your life, and therefore it interests me because
may I say it ? I have much affection for you and a deep
interest in your welfare. There !
' Luckily you've still got your old friends who care for
you equally whether you are rich or poor nothing would
alter them.
' Goodbye and the best of good luck in all ways ; I do
hope that all this may bring its blessings to you.
' God bless you.
' Always yours affectionately,
' WALTER J. CAREY.
'I see you've got to change your surname. Luckily
" Ronnie will remain ! '
To the Rev. W. J. Carey.
1 Marlston,
' Nov. 16, 1913.
' DEAR CAESAR,
' Thank you for your very kind letter. It is just what
I would have expected from you. I don't know if anybody
else will write, as yours is the first, but none will please
me so much.
'The responsibility of it has, at times, rather overwhelmed
me ; as I have not been brought up to spend large sums
of money. But anyhow I don't want to alter my scale of
1913 I9 J 4 28 5
living at all, if I can help it, and I shall simply save, till
some really worthy object comes along. But I think it is
rather difficult to live as a Christian when you are very
rich or very poor. You have to spend so much time
thinking of money, and what is to be done with it. How-
ever as you say it is an enormous opportunity, and I do
pray I may not utterly throw it away.
' And it is splendid to think of the people in this world
whom I may call friends, and from whom I can always get
at any time comfort and advice.
' I am down here with my Aunt who is a very wonderful
person, and we are, I think, getting to know each other
well.
'Thanks again, and I have not forgotten your great
scheme l for next February.
1 Ever yours affectionately,
' RONALD W. POULTON.'
The use which Ronald made of the income which had
suddenly come to him may be gathered from his cheque-
books, which show that, acting on the principles de-
scribed in his letter, he continued to live simply and
inexpensively.
Ronald's assumption of his uncle's and his mother's
maiden name of Palmer took place in the Spring of 1914.
A letter to Keith Rae, with post-mark of April 21, is signed
' R. W. P. Palmer, late Poulton ', and he referred to the
change when writing to Mr. W. Povey (p. 263). Many of
Ronald's friends wondered that he did not hyphen the two
names and become ' Poulton- Palmer ' an arrangement
carried out for him pretty generally in the Press. Before
deciding, he discussed the subject with me, and we agreed
in preferring the greater simplicity of a single surname.
Mr. P. Delahunty, assistant to Mr. Grant, head of the
Sub-Department of Fermentation Industries in the College
of Technology, saw much of Ronald when he was working
there. They used to leave the College together, and
discussed many subjects as they walked and at other times.
Mr. Delahunty remembers how delighted Ronald was with
1 The Mission to Undergraduates.
286 MANCHESTER
his motor-car and how much he admired the Cheshire
roads. He also recalls a visit to a music-hall when
' there were several interruptions from some students who
occupied a box. Ronald, who recognized one of them,
expressed his disgust at their behaviour in very strong
terms, and felt much tempted to go up and eject them :
indeed, I think he would have done so had not the manage-
ment descended on the party and managed to subdue them.
I don't think music-halls appealed to Ronald, though he
seemed to enjoy the strictly musical turns. He told me
the same evening that he once visited a night club in
London and that it had bored him to death.'
To Hilda.
'April 29, 1914.
' I have been thinking of you often, when it gets espe-
cially hot in the works about io.oa.rn., sitting in the garden
reading, and being amused by Janet, while the birds are
singing and all that sort of thing. But in case Mother has
not got as many flowers out as she should have, I am
sending a few carnations to-morrow. I hope they won't
be dead. To-day there has been a thick fog all day, so
good old Manch. has hardly looked at its best. Next
week I will tell you about my chemistry work, and about
a Boys' Club I am going to this Friday.'
' May 6, 1914.
4 Thank you so very much for the photos which I am so
flad to have for my book. They remind me of one of the
est week-ends I have ever had.
4 1 am so glad the carnations are nice. I am sending
you a novel which I loved, and perhaps you will like it
also, though I am a little frightened, as you seem so
interested in Egyptian History ! But perhaps you can find
a spare moment to read it ! ! '
The account of Ronald's work at Mather & Platt's is
introduced by memories of his old friend Claude Hardy:
'Work started at 8.0 a.m. which meant getting up at
about 6.45 in order to have breakfast and get down in
time. At 12.30 there was an interval of an hour for lunch,
and we knocked off at 5.50 p.m. On the top of that Ronald
J 9 X 4 287
used to go to the College of Technology for two hours,
two nights a week. Sometimes in the summer we used to
lunch off sandwiches, &c., on a plot of land outside the
works. The surroundings rather spoilt the picnic effect.
It was rather a monotonous life at times, and I was very
glad to have Ronald's companionship. He never seemed
to feel depressed, and always had a cheery word for every
one. His friends know well enough what his loss means
to them ; and they also know what it means to his country.
' Ronald was very popular at the works among all
classes. Of course there were some who made up to him
because he was rich, but he knew how to deal with them.
He took a great interest in the boys and used to go and
see their clubs, and sometimes he would take a party of
them to the Victoria Park swimming bath.
' One of the funniest recollections I have of our time in
Manchester was one morning catching the early tram
down to the works. I left the house just before Ronald,
and just as I got on the tram it started off. I looked back
to see if he was coming and saw him sprinting along with
both hands full and an apple in his mouth! He caught
the tram all right.
' One week-end Ronald went to a dance at Chester, and
towards the end K. G. Macleod, who was one of the party,
bet that he could give Ronald 5 yards start in a hundred
and beat him. So then and there in evening dress they
adjourned to the main street and put the matter to the
test. I am not sure, but I believe Macleod just won
the bet.'
Ronald soon took to the work at Mather & Platt's and
had only been in Manchester a few weeks when Margaret
wrote to me that he already looked ' the typical engineer,
with perfectly filthy hands ! ' And Mr. Grant, who taught
Ronald fermentation, remembers how he would laugh
heartily as he held up his oily hands and say 'a nice pair
of paws to go into a lady's drawing-room with '.
The following extracts from three letters to his mother
describe Ronald's first impressions of work and workers :
'21 Sept., 1913.
' Friday we went to see Mather's : and I was introduced
to my foreman, in the textile machinery department where
288 MANCHESTER
I am going to start. This machinery is most allied to the
biscuit-making machinery, so it will be interesting seeing
a bit of work on it. The foreman, a man named Mundy,
said I was a "fine lad", but seemed disappointed when
I said I hadn't done any work of this kind before. We
start in to-morrow. Yesterday afternoon I went over and
played for Liverpool at Liverpool. We won 48-0, and
nad quite a jolly game. I have also fixed up 2 evenings
a week on bread-making and confectionery at the School
[now College] of Technology/
' 28 Sept., 1913.
1 1 have done nothing this week except chipping and
filing cast iron! But I am going to have a change next
week.
' I am greatly struck with the class of mechanic up here.
He is very superior, and you can't spot which is the work-
man and which the gentleman apprentice. A boy goes
into apprenticeship at 14, and at 21 is earning about 155.
and comes out, and in 2 years time from then earns 395. a
week. This is how organized labour scores. Then again
the Union steps in and says no man shall work later than
8.30 on overtime, and a hundred employers can't do other-
wise than agree. At the same time if say ten men were
working on a job, which is estimated to take a week to do,
and they succeed in doing it in say 5 days, the difference
in amount between their total wages for 7 and 5 days is
divided between them as a bonus, in proportion to their
wages. So they are encouraged to work fast.
'The bread-making class on Tuesday and Thursday
evenings is very interesting. I am at present analysing
Standard bread ! '
' 28 Oct., 1913.
' It is more interesting now, as I have a machine of my
own to build, so you get a good variety of jobs. I have
just started the sugar analysis.'
Ronald's later experiences at Mather and Platt's are
described in letters to Hilda, who, having taken the
Preliminary Science Examinations as an Oxford Home
Student, was interested to know some of the details of
his work.
1914 289
' 29 April, 1914.
' We had a rather fine blow-up to-day. Outside our
little cabin, in which are all the instruments for testing the
machines, is a big switch-board. On it are the bus bars
connected with the different mains. At one spot there are
two bars thus : [drawing] A. is at 220 volts, B. is at Zero,
i.e. is earthed.
* A fellow was making some connections and by mistake
put a connection across A B. Now you remember Ohm's
jr
Law I = ^ ? Well, E = 220 volts, and R = about say
oooooi ohm, as it was a big copper connecting piece
220 ill
I = = 220,000,000 amperes a dead short
oooooi
circuit.
' All I heard was an enormous bang and a big flash, and
another bang, as the large switch (automatic) came out.
When the current gets very big, the switch comes out
automatically, and breaks the circuit. The connection was
burnt right through. It 's quite exciting work. We test
insulations with anything up to 10,000 volts. You know
500 volts will often kill a man. But we are very careful, so
it 's quite safe. It 's very interesting.'
'6 May, 1914.
' I have just been to the baths near here with several
chaps from Mather's. They are fine baths.
' Next week I am going to do a week's night work to try
what it is like. It means going in at 9.30 p.m. and out at
8.0 a.m. I'll write and tell you about it next week.'
1 13 May, 1914.
' You will be surprised at this paper, but you know that
I am on night work this week. It is now 2.30 a.m., and
when one comes to think of it, it is a curious place to be in.
Here I am sitting at a table in our test room. The
tester with me is snoring, lying across three chairs ;
above are the quivering needles of the recording instru-
ments, outside the drone of the machines we are testing,
and beyond perfect blackness, broken here and there
by solitary lights which light up certain machines on
which men are working all night. It is quite an eerie
sensation.
u
290 MANCHESTER
' You see, the process is this. You take your motor or
dynamo and fasten it on its bed, and connect it by a belt
or pulley to a dynamo or motor. Then you make your
correct connections on your switch-board, and start the
machine and give it its full load. And then you simply
take readings of your instruments every hour for 4, 6, or
8 hours. After that you stop it and measure the tempera-
ture of its various parts. You do sundry other tests, but
they are all much the same.
' We are pretty slack to-night, and shall get away about
6.15. Yesterday I got in at 10 p.m. and did not leave till
8 a.m. Then I went home and had a large breakfast, and
read the paper. Then I felt sleepy and went to bed at 10,
and didn t wake up till 4.15!! Then I dressed, went to
see Margaret, came back, had some dinner, and went down
to the Tec. for 2| hours, and then came back here. So
you see there was not much time over to spare. That 's
why I am writing letters to-night.
' Hullo, I must take some readings.
4 Will you show this to the family ? '
Mr. Delahunty remembers Ronald's 'keen interest in
engineering. The last time that I spoke to him on the
subject he was busy making a complete working model of
one of Mather and Platt's fire extinguishers, and I made
for him a few glass bulbs containing acid to use along
with it. He was also very fond of the slide-rule and
could not understand why chemists so seldom made use
of it.'
The following letter was written by Sir William Mather
to Ronald's uncle, Mr. Alfred Palmer, the senior director
of Huntley and Palmers. It is dated 30 July, 1914, a week
after Ronald had left Manchester.
' It is extremely gratifying to have your assurance and
that of your nephew Poulton that his sojourn with us was
not only a pleasant experience, but also useful in some
degree in widening his views and knowledge.
' On the other hand I can truly say that we never have
had so charming a personality in our works as he proved
to be. Every one from my son downwards deeply regretted
his leaving and will never forget his visit. He attracted me
in the highest degree on the few occasions when I had the
1913
opportunity of talking with him. It would have been
a very happy result of your nephew's sojourn had he
been so circumstanced that his future career had not been
determined by fortune and connections before he came to
us. In that case perhaps he might have remained with us
to make a career !
' It was a pleasure to us to meet your lamented brother's
wishes and I regret deeply that he has passed on without
realizing, though I am sure he must have felt, that your
nephew would be a success.'
From Sir William Mather.
'The tragic, yet heroic, death of your noble son has
deeply affected me, and I feel it would be a relief to write
you a few lines of appreciation.
' In the course of a long life, closely associated with
young men of all classes in many ways, but especially as
pupils in our Engineering Works, I have never met any
one, whose character, capacity, manliness, and charming
personality have made so lasting an impression as that of
your lamented son Ronald. At first sight, when my old
friend Palmer introduced him with the request that he
might enter our Works, I heartily consented under the
influence of irresistible attraction.
' After he had been at the Works a short time, I heard
from my son and others of Ronald's extraordinary influence
on our young men, and the high regard for him shown by
the workmen in all the departments.
4 1 regretted that he was not following the career of an
engineer, as nothing would have pleased me more than to
afford him every opportunity in our Works of reaching the
highest position, of which I truly believed he was capable.
His modesty, and total absence of self-consciousness, his
refined and gentle nature combined with fine physique and
moral strength are qualities which would have carried him
far in any career he might have chosen.'
Mr. G. W. Palmer's will, appearing prominently in the
papers a few weeks after Ronald had entered as a pupil,
made a considerable impression in the Works. Indeed,
Mr. Delahunty tells me that he heard of some disappoint-
ment being felt that Ronald did not signalize the occasion
in some obvious way, such as paying the fares all round
u 2
292 MANCHESTER
when going home in a tram ! One action that he took has
only come to my knowledge through his correspondence,
among which I found the following letter from his foreman,
Mr. J. Mundy. It is dated January 5, 1915, when Ronald
was training his men at Chelmsford and could not be
present. The 250 parcels were sent to the wives and
families of all employees in the Army or interned in
Germany. The inclusion of Capt. L. Mather's son,
symbolizing the community of partners and work-people is
especially characteristic.
' DEAR RONNIE,
'Will you please accept my apologies for not writing
before to thank you for the very handsome photos you
were so kind as to send ; they are the best I have seen,
and you look exceedingly well in them. The military
moustache suits you very well indeed.
' The proposed party for the children fell through as
a party, as, on going round to visit every wife and family
wnich we did within a radius of twelve miles from the
works we found that most of them could not afford even
the small amount it would cost to come to one central
meeting place in Manchester. Therefore the Committee
arranged to make a parcel up and present them personally
on Christmas Eve to every one within the twelve mile
radius. This was arranged and done, but it meant a good
deal of work for the Committee, but we were well repaid
for our trouble for the pleasure it gave to the wives and
children. The parcels each consisted of :
i patriotic enamelled box with three " Excelda " hand-
kerchiefs, i tin of garden roller biscuits, with either knitted
jerseys for boys or skirts etc. for girls, i book for each
child, an assortment of Christmas cards, three new pennies,
and i box of chocolates.
'I must again thank you most heartily for your very
generous gift, which added so much to the pleasure of the
youngsters. We had all the parcels on show in the dining-
rooms for two days previous to the distribution and they
looked very well indeed. Sir William came down to have
a look at them and was so well pleased that he kindly
insisted that he must be allowed to do something, so he
presented each wife or female dependent with a knitted
1913 i9 T 4 2 93
woollen vest which we had to present to each of them on
New Year's Eve. So there was another busy time. All
who lived beyond the twelve mile radius were posted.
Lt. Loris Mather is at Southport with the Engineers, so
there was a parcel for his young son like the others, except
that there was a Teddy-bear instead of jersey.
' Hoping you are keeping in good health as I am myself,
and wishing you every fortune and success in your career,
with kindly remembrances from all who knew you at
M. and P.'s.
1 1 remain,
'Yours sincerely,
' J. MUNDY.'
It has already been explained that in addition to his
work at Mather & Platt's, Ronald attended evening classes
at the College of Technology, Manchester.
Mr. James Grant, head of the Fermentation Industries
Sub-Department, has recalled memories of Ronald during
the time that he was working with him. Mr. Grant has
consulted Ronald's fellow-students, but the assistant, who
saw much of him, died in January, 1913.
4 Whilst with us he endeared himself to all, both staff
and fellow-students. He helped the students in their work
whenever he could, was always unassuming, and made
himself quite at home amongst them. He was always
hard-working and set a high standard to those about
him.
'The students often wished to discuss Football with
him, but on this subject Poulton was not to be drawn. He
appeared to avoid it as much as possible. One man, a
Scot, bothered him very much for his autograph, saying
" Meester Poulton, you might gie us your signature ". To
this Poulton shook his head ; but one evening after constant
requests, he sat down and wrote :
" Dear -- , I never give any one my signature.
" Yours faithfully,
" R. W. POULTON."
' At first the man was dumbfounded and then, grasping
the fact, shouted out "Man, ye hae done it". How the
fellows in the laboratory enjoyed the joke!
294 MANCHESTER
' To his future in the Works at Reading he looked for-
ward with a certain amount of anxiety and trepidation : for
he felt that the responsibility was very great, and he had
high ideals.
' I told him once about his uncle coming to see me to
talk over his work in my laboratory and how he laughed
when he heard of the words with which Mr. Palmer ended
the conversation : "I don't mind telling you about our
place, but you shall never go over it in my life-time."
' Poulton told me just before he left Manchester that his
work had been very happy and enjoyable, and that he
hoped to come again and spend more happy hours in the
Laboratory. But that was not to be.
' By his death the country has lost a man possessed of
the power and ability as well as the ardent desire to leave
the world better for his sojourn in it.'
To Hilda.
' 6 May, 1914.
' I said I would say something about my work at the
Tec. Well I am analysing butter and margarine.
' Margarine can be made from any oil pretty well, i. e.
beef fat, cocoanut oil, linseed oil, cotton-seed oil, herring
oil, whale oil. In each case a white substance consisting
of stearin, palmitin, and plein is made in most cases by
boiling the oil and driving hydrogen through it in the
presence of a catalytic agent like spongy platinum or
nickel. The substances so formed are ethereal salts of
stearic, palmitic, or oleic acid and they have a formula of
the form C 3 H 5 (O.OC.C 17 H 35 ) 3 . The hydrogen is picked
up by the unsaturated compounds in the oils, and this
substance is then formed. Then you melt this white solid
(it looks like candle tallow), and add 10 % butter-milk, and
some colouring matter and some butter flavour and there
is margarine ! ! It is easy to test it, to show its difference
from butter. But it is nearly impossible to discover from
which source the stearin etc. has been produced. The
tests are very interesting and quite simple, but it would
take rather long to describe.'
After his regular work at Mather and Platt's and the
College of Technology was over, Ronald spent a few days
in visiting firms and gaining varied experience. On June
22, 1914, we left Liverpool for the Australian meeting of
1914 295
the British Association, and Ronald came to Oxford to say
good-bye on June 12-13. On July 15 he wrote from
Oxford, where he had gone to play in the lawn tennis
tournament, to me at the Reception Room, Melbourne,
telling us of the Manchester doings :
' I finished up at Mather's and said good-bye etc., and
then I went and inspected various firms. I went first to
the Lancashire Dynamo Company, and compared their
works with ours at Mather's. There are a lot of their
motors at the Factory. Then I went over the Stuart St.
Power Station. It is a wonderful place, great engines
doing about 50000 horse power, roaring away. Then on the
Tuesday, Max, Margaret, and I went to Barlow and Jones'
big spinning and weaving mill. It was extremely interest-
ing, and it was a fine 1000 B.H.P. [Brake Horse Power]
horizontal engine that ran their works. Then on the
Wednesday I spent the day at the Birchenwood Colliery
near Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is electrically equipped
with M. and P.'s gas engines and motors, and they make
entirely bye-products, Ammonia, H 2 SO 4 , Benzol, Pitch, etc.
I went down a shaft and saw 2 M. and P. pumps doing
1800 gallons a minute and lifting the water loco ft.
' I go to Manchester to-night.'
On July 22, he wrote to his mother at the Sydney
Reception Room :
' Here I am spending my last evening in Manchester,
and, having written to you, I am going to spend it in a
" picture palace " with Hardy as a farewell show.'
After describing the tennis tournament he continued :
' Then I went to Rugby and played cricket against the
School and stayed with Claude Evers, and came up here on
Monday. That day I spent at Cammell Laird's ship-
building place : Tuesday at Vickers where they make the
big guns 15 inch and shells. It was a wonderful place.
You should have seen the armour plates, 13 inches thick,
cut like cheese by an oxyhydrogen flame which simply
burnt the steel through ! I believe the burglars use the
same apparatus against safes. This morning I went with
Max to see a cotton-printing Mill of Mr. Godlee's. And
this afternoon I spent at Crossfield's Soapworks very
296
MANCHESTER
exciting, as I got hold of their Social Secretary and talked
to him for 3 hours on their social schemes, and got lots
of tips. The soap-making was very interesting, and I carry
a smell of soap on me which will never leave me, as I
dropped by mistake a drop of ottar of roses (concentrated
solution) on my coat. To-morrow I go to Westinghouse,
and then to Reading, ready for Camp.'
XIII
WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS OF THE NORTH
He was one of those to whom we looked forward to be a leader of
'Industrial England' in the near future. He had the world before
him and the world is the loser by his death. JAMES GRANT, of the
Manchester Municipal College of Technology.
RONALD took the keenest interest in the working-men of
the north, and he had the opportunity of studying them
under very favourable conditions during his months of work
with a firm whose senior partner, Sir William Mather
an employer for over 50 years is one who holds very
strong and hopeful views on the harmonizing of Capital
and Labour.
Mr. James Grant remembers Ronald telling him, in the
intervals of some analysis in his department, about his
machine work at Mather & Platt's and the long hours it
entailed.
1 Yet he appeared to enjoy it very much, especially the
spirit of comradeship exhibited by his fellow-workers who
often helped him, for they were proud to be associated
with him. Ronald loved telling how one of them would
often say " Here sonny, let me show you how it is done".
Ronald told me of a talk with one fellow-worker at
Manchester who had subscribed to the Memorial to Alfred
Russel Wallace and wanted to know whether the Poulton
concerned with it was a relation of his. ' A friend of the
working-man ' was his companion's description of Wallace.
Mr. Delahunty recalls an incident that took place soon
after Ronald bought his motor-car :
' He had the misfortune to run over and hurt a dog.
The accident was quite unavoidable and the fault was
certainly not his, for ne was travelling at about six miles an
298 WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS
hour. However, the owner commenced to abuse him;
whereupon the passers by who were witnesses of the
accident took up the cudgels on Ronald's behalf, and slated
the dog's owner unmercifully. I mention the little incident
because Ronald was so pleased at the proof that work-
ing folk were inspired by a strong sense of justice which
they were not afraid to express, even at the expense of
one of their own class.'
The same friend has kindly recalled memories of other
talks about working-men with Ronald :
' He seemed particularly anxious to study the workman
in his relation to the employer, and to understand the
attitude on the part of the employer which would be most
likely to produce harmony. When I offered the opinion
that there should be no familiarity between the employer
and any employee during working-hours, as it would be
almost certain to lead to jealousy and lack of discipline,
he agreed with me, but only after a considerable pause,
and he seemed rather sorry that I should hold such an
opinion. And I am sure that, had he been an employer,
he would have cultivated the acquaintance of his employees
after business hours, and would have made the comfort of
the workpeople and their families one of his first considera-
tions not in any spirit of condescension, but as a duty
and a pleasure. He fully realized the responsibility
brought by the possession of money, and maintained that
it could not be better spent by an employer than in study-
ing and providing for the comfort and well-being of the
work-people.
' He did not fail to admire what he termed the sturdy
independence of the workmen of the north, and I remember
him contrasting it with the dependent position of the agri-
cultural labourer and farm hand in the south, where he
maintained that conditions were still akin to serfdom, and
where the Lord of the Manor was practically the controller
of their every action.
' He was certainly an admirer of Trades Unionism, but
he agreed that it had a tendency to kill individual merit,
which was the reason I gave to him for being partly
opposed to it. His contention was that if all employers
were just and honest the working man would be better
without Trades Unionism, but that, as things were, it was
the workman's only redress against exploitation by the
OF THE NORTH 299
employer, and that as such it was a very valuable weapon
to hold.'
Incidents and words already recorded will show that
Ronald would be sure to listen with regret to the opinion
that it was sometimes right to restrain the spontaneous
expressions of good will and comradeship which were
a part of his natural self. But I am confident that he
recognized the soundness of the conclusion, just as he
came increasingly to realize as his friend R. W. Dugdale
has told me the essential importance of discipline in
Boys' Clubs and the necessity for restraining any words
or actions that might tend to weaken it.
As regards Trades Unions I remember a conversation
with him on one of the recent occasions when the men had
thrown over their own officials and repudiated engage-
ments entered into by them. ' That 's hopeless ' was his
comment the same spirit and the same words with which
he once met an attempt to dispute the ruling of a referee
at football. On the subject of strikes I once suggested to
him that men working on the railways, on coal, or some
other essential industry had an unreasonable advantage in
the pressure they could put upon the community. He did
not say much at the time, but later on, when he was
returning to Manchester and I was seeing him off at the
Oxford station, he suddenly returned to the subject and
said that he agreed the advantage was unreasonable and
that such strikes should be prevented by the scale of the
wages and compulsory arbitration, involving, I think he
suggested, nationalization ; although, in this country,
nationalization is unlikely to lead to financial success or to
wages as good as those paid by enterprise independent of
government control.
Mr. Delahunty and no doubt many other friends con-
sidered that Ronald too much idealized the working-man.
But belief in an ideal is the surest step towards gaining it.
It was a wonderful thing in one so young that Ronald's
ideals were never lowered nor his belief lessened by
a growing experience of human failure. He never shirked
3 oo WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS
the facts ; he looked things in the face, and still believed
that man was essentially what he wished him to be, and
that, given conditions that were fair and just, his ideal
would be realized. Love which thinketh no evil was the
firm foundation of his faith in his fellow-men and on this
again was built his sure hope for them.
The Boys' Clubs of Manchester were studied with the
deepest interest by Ronald. Mr. Delahunty tells me that
they formed the chief topic of his conversation, and that he
continually dwelt upon their influence for good. I found
among his papers nearly four pages of foolscap covered by
notes which he intended to use in the foundation of a new
Boys' Club in Reading. Although under 25, he had had
nine years' experience in London, Oxford, Reading, and in
summer Camps : he brought a fresh and sympathetic, and
yet singularly mature and balanced judgement to bear on
the problems which were the central interest of his life,
and I do not doubt that his notes and comments on the
Manchester Clubs, printed below, will be of value to those
who seek to strengthen and extend these powerful forces
for the well-being of the community.
' Some Notes on Manchester Boys' Clubs, from visits to the
Adelphi, Crossley \Openshaw Lads' Club], Ancoats,
Hey rod St., Salford.
' I am just noting the following points.
' i. Club Buildings, Some of tnese are very ideal and
Eerhaps the Salford one is the best. Here the main
uilding is formed round the large gymnasium. The
objection urged is that it is noisy for the Classes, and also
for the gymnasium instruction.
' Fives Courts are almost universal, and should be copied :
also a rough room is nearly always present, i.e. in
Heyrod St., Crossley, for playing football ; but the point
is raised Is it good to free people from discipline when
you are trying to instil it into them ?
' Gymnasiums are universal and very well equipped
(except Heyrod St.). There is also nearly always washing
and bathing accommodation.
'2. Size of Clubs. These clubs are nearly all too large,
OF THE NORTH 301
varying from 1700 (Ancoats) to about 300. This usually
includes a number of boys at school, and even as young as
10 (Ancoats). When as young as this there is usually
a separate department. But this large size prevents the
personal feeling between staff and boys which is the most
important thing in a club. In Crossley this feeling is
absent, and everywhere it seems reduced because of the
small number of staff. Boys are often divided into rooms
(13-16) (16-20) i. e. at Salford.
' 3. Discipline is very good worst at Heyrod St., perhaps
best at Adelphi. It is perfectly easy to leave any room
alone, and mere will be quiet. The Gymnasium Class
(especially Adelphi) showed great discipline : there was no
ragging.
'.4. Type of Boy. This discipline was largely due to the
regulations enforced (and of course to the old standing of
the Clubs). These regulations stopped or drove out the
rougher boys, and from enquiries I find that none of these
clubs caters for or touches the poorest boy. This is
significant. They are largely apprentices in the skilled
trades (in Crossley 90 %), and more often than not sons of
tradesmen 1 parents (i.e. Trades Union men). This is
reflected in their dress (especially at Crossley, and the old
members of Salford and Heyrod St.).
' Such Clubs have the immense advantage that they can
call upon these members, who can do something definite
and useful for their Club i.e. printing Souvenir for
Adelphi, and painting Club premises, making switch-board
at Salford, and putting down concrete, and in many other
ways. They also have the advantage of dealing with the
north-country boy who strikes me very greatly to be more
independent, and full of initiative, and more capable of
doing a job by himself, without much prompting and
pushing. Their loyalty is a real thing, and is made much
use of i.e. at Salford certain boys take turn and turn
about to tend the gas-engine, and a boy of 15, three days
a week, looked after the cloak-room ; at Adelphi they give
out games and look after draughts room. At Adelphi an
old member teaches carving which he himself learnt there,
and the Gymnasium instructor is an old boy.
1 In Manchester, and generally in engineering circles, a ' trades-
man ' does not mean a shopkeeper, but a ' man who works at a skilled
trade ', who would generally, but not necessarily, be a member of a
Trades Union.
302 WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS
' At some Clubs Rosette Boys or Instructors are tried
i. e. at Adelphi where they are successful ; at Heyrod St.
(they are Sergeants in the Boys' Brigade) ; tried and failed
at Ancoats; at Salford they have a successful Workers'
Committee, which is entirely elected by the Club. They
use their old members a good lot, but officers among the
boys do not seem to be successful except at Adelphi.
'At Salford their old members are kept on till they
marry or leave. This is much the same at other Clubs,
there being a special room for them. Heyrod St. alone
has a regular Old Members' Club.
' 5. All the usual [games] with Fives and Ping-pong
both very popular, and a good game of Football with
2 goal-posts, 2 draughtsmen and 2 pieces of stick.
'6. Classes are shown in pamphlets. Outside book-
classes there are fretwork, carpentering, &c. See papers.
'7. No prayers on week-days; voluntary service on
Sundays. This seems universal.
'8. Relations between officers and boys satisfactory in
all but two ; but large clubs make it difficult. They do not
seem to me to be so sympathetic to one another as down
South. But they are of course naturally more reserved.
' 9. Subscriptions : see Reports.'
Ronald had noted a few figures showing, at Ancoats,
6d. entrance and 6d. per month for Seniors, 2< entrance
and id. weekly for Juniors, id. and \d. for Schoolboys ; at
Adelphi, 6d. entrance and zd. weekly for the Men's Club,
and for members under twenty-one %d. and id. Roughly
everywhere subscriptions are about as above.
The receipts of various kinds from the boys themselves
were noted down by Ronald from the accounts of the
previous financial year. The total contribution from the
members was about two-thirds of the year's expenditure at
Adelphi; 401 out of .1,036 at Ancoats; .642 out of
1,430 at Hugh Oldham.
' Interesting points about Clubs.
' Adelphi. i. A Club motto, and a new motto for each
year.
2. Rosette boys.
3. Caps not to be worn in Club.
OF THE NORTH 303
4. Cards of membership are given, and are
exchanged for games, when games are
required.
5. Weekly news.
6. A Christmas party is held.
7. Old Boys Association.
[Also added in margin] Boy-Scouts, Bank, Chess,
Library, News Room.
Hugh Oldham [largely run by the Manchester Grammar
School].
1. Penny Bank.
2. Orchestra.
3. Prefects.
Ancoats. i. Week-end cottage.
2. Swimming Club.
3. Poor man s lawyer.
Crossley. i. Qualification for Camp attendances at
Sunday School and 30 attendances of two
full hours each at Evening Classes.
2. Private Sports Ground.
Salford. i. Junior Branch run entirely by Old Boys.
2. Fives Court.
3. Dances.
4. Male voice choir.
5. Labour bureau.'
I am indebted to the kindness of the Secretaries of the
Clubs in clearing up any uncertainties and correcting any
errors in these hurriedly written notes. It has not been
thought necessary to indicate the few corrections that have
been made.
I am informed by the Secretary of the Adelphi Club
that on Oct. 21, 1917, he knew of 824 members serving and
1 16 killed.
On another sheet of foolscap Ronald had noted down in
pencil some chief points to be emphasized in the new Boys'
Club he hoped to assist in founding at Reading. It will
be seen that his Manchester experience was fully utilized
in these notes, which may yet help in carrying out his
dearest wishes for the town he loved.
3 o 4 WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS
' Thoughts for New Club 1914.
(1) We must have new premises.
(a) In them we mignt get a troop of Scouts attached
to reinforce our ranks. They could come in
on the other nights when we were not open.
(b) We must arrange about Evening Classes and the
formation of hobbies.
(c) Penny Bank, Library and papers.
(d) Ping-pong, billiard-table, football, fives, draughts
and chess.
(e) Swimming Club.
(2) Club motto and badge.
(3) Prefects if possible.
(4) Caps not to be worn in Club.
(5) ? Cards of membership and weekly news. Premature.
(6) Promise of lantern (3).
(7) Christmas party.
(8) Labour bureau.
(9) ? Qualification for Camp.'
To this list of important points to be aimed at in Club
management and Club life I am able to add the principles
which Ronald came to look upon as most essential. They
are well remembered by his friend Capt. C. P. Symonds,
who writes :
'After our first meeting at the New Romney camp of
1909 I saw a good deal of him at Boys' Clubs, and later on
talked with him quite a lot on the subject.
' He was imbued with the idea that one of the first
lessons a boy needed was that of self-respect, and this
engendered in him two principles : (i) His Utopian Boys'
Club should be self-supporting in all things, and with this
end in view he would nave the members pay their weekly
subscription or forfeit their membership. This not only as
a first step towards his ideal, but as a practical economic
measure : pauperization was a bad thing : and so from
both sides he combated the great desire of the slum boy
to get " something for nothing ".
' (2) His second principle was that a Club should be really
democratic : he was always in favour of rules made by the
boys for themselves, and was much impressed by the
autonomy of the Clubs he saw in Manchester.
'I often talked with him and consulted him about the
OF THE NORTH 305
difficulties I found myself in helping to organize the Rugby
Boys' Club, and I remember very well his saying what
I felt at the time to be very true, that a member of the staff
should not be satisfied with going down just to talk to the
boys he liked : any one who liked boys at all could get
plenty of amusement out of that. We, with the advantages
of our position and education, ought to do more for them.
I had always felt this myself, and to hear this from him
gave me at the time much encouragement.
' He believed in showing the boys plainly that we were
going out of our way and giving up something to try and
help them, and he believed that they should feel that it was
the Christian spirit that led us to do it. This sounds prig-
gish, but nothing was farther from him : he had the good
sense to know that the more intelligent boys would ask
themselves why the toffs came down evening after evening
when they might have been enjoying themselves "up
West ". And it was right that they should have the true
answer. He wanted them to feel that a higher influence
was at work, and partly for that reason also ne would have
prayers every evening: it was a constant regret to him
that this was not the custom at the Rugby Clubs.'
The following recollections of the Rev. W. Temple no
doubt refer to the new Club which Ronald hoped to
found :
' Ronnie once consulted me on the question whether the
Boys' Club at Reading should be limited to boys in
the employment of the firm. To this he objected on the
ground that it made the work, which should have been one
of personal friendship, into an extension of discipline, and
he desired that the Club should be open to all Reading
boys, though naturally the majority of the members would
be in the employment of the firm. In the Club he did not
want at all to be the benevolent employer but simply the
friend of any boys who came. I strongly upheld him in
this but I was merely supporting a decision which he had
already reached. The point illustrates however his whole
attitude with regard to the relations of employers and
work-folk.'
Mr. Dimbleby has also written on the same subject :
' Ronald spoke to me at one time about starting a Cen-
tral Club in Reading, open to boys in any parish, but this
x
306 WORKING MEN AND BOYS' CLUBS
meant a big responsibility, financial and otherwise. Had
Ronald lived, I mink the scheme would have matured no
doubt chiefly at his expense but the building, equipment
and maintenance of such a Club would have involved
a large outlay.
' Ronald's attitude to boys was certainly that indicated
by Mr. Temple in his letter. '
The love of Reading and his work there, his memories
of it and his hopes for it, penetrated Ronald's whole life in
Manchester; and he knew that he was not forgotten. He
kept in touch with the Club and heard that, under the
management of the Rev. R. W. Morley and Mr. B. Perkins,
the numbers were keeping up well, and occasionally he
was able to be present. In addition to the letter from
Mr. B. Perkins from which I have quoted on p. 277 he
received numbers of letters from Reading boys telling him
of doings in the Club, of their football matches and
especially of a great Christmas performance, ' The Birth-
place of Podgers ', for which they were preparing. More
than one of them wrote out the whole list of characters and
the names of those who were going to play them. A few
words which must have given him great pleasure are
quoted below :
From F. Harding.
1 1 am glad to see that you are again chosen to represent
England. This tells me you are still in form. Shall be
glad to see you down the Club again.'
From W. C. Bushell.
1 We hope to go down to New Romney again and we
mean to enjoy ourselves like we did when we went with
you.'
From A. Alway.
1 Every boy of the Club sends his best wishes to you,
and hopes to see you again before long.'
Only recently, nearly three years after his death, I have
been told one of those little things which endeared Ronald
to the boys of Manchester no less than to his young friends
OF THE NORTH 307
who wrote from Reading and longed for his return. It
comes to me through Mr. T. Gear Williams of the China
Inland Mission, who has kindly written :
' The incident about which you inquire was told me by
a young friend of mine, Duncan B. Hogg, who was for
some time a gentleman apprentice at Mather & Platt's and
was working in the same shop with your son. He told me
what a splendid fellow he was, and one who possessed
such a large-hearted interest in young lads and boys. He
also bore testimony to the beautiful simplicity of his
character, and absence of " side " or " swank . My young
friend said to me: "This little incident will show you the
greatness of his character : one day in leaving the work-
shops and going down the street, a little chap who was
attached to him was awaiting his coming. He immediately
joined hands and walked down the street with this small
companion, and then with all the pride of hero-worship, the
little youngster pulled out of his grimy pocket a sweet, and
said ' Mr. Poulton, I have had some sweets given to me
and I have kept this for you ' : and like a regular man and
a gentleman, he took it from the little lad and ate it! "'
X 2
XIV
OUTBREAK OF WAR: CHELMSFORD
His was the sweetest disposition I have ever known, and there are
few left like him in the world. We are like the officers and men :
we both adored him. Mrs. GRIPPER, Ronald's hostess at Redcot,
Chelmsford.
THE outbreak of war found our family scattered, my
wife, Janet, and I in Australia with the British Association,
the others in England. As soon as we were informed by
cable that Ronald had volunteered for foreign service, we
looked for a speedy voyage home, selecting the Suez and
Mediterranean route by the 'Malwa', sailing from Adelaide
Aug. 27. Thus, after five weeks we left the brilliant air
and skies of the southern continent where everything that
hospitality and wise forethought could give had been
splendidly achieved, although overcast all the time by the
darkest cloud of human history. With lights dimmed and
150 miles out of our course we steamed northward, learn-
ing on Sept. 4 from the Cocos Keeling wireless of the fall
of Lemberg and the French Government's removal to
Bordeaux. At last, on Sept. 20, Aden, and a letter from
Ronald written Aug. 28 from Chelmsford. It was the first
we could have received since the outbreak of war. The
earlier part, given in greater detail in other letters, is here
omitted.
' DARLING PARENTS,
' At Swindon, Margaret and Teddie came up as they had
the same idea as that in your wire, i. e. the great responsi-
bilities, &c. But my mind was made up, after thought.
Nothing counts till this war is settled and Germany is beaten.
You can't realize in Australia what is happening here.
Germany has to be smashed, i. e. I mean the military party,
THE READING BOYS' CLUB CAMP AT NEW ROMNEY.
From photographs by W. Dimbleby.
RONALD
REV. R. W. MORLEY F. COVEY ' WALLY
1914.
B. PERKINS (standing)
The cook, Sergt. Warren, standing by window, was called up and left
early on Friday, July 31.
[Facing p. 309.
NEW ROMNEY 309
and everybody realizes, and everybody is volunteering.
And those who are best trained are most wanted, and so I
should be a skunk to hold back. No more now as we live
a very strenuous life, and I must go to bed. I am
extremely fit, and we are a very cheery party.'
After the cable message we knew what the letter must
tell us, and now we had received it we had nothing left to
long for except home. The ' Malwa ' reached Plymouth
on Oct. 5, and five days later we were at Chelmsford.
I must now go back to Ronald in England and describe
the part that he played in the momentous events of
August 1914.
He left Manchester on July 23, stayed the night at
Rugby, and joined the Reading Boys' Camp at New
Romney on July 25. From the account written by Mr. B.
Perkins in the log, the Camp was evidently a great success.
Thirty boys were present. Ronald 'was the life of the
place. His previous experiences of New Romney being
very numerous, his advice was very welcome. Unfor-
tunately for us all he was away for the Wednesday, the
day we spent at Folkestone.' This was the day on
which Ronald had arranged to meet some old friends he
had not seen for a long time, and Lord's, on the first day
of the Rugby-Marlborough match, was fixed upon as the
meeting-place. His friend Cecil D. Webb remembers it
as their last meeting, and his last sight was of Ronald
congratulating a young member of the XI on a plucky
innings.
W. Dimbleby recalls ' the delight of the boys and the
cheer they raised when they saw him coming across the
links to the Camp on his return '.
A few more passages describing Ronald's last Camp at
New Romney are quoted from the log :
' Fortunately this shadowing cloud of war just missed
the marring of our Camp.
' The happiest of spirits and the truest feeling of sports-
manship were the marked features of that long (not long
enough !) happy hour.'
3 io OUTBREAK OF WAR
The end of the account spoke of the Camp as one ' that
brought us very close to each other and taught us that
after all one of the best things in life is a true and real
friendship '.
Ronald returned to Reading on Aug. i, the Saturday
before the War, and he and C. T. Waldy spent the greater
part of the evening with their friend Mr. Dryland Haslam,
who recalls these memories of their talk together :
' I wish I could tell you much about that Saturday even-
ing, but those days were so full of happenings that it is
difficult to recall details. The two men took the matter of
the war very differently in a sense. Cuthbert was, as it
were, " mad " to go, should war be declared. Your boy,
feeling, I am sure, not a whit less patriotic, saw further
than Cuthbert and realized I fancy more of what it would
mean, not to himself for a moment (for I knew that he
always thought of others first), but what it would mean to
others, and, from what he said, I gathered that his chief
regret was because of the delay it would mean to his
projected work at the Factory. But they both very clearly
stated that if war was declared they would do what they
could for their country and so they have, and a grand
"bit" too.'
It has been clearly shown (p. 149) that Ronald was by
no means unprepared for a European war. It is also
stated in the Reading Mercury for May 15, 1915, that in
1912 he told an employee at the Factory that every man
ought to become a soldier, as he was fully convinced that
within two years we should be at war with Germany.
A fairly continuous history of the doings of the 1/4 Berks
(i45th Bde., 48th S. Midland Div.) and of the part taken
by Ronald himself is given in his letters.
To his Brother-in-law Dr. Ainley Walker.
'Aug. 4, 1914. 16 Portland Place, Reading.
' We left Reading at 3.45 p.m. Sunday [Aug. 2] and got
to Marlow, 12 miles away, at 7.0 owing to an engine being
off the line. We then walked 2 miles to camp in the
pouring rain : we got to bed about 12.0 and were awakened
at 2.30 a.m., breakfasted at 3.30, left at 4.15, and got to
READING 311
Reading at 6.30, were shut in the Drill Hall till 9.0, and
then dismissed to our homes!! Such a bathos. Now
to-day all is excitement. We have been preparing for
mobilization all day at head-quarters, and we are quite
ready when it comes. We have got billets for the men in
houses in the town. We go for 2 days to Cosham on
mobilization, and then to Swindon. But I think we go
straight to Swindon. There I expect we train hard, but I
know no more. All my 35 Ibs. of kit is ready. Now I must
stop and go down to a drill.'
To his Brother Edward at St. Helens.
1 Cosham [undated, but probably written Aug. 7].
'We were mobilized by wires on Tuesday night at
8.0 p.m. and arrived here on Wednesday 930 strong
out of 1,000 50 being left at Reading at n p.m. I
got to bed at 2 a.m. as I was transport officer and had to
see all the stores in. Since then I have been transport
officer, which has meant daily journeys into the Recreation
Ground at Portsmouth to draw bread, meat, fuel, and
fodder.
'We are billeted here on the houses round about us
and the Bucks so it 's a good crowd. I share a bed with
the quarter-master.
' We are a part of Section No. Ill Portsmouth defences :
i.e. on the land side, to protect the town from an attack
from say Hayling Island. We are also protecting the
Naval Wireless Station and some ordnance places. There
is an anti-airship gun here which is quite interesting. They
seem awfully frightened about airships.
'We leave here on Sunday for Swindon, I think, where
we shall probably be in a standing camp for some weeks,
getting together. I expect we shall get pretty sick of
things.
' It is an interesting life, but not too exciting, as I am
chiefly concerned with getting stores all the time.'
About the same time he wrote from Cosham to his
mother in Australia:
'Of course this war is the overshadowing thing here,
but the papers are heavily censored and no news leaks out.
But there must be a big naval engagement soon. It is
a terrible thing, but it may end in good, as it may put an
end to armed enmity in Europe.'
3 i2 OUTBREAK OF WAR
To Hilda.
'Aug. 12, Swindon.
' We have a head-quarters here at an Elementary School
and are billeted round. We get up at about 6.15 a.m. and
have breakfast, and then parade about 9.0 a.m. for about
five hours and do drilling. I usually go riding in the
evening which is great fun. Then we have mess and get
to bed early. That is a rough outline.'
To his Brother.
' Aug. 13, Swindon.
' In answer to your wire I have volunteered for foreign
service with the Battalion.
' Kitchener wants 100,000 men, and he has written to
ask if Territorial units will volunteer complete to go out
as units.
' The Divisional General wanted his Division out. Now
a Division, besides guns, &c., has 12 Battalions of infantry
12,000 men. The Colonel paraded us, made a perfectly
unbiassed speech, saying nobody would be thought worse
of for refusing, and gave us 5 minutes. Result 211 men
and 14 officers.
' Disappointment as 75 % is required to take us as a
unit. In the meantime me Colonel gets news that all the
other Battalions have volunteered almost complete, and so
we are again paraded. Great Speech " If you refuse to
go you can never hold [up] your headjs] among the Ox-
fords, the Gloucesters, the Warwicks, again. Follow your
Colonel and his Company Commanders." Result over
70 %, so if we do not lose any, and many are not medically
unfit, we shall go. But I can't tell yet whether we shall
go as a unit, so I don't think it 's any use wiring mother :
as anyhow I suppose they'll come home the shortest way.
I don't know what you think. But I feel at present that I
shall certainly volunteer any way, even if we don't go as
a Battalion. But I am not sure of this so keep quiet
about it. But anybody with a military training is bound
to turn up and offer himself.'
After this letter his brother and Margaret went to see
Ronald at Swindon. Edward writes of the visit :
' I asked him at what point he had volunteered ; i. e.
whether after the first or second speech. He seemed
rather surprised at the question, and said that of course he
had volunteered with the first lot, saying that there could
S WIN DON 313
be no question about it in his case. He was trained and
the country required his services, and every one must obey
his own conscience. He would not determine any other
man's course for him.
4 He also said that this war had proved that the Con-
servatives possessed the true spirit and were the foundation
on which England rested. The Radicals in comparison
were nowhere.'
Dick Dugdale also remembered Ronald saying that
there must be something in the Church and Conservatism
alliance although he could not bear the thought of their
conventional association for those who held such views
had come forward for their country more freely than others.
Margaret has also recalled memories of the visit to
Swindon :
'When the great and awful war came Ronald was in
Camp as a Territorial and he wrote early in August to tell
us he had volunteered for foreign service. One can hardly
realize one's feelings at the time, when only the Regulars
had gone and the war was spoken of as to be over by
Christmas, 1914, and now when I think I actually know
more men " on the other side " than in this visible world.
It came as a great shock to me personally that Ronald
might go abroad, and Teddie and I, staying at St. Helens,
decided to go and see him at Swindon, where his Battalion
was quartered. It was a pathetic little visit, walking in
streaming rain and shining roads, trying to find the way
in a strange network of little streets, to the Head-quarters.
However at last we arrived and found Ronald, who was as
bright and cheery as ever. He gave us tea in the Mess,
which was in an Elementary School, and then we pro-
ceeded to the station and had our long talk in the refresh-
ment room. Teddie and I slept the night at Reading in
Ronald's little house and the Sunday night at Marlston.
While walking to Bucklebury on the beautiful Sunday
evening and during the service in the lovely little old
church, the tragedy of the whole thing overwhelmed me
with terrible force : I seemed to see the end then.'
Ronald's movements between Swindon and Chelms-
ford are described in a letter to his Oxford friend Miss
Marjorie Fisher, his partner in the Tennis Tournament:
3 i4 OUTBREAK OF WAR
' Sept. 3. Cavendish Club, Piccadilly, W.
4 We arrived at Swindon on the Sunday [Aug. 9], Here
we were billeted and had 6 days' training, and route
marching, to get the feet hard. Then on the following
Sunday [Aug. 16] we went by train to Leighton Buzzard
in Bedfordshire, by Oxford and Bletchley. We marched
from there to Dunstable. There we stayed 5 [apparently
3J days, and were suddenly shifted by route marching to
Chelmsford. That was 63 miles, wnich we did in five
days, stopping the nights at Stevenage, Hoddesdon,
Waltham Abbey, and Fyfield. We lost about TOO with
sore feet, but they came on, and are well again now.
Billeting is an amusing game. I was billeting officer at
Waltham Abbey. I went on there by motor-bike the day
before they were due to arrive, and interviewed the police
and said I wanted billets for 950 men and 30 officers.
Then I went to the Surveyor's office and got a map of the
town, and saw how the streets ran. Then I went down
the streets and found the number of houses in each street,
and fitted in the eight Companies with 2 men per house.
Then I found houses for the Colonel, and officers, and
the head-quarters and orderly room. They were " Billets
with subsistence " i. e. you pay the householders 3/4^. a day
for each man, gd. for bed, i/7?d. for dinner, 9^. for breakfast
and %d. for supper ; and they have to feed the men.
' Now we are at Chelmsford, where we arrived last
Monday week [Aug. 24]. We have quite settled down
and are doing hard training : 6.30-7.30 ; 8.30-12.30 ; 2-3.0 ;
7.30-8.30. There is not much time over. Yesterday we
had the final division of the Battalion into those who have
volunteered to serve abroad and those who have not. We
have about 700 out of the 1,000 going abroad, and we shall
be 1,000 shortly, as we get about 50 recruits from Reading
every day. But we need a lot of training yet, and I don^
expect we shall go for another 6 weeks or 2 months. It 's
a strenuous life, and one gets a bit short of sleep, but I am
tremendously fit. I am staying with some awfully kind
people, who can't do too much for you. The only trouble
is that when you want to go to bed you have out of polite-
ness to sit up and talk.
' You ougnt to see my moustache, it whacks Gerald's all
right.'
On Aug. 24 Ronald began the long and, towards the
end, wearisome seven months of training at Chelmsford
CHELMSFORD 315
a period unbroken save for a machine-gun course at
Bisley and short visits to his family and friends. Capt.
Blandy and Ronald were billeted with Mr. and Mrs.
Gripper at Redcot, Chelmsford, until Sept. 24, when the
Battalion H.Q. was established at Broomfield, about 3
miles away, and Ronald and Lt. Cruttwell were billeted
with Miss Copland at Broomfield Place. A little later
Ronald, Lt. O. B. Challoner, and Lt. G. Moore were
billeted with Dr. Smallwood at Little Waltham, where he
was living when we were with him on Oct. 10-12. During
these weeks Ronald still went to Mr. and Mrs. Gripper on
Sundays, and, on Oct. 16, when the H.Q. was moved back
into Chelmsford, he, with Lt. Challoner, returned and
remained with them until the Battalion left England. In
February the mess was closed, owing to an outbreak of
measles, and from this time, except for a few days when it
was re-opened, the two friends lived altogether at Redcot.
How happy they were with their kind host and hostess, who
soon became ' Uncle Jim' and 'Auntie', may be gathered
from Ronald's letters from Chelmsford and the front.
The nature of Ronald's work at Chelmsford may be
learnt from his correspondence, although his time was so
fully occupied that he could not write often or at any length.
To Hilda.
1 Sept. 9. Redcot, Chelmsford.
' ' I am very fit but desperately busy. Just on a week's
engineering course digging trenches. We are all being
inoculated this week.
1 1 hope you will have a ripping time at Marlston. Give
my love to Evelyn.'
To Dr. Ainley Walker.
' Oct. 5. Little Waltham.
' I am desperately busy, though very fit, as I have just
been given the most backward Company in the Battalion,
and it will be a rare struggle to get them right in time.
But it 's tremendously exciting to have one's own show to
run, after being a subaltern for so long.'
3 i6 OUTBREAK OF WAR
To the same.
' Nov. 8. Chelmsford.
' No, we have no rumours, and in fact I think we are
fixed for a long time: we don't get any news. Please
thank Hilda for the mittens. They are very comfy and
I much appreciate them. Things go on quietly here.
We are getting up some games, Soccer and Rugger, and
Cross Country Runs. Otherwise same old game/
To Hilda.
' Nov. 15. Chelmsford.
'Teddie and Frida are here and we have been round
looking at the London defences. Jolly fine trenches they
are, and very well concealed, provided the enemy have not
aeroplanes. If they have, they will show up in a moment.
We are shooting this week, and the noise on the range
makes one deaf. I am so glad Ernest keeps fit. It is fine.
And my dear I hope you are pulling along well. I often
think of you.'
To Hilda, a birthday letter.
1 Nov. 25, 1914. Redcot.
' Here I am just too late, as usual. Anyhow my dear
I haven't forgotten you, on this day. It is sad for you, first
not to be in your usual health and then to be oppressed, as
all of us are, at this awful time, but I pray that next year
will see you absolutely right, and us all out of this ghastly
gloom. Thank you awfully for your letters, which are
very cheering to read. You do seem so splendidly better.
We scratch along here, but this inaction is a bit trying, and
I don't think we improve much.
' Poor Waldy, or rather poor me without Waldy.
' This war makes me a nide-bound socialist. I believe
International Socialism could stop war, and that alone.
' Thank you immensely for the mittens. I like them with
or without thumbs, and with you and Aunt Lily working
1 shall soon have plenty for the men. How splendid to
see Ernest in uniform.
'The European History must be interesting; we had
2 good lectures on it. There is extreme importance
attached to the fighting at Cracow because that is just in
front of the " Moravian Gate ", and here, the Austrians and
CHELMSFORD 317
Germans must split the former to defend Vienna, and the
latter Berlin. [Rough map.] '
The next letter is undated, but was evidently written
early in Dec. 1914.
To Margaret.
' Sunday. Redcot.
' Your pathetic letter quite wrung my heart, and so I am
merely writing p.c.s home and to Aunt Nellie, so that you
might have the letter. I hope you are all well. And how
is little Peggie ; you never spoke about her. I do wish
I could have a week or two of old Manch. again. This
job is pretty dull. And now that they are afraid of invasion,
our chances of doing anything real sensibly diminish.
They certainly seem very scared. All week-end leave is
stopped i. e. all leave. Anybody who leaves the mess for a
meal has to put where he is to be found on a slate ; all our kit
is ready packed or arranged to be put together in a moment.
All the arrangements for an alarm are made, and we shall
be in the special train complete in 2 hours from the time
message is sent to us of an alarm. I have seen some
of the trenches that have been dug out near Maldon, on the
Blackwater. They seem quite fine ones, with underground
rest-rooms, lavatories &c.H
' I ran 2nd in a Battalion cross-country run of 3? miles
yesterday : 250 ran.
' We are still training, and doing a good deal of shooting
on the range. We also have 4 aeroplanes permanently
attached to us. And we are getting much more completely
equipped.
' I hear Max is doing some drilling, which is a fine thing.
My love dear and I often think of you all.
' Ever your loving brother.'
Ronald's next letter refers to a visit to Marlston and
Oxford, just after Christmas. He could not leave Chelms-
ford for Christmas itself ' Merry Christmas to all.
Delayed writing by duties on guard ' was his telegram
and so could not go for the family walk to Port Meadow
and keep up the traditions he loved ; but a few days later
he was with us and was able to spur us to the observance
of another family custom, and we went in a large party to
the pantomime at the Oxford theatre. Since these words
3i8 OUTBREAK OF WAR
were written the origin of the tradition has been found in
a letter written in Dec. 1907 by the eldest sister to the
youngest, towards the end of her first term away from
home at Wycombe Abbey :
' When I read out your proposal to go to the Pantomime,
each one of the family in turn thought it most suitable that
they should take you ! ! ! So I expect it will end in our
all going.'
To his Mother.
1 Jan. 5. 1915. Redcot.
'Just a line to say that I am back and very well. I had
a very nice time with Aunt Nellie, and thoroughly enjoyed
it. She seemed so well and keen.
' The concert was very well received, and they seemed
amused by my song.
' Everything here is much the same. Various rumours
fly round.
' (i) We shall not go abroad for a long time, because of
invasion scares.
' (2) We go to Egypt at the end of the month.
' (3) We go to France at the end of the month.
' But I expect they are all lies.
'We do Brigade training to-morrow, i.e. 4 Battalions
against each other. We have breakfast at 7.15, so it's an
early start.
' It was sweet seeing you all. My best love to you and
Father.'
To his Mother.
'Jan. 17. Redcot.
' Thanks for your letter. I know, the idea of England
after this war without one's friends is not very attractive.
I shall miss them all. Fred Turner was one of the best,
and of course last year I saw so much of him.
' I am afraid you have had very rough weather. We are
trying to do Brigade training in it. This means manoeu-
vring over the country with 4,000 men. We had an attack
on Friday and I spent half an hour lying in a furrow of
a ploughed field wnich was full of water. Brown looked
very gloomy when he saw what he had to clean !
'About going nobody knows anything. The rumour
is we are leaving Chelmsford this month for some other
CHELMSFORD 319
place in England. But my impression is it's no good
believing anything, and so don't you believe anything.
Anyway we have just had a bicycle shed put up outside
our mess which will cost 4. Of course that may mean
we shall move!
' Will you thank Father for his sweet letter ?
' I have the Company this week to look after, as the
other half under the Captain has gone on Marconi guard.
' Goodbye darling.'
To Hilda, who had gone to Marlston with Evelyn :
' Feb. 21. Redcot.
' Just a line to wish you good luck. I hope you are
much enjoying yourself*
' I am having a quiet Sunday here, as I am Subaltern
of the day, and have to stay in the area. I have to inspect
the Rations at 12.0, post the quartermaster's guard at
5.0 p.m. Then I am helping another officer by takingpart
of his Inlying Picquet job from 5.0 p.m. to 9 p.m. Then
I collect the Reports of those present at 10 p.m., and turn
out the quartermaster's guard at n p.m. to see if they
are awake.
'The Inlying Picquet is an Officer, a Sergeant and
22 men, who live in a house from 5 p.m. till 8.0 the next
morning, to be available in case there is a surprise, and so
they are quite ready to do anything that is required at
a moment's notice. No more now. very much love.
' P.S. Give my very best love to Evelyn.'
A few days later, on Feb. 25, Ronald was at Bisley for
a three weeks' course of Machine Gun Instruction, or, as
he said in a letter, ' to learn the 150 parts of a Machine
Gun '. Three note-books contain his exact and careful
notes. The course ended on March 16 when Ronald
qualified as a 'First Class Instructor'.
To the Rev. R. W. Dugdale.
1 March i, 1915. The Press Club,
' Bisley Camp, Surrey.
' My V. D. O. M. [very dear old man]
' Only time for 2 lines. Here I am in [this] place, full of
thoughts of you. I am on a machine gun course of 16
320 OUTBREAK OF WAR
days living in A 5 hut. It 's great fun and very hard work.
Lectures and drill 9-1, and 2-4, and exams, and notes to
write up. I am hard at it, as I want a distinguished
certificate. So I've got a stove and am quite warm. The
work is very interesting.
' Good-bye D. O. M. Quite right about Clergy serving.
' Your 1. f. [loving friend].'
During the time at Bisley Ronald met for the last time
his Balliol Boys' Club friends Keith Rae and E. C. Crosse.
' To Mrs. Gripper.
1 March 6, 1915. Marlston.
' DEAR AUNTIE,
' Better late than never. But I have been desperately
busy, and am now up to eyes, preparing for exams, which
go on every day from Monday. The time has gone by
very quickly and I shall soon be home. It has been an
interesting course, and I am jolly glad I went. I expect
Bossie [Lt. Challoner] showed you my letter to him, so
you know our mode of life. I am just over here for the
night. About my return I am trying for leave till Sunday,
but I doubt if I get it. I will let you know.
'We have had a game of hockey against the motor
bicycle machine gunners, and we beat them. One of their
team, an officer, Tost his wool badly and was reproved by
the padre, who was the referee.
'I went to see some friends of mine at Bordon. They
are in the 8th Rifle Brigade, the ist Bn. of the ist Brigade
of K's Army; and I might [class] them honestly streets
worse than us. They thought they were soon off, but
they had wooden machine guns still.
' How 's Uncle Jim ? Give him my best ; I am afraid he
must have had a time looking after Bossie. Bossie's letter
gave bad news. I hope he is no worse.
' I am looking forward to seeing you all again.
' Yours afFectly.
' RONALD W. P. PALMER.
' Tell Boss to send me a line.'
At Christmas too Ronald left a note with New Year's
CHELMSFORD 321
greetings for Mrs. Gripper, who was away. It ended :
' Look after Bossy, now I'm not here to look after him.'
Looking back on our few last meetings at Chelmsford,
London, and Oxford, the first feeling is one of regret that
it was impossible to speak of the thoughts that were within
us. But if we had, the only effect would have been to cast
a shadow over memories that are now for ever bright.
He knew how dearly he was loved ; he knew the fears we
felt. Speech was not needed to tell him this, and so he
talked, as he had always done, of the things that had
interested him in his work and he well knew would
interest us.
I remember his explaining to me at Chelmsford, draw-
ing a diagram on the road with his stick, the proper method
of trench formation in a dangerous zone how the first
night a long wavy trench, 2 ft. wide and 3 ft. 9 deep,
should be dug with a parapet of 9 inches only, the rest of
the earth being scattered behind. Then on the first day
T-shaped excavations were to be driven from the front
wall of this trench. The heads of these T's, each holding
three men, then become the actual firing trenches, each
head being protected by big traverses formed by heaping
the excavated earth between it and the head on either side.
Then, later, shelters are built in the stem of each T, the
wavy trench is widened, latrines dug in its back wall, and
communication trenches made, stretching to the rear.
Then, too, he would speak of things he had learnt and
opinions he had reached which were contrary to his
natural prepossessions how the men who had done best
of all in the great retreat from Mons were those who had
been most efficient in works of supererogation as he had
deemed them before the War; how the Germans were
right in their contention that the spirit of war was not the
spirit of sport and right in their attacks with massed forma-
tions. On the other hand he had learnt that they had been
wrong in their rifle practice and wrong in underestimating
the effect of ours ; they had prepared their attack in three
lines, of which the first and second were to act as a screen
322 OUTBREAK OF WAR
to the third with the machine guns. They calculated that
by the time the two screens had been swept away the
machine guns would be within 500 yards of the enemy
who would then be swept away himself. But with our
practice at long ranges all three lines went down at 800 to
1,000 yards.
At one of his visits to Oxford in February he told us
that he was to be Works Manager at the Front, and I well
remember the fear that oppressed me as he spoke of it.
From his Brother.
' There are one or two incidents of this war period that
may be mentioned here. Ronald was very amused when
guarding the Wireless Station near Chelmsford, to hear
the Christmas or New Year's message sent out by
Germany by wireless. " Germany sends Christmas greet-
ing to all nations of the world, except England, France,
Russia, Japan, &c."
' Ronald was rather amused by the addresses given by
the Chaplains to the forces. Every address seemed to
lead on to the subject of immorality, and Ronald thought
that the subject was so hammered at as rather to put it into
the minds of the men than otherwise.'
But although as Janet said of their last meeting, at
Chelmsford a few days before he went out 'we were not
able to talk of those things that mattered and of the
thoughts that burned within us ', it was not the same with
all his friends. William Temple writes of the night of
March 12, 1915:
' Our last meeting was and is a sacred time. But not
much can be said about it because not much was said in
it. I have neyer felt nearer to him, nor to be having more
intercourse with him. But for most of the time we were
silent. He was very sad, for he had quite lately lost
several close friends. He mentioned their names. Then
he said, " It makes a future life pretty essential, doesn't it ? "
I asked if he had any sort of doubt about it ; " No," he
said, " because then life would be absurd." We were
silent for a long time. Then he said " What do you
suppose it 's like ? " I said one had no ground for even
guessing, but that no doubt there was both activity and
CHELMSFORD 323
growth ; the only thing we knew was the Love of God,
and perhaps the reason why everything else was hidden
was mst to make us concentrate on that. Then there was
another long silence. Then he said, " I don't want to be
killed yet ; there is such a lot I wanted to do, or try any-
how." I asked if he felt that he would be killed ; " Oh
yes," he said, " sure of it." I said nothing and again there
was a long silence. Then he suddenly said, " Of course
it 's all right ; but it 's not what one would have chosen."
' I think that was all that was said. But I felt that we
had somehow shared thoughts about the other world which
for both of us were below the level of consciousness and
certainly beyond the reach of speech ; and I knew that,
with some sadness but with perfect calm and confidence, he
was accepting what he believed was in store in place of all
his plans for giving and sharing happiness on earth/
Hilda also remembered asking him if he wanted to go to
the Front. ' I certainly don't want to be killed,' he said,
' but I do want to see how our men get on after training
them for so long, and to visit the places where so many
friends have gone.'
Mr. W. Dimbleby writes :
1 You ask if Ronald spoke to me about his views on the
war and his feelings as to going out. Yes, he did. His
heart was not in the business at all. He went solely from
a sense of duty and as an example to others. He felt
very strongly on the utter folly of civilized nations resorting
to such methods for the settling of their differences, but
above all I know he felt that by going to a war from
whence he would probably not return, he was shattering at
a blow all those hopes of being of some real use to humanity
in the future. Of course his personal comfort or con-
venience did not enter into the question for a moment.
All who knew him would be sure of that.
1 In a sentence as impossible to be appreciated by those
who did not know him intimately, as it would have been
impossible of realization: His potential value to the
nation was so great that he should not have been allowed
to go.'
Then, added to the strong inmost conviction that he
would never return to the work he loved there was the
Y 2
324 OUTBREAK OF WAR
weariness and a feeling of the uselessness and staleness
of the last months of training. As early as Oct. 28
W. T. Collier wrote to Keith Rae : ' My mother met
Ronald in Oxford the other day. He has grown a magni-
ficent red moustache and is expecting to go out before
long.' And yet by Oct. 28 nothing like half the period of
training and waiting was over. The last time his old chief
in the O.T.C., Capt. H. C. Wace, met him Ronald told
him how weary his men were of the long delay in getting
out, and how his French lesson to them had died away
from inanition.
But it must not be supposed that the shadow of coming
events or the weariness of useless waiting had power to
bring lasting depression to his gay bright spirit. He
remained to the end as he always had been happy himself
and the cause of happiness in others. Miss Legge writes
of his last visit to Oxford and the last time she and
Mrs. Collier saw him :
' I shall never forget his laughing shout to Nancy and
me, as we caught sight of him standing in the trench in the
Parks on Sunday, Feb. 28 " I'm defending the whole of
Oxford!"
He was as quick as ever to see the humorous side of
things. Hilda remembered how he roared with laughter
' What a gift of laughter he had ', she said when he
told her of the non-commissioned officer's words at the
machine-gun examination ' Now, gentlemen, you will be
sure and not copy from each other's papers ! ' And a few
days before he left England I wrote, to amuse him, an
account of the well-known journey to St. Helens and of
how, as we waited on the Oxford platform and a train
came in from the north, the soldiers it was carrying
began distributing badges to our maids. He replied on
March 28 :
* Your letter made me howl with laughter ! The funny
thing is there is a serious punishment for giving away
badges.'
CHELMSFORD 325
And the dominating memories of his kind friend and
hostess at ' Redcot ' are of happiness and gaiety :
' Aug. 20, 1915. Redcot, Chelmsford.
' It is a year on Monday since your dear boy and Captain
Blandy came here : one can hardly realize it. We are so
quiet now, so different from what it was. Ronald was
always doing something there was constant fun and noise.
He was very fond of my little niece who lives at Sutton.
She was thirteen, and when she came down for week-ends
or half terms, they played charades and all sorts of games,
turning the house upside down. My embroidered quilts
were used for trains, and I shall never forget him as Elinor
of Castile, or as Dick Turpin, with Bossie for his horse.'
Ronald was of course prevented from taking any part,
even the smallest, in the business at Reading during the
period of training, but he longed for the time when he
would be back at the work he loved. In the meantime
memories of him during his short residence were not
without their effect, for I have been assured that many
Reading men volunteered because he had done so.
How deeply he felt for the death of his friend Cuthbert
T. Waldy, killed on October 20, may be gathered from
the letter he wrote to the Reading friend who had told
him of his loss :
' Nov. 18, 1914.
' DEAR HASLAM,
' Your letter has come as a great blow, as I did not know
Cuthbert was abroad. I thought he was Territorialing in
Newcastle.
' I am very low at heart, these days. I have lost so
many good friends, like many others, but Cuthbert's at
present is my biggest loss. He was very dear to me, and
I had great hopes of him in our business. I am so glad he
behaved as I knew he would, but why, oh why all this
ghastly waste of youth ?
' We tarry on Here expecting and hoping to be allowed
to do our bit. But while there is a chance of a raid, I don't
think we shall go abroad. But we are all ready, and my
Company is having voluntary French classes, and in view
of recent fighting a lot of bayonet fighting instruction.
326 OUTBREAK OF WAR
1 1 hope you are all well. Give my love to Mrs. Haslam
and the children.
' Could you send me a line
1 (i) When you get any confirmation of his death,
' (2) In what regiment he went out, and when.'
To Mrs. Waldy.
1 Dec. i, 1914.
' I have meant to write to you for some days of the sad
news I heard from Mr. Haslam, but as nothing absolutely
definite was known, I thought I would wait. But I now
cannot wait any longer, and I am writing to tell you how
much I feel the loss of Cuthbert, and how I dimly realize
the loss you have sustained. Cuthbert was very dear to
me, and I counted him among my best friends. We were
united in the same business, and in particular, in the social
side of industry, we were tied by the same ideals. I used
to tell him all my ideas, and we used to discuss them
together. So I cannot look forward to Reading without
him, except with a very blank feeling in my mind. He
used to come and help me in my Club, and of course all
the time he managed nis own " Church Lads ", and I know
how fond all the boys and men in the factory were of him.
' I remember so well, shortly after we met in March 1912,
I said I had joined the Territorials : he said he couldn't
manage that, as he thought he would not be allowed
to by the Firm, but he had joined the Territorial Reserve
of officers, by virtue of his O. T. C. training at school.
He said, " I don't know what it will involve, I expect they'll
shove me off somewhere, some day." And so they did.
But his death is a fine story, and it is glorious for you and
for his friends to know he has died the finest death of all,
because such a death is one so untinged with thoughts
of self.
' And we who hope to be allowed to go to the front when
we are wanted have his example to follow.
1 My people, who were very fond of him, join me in send-
ing our great sympathy.'
C. T. Waldy was working in Reading with the prospect
of taking part in the management of the Factory before
Ronald went to the town, and the two men became great
friends directly they met.
CHELMSFORD 327
In some of their schemes Waldy took the initiative, as
with the starting of a Sports Club for the Factory girls.
Hilda remembered Ronald collecting hockey-sticks for
this club. Shortly after Ronald's death Mrs. Waldy wrote
to his mother of the influence which this friendship brought
into her son's life :
' I have been thinking much of you, ever since I read the
sad news that your son had fallen in France.
' Personally I only met Mr. Palmer one afternoon at
a friend's house at Reading, but I feel I knew him through
my son Cuthbert. In a few weeks [after their first meeting]
we heard much of him ; and from that time I know a great
development in character began in my son. I twice spent
a week with Cuthbert at Reading and on both occasions
I was deeply impressed by what I learnt of his thoughtful-
ness for tnose with whom he worked, his interest in their
games and the Boys' Club, and above all his deepening
thoughts on religion and social problems and I know it was
" Poulton " who was guiding and helping him.
' I loved him for all that he was and did for my boy.'
Away in Chelmsford with little time for correspondence
Ronald did not at first hear of the war bonus given to
employees at Huntley and Palmers, but he finally heard of
it in the way that pleased him most. He was passing
through Reading in his car, on Feb. 27, 1915, on the way
to Oxford, when he saw his old friend W. Povey, who
shouted ( Good-night, sir '. Ronald pulled up, asked if he
could give him a lift, and took him to Caversham to his
daughter's house. On the way he told Ronald about the
bonus and remembers how extremely pleased he was
' as pleased ', Mr. Povey wrote, ' to hear of it as we were
to receive it. This was the last time I had the pleasure
of speaking to him and I wished him Good-bye, Good
Luck, and God Bless him.'
I well remember Ronald telling me of his meeting with
the ' dear old man ' and how delighted he was to hear of
the bonus in that way.
Ronald had but little time to give to Boys' Clubs while
he was in training, but they were often in his mind, as the
328 OUTBREAK OF WAR
following letter to his Reading friend W. Dimbleby will
show :
' Sept. 12, 1914. Redcot, Chelmsford.
' The photos [of the Boys' Camp] were fine. I am look-
ing forward to having some. If you could let the boys see
them, and let them buy them at id. each, I will pay for the
balance cost. You're quite right " Those also serve " &c.,
and your job for me is to look after the boys. I do pray
the Club may keep open. Please tell the Vicar that I will
finance it, and if you want money, ;ip or so, just send me
a card and I'll write a cheque. And if you want to move
elsewhere, I'll finance that also ; though I think that would
be hardly wise, as you will be short of help, unless indeed
the Vicar refuses to let you have the room, which I cannot
believe will be the case. We must keep the ^Reading]
College sympathy, and unless they have a share in running
the Club, the enthusiasm must drop. I should be delighted
to hear occasionally how you, Reading, and the Club get
on.'
Ronald was also able to visit his beloved Boys' Club at
Reading during one of his leaves. After the return from
the summer Camp the Club closed till the autumn session,
opening under the management of B. Perkins, until he too,
on Dec. 4, left in order to join the Army, writing in the
log a farewell message of confidence and hope. The
management was then undertaken by the Rev. R. W.
Morley. Ronald came down on Dec. 28 :
' An awful night outside, but a gala night within. Every
one delighted to see Palmer again especially in uniform.
Martin, of the Rifle Brigade, also came in. Of course we
all shot under the spell of the khaki. Palmer very pleased
with the new equipment; and the numbers who have
enlisted. We must put up a Roll of Honour. We had
a few strong words at the close from R. W. P. P. re duty in
war time.'
The Rev. T. Guy Rogers writes :
' I have in my private memorandum book, in which I put
down for prayers those who have gone to the war, the
names of 19 members of that club. These names were put
in by Ronald in his own handwriting the night he stayed
with me shortly before he left for the front.'
CHELMSFORD 329
Then there was the Rugby Club in Netting Dale:
Ronald would be sure to spare some of his leaves for this.
The Rev. C. S. Donald writes :
' Since the war began I saw him three times. He
motored over twice from Chelmsford and had tea here with
other subalterns. The last time was just before he went
out. He talked of his Club and what he meant to do when
he came back. I rejoiced to see him, but as I heard his
car start off, a feeling of profound misery came over me :
" Shall I ever see him again ?" :
Among the many friends whose loss was such a grief
to Ronald during his period of training were some of his
comrades in Rugby Football. On the death, Jan. 10, 1915,
of F. H. Turner, his old Oxford and Liverpool captain,
Ronald wrote the notice which appeared in the News of
the World for Jan. 31. I knew nothing of the authorship
until it was acknowledged by the paper in the issue of
May 9, 1915 :
' One International Captain's tribute to another.
' A very well-known International captain has written us
as follows :
' The death of F. H. Turner has been a sad blow to his
many friends, and to one unused to writing character
sketches it is indeed hard to put down on paper the effect
that his cheering presence had upon those with whom he
was acquainted. Thousands of those who have watched
his play in 'Varsity, Club, and International matches must
have realized the strength he was to his side, quite apart
from his own individual efforts, which were of a very high
standard.
' I have played behind many packs of forwards, but never
have I been so free from anxiety as when those forwards
were led by Fred Turner. Those who saw last year's
Scotland v. England match could realize what an anxiety
to his opponents his peculiarly infectious power of leading
was. His play, like nis tackle, was hard and straight, and
never have I seen him the slightest bit perturbed or
excited, and in this fact lay the secret of his great power
of control.
' His kicking ability is well known, and his tenacious
330 OUTBREAK OF WAR
determination to stick it was well shown in the 'Varsity
match of 1909, when he returned to help his scrum in great
pain with one knee useless owing to a displaced cartilage.
' Off the field he was the same. Whetner one saw him
at his home, at his old School (Sedbergh), at the 'Varsity,
or walking on the hills, his face always snowed his cheery
satisfaction with the world at large. At any moment he
would burst into that cheery and infectious laugh. He
was always ready to take his part in any harmless practical
joking, on tour or elsewhere. His loss is part of the heavy
burden of war, and England in defending her honour will
have to face the loss ofthe very best of her sons.'
Only a few days before he left for the Front Ronald
heard of the death of his football and hockey friend of
Oxford days, Capt. Ronald Owen Lagden, reported
wounded and missing in a night attack at St. Eloi, on
March i. He wrote to Sir Godfrey Lagden on March 21 :
1 1 saw that Ronald was missing, but I had no idea that
you considered that there was no hope for him, till I saw
G. C. Vassall in Oxford last week. I am very very sorry
for you in your great sorrow. Ronald was one of my
food friends, and I can realize what a son he must have
een to you, a man you could indeed be proud of. In him,
Tom Allen, and Kenneth Powell I lost three good friends,
and the world lost three great-hearted men. 1
' I am off next week, and I can only say that I go there
buoyed up by the knowledge of the part he has played
for England.'
Sir Godfrey in his reply addressed Ronald as :
' MY DEAR RONNY PoULTON,
' If I still call you by this name it is because you are best
known by it to me and my boys and their young sister ; for
1 Ronald was associated with the two last-named friends by Lt. A. D.
Stoop (R. W. Surrey Regt.), writing to Mrs. Ainley Walker from
Lucknow, May 13, 1915: 'So many ofthe best men have gone under
that one feels that the most satisfactory thing would be to follow their
example. The gaps among one's friends will be too awful when the
war is over. The Harlequins also have Tom Allen and Kenneth
Powell to avenge, and I do not think we shall forget when the time
comes.' Tom Allen, 2nd Lt. Irish Guards, was killed March, 1915.
CHELMSFORD 331
were you not the friend and comrade on the field of our
own dear Ronny in those lovely Oxford days which he
used to call the " Heaven " of his life.'
Sir Godfrey's words about the two Ronalds may, I hope,
bring comfort to other parents :
' These dear boys of ours have died as they would wish
in following the call to duty on behalf of their country.
' It is glorious to have fived to witness the grit of our
British boys, and to know that there is no lack in them of
the chivalry which has been handed down to them through
the ages. They will be honoured and blessed by the
generations to come.'
I believe that the two friends will always be associated
in the minds of those who remember the Oxford of that
time so distant as it seems to-day and that they will
echo the words written to a friend by a great Rugby hero
of earlier years, Harry Vassall, when he heard of our
Ronald's death ' Yes, that and Ronny Lagden's death are
two great shocks to me. I thought them the best type of
Oxford young men I had come across for many years.'
In spite of all the sadness Ronald had other and cheer-
ing associations with the Rugby game in the period of
training. Mr. Charles Marriott in British Sports and
Sportsmen says of the last letter received from him that
it was ' typical of the man, being concerned with obtaining
football outfits for his men.' Then there was not only
the pleasure of encouraging this noble game among the
soldiers but the fun and excitement, almost recalling old
times, when he met the friends who came down to help
him.
Pte. Sydney F. Bourton, who joined the 1/4 Berks, at
the outbreak of war, writes :
I 1 did not have the good luck to be in Lieut. Palmer's
Platoon or Company, but I knew him by name and repu-
tation before the war, being a Reading man. Whilst at
Chelmsford Lieut. Palmer was to the fore in everything to
do with sports ; he organized football, cross-country runs,
and of course a Rugby team. Lieut. Palmer was one of
332 OUTBREAK OF WAR
the few men who could talk and mix with the men as
a comrade, and yet still keep his position as their officer.
He was never known to lose his temper or to say a harsh
word to us. He would arrange concerts for us and come
forward to fill a gap in the programme with a rousing song.'
To his Father*
' March 28, 1915.
' We are definitely off 7 p.m. Tuesday ; the transport
goes 3 a.m. tomorrow. We are all pretty busy. Now
good-bye dearest and say good-bye to mother and Janet.
' Don't worry about me especially if you don't hear regu-
larly. Pll write as often as I can, but I may not always be
able to.'
To Dr. Ainley Walker.
1 March 29.
' DEAR OLD ERNEST,
' Thanks awfully for yours. As you imagine I have
little time, as we are off about tea-time to-morrow. The
transport has already gone, and we are busting around
paying billets, inspecting houses, &c.
' Thanks for notes on water, &c. I'll take care, but of
course we aren't allowed to drink any but what comes from
the water-carts which are carefully filtered. Good-bye old
soul, it will be an interesting story to tell when it 's all over.
' Yours affectly.'
To Hilda.
1 March 29.
1 DARLING HILDA,
' Thanks awfully for your letter. It is splendid to get
two. Please write nice ones to me when I am over the
other side. I am awfully pleased to hear that you are so
much better. It is splendid news. It was nice seeing
Janet and mother. Janet certainly asked lots of questions.
Now darling I must stop. When I come back I nope you
will be ever so fit.
' Ever your loving
' RONALD.'
His great friend Dick Dugdale was unwell and Ronald
was uncertain whether he would be able to come to
CHELMSFORD 333
say good-bye. He therefore wrote on March 28, to
'M.V.D.O.M.':
'If you can't manage lunch, good-bye Dick; it will be
exciting and interesting, but I'd much rather be making
biscuits ! '
The letter ended ' B.L., Y.L.F., R.' and then 'Give my
best love to Claude.'
But his friend was able to come after all and has recalled
memories of Ronald's last day in England :
' I got down to Chelmsford on the Monday evening in
Holy Week, Mch. 29. Ronald as usual met me at the
station. As the visit was an unexpected one to both of us
we were frightfully keen to meet. As usual we shared
a room : Bossy Challoner had turned out for me. Ronald
had suggested going to the 7.30 Celebration next morning
at the Cathedral so we set the alarm for 6.45. We
exchanged New Testaments : he took mine and I took his
khaki one (or did we do that at a previous visit ?). Bossy
came in later and scrapped with Ronald ; and decided to
come with us to the Service. Next morning we walked to
Church and Bossy came on a bike : young Willink was
also there. The Celebrant was rather High Church and
I spotted him as an "Ely" man. Ronald was much
amused at my knowing, and we discussed the question on
the way home. After breakfast Ronald had to go on
parade. We walked to their Mess, and then to his
Company parade, where we said "Cheero" and I came
away/
The last meetings with members of his family are
summed up in Janet's first letter to the Front :
' You were so splendidly cheerful all through our
Chelmsford visit that we could not but be cheerful too.'
XV
FLANDERS
What a magnificent life Ronald's was he 's died just when it was
most glorious a great life, given, just at its prime, for an ideal.
I can't write about it, but I want you to realize that I think too that
no finer man ever lived.
It just makes me long to get back to France ' to do my little bit '-
and to get on with the work he was doing. Lt. KENNETH GORDON
GARNETT, R.F.A., M.C., Croix de Guerre, No. 5 in the 1914 Cambridge
Eight. Written May 8, 1915, when at Cambridge, wounded. Died
Aug. 21, 1917, of wounds received Aug. 24, 1916.
THE story of the march to the Front and the few weeks
of life there was written by Ronald himself in his journal
from March 30 to April 24, and in his letters between and
after these dates. The journal has been slightly modified
in a few places in order to include information contained
in the letters. A few obvious slips, due to hurried writing,
have been corrected, and a few additional details, kindly
supplied by Capt. C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, who was in the
same Company, D, as Ronald, have been added in square
brackets.
Among the few papers Ronald took with him from
England was a letter written to him, when he was training
at Chelmsford, by the Rev. W. J. Carey :
1 MY DEAR OLD RONNIE,
' I find God very near, thank goodness: I feel that He
regards this murderous war with horror and aversion : it
is so plainly the result, not of His will, but of human sin
the grotesque and awful military pride and dominance of
the Germans : and I fear our own carelessness and unpre-
paredness have contributed a bit too. But it was bound
to come. The Germans meant to dominate the world.
It's Napoleon over again.
FLANDERS 335
1 So I can go to Him with great comfort and tell Him
how I hate the whole thing although one must fight and
do one's duty. Of course I don't feel it for myself
like I do for all this mass of splendid youth, ruthlessly
sacrificed. I've lived a long time and have had many
friends and know the happiness of true human friendship
and loyalty. And I've had a chance of saying openly
what I believe to be true. So I shan't complain anyhow.
And you too have known true human friends and have
found God imperfectly no doubt, like all of us : still
you've met Him and that is the greatest discovery of all
life. I am so sorry for all the boys who haven't made that
discovery yet.
4 Like you, I'm full of beans lots to do : and the service
of one's Country is all right !
' God bless you, dear boy,
' Always yours affectionately.'
Another letter which he kept, although it was necessary
to destroy most of those received, was Keith Rae's farewell
and good wishes, written April 5 from the 8th Battalion
Rifle Brigade, Rushmoor Camp, Aldershot :
1 MY DEAR OLD RONALD,
' I wish I could have seen you again before you went
out, but it was not possible. I thought of you very often
on Monday and Tuesday. You know, I hope, that you
are and will be always in my prayers. I believe very
firmly that " all things work together for good ", and that
there will be a bright Beyond after this war. It would be
too horrible to think of this war, if we did not feel certain
that we can trust ourselves entirely to God and know that
all will be well.
' And how lucky it is that we can go out knowing both
that we ought to go and also that we could never forgive
ourselves later on were we not to go. In fact one really
almost wants to get out. There is a splendid spirit among
every one, as you have already doubtless discovered.
' I will try and write again soon. We are going abroad
as soon as our equipment is ready.
' My love to you, and God bless you.
' Always your affectionate friend,
' KEITH RAE.'
336 FLANDERS
RONALD'S JOURNAL
Tuesday, jothMarch.
We paraded in Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, at 6 p.m.
and amid great enthusiasm from the populace, entrained
for the unknown port. We said good-bye to the Grippers,
who had been so kind to us during our stay, and were soon
off. The train ran to Liverpool Street, and then backed
out again to cross under the Thames to New Cross. This
confirmed our suspicions of Dover or Folkestone. The
latter it was. We found ourselves boarding the ' Onward ',
the ordinary traffic steamer Folkestone to Boulogne.
[Left Folkestone n p.m.] I believe I crossed in it for
the French match this time last year. The embarkation
was very well done, the men being quiet and orderly, and
our time of embarkation only just second to the Bucks who
easily beat the record for the port which has seen 55,000
troops cross over. It was an eerie crossing, a full moon,
a smooth sea, and a torpedo boat zigzagging about in front
of us troops all over the ship, very quiet and orderly.
At Boulogne we disembarked, and I found the Port
Commandant was old Col. Eastwood of the Oxford O.T.C.
We formed up and marched up the hill to a camp [the Blue
Base] placed about two miles above the town, in a beautiful
situation, and splendid view. Here we fitted the men and
got in ourselves and spent a very cold night [under canvas
with only one blanket per man. They awoke to driving
snow].
Wednesday, jist March.
There was not much sleep last night because of the
cold. However, an al fresco meal cheered us up. The
morning was spent in inspections, &c., and I had a talk
with Eastwood who did not know me from Adam. I forgot
that my name had been changed. After lunch several of
us walked down to Boulogne, where we met several
people, and understood that Boulogne was very much
impressed with us and with our disembarkation. Back up
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 337
the hill in a Red Cross motor van to supper. Then we
fell in and marched off to the Pont des Briques, a matter
of four miles. The men found the pack rode very heavy
and two or three fell out. At the station the Battalion was
divided into parties of 42 each party to go in a goods van.
When the train arrived we found the latter half full of our
transport, with Jack l and Holcroft z in charge. They had
lost two men just down the line, who had been kicked out
by a horse.. There was a ghastly crush in the train, since
we were one truck short, and as many as 50 were in some.
They could not sit down, but had to stand on the six hours
journey. Off we went about n p.m. and arrived at
St. Omer, via Calais ; then on to Cassel which was our
detraining point. A ghastly cold night and little sleep.
Thursday, April z.
About 5 a.m. the train stopped with a jerk, and we
found ourselves at Cassel, which turned out afterwards to
be the headquarters of the South Midland Division. The
men seemed none the worse for their close travelling, and
were soon out and formed up. After a long wait, during
which an English aeroplane flew over, apparently to guard
us, we got off. It soon got very hot, and the first three
miles were steadily up hill, so the men felt it a good deal,
as they are not yet used to their packs. The men too were
very silent, apparently being a bit strange in the new
country. The view up the hill at Cassel was very lovely
[ the Flemish plain, glittering with hoar-frost, and looking
singularly peaceful, although the guns could for the first
time be faintly heard]. About a mile before we reached
our destination, the village of Winnezeele, eight miles from
Cassel, on the Cassel- Ypres road, I rode on, on Thome's
horse, with the Colonel and other Company Commanders,
and the Brigade interpreter, and met the Mayor in the
centre of the village. Here we saw where we were
billeted, and a dirty old man and one small boy led us off
1 Capt. (now Maj.) J. M. Aldworth, M.C., O. C. Transport.
3 Capt. E. S. Holcroft, in charge of M.G.'s.
Z
338 FLANDERS
to our Company billets. These were a good mile further
east, and the Platoons were in farms lying round a public
house, at a cross roads called Drogland.
The farms were found to be very comfortable, especially
that one inhabited by my Platoon. The woman in charge
supplied them with eggs, milk, &c. very cheaply, and the
barn they slept in had plenty of clean straw. They had
a pond to wash in, and a field to play football in, so they
were all right. All these farms had been visited by the
Germans during the time the English divisions were
detraining at Hazebrouck; but they appear to have
behaved quite well. I lived in the pub., and was quite
comfortable though the room and bed were very dirty.
We dined at a pub., the mess, in Winnezeele, and were in
bed early that night, after visiting the guards outside each
farm.
Friday, April 2nd.
After breakfast the Battalion marched three miles to
Steenvoorde, the Brigade headquarters. It was then
inspected by Sir Horace Smith Dorrien who commands
the army to which we belong. He afterwards addressed
the officers in a very complimentary strain. He seemed
very optimistic about the army, and said we were to be
attached for instruction to the III Corps of the II Army.
We then marched back to billets, and had a slack finish of
the day.
To the Rev. R. W. Dugdale.
1 2. iv. 15. [Drogland.]
' D. O. M.,
' How I wish you were here with me in this little rather
dirty French pup., which is my billet. It reminds me very
much of pur trip in Touraine. But it 's not so clean and the
cooking is not good, and the bed pretty flea-ridden.
' . . .Well there 's no more, my dear old man, but I always
wish you were with me. The very best of love.
'Y. 1. f.
' RONALD.
' Show this to Claude.'
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 339
Saturday, April ^rd.
This day passed quietly with parades in morning, spoilt
by rain. The beautiful weather of the last few days seems
to have broken up. We had several interesting talks with
French soldiers who had just been relieved from the
trenches. They were very cheery, but not very smart.
Franking the men's letters is a great nuisance, though
unavoidably one gets some interesting lights on their
characters. The men were paid five francs this day.
To Mrs. Gripper.
'3. iv. 15. [Drogland.]
' Dear Auntie,
' . . . Very much love to you both, and very many thanks for
the very great hospitality you showed me during my stay.
When we get back in peace, yours will be the first house
after my people I shall come to, and you will be also, I hope,
my first guests in Reading.
' Yours affectly.'
[Easter] Sunday, April
We left the billets about 12 p.m., and marched by easy
stages along the road to Fletre via Steenvoorde and
Caestre. At Caestre we struck the great main road to
Armentieres. It is broad pave, and is lined with ammuni-
tion parks of different divisions on motor buses. In Fletre
we took a side road, and landed in our new billet two
farms. They turned out quite nice, but the people were
not so pleased to see us, and seemed anxious to make what
they could out of us.
Monday, April jth.
All this day it rained appallingly, and we did nothing
except inspect in the barn. At evening the flares were
clearly seen and looked very weird. At tea time Geoffrey
Palmer [his cousin] came [from Strazeele] and had a
chat.
z 2
340 FLANDERS
To his Father at St. Helens.
'5-iv. 15. [Fletre.]
'Just a line to you while we still have leisure. Please
send it to Margaret and to Hilda. I think I wrote to
mother on Saturday or Friday and I have not received any
letter yet. We are all extremely fit, and my Platoon is
still at absolutely fighting strength, with nobody even sick.
We left the place we had been at yesterday and came here
after an eight mile march. We came on one main road
which is very congested with motor transport, and all pave
which is very bad for the feet. There were some ripping
motor van workshops hard at work in any corner of the
street. We passed several of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire
Hussars, and I spoke to the Squadron Sergeant of
Geoffrey's Squadron.
' Our Battalion H. Q. is a big house which was the H. Q.
of General von Kluck in October. The Germans mounted
machine guns in the tower of the church : 200 Germans
were billeted in the farm I am at. Everybody is extremely
cheerful. We shall stay here a bit I expect ; but of course
we may have our first lessons in trench work from here.
' The people round here in the farms are very much on
the make. My French is coming on. by leaps and bounds,
and I am doing my best to stop the fellows getting cheated.
The food is very plentiful and good, but mostly tinned and
biscuit ; so they will buy bread at exorbitant prices.
' It is much better fun than at Chelmsford, because,
though the discipline is more strict in lots of ways, and the
punishments much more severe, yet one can be much
more friendly with one's men and it 's rather humorous to
receive compliments unofficially by reading the men's
letters, as we have to censor them ; and they are meant
because the writers do not give their names and you only
know that they come from the Company, but do not know
which Platoon.
' Now I must stop. I am very well and am most im-
pressed with the vastness of the whole scheme, and with
the wonderful arranging of the troops so that there is no
collision on roads or in billets. Much love to all.
' We have had no news of any kind since we came out.
I hope the Germans haven't landed ! !
' P. S. 6. iy. 15. All your extraordinarily welcome
letters just arrived. You can't think how excited we get
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 341
about letters. It was an enormous mail ; and I had eight.
Please thank Mother, Margaret, and Teddie so much. It
is lovely and fine this morning.'
Capt. Geoffrey H. Palmer (Oxf. Yeomanry) writes of
their talk on April 5 :
' I suppose I was the last of the family to see him ; we
had a good hour's talk together. I remember how greatly
I was struck by his fitness and the eagerness with which
he questioned me as to my experiences, and when I went
with him to see his men, many of whom I knew, I saw
there that same spirit of keenness and the cheerful bearing
which was such a characteristic of their leader.'
Tuesday, April 6th.
A better day. We inspected and had a short route
march. In the afternoon Challoner and I strolled round
and came on several graves of the Warwicks, who were
cut up here, during the retreat of the German advance
guards in October. The farm we were billeted in was
held by Germans at one time, but there are little or no
signs of war as yet. People pick up spurs and German
money now and then, and there are some trenches near
here that have been used.
To W. Dimbleby.
'6. iv. 15. [Fletre.j
' . . . Give my best love to the boys, and say I often
think of them/
Wednesday, April jth.
This morning we left billets and proceeded by the main
road towards Armentieres. We, my Platoon, No. 13 of
D Company, acted as rearguard to the whole Brigade.
This meant marching behind all the train and field ambu-
lance : and it caused a long series of checks. We marched
through Bailleul, where there were thousands of soldiers
resting, and through Meteren, where the Warwicks suffered
so severely in October. Then at a corner called Rabot,
342 FLANDERS
we turned to the left, and arrived at Romarin in Belgium
[two miles W. of Ploegsteert], about three miles behind the
firing line at Messines. There was any amount of mud
and water about, and the billets were very close, but my
Platoon was lucky in having a good barn. We had quite
a nice little house, but the woman was a shrew. And so
to bed. [The woman kept several canaries whose singing
drove them wild.]
Thursday, April 8th.
This day was spent quietly till the evening. I lunched
with D. Burt-Marshall [Capt. 2nd Seaforths, 4th Div., later
Maj., D.S.O., on the Salonica front] at Xth Brigade head-
quarters. About 9.30 p.m. my Company paraded for night
digging- We marched to a point about 1,000 yards from
the German lines, and as we came over the hill, and down
the avenue, we heard several stray bullets flying overhead.
My Platoon was detailed to complete an all-round defence
of a farm in the second line of the defences. Apart from
occasional bullets there was no excitement. The rest of
the Company were digging trenches rather in front, and
had more bullets over, but with no loss. We got back
safely about 3.0 a.m. [The night digging on Apr. 8 and 9
was behind the front line, on the E. bank of the Douve,
near the ruined farm La Plus Douce.]
Friday, April gth.
We were again paraded for night digging, the morning
having been spent in the usual inspections. This time it
was to complete a breastwork between two of the actual
British fire trenches, about 150 yards from the German
lines. When we arrived at our rendezvous, the Engineer
officer in charge said he could only take 50 of my 100 men,
as the Germans were shelling and firing on the working
parties. We then proceeded down the road towards our
object in fear and trembling, as it is covered by a German
machine gun. On arrival at the reserve trenches of the
firing line I got my men into a communication trench and
awaited orders. There was a lot of firing and shelling
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 343
going on, and finally he decided not to send out a party,
which was a considerable relief to us.
I sent the party back and went on with the Engineer to
see the breastwork, but his Engineers met us on the way
and we returned together. On our way back we had to
fly for safety to a ditch full of water, because they suddenly
opened rapid fire in our direction. I then went into the
Battalion headquarters of the Battalion lining the trenches,
and saw a very cheery lot of Seaforths who were talking,
eating, and drinking in a ruined house not 300 yards behind
the lines and in full view of the Germans. The Engineer
and I then found our way home in safety.
On the morning of this day, I and Burt-Marshall rode
up to a hill [Hill 63] near by and saw a fine view of the
German and English trenches for about three miles. It
was a wonderful sight, absolutely still and calm, and not a
sign of life. [Ronald was greatly impressed by the sight
of Germans walking about in Messines village on the hill
opposite, and the distant view of Lille, with its tall chimneys
smoking for the benefit of the Huns.] On our way up we
saw several graves, among them Malcolm Hepburn's. I
lunched at XI Brigade with Keppell the Irish trials
forward.
Saturday, April loth.
At 6 p.m. the Company paraded to go into the trenches
[on left of 4th Div., near La Plus Douce]. Platoons were
taken and intermingled with Companies of the Dublin
Fusiliers. These had a breastwork just in front of where
we were digging on the first evening. We had a long
slow march down an avenue road. The Dublins were
very humorous all the time and quite cheerful. We were
a bit apprehensive ! We then had a long march on what
are called ' Corduroy ' roads. These are short pieces of
boughs fastened to planks, to make a rough pathway over
the mud. This path leads roughly parallel with the
trenches in the valley about 600 yards behind. We passed
several ruined cottages, which are full of dead, and the
344 FLANDERS
whole atmosphere was tainted with the smell of death.
Occasional bullets flew over, but they were mostly high.
After about half a mile we moved diagonally up to the
brow of the hill and just over the top came to the first of
the breastworks where we were to live. The ground
behind was riddled with shell holes, and broken with
communication trenches full of water. The breastworks
were dug about one foot into the ground and were made
of sandbags and earth. There were frequent traverses but
the works were not continuous, there being three separate
works for the one Company. They had parados, but not
all of them were sufficiently high to be much good. After
a prolonged wait outside the trenches we all squashed in.
I found the dugout of the nearest Platoon commander, and
sat with him. The dugouts were mostly in the front of
the trench, though some were in the rear. The men were
divided up for duty with the Regulars. They did ordinary
sentry duty and also went out on the listening post, some
few yards in front of the trench. The night was very
quiet, there being only sniping, to which the Dublins never
replied. Later in the evening I went to see the Captain,
and went out with the second in command on a recon-
noitring patrol. I carried a rifle and 15 rounds. We
climbed through the wire and went a few yards forward
and lay down, in the formation Corporal and Officer
together, and two men in rear, interval ten yards, distance
from Officer about ten yards. They watched the rear and
flank. I was lying for a quartet of an hour by a very
decomposed cow ! After listening hard we moved forward,
and again lay doggo. This went on for about an hour,
during which time we were perhaps 100 to 150 yards out.
Then we returned, each pair covering the other two.
Sunday, April nth.
We all of course stood to arms at dawn, and the Germans
started a tremendous fusilade, as is their custom. But
soon after all was quiet, and you could see the smoke
rising from the fires all down our line, and the German
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 345
line. About n a.m. our field guns put 12 shells on to
the German trenches in front of us. Immediately the
German guns opened on us, putting 10 high explosive
6 in. shells and the two last ' White Hope ' shrapnel
their back-blast shrapnel. The result was 8 ft. of parapet
blown down, another bit shaken down, one man with
a dislocated shoulder of ours, and five men of the Dublins
wounded, one seriously. As they were all within 3 yards
of me, I was lucky. The brass head of a shell shot
through the parapet, missed a man by an inch, and went
into a dugout where we obtained it. The shelling is
very frightening the report, the nearing whistle and the
burst, and then you wonder if you are alive. Crouching
under the parapet is all right for the high explosive, but
for shrapnel it is no good, so that is why they mix them
up. The men the Dublins were quite as frightened as
we were as a rule, but some didn't care a damn. Some
were praying, some eating breakfast, one was counting
his Rosary, and another next door was smoking a cigarette
and cheering up our fellows. After a prolonged pause,
we rose from our constrained position, and went on with
our occupations ; but it unnerved me for a bit.
After lunch the sun shone gloriously, and we had three
or four aeroplanes (British) over us; these went right
over the German lines, on reconnoitring trips. They
were heavily shelled and I counted 134 shrapnel shells
round one aeroplane. It was a beautiful sight, only em-
barassing because the shrapnel kept dropping round us.
Soon after, just as it was getting dark, one of our aero-
planes came flying low along our line. All the trenches
opposite opened a furious fusilade, hitting our parapet
frequently. Our guns then opened on their trenches and
I was afraid they would start on us. The evening ended
quietly.
Monday, April I2th.
At 2.30 a.m. I had the Platoon out of the trench, and
formed up and found all present. This was a bit ticklish,
346 FLANDERS
as it had to be done standing just behind the trench.
Then we met Thorne and got back to the road, met the
other Platoons and so home to Romarin to breakfast.
No sooner arrived than we were ordered to move in an
hour and march with the rest of the Battalion to Steen-
werck, where we arrived at n a.m. and went into excellent
billets in farms [at the S. end of the village, by the Estaires
cross roads], and lay down at peace.
To his Mother.
1 12. iv. 15. [Steenwerck.]
' We have just returned from the trenches and so I will
tell you a bit about it. [Describes movements up to
Romarin where] the billets were very close but it was
quite comfortable. That evening two Companies went
into the trenches, being split up for instruction, and we
dug reserve trenches about 1,000 yards behind the trenches.
Here I first heard the stray bullets from the firing line
flying over us. Of course it is very difficult to avoid
having a certain amount of loose bullets about, but they
are always high.
' The second night I took another night digging party
out to put up a breastwork a very short distance from the
Germans. But they knew about it and shelled the place
and put machine guns on it, so it wasn't a very healthy
place and we crept off.
[Describes ride next morning with Burt-Marshall.] ' It
is an extraordinary sight the two lines running across
the face of the earth at varying distances from 100 to
500 yards apart ; and back from them run the enormous
series of communication and reserve trenches. And the
funny thing is the absolute stillness and lack of move-
ment and almost of sound, as the snipers are not very
vigorous here. All the houses and farms near by are
rums, so it is a curious sight. Saturday night we went
up to the trenches. We arrived up there of course after
dusk. It is an eerie feeling, as me flares go up every
minute or so, and you have to freeze, as you are 01 course
in easy range ; but they can't see you if you freeze. The
ground is absolutely broken by shell holes full of water,
so it is easy to have a bathe at any moment. It isn't very
savoury on the way up, as there are still a good many
dead horses and cows unburied. We had an exciting
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 347
day yesterday, being shelled in the morning. It isn't at
all pleasant but luckily they did little damage. They sent
12 shells. One knocked about six feet of breastwork down,
and another wounded five men, but quite slightly. So
you needn't worry, dear, as they do very little damage ;
but they are a bit disconcerting to the nerves till one gets
used to it. We watched our guns shelling their trench
just before, and they simply retaliated tit for tat, which
was rather hard lines as we didn't ask the gunners to
hit their trenches, and were quite content to live in
peace.
[Description of aeroplanes.] ' One had 134 shells put
up against it, but without effect. You see the little ball
of white smoke, as each shrapnel bursts. Then their
trenches were shelled again but we luckily escaped.
' We came out this morning about two, and at 9.0
marched here, where we rest for three or four days and
then I expect we take over a line of trenches.
' Will you tell Margaret that I saw in a wood suddenly
the grave of Malcolm Hepburn. The Seaforths are in
the Brigade to which we are attached, and they are very
careful of their graves. It was beautifully turfed over,
and planted with primroses and surrounded with a rough
palisade of wood. The cross was plain deal painted white
with " In Memory of 2nd Lieut. M. Hepburn, &c., Killed
in action, Nov. 1914." If his sister wanted I could get it
photo'd I expect.
' We are all very fit. The battalion only had two
casualties wounded, the whole experience. But we want
sleep.
' Good-bye darling. This is written in a jolly little farm-
yard in the open air.'
Tuesday, April ijfh.
Still peacefully in billets at Steenwerck.
To /?. W. Dugdale.
' IQ. iv. 15. [Steenwerck.]
' D. O. M.,
' I am sitting outside a little farm in a rest billet some
ten miles back : I have to stay out as the room stinks so
inside. We are all full of beans, though why we haven't
had any casualties I can't think. I suppose in this war
348 FLANDERS
one bullet hits in three or four million fired. They snipe
all the time and hit nothing. We go up to trenches again
Thursday. I have at least 11813 things to tell you. You
say you don't know where I am. Write mother for any
news.
'To-morrow we play Rugger for the South Midland
Division against the 4th Division. It ought to be quite
amusing.
' I5th. [" Tourist Lines ".] I couldn't finish this the other
day, so now I am doing so in a most ideal position. We
came in here last night and are in a wood, holding a kind
of outpost position, not exactly a line of trenches. The
wood is full of wire and is very impregnable. You can
move about safely, as you have cover from view, except
in the advanced posts, but of course there is no cover
from fire except in the dugouts. But they are not sniping
much and so it is very peaceful, sitting at a table behind
my dugout writing these letters.
' This wood was taken after a hell of a fight, and only
during the Christmas truce could many of the bodies be
buried. So they are buried very shallow, and in about
a month it should be pretty evil. As it is it stinks
abominably and close to one advanced work there is
a poor fellow only half buried with his bayonet scabbard
sticking out.
'The match was quite amusing. We won 14-0 [17-0],
and there were millions of Generals there. I must stop
now. I will write later.
' Ever your loving Ronald.'
Wednesday, April i^fh.
After breakfast drove into Nieppe in a motor-lorry to
see an exhibition of bomb-throwing. After that we drove
in a motor ambulance to Armentieres to have lunch and
to shop. This town seems none the worse and there is
plenty of business, though everything is expensive. After
lunch we moved to Nieppe, and I played Rugger for the
South Midland Division [48th] against the 4th Division.
It was an amusing game; we had opposite us players
like W. J. Tyrrell [Ireland : Captain], H. J. S. Morton
[Cambridge and England], J. G. Keppell [Ireland : Trials],
W. P. Hinton [Ireland: Full Back], and were refereed
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 349
by Basil Maclear l [Ireland]. I had a goodish side, chiefly
5th Gloucesters 2 and we won 14-0, but they stuck it well
considering their condition. Several of the Liverpool
Scottish from Ypres came over, including Dum Cunning-
ham and Dick Lloyd. It was splendid to see so many
Rugger players about. I changed in the room of the
Captain of the 4th Divisional Staff. They lived in great
style, quite unnecessary I thought. In fact they rather
bored me. They ought to do a turn in the trenches with
us all. Back to bed.
Thursday, April i$th.
We left Steenwerck about 8.30 a.m. and marched to
a farm about one mile behind Ploegsteert. Here we
stayed all day, and moved off about 4 p.m. for Ploegsteert.
We then moved straight on to the wood, and took a
1 Capt, R. Dublin Fusiliers, killed a few weeks later, about May 28,
the first Irish International to fall.
* Lt.-Col. G. F. Collett, D.S.O. (Cambridge and Gloucestershire), who
was one of the Touch Judges, has kindly obtained a list of Ronald's
team. The Rugby Teams of the players are printed in italics, and
when none is mentioned Gloucestershire is to be understood. When
no military unit is given the 1/5 Gloucesters "is to be understood.
Full Back: Pte. C. Cook (wounded) ; Three-Quarters: Pte. Wash-
bourne, Pte. S. Hamblin, Lt. R, W. Poulton Palmer (R. Berks.,
Liverpool, English Captain, killed), Pte. F. Webb (wounded) ; Half-
Backs: Pte. S. Sysum (killed), Lce.-Corpl. A. Lewis (Capt., M.C. and
bar) ; Forwards: Lt. C. R. M. F. Cruttwell (Capt., R. Berks., Oxford
Trials), Lt. L. R. C. Sumner (Capt., Act. Maj., M.C., wounded), Capt.
F. H. Deakin (Warwicks, Midland Counties, Capt. ofMoseley, wounded),
Pte. J. Harris (Gloucester City, wounded), Lce.-Corpl. Millard (Sergt,
killed), Pte. A. Cook (Gloucester City, wounded), Pte. S. Smart
(Gloucestershire and England, wounded), one uncertain.
Col. Collett writes : ' My recollection of the match was that the
combination of the 48th was much superior to that of the 4th and this
gave the former victory. Although your son did not actually score
he was the "pivotal" man of the three-quarters and made many
beautiful openings. As the 4th had been in trenches it was decided
to play 25 minutes each way only. The score was not J4, as your son
thought, but 17, to nil.'
Lt. R. Cunningham remembers that the 4th Division team included,
in addition to the names mentioned by Ronald, R. Fraser (Catnbridge
and Scotland], and J. N. Thompson (London Scottish : three-quarter).
350 FLANDERS
corduroy path called Regent Street, through the wood.
After about 2,000 yards walking, passing various breast-
works in the wood, we came up to our reserve breastworks
held by two reserve Platoons. We Platoon 13 pushed
up to some breastworks called the ' Tourist Lines V and
from these sent out advanced posts to breastworks in the
edge of the wood. There was a further position, a ruined
house [' second German house '], right in the edge of the
wood, about 200 yards from the German trenches, which
were plainly visible. It was quite amusing walking about
in the wood apparently in full view of the Germans who
however could not see us. There was continuous sniping,
but fortunately no one was hit. The change over from
the Hants Regiment was soon accomplished and we
settled down for the night. I had to take out a listening
post to a house [' first German house '] across a stream
about 100 yds. further than the house mentioned before.
This was a bit ticklish, as it was very near the Germans,
and the flares fell right among us. But it was a quiet
night and nothing of event happened.
Friday, April i6th.
In the daylight we saw our position, and learnt the
various intricate paths through the wood. The wood in
front of the ' Tourist Lines ' was thoroughly wired, and so
there was no continuous defensive position, but really
a series of breastworks, making a kind of outpost position,
with the picquet in the ' first German house ', and breast-
works, and the support in the ' Tourist Lines ', and the
reserve where our two reserve Platoons were. It was
ticklish work getting up to the advanced posts by daylight,
but the Germans were very quiet, and only an occasional
sniper interfered with our repose. A certain amount of
shelling went on, but it was beyond us into the woods.
That evening was dark and raining, and the going on the
corduroy paths very difficult. We had to use electric
1 So called because reporters were taken along them and shown
the German lines.
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 351
torches, with a certain amount of risk, but the night turned
out quite quiet. I had arranged to take out the relief for
the listening post, but it was so dark that I decided to take
out only the Lance-corporal and tell the post they must
stick it till dawn. On arrival I found that all was well, but
they thought they had seen a man in front, but after
listening a long time it seemed to be nothing. While
there a German flare fell within a foot of us, so it was close
work. On returning, before crossing the stream, I thought
I saw something move, so had to wait five minutes till
a flare came up. Then I found it was a barrel ! On my
way up to the post I found , Lance-corporal, asleep
at his post on duty. I had him arrested and I fear a Field
General Court-martial for him ; but his nerves are quite
smashed by the shelling, and that should count in his
favour.
Saturday, April ijth.
A beautiful morning. No event except aeroplane shell-
ing. I had to attend twice at Battalion headquarters for
court of inquiry on . It is a beautiful walk to the
farm where the headquarters are, through the wood,
blooming with cowslips and bluebells, past two or three
beautifully kept graves. On arrival there I attended the
funeral of a man in A Company shot by a comrade by
mistake in the trenches the previous day. It was in
a pretty little cemetery in a field, entirely a military one.
The losses round here must have been very high mostly
East Lancashires and Hampshires. About 5 p.m. the
7th Worcesters arrived to take over from us. I got the
Platoon off and stayed behind to see the officer in. I had
to furnish him with a Lance-corporal to show him the
listening post. Then I got off to Romarin where we found
our old billets in the barn, the officers in the farmhouse.
Slept like a log.
[The Battalion having now finished relieving the 4th
Division, who marched off to Bailleul and soon afterwards
took part in the Second Battle of Ypres entered upon
the normal course of trench warfare.]
352 FLANDERS
Sunday, April i8th.
Woke expecting to have a peaceful day. About midday
was warned to go up to our new trenches, at present held
by the 4th Oxfords, as we were taking them over tomorrow.
I was to go up to see round them. You can enter these
by day, so I went up in the afternoon, and got a guide
from the Oxford headquarters. A short walk along the
edge of the wood brought us to the communication trench,
and so into the trench well to the right of our line. Moved
down to this and got to our trench. This is a top-hole one,
strong in front, apparently good wire, good parados in
parts, not bad dugouts, and apparently never shelled by
the enemy. There is also a farm called ' Anton's farm '
[so named after an Engineer officer] which is held by
a Platoon, and fortified (badly), as a supporting point
a bit of a shell-trap I thought. Had some food with
Dashwood and Rose and then went back home the short
way across the fields to the Messines Road. Then to bed
at 12.30.
To Hilda.
' 18. iv. 15. In the village [of Romarin].
' We are all well. We came out last night and are in
a village we haye been in before just out of shell-fire,
resting. I am still in bed my valise full of straw writing
these letters after a hearty breakfast. There must have
been a big battle about six miles north of us last night, as
the gun-fire was terrific. Good-bye dear. Thank you so
much for your letter.'
[Capt. Cruttwell writes that, as they left the trenches
about 7 p.m. on the lyth, the Battle of Hill 60 began very
suddenly and with great violence. The sky to the N. was
lit up and the rattle of machine-gun fire and rapid rifle fire
was terrific.]
Monday, April igth.
A beautiful morning. Basked in the sun at Romarin all
day. Moved off about 6 p.m., and marched to Hyde Park
Corner : there picked up rations and guides, and moved to
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 353
the trenches. Met Dashwood half-way there. A few
bullets about, but nobody hit. Soon in and relieved
Oxfords, who left No. 13 [Ronald's] Platoon in the house
[Anton's Farm] : this is a poor job, for they cannot come
by day, as the Germans must not know it is occupied or
they would shell it. So I have to work them all night !
Quite a quiet night, we did two hour shifts by night and
four hour by day. I now take up second in command in
trenches, and am in charge of work entirely.
[The Battalion, after relieving the Oxfords, relieved
itself, i. e. two Companies were in the firing line and the
other two in support in the wood.
D Company were on the left and relieved by A. Their
line consisted of two trenches called Sutherland and Oxford
or, by numbers, 39 and 40 from right to left. Ronald's
Platoon, 13, was first in the cellars of Anton's Farm, a ruined
building with a pond, which divided the two trench
sections : afterwards on the extreme right.]
To his Mother.
1 19. iv. 15. Out of the Trenches. [Romarin.]
' I got your letter just as I came back from the trenches
where I went up yesterday to look at the bit we take over
tonight. We go there tonight instead of Wednesday.
They are very safe, beautifully made, 300 yards from the
Germans, and have not been shelled for months. So the
prospect is rosy.
' It is so hard to write lying on the grass on one's front !
It is a gorgeous day. We go in tonight for four days
then into local reserve for four, then in again for four, then
back here for four days rest. You can get up to these
trenches by daylight individually, but a whole Company
goes up by night to save going along the communication
trenches. We hear no news. I haven't seen a paper for
ten days, though they do come up to us, but there are very
few of them.'
Tuesday, April 2oth.
We got little work done last night, though I went out
with two others and carefully examined the wire. I found
A a
354 FLANDERS
it very good, though it wanted a certain amount of work on
it. The morning was quiet and fine, and we simply basked
in the sun. Later in the day we were rather bothered by
a sniper called Sir Charles who made very good shoot-
ing but did no damage. We had no loopholes in his
direction, and so could not spot him. That night I got
a certain amount of work done, but it is not yet suffi-
ciently systematic. Quiet night. The plan I am going on
in the trench, is as [in drawing] on opposite page. Wire,
parapet, parados, with dugouts inside and spaces behind,
with communicating passage, carefully screened from front
and flank, where we can lie, cook, &c., so all work must fit
in with that idea. 1
Wednesday } April 2ist.
Another lovely day. These days are much the same, so
I shall take a survey of the whole time. The work is the
most important thing, as I am in charge of it, and my time
is filled up with it by day getting the work organized for
the night. This has got better and better, and now I have
a good system. Of course it is nearly all done at night.
It is curious, at ' stand to ', at about 8 p.m. to hear the
sniping dying down, and then suddenly the ' tap tap ' of the
German party starting. Then we know we are safe, as
there is a kind of mutual agreement not to fire on each
other's working and ration parties. So out we go and
hardly a shot is fired. The men betray the usual good
humour at it all and are in perfect spirits, only betraying
annoyance at the absence of biscuits, and the presence of
biscuits (not H. and Ps' !) They have grown quite callous,
and you hear them whistling and shouting while working
on the parapet, in the full moonlight. We did a good deal
1 Among the ' Routine Orders' in Ronald's ' Field Message Book '
for April 20, signed by Captain H. U. H. Thorne, is the following:
4 Lt. Palmer will be in charge of all repairs and improvements to
the Trench and works. Platoon Commanders will report to him by
3 p.m. daily their suggestions. They will detail such N.C.O.'s and
men as Lt. Palmer may require.'
JOURNAL AND LETTERS 355
of work in our four days. My plan was to superintend
till 12.0 or 12.30, then to sleep till ' stand to ' at 3.0 a.m.,
then sleep till breakfast at 9.0 a.m., but at times I was on
duty at 4.0 a.m. or 8.0 a.m., so sleep was a bit short at the
end. The sniper was active and we haven't got him yet.
He knocked a hole in three periscopes, and one shot
glanced off and wounded one man in Platoon 14 Bennett.
There was some shelling of farms in rear and the chateau,
but none of our trenches, and we had a kind of dress-circle
view of it, so it was quite amusing.
To his Father.
1 22. iv. 15. The Trenches [Tr. 40].
' Just a line before I turn in to sleep at 9.0 a.m. Here
we are in our third day in the trenches. They are the
ones we have permanently taken up, and the whole Brigade
is now on its own with the two other Brigades of the
Division on its right and left. We have splendid breast-
work trenches, extremely well made, parapets beautifully
bullet-proof. This was the result of three months occupa-
tion by a Territorial Regiment. They admittedly work
much better than Regulars ! It is a very quiet part, and
has not been shelled for two months (touch wood). The
last Regiment only had 22 casualties in three months.
1 But there is lots of work to be done, and I am works
manager for our Company. So it is interesting. You
would simply love all the schemes for improvements and
making dugouts and improvements for drainage, &c.
' Rations and material come up each night to us, though
as a matter of fact we can get away from the trenches by
day along a devious route. But we always relieve and
ration across the open at night.
1 Sniping is all tnat goes on, and in this at present they
have an absolute superiority. We have constructed steel-
plate loopholes but cannot find the brutes. When we do
we shall have them, as we have some wonderful shots.
They got one of our men in the throat last night, but it is
not a bad wound. The trouble is to locate the snipers.
We reconnoitred to where we thought he was last night,
but he wasn't there. Aeroplane shelling and the shelling
of farms is the only other excitement. I'll write better
after we are relieved to-morrow night. We then go into
A a 2
356 FLANDERS
local reserve for four days, and that means any amount of
digging parties at night.
' We heard the battle at St. Eloi last week, when we blew
up a mine and captured some trenches. The sky was
illuminated, and the noise of the French 755 was tremendous,
also the roll of musketry.
' Your loving RONALD.
1 We haven't shifted from the neighbourhood.'
Friday, April 2$rd.
This evening we came out. The maxim was a bit busy,
but it quieted down and all got out safely. We had to go
straight back to Ploegsteert, and then back 150 of us to
dig at a part of our line, on the right, where it is being
joined up and strengthened. It is only about 100 yards
from the Germans, but the same good feeling prevails and
we weren't fired on. In fact it is safe to walk anywhere
by night. Home to Ploegsteert.
Saturday, April 24th.
Here we are placed in the local school, close to the
Church. The Church has been badly shelled, and is
terrible to see inside. The school has had all its windows
smashed by shrapnel, but is otherwise all right. The men
are very comfortable. Challoner and I lay on a mattress
in a ground-floor room very comfortably. This period of
four days passed very much in the same way from day to
day, so I will lump it all together. On the first day I had
to attend the Court-martial of who was asleep at his
post in the ' Tourist Lines '. He got five years' penal
servitude, commuted by the Brigadier to three months'
Field Punishment No. i ; and now he 's off to hospital with
his nerve quite shattered. Each night we had to dig in
the same place. This was always uneventful, though one
night one man had his hat shot through. By day we sat
about and slept, and on one occasion we had a football
match between two Platoons. I took part and we took
a beating. Occasional aeroplane shelling was all we saw.
This brings us to
Tuesday, April 2jth. [Journal ends here.]
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT 357
To R. W. Dugdale.
1 24. iv. 15. In peace : Reserve Billets.
[Ploegsteert Village.]
'D. O. M.,
' We came out, after four days in, last night, and imme-
diately went off digging, after hour's rest. The whole
thing as a war is a screaming farce. This is honest fact.
We went up to a part of the line near here which has a gap
of 200 yards in it. Here Territorial Engineers are building
a magnificent breastwork and parados, and Territorials
supply working parties. The joke is we are 120 yards
from the German trench and about 80 from the German
working parties. And we make the hell of a row, laugh,
talk, light pipes, &c., and sing and nobody fires a shot,
except one old sniper who seems to fire high on purpose ;
and yet when the flares go up, we stand stock-still so as
not to be seen ! ! And we of course dare not work there
by day. It is a farce. If you were here now, i miles
from the firing line in one direction and goo yards in
another, you would never know there was anything unusual
on. There is no sound of guns or rifles.
' The Germans are about 550 yards away [from our front
trenches] and are very quiet. They sometimes blow a
motor-horn, and sometimes sing the Marseillaise and
Tipperary. They started firing a maxim just before we
filed out last night, but they let us go in peace.
'You will have seen in the papers about the taking of
Hill 60, SE. of Ypres. The sound of the 753 firing and
the musketry was awful, and the shrapnel bursting in the
sky was a terrible sight. Show this to Claude and say I
will write jolly soon. Y. 1. f. R.'
To his Mother.
' 25. iv. 15. In Reserve. [Ploegsteert.]
' Here we are very happy and peaceful. The mail didn't
come in yesterday owing to great movements of troops (we
are told), so I don't know if I have got any letters from you
to come. But you have been awfully kind in writing so
often, and it is THE great thing to get the mail in the
evening in the trenches. We are in a village very much
battered about with shells. The Church is in ruins though
358 FLANDERS
the altar has escaped damage and the spire still remains.
They shell the village at times, but haven't done so since
we were here. We came out on Friday night, and go in
again Tuesday evening.
' Every evening we take out vast working parties to work
at a big gap in our trenches, which has to be filled. We
furnish about 750 men a night, and we work in a two hours
shift.
' It is Sunday to-day, and we had Holy Communion in
the school-yard the altar a pile of ammunition boxes,
covered with a mackintosh sheet. It was not quite ideal
because we couldn't kneel down. I should have liked it
better in a field behind.
' I had a fine bath and change yesterday, not having
removed my clothes for five days ! nor washed, as water is
a difficulty in the trenches.
'The snipers are very good shots. We had three
periscopes smashed, and yet they only show 3x3 inches
over the parapet and the German trenches are quite 500
yards away. But we think they have snipers in the clover
in front. We hope to be able to silence them soon. But
at present we can't spot them at all. We are all very well.
But I don't gather the idea that the War will be over soon.
I believe the Germans are very strong opposite to us.
' All your letters about St. Helens were very interesting.
' Please thank Jane for her letter, and say that I hope
she will enjoy herself at Guy's. It will be lovely for her.
' Good-bye dear.
'P.S. There's a gun of ours popping off just behind
this village. It makes the most awful bang each time and
nearly jerks me out of the room ! '
To Capt. C. P. Symonds.
1 25. iv. 15. In Reserve. [Ploegsteert]
' DEAR CHARLIE,
' Thanks awfully for yours. Yes the whistle of the
approaching shell is pretty terrifying. I don't think I shall
get used to it in a hurry. Luckily the trenches we hold
are very quiet. They don't shell us but they smash all the
farms about 400 yards in the rear into small bits, trying
to find artillery observers and Batt. H.Qs. It is a pretty
peaceful existence. There are a lot of gaps to fill in our
line, and we work away cheerily, and the old Germans 150
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT 359
yards away do the same. The Bucks are only 70 yards
away in one part. As they came in the other day they
heard them shout " Hullo Bucks, you've got a damned
good shot in No. 15 Platoon." And so they had. The men
are splendid ; I have had one breakdown, a poor fellow
who was twice shelled, once in the open, with fifteen
shrapnel on him. His nerve went and he couldn't sleep.
He never reported sick, but I found him asleep on Sentry
Go. He got a big sentence but will be in hospital, and
will probably be discharged. But I am PROUD of the
Territorials. Their work in the trenches is INFINITELY
better than the Regulars. Any good trenches have always
been built by them. The Engineers say that their working
parties do three times the work of Regulars. I know we
always finish the job f hour before time. They never
grouse and in fact I'd rather have them than anybody else.
I wish I had been playing hockey with you. Well Good-
bye, Charlie. Try to see me when you are out. I under-
stand May 8th is the day you arrive. And you know where
I am.
' Yours affectly.'
To W. Dimbleby.
'27. iv. 15. In Reserve. [Ploegsteert.]
' We go back to the trenches to-night. All quite quiet
here. The Germans shout out " Don t shoot, we are sick
of this. I am a waiter at Lockhart's, Edgware Rd." '
To his Father.
'29. iv. 15. In Reserve. [Hunston North.]
' Please note that I number my letters from today, so
please do the same ; then you can see if all arrive.
' (i) It is of course quite impossible to expose yourself
during the day. The sentries, of which there are very few
by day, use periscopes, and they do not keep them up in
the same place too long, otherwise they are shot through.
But at night sniping stops. At "stand to", i.e. at dusk,
when everybody is up at the parapet, sniping stops. Then
you know it 's safe to start, and also it 's safe for the ration
parties to come up, as they do right in the open. It's
simply a mutual agreement I suppose.
' (2) There is then no sniping by night hardly. There
3 6o FLANDERS
is a certain amount, but it is very wide, and you don't
worry about it.
' (3) Yes I think they have had the advantage of knowing
the ground. We can't trace their whereabouts yet at all.
There is a house just behind our lines, and we can get
there in daytime, and we have men in the roof for hours
with telescopes trying to trace them. But they can see
nothing.
' (4) As you say they [snipers] must come out at dawn
and go back at dusk, if they are in front of their trench.
But that is not certain. If we can't find them by move-
ment we shall go out at night, and try and see if they
come out, and generally reconnoitre the ground in front.
This ground is getting very thick with long grass, and
will soon be very good cover. It is quite absurd to see
the quite immovable landscape, with no movement of any
kind on it, and yet to hear the most accurate shots on our
parapet, shots which have killed two men dead in the last
two days, who foolishly put their heads up carelessly in
a low part of the parapet to look back. Don't worry about
me in this respect. I am in charge of the work and the
parapet is being raised, and immensely strengthened and
thickened. We are doing 50 men at it during every hour
of dark, and during the day I am always thinking of it,
and keeping my head down. It is only one bit of the
trench about 50 yards long.
' (5) The bullets come in through the top of the parapet
in one piece I think. But that is being rectified now.
The rain has eroded the front face and left it a bit thin.
And of course they come just over the top. Some of the
shots look as if he was perched up high. But we have
examined every tree with a telescope, and can't find
him.
' (6) It is simpler to go out at night and conceal your-
self than go up by a Sap head, though of course they
often enter that way. We have a German Sap some-
where near us but it is full of water and disused. We
have had instructions issued about obnoxious gases. It
is a clever wheeze on their part.
' About work, I am Works Manager. During the after-
noon I go with the Platoon Commanders and consider
the work in their particular Section. All this work has
to fit in with the general policy of the trench which we
have outlined, and placed in the log-book of the trench.
This work includes wire, parapet, firing steps, parados,
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT 361
dug-outs, and rear communication trench and drainage.
The rear trench is important as then I shall have a rear
safe path by day along the trench, instead of going into
the fire trench and so round the traverses.
1 No, we have no instruments to detect sappers, but it
is very easy to hear them, so say the Engineers. Yes, we
have traced bullets by bits off two sandbags, in parapet
and parados.
' How splendid of you to have a Passport. If I ever
get leave I will wire and you will come. But at present
all leave is out of the question. They want all the troops
up at Ypres, and we have a long line to hold. Snipers
are not behind our line we are sure. But you get stray
bullets from behind (not in our trench luckily) because
just here our line goes thus [Drawing]. But we may get
bullets from A (our own men), as A is higher ground, or
possibly B, but both are unlikely. You can't imagine
what a wiggly line it is. In our trench I can see flares
in the directions of these lines, and this indicates the line
of trenches.
I Now I'll stop and write a line to Mother.
I 1 know the kind of flint implement you mean, they are
funny things.
' What a sweet letter you wrote.'
The implement referred to was a curious Neolith found
by Janet on Cumnor Hurst. I had sent -a drawing of it.
My reply, written April 28, was the last letter Ronald
received from me it was noted in his book ' Father 2nd,
written Apr. 28 ' although two were returned unopened.
In that of April 28 this passage occurs :
' I should have thought that kind of war dangerous as
well as a farce. Yes I quite thought the German snipers
must be hiding somewhere outside your trenches, so that
it would be very dangerous to search for one. I should
think bullet-proof armour for use when searching for
them would be a very good idea.'
To his Mother.
1 29. iv. 15. In Reserve. [Hunston North.]
' DARLING MOTHER,
'You will perhaps wonder why (if you read Janet's
letter) we are again in reserve. Well we went to the
362 FLANDERS
trenches Tuesday, and were only there one day when we
were relieved by another Company and sent to reserve for
three days. There has been a rearrangement, and we are
now taking over a stretch of trench (the same as we were
in the last four days and a bit more), and relieving by
Companies, so that it is always the Berkshires who are
in. So we are in a beautiful wood about 1,700 yards back.
It is perfectly lovely here, absolutely boiling. I bathed
today in a very dirty pond just outside the wood. We
live in log shanties, 1 and eat all our meals out of doors.
Our only diversions are making various wood things, such
as hurdles, chairs, bowers, shelters, and pegs and stakes,
and watching the aeroplanes being; fired at overhead, and
hearing the German shells buzzing leisurely over the
wood to burst beyond us, trying to find our guns who
reply as leisurely. It is funny hearing them buzzing
gently overhead and then bang ! Yesterday the Germans
shelled a big farm about 600 yards behind us, and set it
on fire. It was a fine sight to watch.
' Yesterday was a most extraordinary day. I went out
of the trench after breakfast (you can get out along a
communication trench by day) to see some bomb-throw-
ing and then came back, watched this shelling, then a poor
fellow [Pte. F. W. Giles] was shot and fell right on to me.
Then I stayed behind to show the relieving Company the
work to be done. . . . Your sweet letter of the 28th
I think you wrote it the 27th just arrived. What a sweet
letter. . . . Then I came back here, and in the wood
I heard a nightingale singing more perfectly than I have
ever heard it before. And so home to bed in this lovely
spot.
' Good-bye darling. I am awfully well, and quite safe.
. . . Yes, Battcock and a man in my Company have had
a cap shot through. . . . Yes I love the little bits of
news.
' Your loving son,
1 RONALD.'
1 Capt. Cruttwell writes that these huts were built by the Rifle Bde.,
at Hunston North, in the centre of the wood, on the E. side of
Messines Road, between Ploegsteert and Hyde Park Corner. ' Here
we planted a garden round the log hut which served as sleeping
place and mess, wire bunks in two tiers being arranged round the
walls. This was the best camp in the wood, and the safest, though
bullets came along occasionally. Fatigues when in support consisted
mainly of building up a gap at the NE. angle of the wood, where no
defences existed.'
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT 363
There is some repetition in the following three letters
but they are left unchanged, being the record of the last
day of Ronald's life.
To Mrs. Gripper.
' 4. v. 15. In the Trenches.
' DEAR AUNTIE,
' Thank you so very much for your nice letter and for
the splendid parcel. As you can imagine Bossie is already
on to the filberts! The almonds and raisins are a God-
send, as fresh fruit of any kind is very scarce ! We are
all very well. I was woken up this morning by shelling,
and found we were being shelled. Kauenhoven's dugout
was completely smashed in by a " little Willie ", but luckily
he was the one officer out of his dugout on duty. Old
our old drunk cook too was just out of his dugout
and it was blown in. They were aiming at a house
[Anton's Farm] which is part of our line, and which we
use for sniping from. But they hurt nobody as nobody
was in. They knocked the chimney down, and there's
another big hole in the roof.
' We are doing our usual time in, and then we come out
for a sort of rest, though we have digging parties every
night. The weather is perfect now, and I am sitting in
our dining room, which is dug well down and faces the
rear. I am getting a little tired of the view of the cabbage
field to our rear ! The front view is more interesting but
also more dangerous to look at. I hope you and Uncle
Jim are all well. Give my love to him. I hear Bossie
has had a letter from him.
' Yours affectionately,
' RONALD.'
To Margaret.
' 5W- v< I 5- 1 tne Trenches.
' DARLING MAGS,
' Thank you so much for the lovely chocolate which
arrived last night up here. It was sweet of you to write
and also your letters are most welcome. Just as I was
proceeding to open them at about 12 p.m., as I was at
work all the early part of the night, we had to " stand to "
as a Brigade order that meant all being out. It was
364 FLANDERS
maddening three hours messing about doing nothing.
Then I got to bed at 4.0 [a.m.] and was woken up and
pulled out, because we were being shelled and it is safer
to be under the parapet than in a dugout. They were
shelling a house just in the middle of our trench which they
think we use for sniping (and so we do). But the first
four shots hit our trench. The first went right through
one officer's dugout, but luckily he was the one officer on
duty; so he wasn't hit. Luck! He'd have been in tiny
bits! Another smashed the dugout of our cook, but he
was out too. The house had what was left of its chimney
piece [stack] removed, and another large hole in the roof.
That's about all. Now it's lovely, as I sit in our mess,
which is dug down out of sight, but has a lovely back view
of the country to the rear a large root field, a typical
avenue main road to the right, a hill with a ruined chateau
in front. I am getting a bit tired of the view. But it's
safer than looking in front.
' Much love to Max and Peggie,
1 Your loving RONALD.'
The following, the last letter Ronald wrote, was not
posted, but found addressed among his papers returned
from the front. Ronald had entered it on the list he was
keeping ' Father 2 4. v. 15 '.
To his Father.
'II
1 4-V-I5- In the Trenches.
'DARLING FATHER,
' I am afraid I have been bad at writing, and I shall
answer your letter properly on Thursday when we are
back at rest. We are now in our third day in the trenches,
and go out tomorrow. We have had a quiet time, only
haying about 15 shells the first evening, aimed at the house
which lies just behind the middle of our line. They
suspected a sniper in there, and gave it boko. They did
no damage much but one or two fell short, and one went
straight into the dug-out of our Junior Subaltern who
fortunately was on duty. Another fell into the cook's
dugout, and he was peeling potatoes five yards away!
They were " Little Willies " about 3 in. quite little
fellows. Otherwise we have been very peaceful only it
MAY 5, 1915 365
rained a lot, and that doesn't make things very pleasant.
But we have installed a splendid French oven, stolen from
the aforesaid [Anton's] farm, in a kitchen dugout, by the
officers' mess, and we have all kinds of roast joints and
Red wine and Apollinaris water! at i fr. 15 a bottle!
Arranging the work keeps me full up all day. Thank
mother immensely for the parcel of socks, cap, &c. But
the cap, though very nice, is not what I want. I want
a. forage cap thus: [drawing]. The London messenger
boys wear them Fatigue Caps.
' Your loving RONALD.'
Ronald was wearing the cap at the time of his death and
it was buried with him.
Telegram from Hazebrouck received 6.12 p.m., Oxford,
on May 6 :
' Regret your son killed last night. Death instantaneous.
Colonel Serocold.'
Ronald was as usual in charge of the working party from
D Company on the night of May 4-5 the last night of the
four, and he would have gone into rest on the following
day. It was exceptionally dark, for the moon had not yet
risen and there was a slight fog. One other Company with
its own Works Manager was working simultaneously in
the firing line. Sergeant Perrin, since killed, told me that
Ronald had just spoken to him and had then moved on to
look at another group of workers near the new officers'
mess dugout in Trench 40, a prominent structure covered
with corrugated iron, but never shelled. It was here,
while standing on Capt. Thome's dugout and super-
intending the completion of a dugout immediately in front
of the mess, that Ronald was shot, at twenty minutes past
midnight. The bullet entered at about the level of the third
rib on the right side ; Ronald said ' Oh ! Oh ! ' and fell into
the arms of Sergeant Brant. His friends Capt. Thorne
and Lieut. Challoner who were with him almost at once, as
well as the doctor who arrived soon after, were sure that
death was instantaneous and that he suffered no pain.
His expression in death was peaceful and happy.
366 FLANDERS
Ronald was the first officer in his Battalion to fall, and
remained the only one until the Battle of the Somme,
nearly a year and a quarter later. Remembering the
German methods and organization, the prominence of
Ronald as a sportsman, the ease with which his unit could
have been learnt, and the presence close to the front of
a civilian population, through which the Germans had
advanced and retired, I am unable to believe that his death
was, as many have thought, an accident of war.
Ronald's body was carried, on the morning of May 5,
to the Field Ambulance in the Nunnery on the Le Bizet
Road in Ploegsteert Village, a mile behind the front,
passing through the lines of the 1/7 Warwicks on the way.
Sergeant A. C. Tomlinson of this Battalion wrote to his
people in Rugby on May 9:
'You have no doubt learnt of the death of Capt. [Lt.]
Poulton Palmer. I can tell you it cast a gloom over the
whole Division. In our Company he was looked upon as
a personal friend and I think Be was known by every man
in the British Army. It cut me up terribly, the more so as
he was carried through our lines. It happened as follows.
Every night during our four days out of the trenches our
Battalion had to be on outpost duty all night, on a barri-
cade and in the reserve line of trenches, returning to our
barn at 6.0 a.m. One night a party approached the post
and was challenged. It proved to be a stretcher party.
One of our officers inquired who they were carrying and
the reply was Capt. Poulton. " Oh, " he said, " I will go and
speak to him," but when the man told him he was dead it
upset him frightfully, as he knew Ronald well. He it was
who told me, so I learnt of poor Ronald's death almost
immediately after it occurred.'
Ronald was buried at 6.30 on the evening of May 6 in
the little 1/4 Berks. Cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood. The
Bishop of Pretoria wrote to us on May 7 :
1 You will be getting many letters at this time, all bring-
ing you, I know, comfort and strength in your sorrow, in
the knowledge of what your boy was, not only to you but
to all those he was with : we buried him yesterday evening
THE GRAVE IN PLOEGSTEERT WOOD 367
in a wood where everything told us of the Resurrection
and New Life in the glorious outburst of a new spring.
It was a beautiful service because so simple and so real :
just his Company and his brother Officers and a few others
who could get away.
' Before the service I consecrated the plot of ground
they are fencing off for a burial place, and we sang " Let
saints on earth . Then the body was brought on a motor
ambulance and we laid it to rest enclosed in a coffin, simple
and severe, with a crucifix on the top of it such as these
good pious folk use in this part. We sang " Jesu, Lover
of my Soul " and " Abide with me " at the end. For though
our hearts were heavy and our eyes filled with tears, it was
a message of hope which our Blessed Lord had brought us
through the grave of hope and inspiration to be our best
and to reckon nothing as of moment joy or sorrow, sick-
ness or health, success or failure, life or death, except just
one thing: to do the right thing and see it through to
a finish. I don't think there was a man in the Regiment
that didn't feel that if there was a man ready to go at any
moment it was your boy. It was tremendously touching
to see the men's faces as I spoke, and I felt it such a privi-
lege to be there. It was only last week that I had been
seeing your boy and his Company in Plug Street Wood
and had had a little service for them there. Their
chaplain, Mr. Helm such a good fellow was telling me
what a tremendous help and stand-by your boy was to him
in his work. " He 's just a glorious chap to have by one,"
were his words.
' I've been out just for a few weeks and go back again in
a fortnight. It 's been a great inspiration and a wonderful
bit of experience.
1 May God help you and yours (as we prayed by the
grave) to carry your load and make your sacrifice in the
same spirit of forgetfulness of self as your boy made his
and it 's a bigger one for you, but God will see you through,
and it 's all worth it.'
'After the service', Lieut. Challoner wrote, 'the Company
presented arms and the Officers saluted. The Officers
then went and saluted individually and said a little prayer
for the dear fellow.'
It was a great comfort to us that the Bishop who as
Mike Furse had been a don of Trinity, Oxford, and a dear
368 FLANDERS
friend of Eustace Palmer, the cousin whom Ronald loved
so well was able to conduct the funeral service.
The simple white wooden cross on the grave bore the
inscription :
R. I. P.
KILLED
I N
ACTION
LIEUT. R. W. POULTON PALMER, 1/4 R. BERKS.
5- 5- 15-
There was at the time of Ronald's burial only one other
grave in the Cemetery, that of Pte. F. W. Giles, No. 3053,
killed by a sniper (p. 362).
The first cross was later on replaced by one of greater
strength by Ronald's Marlston friend the Rev. Frank Ford.
Still later, in 1917, my son-in-law Capt. C. P. Symonds
found that the Cemetery and the grave had suffered from
shell-fire. He replaced the damaged and loosened cross
by a still stronger one of oak.
Ronald's Oxford friend Capt. Whitnall happened to be
present when the cross was first replaced.
' In August, 1916, a detachment of the Oxford Yeomanry
had been sent up north of Armentieres, dismounted, as
a " working party " to dig trenches, gun emplacements,
ammunition shelters all to add, had we known it, their
infinitesimal part to General Plumer's taking of the
Messines Ridge. We were under Major Villiers, camped
by Romarin corner, near Nieppe. Parties went out in
various directions, happily relieved from stable parades
and with the encouraging feeling that the sooner the roof
was on the better shelter from desultory shelling. We
visited them either on foot, but it was too hot to walk far,
or by bicycle, and there was a mount, the water-cart horse,
available at times.
'On the i8th I was bicycling along the bumpy pave
which leads from the dead ruins of Ploegsteert village with
the shattered red brickwork of its church, along the straight
tall avenue to the foot of Hill 63, where the Messines Road
turns and rises to the right a sentry up towards the sky-
line : to the left a much shelled road serving the sheltered
o S'
w I
rf
O S
I-
' a
W o
a
I
< <L>
3
<u
OS
bb
u
Facing* p. 368.]
THE GRAVE IN PLOEGSTEERT WOOD 369
regimental H. Qs, stores, aid posts and other safe dugouts,
and from which point starts the long communication trench
by which you could gain the summit and spy from a
gunner's observation post the clear-cut panoramic view
of spectral Messines itself across the barren valley of No
Man's Land. Wonderfully made trenches with a duck-
board raised high above the flood of rain and revetted with
corrugated iron, reflecting sweating heat as you toiled up.
' At the parting of the roads at the foot of the hill was a
notice board " Hyde Park Corner ". Short of this close on
the edge of the main road and lying in part of Ploegsteert
Wood itself was a little Cemetery of neatly arranged brown
wooden crosses. At the very moment of passing I turned
my head at seeing two men replacing one simple cross by
another as simple, but painted white and caught the
name. An officer of the 3rd Hussars with me exclaimed
" Why, that 's the name of a fellow I was with at Rugby ! "
and so we helped.
' One of the soldiers digging said, " The boys were very
fond of him, sir, by the way his grave has been looked
after, and I never missed seeing him play in London in
days gone by, sir ! "
Ronald's dear friend Dick Dugdale also tried to obtain
a cross to replace the original one which he intended to
erect at the foot of the grave, but was prevented by the
want of material ; and now he too has joined his friend,
killed instantaneously by an Sin. shell, in a Regimental
Aid Post of the Norfolks, near Le Cateau, on the night of
October 23, 1918. ' You know I loved him more than any
one else in the world,' he wrote to us when he heard of
Ronald's death. His sister Mrs. H. H. Hardy remembers
that ' Dick used to say, every anniversary of Ronald's death,
" one year less to wait for Ronald," ' and she loves ' to think
of them making up now for the three years separation.'
The Cemetery lies on the right-hand side, going north,
of the Messines-Armentieres Road, about 200 yards south
of the well-known cross-roads called ' Hyde Park Corner '
and | mile north of Ploegsteert cross-roads. It is 60 miles
in a direct line from Boulogne, 7-8 east of Bailleul, and
3! north of Armentieres. The map reference is Sheet
No. 28 B. 1/40,000 U. 19. b. 2. 4.
Bb
37 o FLANDERS
When I visited it on Dec. 20, 1918, the Cemetery, which
had been fought over and in German occupation earlier in
the year, bore many scars of war craters filled with water
and trees splintered and broken off. The fence and
rustic gateway put up by Sergt. Beasley had disappeared.
Ronald's grave was uninjured, although there were four
shell-holes within a few feet of it ; the oak cross was intact
save for two scratches from shell splinters. Mr. Ford's
cross was still there and I re-erected it at the foot of the
grave. In that little plot of ground 18 units of the army
were represented, including Canadians and Australians,
Scotch and Irish, English of many Regiments, north and
south an epitome of the War and of that far-reaching
brotherhood to which it has given new life and strength.
From Col. O. P. Serocold, C.M.G., V.D. :-
' Poor Ronald was shot through the heart : I do not
think the bullet was aimed particularly at him, but he was
with a working party in a spot regularly fired on by day
so there may have been what we call a " clamped rifle "
laid on the place, let off regularly at intervals, or it may
have been one of the many stray bullets always flying
about.
' Naturally Ronald was the most beloved and popular
officer with all ranks, and one of those whom we could
least spare. I shall miss him sorely, as he was a most
trustworthy and capable officer, and would have gone high
in soldiering, had he been spared.
' His death has been a terrible loss to us : he was the
very best type of the young officer, always ready to do a
bit more than his share of the work, and always with a
smile and a joke for the men, who adored him. I see his
picture, cut from newspapers, pinned up in our trenches
now : they all want souvenirs of him.'
From Capt. H. U. H. Thorne, D Company (Lt.-Col.,
commanding i2th Battn. Roy. Scots, killed Apr. 9, 1917),
writing to Mr. J. M. Wright. (From Reading Standard,
May 15, 19*5) :-
' By the time this reaches you you will have heard of the
death of poor Ronald Poulton, my senior Subaltern and
MEMORIES FROM THE FRONT 371
second in command. A German sniper shot him dead on
the roof of my dugout the night before last. Mercifully
death was instantaneous. I reached him a moment after
he fell, but he never spoke or moved again.
' It was a very nasty blow for us, and I personally feel
intensely about it. He was idolized by the men and their
grief is very severe. . . .
4 ... He was one of the finest fellows I ever knew, and
the only consolation is that he died doing his job and that
he suffered no pain.'
From Capt. and Adj. Gerald M. Sharpe, in a letter to
his wife :
' He will be an awful loss to us as he was a fine officer,
and the most popular officer in the Regiment with officers
and men, and his place cannot be filled again.
' I shall miss him horribly and feel his death acutely. I
liked him the best of all the officers : he was such a real
good chap without the slightest bit of conceit and always
ready to do anything to help anybody. He was in Thome's
Company, and will be an awful loss to him, as he was his
right-hand man. He died the finest death any man could
wish for, and he suffered absolutely no pain.
' I saw him yesterday a few hours after his death and
he looked quite peaceful and happy. We buried him this
evening (6th May) in the cemetery. We have suffered and
he is now at rest.
' The Bishop of Pretoria who is out here conducted the
service and gave a most beautiful address about him. He
knew him quite well and said that he was a man of superb
character, and that whenever he was with one, one felt that
you were in the company of a man who was doing you
good (which is absolutely correct). He also said that " if
there was anybody in the regiment who was absolutely
prepared to meet death at any moment it was he ".
' I wept like a child at his funeral, as did many of us, and
the Regiment to a man will mourn his loss to the end. I
was censoring a Sergeant's letter yesterday and will tell
you what he said, just to show how much he was loved by
his men. His words were more or less as follows : " I
have just heard that Mr. Palmer has been killed and we
are all mad about it and have vowed a vengeance on the
Germans. He was our most popular officer and every-
body loved him, and when our turn comes to charge the
B b 2
372 FLANDERS
Germans we shall do so with the name of Palmer on our
lips." That is the feeling of us all. One feels more when
one is on the spot, and only a few hours before he was
killed I was talking to him. But it is war after all, and we
must expect to lose officers and men, and the best always
seem to be the first to go/
From Lt. (now Capt.) Oscar B. Challoner, writing to
Mrs. Gripper :
' MY DEAR AUNTIE,
' I have awfully bad news to tell you in this letter. Poor
dear Ronald was shot last night (early this morning
=jth May) at 12.20 a.m. He was working on a dugout and
I feel sure it must have been an aimed shot, and not
a stray one as some say it was. It hit him on the right
side just below the arm-pit and did not come out again.
He died without any pain at all. Death was instantaneous,
thank Heaven. It is an awful shock to me as he was my
greatest pal in the Regiment and also out. Six months at
your home made me realize how kind he was. The whole
world has lost a friend and an upright man. If things go
on as they are now, I am afraid my nerve will not last long.
It has upset me as you can well guess.
' I must end now. I feel so miserable.'
From Lt. (now Capt.) C. R. M. F. Cruttwell :-
1 Those of us who have known him for a long while, and
loved him, can enter just a little into the grief of his own
people. You will have heard the details of his death. It
is a great consolation to know that he died painlessly for
England, beloved by every one in his Regiment. When
I went round his old Company as they stood to, at dawn,
almost every man was crying. He will always be an
inspiration to those of us who remain. He will be laid in
the wood this afternoon in soil which is already consecrated
to the memory of many brave soldiers. The oak-trees are
just coming out, and the spring flowers; and the place
would remind you much of the woods round Oxford.'
Only a few letters from the men of the Battalion are
quoted below, for the same thoughts are repeated again
and again that he was ' one of the best ', always looking
MEMORIES FROM THE FRONT 373
after the comfort or the safety of his men, that he treated
them like a comrade, a friend, or a brother.
Sergt. W. Towner, No. 54, of Ronald's Platoon, writing
to us on June 13, 1915, recalls the very spirit with which
Ronald entered into the simplest of games. The words
will awake echoes in the mind of many a friend who has
played with him or watched him playing :
' We have just finished a four days' rest, and it is at these
times we miss our late esteemed Commander.
' Nothing he enjoyed better than a game, and it did not
matter how simple the game was his whole energies were
put into it, and every one playing had to enjoy it.
Sergt. Towner also wrote to Mrs. Palmer, on behalf of
all N.C. O.'s and men of the Platoon, to express their
sincere sympathy ' in the loss you have sustained at the
death of our most dear comrade ', and speaking of Ronald's
work ' for the comfort and safety of others in the trenches.
This was always his special care ever since coming out
here and whilst we were in Chelmsford/
A Private in Ronald's Platoon writing to his people :
' We all feel the loss deeply, as he was such a fine man,
a splendid example of what a soldier and a gentleman
should be. No better man breathed. He was more like
a comrade than an Officer. We feel absolutely lost
without our brave leader's cheery smile and fearless
manner.'
From Pte. Norman W. Hambridge (No. 2574), in Ronald's
Platoon, attached H. Q., writing to a friend in Huntley and
Palmers :
' I cannot tell you how us fellows who have been under
him for the past eight months felt it. He was a real
gentleman and to each one of us not only our leader but our
friend. I have been out with him myself at nights between
the trenches at work. He was always first over and last
back, and when he met his death was still hard at work.
Several times since we have been out here he has had a talk
with me about the firm and the people working there.'
Another letter to a friend in the same firm written by
374 FLANDERS
Pte. W. G. Atkins (No. 1553), C Coy., contains these
words :
' We would have followed him into the jaws of death if
need be, for he was a brave soldier and a gentleman and
would ask no man to do any job that he dared not do him-
self, and was always in the front with his men when we
were over the parapets sand-bagging at nights.'
That Ronald's power as a leader was founded on the
love of his men is also shown in Sergt. J. Watson's few
words quoted in the Reading Standard for May 15 : ' He
was the finest and best loved officer in the whole Brigade,
and I pity the Germans who run across his Company when
there is an attack.*
The last of the memories I have selected carries us back
to the trying march to the Front :
' I can see him now in my mind cheering his men up on
the awful marches we had, when first in France, upon the
endless cobbled roads of Flanders, carrying a man's rifle
because he was done up, and, when the march was finished,
running about looking after their comfort before thinking
of his own. Such a man and officer was Lieut. R. Poulton
Palmer. His memory will always live with those few who
may be left of the original Battalion of the 1/4 Berks.'
Pte. SYDNEY F. BOURTON (No. 2429).
The property over which Ronald had the power of
disposition by will included only the sum for which his
life was insured, the amount he had saved in a year and a
half, and the contents of his house, including his car.
He left to his brother a sum to provide for the continu-
ance of the income transferred during his lifetime. This
sum had been calculated more than a year earlier, but in
the meantime the rate of interest had risen considerably,
and his brother transferred a portion of the bequest to his
three sisters, who had been left 250 each and were the
residuary legatees.
Ronald also bequeathed to the Workers' Educational
Association 500 ; to the Rugby School Mission, the
Huntley and Palmers' Benevolent Fund, the Huntley and
DICK DUGDALE CLAUDE EVERS RONALD
A TRIPLE EMBRACE.
From a photograph by Rev. C. S. Donald at New Romney, probably
[Facing p. 375.
RONALD'S WILL 375
Palmers' Recreation Fund, and the Vicar of St. John's,
Reading, for a Boys' Club or other similar institution in
his parish 100 each ; to the Balliol Boys' Club and the
Oxford and Bermondsey Mission 50 each.
His motor-car he left to the Rev. R. W. Dugdale and
Claude P. Evers jointly, ' in remembrance of a friendship
which has given me the happiest hours of my life '. When
the friends met, as they often did, at New Romney, ' the
delight of living ' of which Ronald wrote in 1909 must have
reached its climax. The record of one hilarious moment
is preserved on the opposite plate.
It is possible, I hope, that some thoughts which have
brought comfort to me may be helpful to others. We
have needed all the comfort we could find. Two years
and a quarter after Ronald's death we lost our eldest
daughter Hilda as the result of an obscure and dangerous
illness Graves' Disease contracted in the early months
of 1914. Less than two years later our youngest child
Janet was killed by a fall from her bicycle due to a broken
front mud-guard, the sharp hind end of which cut into the
tyre and brought the machine to a sudden stop. The
guard must have rusted away beneath and out of sight, for
nothing wrong was noticed when, less than a fortnight
before, the front tyre was replaced.
It is often said that those who have died young have
escaped the sorrows of the world, but, since Aug. 4, 1914,
these words have lost much of their meaning. Our dear
children did not escape the deepest sorrow, but they were
strong to endure and never allowed their grief to prevent
them from being a joy and strength to others. It was with
them all as Janet expressed it to me soon after Ronald's
death 'Terrible! But I'm not going to allow it to spoil
my life.' And it would have been the same with the sorrows
and trials that future years would have brought them.
'It is God's will' is another thought often offered in
kindly sympathy. I find no comfort in it and do not
believe it to be true. On the contrary I entirely agree
376 FLANDERS
with what Walter Carey said in his letter to Ronald that
God regards the War with horror and aversion and that it
is so clearly the result not of His will but of human crime
and human folly. And it is the same with our dear
daughters. Until a disease is understood we shall never
know how to prevent and how to cure it. Is it God's will
that any disease should be obscure that man should not
give to its study the necessary amount of time and skill ?
Can any one believe it was by God's will that the
treatment for phthisis in Keats's day was bleeding and
starvation ? And so with accident. What we call accident
is the unforeseen result of a train of causation. If foreseen
there would be no accident. Can it be held that it is
unforeseen by God's will?
There is comfort in the thought that these and all
such tragedies are incidental results of the working of
a benevolent system, a system which would cease to be
benevolent if there were interference for the benefit of
individuals.
It is consistent with the hypothesis of a benevolent
control of the universe to believe that man bears his part
in a world where the same causes, under the same
conditions, always produce the same results. These
causes can then be studied and understood, evaded,
modified or antagonized >by calling other causes into
operation, in fact controlled. Consider what would be
the effect of interference with the links of natural causa-
tion. It would mean that the same cause under the same
conditions would at one time produce one effect, at another
a different effect. It would mean a world of chance
chance in truth, not what we wrongly call chance a
world where study would be useless and experience no
guide. And without experience as a solid ground on
which to build, how could man learn from his own short-
comings to make the world a better place for those who
come after him, thus playing his part that of a fellow-
worker with God in the development of the benevolent
system in which he lives ?
1919 377
Even as it is, and without, as I believe, any positive
evidence, man is only too prone to follow phantoms
and actually to prefer a non-natural to a natural inter-
pretation. How would he act if he had good reasons for
the indulgence of these strong tendencies? He would
be always appealing to the supernatural and looking for
the supernatural instead of doing his duty, which is to
make the best, for others as well as for himself, of the
natural conditions in which he is placed.
The same line of thought carries us further and yields
further help. Twice in his recently published letters l the
late Prof. H. S. Holland spoke of the great trial of
bereavement: 'The awful silence grows deeper and
deeper ', and again' It seems as if it must be broken. Yet
never a sound '. And in each utterance he spoke of the
death that must be expected in the course of nature. Far
more terrible is the silence of youth, with its joy and
laughter and strength and with all its splendid promise the
silence that rends the hearts of thousands upon thousands
to-day. I believe it to be a real silence, and find no
comfort in the supposed instances of communication with
the dead. Nothing that I have heard carries any con-
viction, and much of it, if true, would be humiliating. Nor
is any confidence inspired by the apparatus with its human
mechanism. We do not, in my opinion, require to go
beyond the working, conscious or unconscious, of the
human brain on earth to find a complete explanation of
every supposed message.
And if the silence were broken, what then ? Should we
be helped or hindered in doing our duty in the world?
I cannot doubt that we should be hindered. If there were
real contact with our loved ones gone, above all with the
young, how could we give to our life here that continuous
concentrated attention which is essential if the best is to
be made of it? We have for our comfort all the happy
memories of the past and even these at times may be too
1 A Forty Years' Friendship. Letters from Henry Scott Holland to
Mrs. Drew. London, 1919, pp. 173 and 191.
378 FLANDERS
poignant and may cause weakness. Human nature being
what it is, if the veil were not impenetrable, we should be
living in another world and could not do our duty in this.
I know that it would, be so with me and I do not doubt
that it would be equally true of others.
We have then the comfort of feeling that the tragedy
could not have been averted by a supernatural power,
nor the silence broken, without disastrous change in the
conditions of terrestrial life.
But we crave for more than this, we long for some-
thing more human and more intimate, and we may find
it in the knowledge that to be weakened by grief is the
poorest tribute to our dear ones, and that it might be
so the thought that would have pained them most.
At the time of Ronald's death I was numb with despair
until, in a few days, this thought arose in my mind, and
since then the comfort of it has never failed me : if any
there be who have not yet found it, I am sure that it will
never fail them. I have read of a schoolboy not yet 17,
who, on the death of his brother, wrote from home, where
he had gone to comfort his sister, to his father : ' I have
been over [to school] every day to do the rowing, as I knew
would wish that and you too. . . . would not
wish us to grieve, but only to think of him in his peace
and great glory. We are all trying to think of him here as
we know he would wish us to think. . . .'
The same thoughts are finely expressed in a letter
written to a friend by Lord Milner :
' You will not fail those who are gone, and whom, could
they see us now, nothing would pain so much as to know
that their loved ones were overcome by grief, devastated
by it. Not that they would not wish to know themselves
missed, mourned. . . .
' The greatest terror death presents, in fact I think the
only terror to brave men, is the fear that those they love
might be crushed by losing them. We owe it to the dead,
above all to the heroic dead, not to let ourselves be
crushed ; saddened we must be ... but not broken, not
1919 379
weaker, or less resolute to fight out to the end what is
truly the Battle of Life.'
We cannot fail to find help when we realize that the
comfort we receive is, on its other side, loyalty to our
loved and lost.
The story of Ronald's life is brought to its close with
the words of the Master of Balliol in his time the late
J. L. Strachan-Davidson :
' Thank you very much for sending me the little notice
of Ronald. It is most comforting to see how in new
surroundings he was still the dear boy whom we know,
and that his personality impressed itself so deeply on his
comrades.
1 1 have expressed my feelings as to those who have
fallen in a short prayer for our morning Family Prayers in
chapel. Perhaps you may care to see it, so I have written
it out.
' O God with whom do live the spirits of just men made
perfect, we give thee thanks for our brethren, the members
of this College, who have willingly offered themselves and
have laid down their lives for us and for our country and
for the liberty of the world. Give us grace so to follow
their good example that we may never lose heart, but may
bear with patience and courage, as these have done, what-
ever thy Providence calls upon us to endure. Comfort the
bereaved, and grant to all of us that our afflictions may
purify our hearts and minds to thy glory.
' Through Jesus Ch
rist our Lord.'
APPENDIX
IT has been explained in the Preface that the contents of
this Appendix, intended to be included in the sections to
which they rightly belong, were in the end regretfully
omitted in order to prevent the too-great length of any
part. They are here placed under headings corresponding
with their sections and arranged in the order of the book.
THE O.P.S.: 1897-1903
From G. C. VassalL
4 My own grief is so great that nothing comes to my
mind except the one thought that Ronald has gone. Indeed
I loved him. He was one of the first boys with whom I
really felt the wrench of parting when he left the O.P.S.,
and we have sat next each other at every Old Boys' Dinner
he has attended since then. I can never hope to fill the
gap in my life which the loss of one of my best friends
has made, but his memory will live for ever to help and
strengthen us in many weak moments. What a life his
has been. My admiration and love for him have increased
each time we met, and I realized what the growth in
Ronald had been since the last time we had talked together.
It is too sad to think of his unrealized dreams and
ambitions. Of course one knows that he himself would
have been the last person to complain in any way at what-
ever might have happened, and I try to comfort myself
with that thought.
' His genuine interest in the School and the loyal and
devoted way in which he came back at any and every
opportunity, left its mark on many Dragons : he was a hero
to them all, and the small boy is never mistaken in his
estimate of his seniors.
1 My many conversations with him later in life when he
came to me time after time for advice during his years at
Balliol and afterwards were too intimate and are too
O.P.S. 381
precious memories for me to be able to detail them. The
Honour he did me in coming to me helped, I hope, to make
me feel very humble. I know I am a better man for
having known Ronald, and I am more than proud of
having been admitted into the circle of his friends.
' I nave two very vivid recollections : (i) The keen
delight with which he told me (and I listened to) his account
of a motor-bike ride from somewhere to somewhere, during
which he used a wayside heap of stones as a bed [p. 154].
It was splendid. (2) Of an Old Boys' Dinner (I kept a
place for him next me whenever he was present) at which
I had to propose the health of and he had to reply for " Our
Blues ". His reply began with " I have only had one
piece of advice about the making of speeches, given me by
an American, ' If you don't strike ile within two minutes,
stop boring '." It brought down the house. The speeches
were described in the subsequent " Draconian ", as " the
rottenest of the evening as speeches, if speeches meant
well rounded, well balanced sentences, etc., but the success
of the evening if speeches were intended to promote good
fellowship and cheeriness ".
' Another vivid memory is of an " iron " shot of 140 yds.
at Frilford, out of a bunker in which I had landed him. It
placed us within two feet of the pin, and won what looked
like a lost hole. His smile was as good to see then as it
was when I found him in a steaming hot bath after his last
International Match at Twickenham.
( How I loved him : as far as I was concerned, it was
like losing a brother.'
RUGBY: 1903-1908
I expect it would be impossible to count the people who are the
better for having known him. MRS. ST. HILL.
The day is very depressing. We need your good spirits to enliven
us. From his MOTHER in the Advent Term of 1904.
One who often raced against Ronald and was for two
years next to him in the competition for the Athletic Cup,
recalls memories of him as an athlete.
From the Rev. S. E. Swann, C. F., formerly President of
the Cambridge University Boat Club and Bow in the
University Eight of 1911, Stroke in 1912, No. 2 in 1913 :
' My first memories of him are when he won all the
382 APPENDIX
shorter under 16 events at the sports ; but the first time he
spoke to me I believe I held my head two inches higher !
All we fags made him our hero at sight.
' My first year in the open events, quite unconsciously,
I turned up for the half mile in Running-Eight clothes
(I chose them as being lighter). When we were lined up
for the start all the stewards fell upon me and I should
have been sent home very disconsolate and shame-faced
if Ronald had not most energetically refused to have me
disqualified. He thereupon beat me soundly by 20 yards !
But from that moment I more than admired him. It was
just the same generous spirit which made him stop for a
moment in the open steeple-chase and apologize for a
collision which was entirely my fault. Where he got the
breath to do it I don't know my reply was no more than
a grunt ! He was priceless. He was always doing that
sort of little thing.
'As small hero-worshippers we always fondly believed
that inside his " all black " football boots (a sensation, then,
in themselves) were fitted springs to help him round those
stupendous swerves of his ! Oh, yes, we knew it for a fact
a School House fag had told us so ! ' 1
From the Rev. William Temple.
1 1 knew Ronald first iust before he went to Rugby ; we
met, I think, in the Parks ; he was with Teddie, wno intro-
duced us. I believe I was beginning my third year at
Balliol ; he was about 14. I did not think much about it
at the time, but later on I realized that from the very start,
and in spite of our totally different ages, that very close
understanding, which was to be so great a treasure, already
existed. Looking back on our friendship I realize that a
great deal of our intercourse was unspoken, and one can't
record conversations that did not take place. The spoken
words between us were very largely far too light-hearted
and flippant to bear being even written, much less printed.
* One of Ronald's fags at Rugby writes from Africa:
1 The myth you mention, that he had springs in his boots, probably
arose from his wearing studs instead of the usual bars on his boots.
These studs saved him from "skidding" in his swerve along the
touch-line in wet weather when the ground at Rugby became a sea of
mud. Among school boys this sort of myth springs up very easily
round a local hero.'
RUGBY 383
' From the first I saw him at steady intervals, both at
Rugby, where I was still in the habit of going at least
twice a year, and in Oxford where both of us had our
homes. But the first time that I saw much of him for any
continuous stretch was, I think, the first time that he came
to the Rugby Mission Camp at New Romney in 1905 and
the first time that he was in the Lakes with Harry Hardy, 1
in 1907 [p. 93]. It was the Lakes and New Romney
together mat finally assured our friendship.
' His success at Rugby was, of course, extraordinary.
He was, very early in his career, a conspicuous figure.
Early prominence at school is a great test of character.
One feared for the moment that his head must be turned.
And for a short time it was to a very small degree. I
remember that in the Lakes I thought I detected some
signs of self-centredness which were quite new. It was
natural to him to be the centre of every group that he was
in because people naturally and spontaneously accepted
his leadership. Before and after this time he took this
position with a complete lack of self-consciousness; but
just at that time he was disposed to assume, and even to
claim it, consciously. I remember my fears that his success
would spoil him, and my hopes that when responsibility
was added to success it would be enough to restore the
balance. Whether it was responsibility or not he became
one of the two captains of the School XV in Advent Term
1907 that did what was needed, the symptoms I had
feared entirely passed away during the next year. That it
should have appeared and then vanished is, I think, more
wonderful than if it had never appeared at all.'
From C. P. Evers, Ronald's greatest friend among the
masters :
' I have often thought it strange that people who come
to know each other very well often live quite close to each
other for a long time without either being aware of the
1 H. H. Hardy, who arranged the party, thought what a good oppor-
tunity it would be for bringing Dick Dugdale and Ronald together.
He found Dick in the San. and told him that he was thinking of
asking Ronald. ' I've never met him,' said Dick, ' but I know that
he 's a topping fellow.' Ronald, who was watching his side playing
cricket, replied in exactly the same way he had never met Dick but
knew that he was ' a topping fellow*.
384 APPENDIX
other's existence. Ronald and I talked of this once or
twice. For I was at Oxford for five years and was con-
stantly near to him in the Parks without knowing of him
and then three years later he came to Rugby, and an
acquaintance began which grew to a lasting, and to me a
very precious, friendship.
4 For his first two years at Rugby I did not see a very
great deal of him. I had only been a School House tutor
for a year when he came, and a large number of new boys
came the same term as he did ; so being conscientious I
tried to get to know all of them just a little, and I did not
see more of him than of others. Moreover, he seldom, if
ever, was in " Prep " in the evening, so there was no
chance of seeing him at his work. But his promise at foot-
ball of course marked him out among his contemporaries.
Also, he appeared very determined about his work and he
went ahead steadily. I remember discussing him and his
promise with other School House tutors. I can recall too
the way he used to walk. I can see him now coming out
from under the School House arches, with his books, to
go into school. It was rather a shy kind of walk I have
often since seen him go in to bat in just the same sort of
way. In these early days he struck me as being very
quiet, though that may only have been because I did not
know him very well. He was always a very jolly boy to
ask out to meals on the sort of occasions when three or
four School House boys used to come to breakfast or tea,
and I remember talking about him with my wife in this
connexion when he had been at Rugby a term or two. He
was always perfectly simple and natural with older people
and seemed to have the knack of being able to say the
right thing without any effort. With many perhaps most
boys of 15, a master does not find it easy to hit on a
fruitful topic of conversation. But with Ronald there was
never the slightest difficulty : both of us used to find it
perfectly easy to talk.
' I think I must have got to know him well during the
summer of 1905, for I remember thinking that he would be
an excellent fellow to get to join our Mission Camp at
New Romney. So I suggested this to him, and he came.
I think he would have come in any case, for his brother
came that year and one or two more Rugbeians whom
Ronald knew.
' From 1905 onwards I began to see more and more of
Ronald. I always took an interest in the games, and when
RUGBY 385
he began to play for the XV I naturally used to see a good
deal of him. And I often, in the Summer Term, used to
bowl to him, sometimes at his invitation, at the nets. He
used to come in to meals as often as I could decently ask
him which was not very often and I always used to look
forward to his visits. I gradually became more and more
attached to him and in a variety of ways contrived to see
a good deal of him. This was not very easy, because
masters and boys can't see much of each other individually
at school without exciting comment. I hardly ever, during
the whole time, went into his study in the School House,
though as one of three School House tutors I was con-
stantly in the house. He was not my own pupil and when
he " specialized " in Science he ceased to have a regular
House tutor, but I remember arranging surreptitiously
with the School Marshal that his particular half term report
should always be sent to me, so that I should have a chance
of a talk with him about it in the School House : so on one
or two occasions I went and sat in his study.
' Gradually he became the most prominent boy in the
school, but no successes ever made then or later the
slightest difference to him. He was entirely unaffected by
fame : it came to him unsought and he accepted it at its
proper value. I kept what I think was the first letter he
ever wrote me [see p. in] because I was touched at the
idea of his wanting me to meet him at the station at Camp.
It was, I think, unusual for a boy to ask a master a good
deal older than himself to come and meet his train. But
from him it was perfectly natural and I loved him for it,
and tramped the two miles, after a hasty lunch, gaily, to
have the first chance of seeing him.
' Whether Ronald was " popular " at Rugby, in the boys'
sense of the term, I am not sure. I am inclined to think
that he was not. Of course he was tremendously admired,
especially for his athletic prowess. But he never courted
popularity ; he kept very much to a small circle of friends
and he was always inclined to be shy with those whom he
did not know well. The result was that he appeared to be
rather aloof. Moreover he worked hard, a thing which
popular heroes don't do. Perhaps more than all he was
very strict, almost Puritanical, in his views. He was looked
upon as being " pi ", and he, unconsciously, exacted the
same standard from those whom he made his friends.
Nothing that was the least bit questionable could even be
hinted at in his presence. He always did his duty sternly
c c
386 APPENDIX
as a member of the Vlth, but, as he himself told me after
he had left Rugby [see p. 66], he had no real knowledge of
any of the moral dangers at school from which he might
have to guard himself or others. He left Rugby as
innocent of all knowledge of evil as he was when he went
there. In a way too his very success as an athlete pre-
vented him from being popular. The School House, by
reason of its size and traditions, is always disliked by the
rest of the school and there is always rejoicing when the
School House is beaten in games. But often Ronald gave
other Houses no chance. Three years in succession (if
my memory is not at fault) he won the Wrigley Cup for
athletics for the School House. Other competitors were
almost invariably beaten. And the same thing was true
during his last year in football and cricket as well. He
was such a giant that he made every one else look and feel
very little dwarfs.
'I did not often discuss serious subjects with him in
those days not nearly as much as I have done since with
boys whom I knew less well. Perhaps this was because
I was then rather a junior master the youngest of the
School House tutors and myself only beginning to feel
my way. Besides, Ronald's presence always induced
brightness and light-heartedness. We had lots of jokes
and fun. I remember his look of amused surprise when
he came in to supper one Sunday and found that I had
put his knife at the left of his plate. He said that for two
years or more he had sat next the same fellow at meals in
the School House, and his neighbour had never noticed
that he used his left hand for his knife. We had great fun
too in the summer at the cricket nets.
' Another little memory was the pace at which he dressed
for early Chapel in the morning. His dormitory looked
down on to the quad, and when I entered it at about 3
minutes to 7 on a summer morning I used to see Ronald
through the open window in all stages of undress, anxiously
looking down from time to time to see whether he was
going to be in time. How he managed to escape being
late I don't know, but he always arrived in time by the
smallest possible margin. I believe " quick dressing ' was
one of the many records he held at Rugby.
' By the time Ronald left Rugby I had got to know him
very well ; but, though we had lots of pleasant intercourse,
our relations remained quite formal and official. I don't
think I ever called him by his Christian name all the time
RUGBY 387
that he was at school. But the following letter which he
wrote to me from St. Helens on Aug. 7th, 1908, a few days
after he left Rugby, completely swept away all barriers of
formality :
" MY DEAR CLAUDE,
"(I don't see why I should call you Mr. Evers any
more), I hope this letter will find you, tho. unshaven and
unwashed, and perhaps eaten by gnats, yet enjoying your-
self all the same. The weather has been topping, tho. it is
rather stormy to-day. And I only hope it will be fine next
week. I won't miss a train as I did last year if I can help
it. But if I should do so I shall be able to telegraph in
time to you. Don't bother to meet me if you have anything
better to do. But if you have nothing it would be awfully
nice.
" I really can't thank you enough for the good time you
have given me at Rugby. For I have had the best five
years that I can imagine, and the pleasure depends entirely
on the people one comes across. And thank you so much
for the gold match box. It was awfully kind of you to
give it me, and it is a pleasant remembrance.
" I hope you left Sybil and the baby very well. I hope
Sybil won't have forgotten me when I come down next.
Bye the bye will you have room to spare to put me up for
the House Supper Saturday to Monday as I should
like awfully to come and stay.
" Yours affectly..
" RONALD W. POULTON."
' I kept the letter I wish I had kept every letter that he
wrote me because it was such a delight to get it. The
opening sentence was really, under the circumstances, a
very extraordinary thing. I was 13 years or so older than
he was, and a married man with a family. I had been
until about a week previously in a position of official
authority over him, and (as far as I know) he had not met
many people then who called me by my Christian name.
But it was he and not I who began this mark of intimacy.
If such a letter had been found in a novel or a school story
it would have been regarded as quite impossible and hope-
less drivel! But, naturally, I did not like him love him I
should more truly say any the less for it! So, by his
action, we jumped at once to a very close and intimate
relationship.
c c 2
3 88 APPENDIX
' Whenever I was depressed, as I often used to be by
overwork or failure of some sort, Ronald's presence even
for an hour or two was like a tonic. I can remember this
happening over and over again. He was always the one
person whom I wanted to see at such times. I could talk
to him quite freely about everything, for though he was so
much younger he always seemed iust the right age. And
he always understood and sympathized.
'We had some delightful times together though they
were generally all too short after he left Rugby. I
remember well coming over to Wvkeham House for lunch
just before the beginning of his first Oxford term and
spending an afternoon with him in a canoe near (I think)
Marston Ferry; we talked a lot of the past and future.
Then came his first visit to us at Rugby, and a delightful
week at St. Helens at Easter 1909. Several times I
stayed with him at Oxford, and I used to go to 'Varsity
matches or Internationals to see him as often as I
could.
' More than once also we stayed together in London
for the Rugby and Marlborough match, and we had a few
days' golf at Hayling Island three years ago. That was
almost the last time that I was with Ronald for any length
of time. We shared a bedroom.
' Ronald on these occasions was always just as he had
been when he was a boy just as simple and unspoiled.
The only difference noticeable was a steady mental
development, a growing breadth of view and a power of
mastering all kinds of subjects.
' I am proud and glad to know what I did not ever
doubt that he valued our friendship, which had been to
me for years past one of the great joys of life ever since
I first remember him here as a small boy. Rugby is
full of happy memories of him, as we knew him and loved
him as a boy and as a man. And to these memories
we shall always cling, for, thank God, no evil that can
befall us can ever take them away. They at least are
imperishable.
' And the thought that Ronald lived and was what he
was, and brought such joy to so many is a fact to buoy up
one's faltering faith just now. Such as he could never be
the creation of chance or any blind force.
1 He is in my thoughts all the time, and I feel that he
can't somehow be far away even now.
' There will never be another like Ronald.'
RUGBY 389
From the Rev. Dr. James, President of St. John's
College, Oxford, Ronald's Headmaster and House-
master :
1 1 could not have had a greater affection for him if
he had been a son instead of a pupil. It is the worst
of all the blows this unhappy war nas brought me. It is
not a personal loss only it is a loss to hundreds over
whom his simple, manly nature and his interest in all
human needs and lives had brought him so much influence.
Never was a life to which success and prosperity brought
so much temptation, so many inducements to idle and to
amuse himself, yet which was so absolutely unstained by
self-seeking or conceit of any kind.'
From the Meteor, May 28, 1915, p. 120 :
'After Kenneth Powell, RONALD POULTON; and his
place can never be filled ; for to his friends (and they were
many) he did, in quite a peculiar way, sum up a generation
and realize an ideal. Few have known so fully the joy of
life ; fewer still have had such a genius for communicating
it to others. Even the crowds who flocked to cheer him on
the football field were conscious of a personal charm and
loved the man in the athlete. In those amazing runs that
he used to make, runs that took him in and out amongst
his opponents and seemed to leave them standing, there
was no suggestion of the stress or fierceness of combat ;
it was all a sheer joy, and the spectators laughed while
they roared applause. And there was something of the
same astonishing ease about the way in which he did the
things and made the sacrifices which for most of us involve
a world of self-conscious effort. And yet, not astonishing ;
for the secret of his charm and of his influence lay in the
ready and ever widening sympathy which impelled him,
without a touch of affectation or condescension, to share his
own happiness and strength with all who needed a friend.
And so nothing could change or spoil him ; on the day of
his death he was exactly what he had been in the Rugby
days brave, unselfish, and unassuming, happier kicking
about a football with the Netting Hill boys man winning
an International match. . . .'
From a sermon in memory of Rupert Brooke and Ronald,
preached in Rugby School Chapel, May 9, 1915, by the
390 APPENDIX
Rev. A. A. David, Headmaster, and printed by request of
the Sixth Form :
' We have indeed given of our best. If we were asked
to describe what highest kind of manhood Rugby helps
to make I think we should have him in mind as we spoke
of it.
'God had endowed him with a rare combination of
graces, and given him an influence among men such as
very few in one generation can possess. What had we
not hoped would come of it !
' There are those here and in Netting Dale, in Oxford,
in Reading, and in his Battalion, who will be better men
all their lives and do better work because he was their
friend is their friend.
' Strong and tender and true, he lived for others and for
others died.'
BALLIOL: 1908-1911
Ronnie is here and as usual is the light of the house. From his
MOTHER to Janet at School, March 7, 1910.
Ronald is the first of my students to give his life for our country.
He was first all his life, in all he undertook. Prof. C. F. JENKIN.
From Capt. L. R. Broster, R.AM.C.
' One little incident I remember very well. In our day
Trinity and Balliol were great rivals and used to make
many a night hideous by singing traditional songs across
the party wall to each other, the main feature of which was to
impress on the other side the fact that they could not row.
When Ronald had refereed in the Jesus (Cambr.)-Trinity
match and was the guest of the evening at the dinner, the
traditional Trinity-Balliol feud required that he should be
received with jeers from all sides, to which he replied
by declaring that " Balliol was the only visible means
of support possessed by Trinity" in fact that Trinity's
entire reputation was derived from next door ! '
From the Rev. Neville Gorton.
' In many ways he was the most extraordinary person I
ever met. What struck one most in his character was
that all his qualities seemed perfectly natural and spon-
BALLIOL 391
taneous entirely effortless. Other people struggled after
improvement, but his goodness seemed a natural part of
himself, like his health or the way he played any game.
And it was this apparent effortlessness with which he was
Ronald that gave the indescribable charm to everything he
did and was. He more nearly fulfilled the Greek ideal
KaXbs KayaOos than anybody I knew. There was some-
thing essentially beautiful in everything he did and in
his whole character. I think it was this which marked
his football and everything about him, and was distinctive
of him or of the impression I and others had of him.
It was a real aesthetic pleasure one always took in any-
thing one saw him do. It accounts for the real joy he was
to his friends. One always half-smiled with a kind of
pleasure when one spoke of him even.
' He was the greatest athlete of his day the most
popular person in the University. I never remember
anything approaching snobbishness or side : yet it is
a fallacy to think the great athlete is modest ; he scarcely
ever is. He never spoke of himself or his achievements.
I never saw him lose his temper. I never heard him say
an unkind or disparaging thing. But his goodness was
not negative : it was of an extraordinarily positive kind.
What struck one most was his unbounded spirits and
energy, but it was never mere animal spirits. Wherever
he went he had the power of spreading an atmosphere of
a very definitely spiritual kind. He came into a room of
depressed or nervy quarrelsome people and changed the
whole atmosphere. It was like opening the window and
letting in fresh air and sunlight. One got to expect this
from him and to depend on him for it.
' He had the power of inspiring an extraordinary personal
affection in all nis friends and they were legion but also
a kind of pride which we all took in his friendship, not
because he was a great athlete or anything of the kind, but
just because he was Ronald.
' There are so many times we had together, great days
they are now to look back upon, that it is difficult to pick
out things : evenings in the quad, after Hall when he used
to improvise rag games of which he was the soul days on
the river and in the backwaters in punts and canoes. We
had a great time every year on May morning, starting after
hearing the hymn at sunrise on Magdalen Tower, in two
four-oared racing boats with sliding seats, to get down to
breakfast at Sandford eight non-rowing men wildly racing
392 APPENDIX
down the river cheered by the townspeople. We never
upset, and I can't think why.
' There was a great game of football when the Boys'
Club officers, etc. mostly Rugger people challenged the
College Soccer XI at their own game. I think I was
centre forward, Ronald centre half, and Neville Talbot
yelling encouragement from goal. I remember that we all,
disregarding the ordinary tactics, followed up en masse to
the enemy's goal and all fell back to defend our own, and
completely routed the Association team. The score would
have been about 10-0 if we had been able to shoot. They
had some good players. Cardew, the 'Varsity Secretary,
was centre forward and the remarkable thing was that
Ronald at half completely outplayed him at his own game
and had him bottled up throughout. The defeat was a
very sore subject for some time. They said we didn't play
the game.
' Ronald enjoyed riding a bicycle in Oxford without bell
or brake as a kind of sport, and I have seen him charging
desperately on to a pavement with his foot on the front
wheel, trying to avoid more serious danger.'
Mr. Gorton too speaks of Ronald's buoyant humour and
how a sudden recollection of the peculiarities of men he
really loved would send him off into roars of laughter;
how even in a little circle for Bible study his infectious
sense of humour nearly brought disaster once or twice.
Mr. Gorton remembers meeting Jerry Portus, the Austra-
lian football player, at dinner with Ronald.
'They were both in the wildest spirits and performed
endless parlour tricks entering the room simultaneously
and sitting down backwards together with hands in their
pockets, and performing numbers of tricks on chairs and
tables.
' How utterly inadequate all this is. It is all the little
things which matter, and one can't get them down his
high infectious courage, buoyancy of spirits, straight-living,
keenness, honesty, showing itself in everything he looked
or said or did, the absence of any kind of petty meanness,
vanity or weakness which everybody else seemed to have
somewhere and he was so amazingly free from. I can
remember his look of occasional slight surprise at seeing
them in other people he loved, and how it went into one.
BALLIOL 393
It is the way he would take one by the arm and greet one
with his look, his quiet sympathy when one was depressed
or ill though illness or depression in others puzzled him
I think because he never seemed to feel either himself, but
this did not make him impatient. Then to see the way the
Club Boys and in fact every one who came in contact with
him looked at him and up to him. And his influence re-
mains a part of oneself now, and helps to form one's ideals
for oneself and for others especially at a school, when
one prays the boys round one may find something of
Ronald for themselves. He was the finest typical product
of the Public School, and his life will always be an inspira-
tion to British school-boys everywhere.'
FOOTBALL: 1909-1914
One would never have guessed in talking to him that he was the
idol of the whole youth of Britain, and I don't know that higher praise
can be given to any one at his time of life. C. COOKSON, Fellow and
Tutor of Magdalen.
Capt. C. M. Gilray, writing of Ronald's first Inter-' Varsity
match in 1909, remembers
'how modest he was about his own part in the match,
how anxious that the much smaller parts played by others
of the side should not be overlooked. He was ever so.
1 1 never left him even after a train journey from Padding-
ton on a Saturday night after a match, without feeling
what a privilege it was to have been with him. Oxford
was a greater and better experience because he was there.'
The following players in Ronald's three Inter-'Varsity
matches have given their lives in the Great War :
1909. The Oxford Team ; T. Allen, R. H. M. Hands,
R. O. Lagden, R. W. Poulton, F. N. Tarr, F. H. Turner.
The Cambridge Team : M. L. Atkinson, R. Fraser, B. H.
Holloway, B. R. Lewis, W. D. C. L. Purves (Captain).
1910. The Oxford Team : D. McL. Bain, W. P. Geen,
R. O. Lagden, R. W. Poulton, and F. H. Turner (Captain).
The Cambridge Team: P. C. B. Blair. R. Fraser (Captain),
B. R. Lewis, L. A. M'Afee.
394 APPENDIX
1911. The Oxford Team: D. McL. Bain, A. J. Dingle,
W. P. Geen, A. Gilmour, R. O. Lagden, R. W. Poulton
(Captain), S. S. L. Steyn. The Cambridge Team: P. C. B.
Blair, B. R. Lewis, C. Thorne, J. G. Will, A. H. Wilson.
The Oxford players include the entire three-quarter line
Steyn, Dingle, Poulton, Geen.
Coming to International football, Mr. F. J. Sellicks tells
me that he often noticed how Ronald and every one who
knew him will also know that it was characteristic ' would
do all in his power to make the working-men members of
the English Team feel at home, and would make a special
point of walking and talking with them '.
Mr. C. M. Byham remembers an amusing and character-
istic episode in Ronald's training for the match with Wales
in Jan. 1913 :
' One little incident occurs to me, proving Ronald's
absolute want of " swank ", and at the same time his love
and interest in British boyhood. He and L. G. Brown
were my guests for some days prior to the memorable
International with Wales on the " Cardiff Arms " Ground.
One evening we went outside my gates and started kick-
ing Ronald's football, dribbling and passing it from one to
the other. Suddenly we noticed a black mass which
turned out to be boys we were playing by the light of a
single gas lamp. " Hulloa! ! " said Ronald, "we can now
have quite a good game. Come on, boys, fall in," which
they did with alacrity. We picked sides and started off
and a real good game we had. After a bit the boys took
off collars, ties, and coats and entered into the game with
renewed zest. Presently a stentorian voice shouted out
" Now then, you boys, when are you coming in for practice?"
No reply from the boys who with bated breath still con-
tinued their endeavours to learn Rugby football ; and right
well they took their tosses and laughed over them. Never
had they enjoyed a "practice" more. And they did not
give over until Ronald, L. G. Brown, and myself had to
return home for bath and dinner. The stentorian voice
happened to belong to the choir-master of the neighbouring
church and our fellow footballers were his choristers.'
The following brief record of the wonderful Liverpool
FOOTBALL 395
team in the season 1913-14 has been kindly drawn up by
Mr. George Leather of Liverpool :
' Full Back -. E. H. Cowan (Lt., R.G.A., died in training,
Feb. 1916) ; Three-Quarters : R. R. Jackson (Capt., King's
Liverpool Regt., M.C., killed Nov. 1917), J. E. Ross (Capt.,
King's Liverpool Regt., killed May 1916), R. W. Poulton
(Lt., R. Berks., T.F., killed May 5, 1915), T. W. Lloyd
(Maj., R.E., D.S.O.) ; Half-Backs : R. A. Lloyd (Capt.,
Liverpool Scottish, wounded), G. B. Davey (Lt., Liverpool
Scottish, M.C.) ; Forwards : F. H. Turner (Lt., King's
Liverpool Regt., killed Jan. n, 1915), T. G. Fowler (Sub
Lt, R.N.), H. H. E. Royle (Lt., King's Liverpool Regt.),
J. G. Grant (2nd Lt., Liverpool Scottish), R. Cunningham
(Lt., Liverpool Scottish, wounded), C. G. R. Hill (Capt.,
King's Liverpool Regt., M.C. and bar), J. Clegg (Lt.,
King's Liverpool Regt.), G. K. Cowan (Capt., Liverpool
Scottish).'
Mr. Charles Marriott tells me that, if Ronald had decided
to play in the season 1914-15, there is no doubt that he
would have again held the captaincy.
Would he have so decided ? Some time before his last
season he told me that he would be glad to be made
Captain, because, after that, he would be content to give
up the game. Ronald also told his brother that the
Saturday games in London took him away from the boys
and men in Reading, and that he thought of taking up
hockey which he could play for the Factory and with them.
On the other side there were all the varied and happy
experiences of the 1914 season. His brother and I
believe that he would have played football for at least one
more year.
THE READING BOYS' CLUB: 1912-1913
The following account of a meeting of the Club on
May 7, 1915, was written in the Log by the Rev. R. W.
Morley :
'The saddest day the Club has known. We could not
hold a Club ; no one felt like it. Dimbleby told us all
396 APPENDIX
how it happened. Every one knew that our President
who had meant so much to us and to our Club had been
shot and instantly killed in the trenches. . . . All Reading
is mourning him ; but what of us? No one can replace
him for us in his fine manliness, warm sympathy, and
absolute integrity of character. We all respected him,
and more, loved him and longed to be like him. Never
has the Club been like it was tonight while Dimbleby
spoke to us of him, his character, his ideals, his religion-
how keen he was on our prayers and called us to be like
him. It was what was in our hearts. We felt there was
little we could do, who wanted to do so much, but if the
body was brought home, all the lads wanted to send some
little token of their esteem in the shape of flowers; and, in
any case, we decided to write a letter of sympathy signed
by all the members of the Club.'
The letter was drafted and signed on the following
Monday by Horace Harding, A. Heath ('Tatcho'), and
E. Pocock, of whom the first two have been killed in the
War. It was also signed by twenty other boys who were
present and by the caretaker. It is printed below just as
it was written :
' Albert Road Lads' Club.
' Newtown.
' Reading.
' 10. 5. 1915.
' DEAR MADAM,
'We the undersigned members of Albert Road Lads
Club, wish to tender our deepest sympathy to you for the
loss of your son whom we were honoured to have as our
President.
' Since being to the Albert Road Club their was a
marked improvement in the life there.
' When at Camp Mr. Poulton Palmer lived soley for
our interests and pleasure. He was a true President in
every sense of the word, being not only an organiser, but
a sympathiser in our troubles, a thorough Sportsman, and
a Gentleman.
' We shall miss him very dearley.
' Our sorrow being great, we understand yours being
much greater. In deepest sympathy.
' We remain
' Yours respectively.'
CHELMSFORD 397
OUTBREAK OF WAR: CHELMSFORD
Mr. Herbert Gripper has recalled memories of Ronald
at Redcot :
'Your letter gives me the opportunity I have been
wishing for. I know how mucn you must treasure in
your memory his life and its doings and how probably
the sudden call in August separated him from you more
than ever before.
' I have repeatedly myself, especially on Sunday even-
ings, talked with him, and heard from him what good
he hoped to do to the people around him, and I gathered
long before he left that if he was spared he would lay
himself out for a life mainly for the benefit of others.
This was apparent by his actions outside the immediate
regimental duties. He showed clearly the very serious
view he took of life generally. I think he looked upon
his military service as an episode only in his career, as he
once told me he disliked soldiering, and after the war
would give it up. As it was, his influence for good in the
regiment was quite evident, on officers and men alike,
especially on those in direct contact with him.
'On the cause and effect of the war he and I often
talked, and I never once heard him speak lightly or
thoughtlessly on these subjects as so many do. Indeed
I may say his opinions were most valuable, as it was
evident his mind probed deeper than that of the ordinary
man, at any rate of my acquaintance.
' Once when I was telling him about my own father,
who is dead, he burst out with a most affectionate and
devoted tribute to you as his father. It was most touching
and beautiful.
' When we parted I think we both felt much more than
we could speak about. I clearly saw the man going to
his duty for his country's sake, fully aware of the peril but
unshaken by it. My wife and I look upon his life with
us as a remarkably beautiful though, alas! a passing
event. It has left a mark upon us and we shall ever
remember Ronald with love and with the deepest regret
that he will not come back.'
Mrs. Gripper has kindly told me of Ronald's talks with
her on serious subjects :
' I have such a bad memory that you have set me a very
difficult task to tell you what Ronald and I discussed
398 APPENDIX
when he was at tea with me. He and Bossie were very
seldom both in at tea together, except on Sundays. Most
of our discussions were on religious subjects, but sometimes
the war. He said he felt it to be his duty to fight, but he
ached to be back at his own work his boys were so much
more interesting, you could be friends with them without
infringing discipline and he felt it very much that he
had to keep his men at arm's length. He also said he did
not want to die ; he had everything on earth, such loving
friends, such opportunities for work for others when he
returned, that he could not imagine anything better in
Heaven.
'Towards the end of his time here (during Lent) our
junior priest preached a course of sermons on " The Life
of the Waiting Soul in the intermediate state" which
keenly interested him. I had to tell him all about each
one. It was always " Well, Auntie, what is it this week ? "
The question that interested him most was what we should
have to occupy us in Paradise, and that the rich man in
the narrative of Lazarus could remember, be conscious,
and reflect, and the idea of preaching to less fortunate
souls was a new one to him. He thought Mr. Wright an
extraordinarily brave man to tackle such a question.
' Ronald went with me to church on March 24th to hear
Stainer's " Crucifixion " : it was new to him, and he en-
joyed it immensely, except the hymn part where the
congregation join in. He thought that took some of
the reverence away. I had the music, which he loved to
play afterwards, and his great delight on Sunday evenings
was to play hymns. His favourite one, after " Abide with
me", was " For all the Saints".
' I have never discussed these matters before I did
so with Ronald, not even with my husband we are such
reserved people but it was Ronald's charming ways that
made one forget to be self-conscious.
' Our serious times were comparatively seldom only
when he came in to tea, and I was alone. At all other
times he was full of fun, and for that reason I did not like
his latest photographs. I had never seen him without his
sunny smile.
1 Although we have only known him seven months, we
shall always feel it was a great privilege to have had
him in our home life as long as that. His was a most
fascinating personality.'
FROM ST. HELENS AND THE FRONT 399
It has been impossible in this book to quote more than
a very small proportion of the letters and messages of kindly
sympathy which we received, but I cannot altogether omit
those from our friends at St. Helens who had known Ronald
throughout his life. The words written by Mr. G. P. Taylor
express I know the thoughts of the whole village :
' Will you allow me to tender my sympathy to you in
your sad bereavement by the loss of your noble and
gallant son? The news cast quite a gloom over our
home, as we have always been keenly interested in his
career and felt proud to think that we could claim him to
belong to our village. We live in deeds not years, it is
not the length of existence that counts but what is achieved
during that existence.'
From Dick Dugdale, in France, writing on the first
anniversary of Ronald's death :
' It doesn't seem like a year to me, because Ronald is
just as close to me now as he was then and will always
be so I hope. I expect you are all feeling very sad now
that the day has come round again, but anyhow we can all
feel that there is one year less to wait before we see him
again. His life or rather he himself is a tremendous
inspiration to me always. Dear old Ronald, how one
longs to write and tell him all one is doing and thinking :
especially the funny things ! But I feel somehow all the
time that he knows all about it all.'
INDEX
IN making the index a few slight errors in the text have come to light.
When there is any difference between the two the index should be accepted.
The military titles and units, when not in the text, are given in the index so
far as they could be ascertained. They have also been brought up to date as
completely as possible. The titles have now been largely given up on the return
of their holders to civilian life, but the book does not deal with post- War
conditions and I wished to show, so far as I could, the part played by Ronald's
friends in the Great War.
The fallen, including two who died for their country in the Boer War, are
marked by a >J<.
Ronald's name is generally indicated by 'R.'; ' R. to ' and 'to R.' indicate
letters from and to Ronald, respectively.
Adelphi Boys' Club, Manchester,
300-3.
Aldworth, J. M., 337 n. i.
Allen, G., 157.
>JtAllen, T., vi, 330, 330 n., 393.
Allen, W. C., B. E. African Forces,
179.
Alway, A., Pte., Reading Boys' Club,
306.
Ancoats Boys' Club, Manchester,
300-3.
Andre, G., 224, pi. facing 230.
Annandale Society, Balliol, 139-44.
Appleton, W. A., 258.
JArbuthnot, A. H., vi, 93.
Arnold, Matthew, 15 n.
Asher, A. G. G., County Clerk of
Midlothian, 178.
Atkins, W. G., 374.
^Atkinson, M. L., 2nd Lt. Tank Corps,
393-
Avery, Sir W. E. T., Capt. R.A.S.C.,
Baden-Powell, Sir R., 152.
Bailey, Cyril, Ministry of Munitions,
Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, 255 ;
on fallen officers of Boys' Club,
161-3.
!Bain, D. ML., 173, 173 n. 2, 180,
393~4*
Baker, F. C, Maj. R.A.F., D.F.C.,
A.F.C., Croix de Chevalier, Legion
d'honneur, 120.
Baker, H. B., Sci. Adviser to Govt.
Depts., 76, 100.
!<Baker, S. H., vii.
Ball, A. D., Colonial Cadet, F.M.S.,
184.
Ballantyne, E. W., an.
Bancroft, J., 234-5, 239-40.
Barnett, Samuel, 23.
Barry, Gerald, 41.
Barton, Mrs., 258.
Bat Club, Balliol, 140
Battcock, G. A., Maj., 362.
Battenberg, Princess Henry of, 95, 274.
^Beasley, H. W., rec'd Commission
for gallantry, M.M., 370.
Bell, Rev. J. W. B., 55.
Belloc, Hilaire, 71.
Bennett, Pte., 355.
Bernstein, M.. 224 ; illustr. on 225.
Berry, , 57.
Birkett, J. G. G., Lt. R.G.A., 193, 207,
233-5-
Bitmead, Mrs. Mary, 253 n.; memories
of R., 253.
>I<Blair, P. C. B., and Lt. Rifle Bde.,
393-4.
Blandy, W. E. M., 315, 325.
Boas, Mrs. F. S. (Miss H. O'B. Owen),
32 ; on R.'s first hockey, 36-7.
Boer War, 50, 57, 60-1.
Bostock-Smith, E. S., 221.
Bourne, R. C., Capt. Herefordsh.
Regt., Staff Lt., ist Cl., 187.
Bourton, S. F., on R.'s care for his
men, 331-2, 374.
Bowie, T. C., Capt. R.A.M.C., 220,
242.
Bowlby, Henry R., 144, 150, 159, 161,
245 ; on the 'Anna', 140-1.
Bowring, H., 69.
Dd
402
INDEX
Brackenbury Society, Balliol, 116.
Bradby, H. C., Housemaster, Rugby,
on R. and Mission Boys, 112-3.
Neither H. C. nor G. F. Bradby
remembers making the remark
quoted on p. 96.
>JBrandt, D. R., 147, 161 ; Ball. Boys'
Club and, 161-2.
Brant, Sergt, 365.
Brennus, M. Charles, 224 ; illustr. on
p. 225.
^Brooke, Rupert C., Sub-Lt. Hood
Btn., R. Nav. Div., 68, 389.
Broster, L. R., 144, 390 ; on R. as
Rugby player, 194.
Brougham, H., Maj. R.F.A., 235-6.
Brown, Mr. and Mrs., 249, 318.
Brown, Miss K., 49.
Brown, L. G. (Bruno), Lt. Col.
R.A.M.C., M.C., 180-1, 185-6, 202,
2IO, 214, 221, 239-40, 266, 394.
Buchanan, F. G., Capt. R.E., Staff
Capt. H.Q., S.S.T.C., 178-9, 198,
200 i.
Bulkeley-Johnson, V. F. , 139, 147.
Bullock, H., 181, 244.
' Burt' (Pte. A. Povey), Reading Boys'
Club, 271.
Burt-Marshall, D., 342-3, 346.
>IBushell, C., vi, i ; on R. and Mis-
sion Boys at Rugby, no.
^Bushell, W. C., Pte., Reading Boys'
Club, 272, 306.
>JiBussell, Rev. J. G., vi, 161, 278-9 ;
on R. and Boys' Clubs, 279.
J<Butler, L. G., Capt. 3rd Rifle Bde.,
Fellow of St. John's, 100.
Byham, C. M., on Factory cricket,
264 ; ' practice ' for the 1913 match
v. Wales, 394.
>JCampbell, K. J., 2nd Lt. Arg. &
Sutherl. Highlanders, 139.
Cardew, Evelyn, Egypt. C. S., 119,
127, 133, 141, 392.
Carey, Rev. W. J. (Caesar), Chaplain
R- N., 5, 9, 14, 19, 20, 220, 244,
278, 376 ; R. to on the 1911 'Varsity
match, 182-3 ; to R. and R. to on
uncle's will, 284-5 > to R- on the
War, 334-5-
Carroll, Lewis, 25.
Cartwright, Vincent H., Maj. R.M.A.,
D.S.O., Croix de Guerre, 68, 173.
Caujolles, J., 224, 226.
Cavendish Club, 7, 314.
Challoner, O. B. (Bossie), 315, 320-1,
3a5 333, 34i, 356, 363, 365, 39 8 ;
Ronald's death, 367, 372.
Chapman, F. E., Capt. R.A.M.C., 193,
2 33> 235. 240.
Cheesman, W. I., Soudan C. S., 182,
200, 202.
Childs, W. M., Principal of Univ. Coll.,
Reading, 276.
>JChurch, Maurice R., killed in Boer
War, 60 ; O.P.S. memorial of, 61.
Clarke, Rev. A. E., 45.
Clegg, J., 395.
Clifford Essex Pierrots, 7.
Clynes, the Rt. Hon. J. R., P.C., M.P.,
258.
Coates, V. H. M., Capt. R.A.M.C.,
M.C., 237-8.
Cobb, Miss O. Lewin, R. at kinder-
garten of, 40.
Cobby, W., 231.
Coleridge, Mary, 24.
Collett, G. F., on the 48th Div. Rugby
Team, Apr. 14, 1915, 349 n. 2.
>|Collier. Martin, vi; letter to parents,
56-7-
Collier, Mrs. W., 324.
Collier, W. T. (Billy), 18, 80, 117,
127, 131, 133, 136 n. i, 139, 245,
254, 270, 324 ; pi. facing 133 ; R.'s
O.P.S. athletics, 46; Ball. Boys'
Club and, 150, 152, 157, 161 ;
memories of R., 159.
Collins, J., Housemaster, Rugby, 78,
80, 86 ; R.'s visits to Roman Wall
with, 81, 93.
Collis, M. S., Lt. 35th Scinde Horse,
136.
Conroy, Sir John, 136.
Conway (Wertheimer), F. J. (Wer-
ters), 136, 139; memories of R., 137.
Cook, A., 349 n. 2.
Cook, C., 349 n. 2.
Cookson, C., Fellow and Tutor of
Magdalen, impression of R., 393.
Copland, Miss, 315.
Coverdale, H., Lt. Lond. Regt., 235-6.
Covey, F.,Lnc.-Cpl.Oxf.& Bucks. L.I.,
Ball. Boys' Club, 271 ; on the
Reading Boys' Camp, 275 ; pis.
facing 267, 309.
!Cowan, E. H., 395.
Cowan, G. K., 395.
Cozens-Hardy, B., Lt., A.-Capt. 4th
Norfolk Regt. , 92.
Cramb, J. A., 145.
Cronje, S. N., Capt. ist S. African
Rifles, M.C., 175.
Croome, A. C. M., help given by, viii,
168 ; Oxford football, &c., 188-
204 ; Internal, football, &c., 206,
23I-43-
Crosse, Rev. E. C., 161, 320.
INDEX
43
Crossley Boys' Club, Manchester,
300-3.
Cruttwell, C. R. M. F., Fellow of
Hertford, 315, 3490. 2, 352, 362 n. ;
help given by, 334 ; Ronald's death,
373-
Gumming, L., Science Master, Rugby,
102.
Cunningham, D., pi. facing 218.
Cunningham, George, 196, 199 ; on
R.'s football, 169-71 ; R.'s selection
in 1909 and, 175-8.
Cunningham, R. (Dum), 92, 98, 104,
106, 216, 349, 349 n. 3, 395.
Darwin, Sir George, 59.
}<Dashwood, E. G.,Capt. 1/4 Oxf. &
Bucks. L. I., 352-3.
David, Rev. Dr. A. A., Headmaster of
Ru s b y 390-
Davey, G. B., 395.
Davies, W. J. A., Constructor Lt.
Commander R.N., 218, 224, 238,
240-1, 243.
de Montarby, Mme, 137-9.
de Montarby, Mile, 137.
Deakin, F. H., 349 n. 2.
Delahunty, P., memories of R., 216,
219, 285-6, 290-2 ; working-men
and Boys' Clubs, 297-300.
Dervorguilla Society, Balliol, 140.
Dewar, M. B. U., Maj. R.E., T.F.,
O.B.E., 79.
Dillon, E. W., Capt. Queen's Own, 68.
Dimbleby, W. W., 359, 395-6 ; pis.
facing 267, 309 ; on R.'s character
and personality, vii-viii, 323 ; Read-
ing Boys' Club, 267-8, 271, 274,
305-6, 309, 328, 341 ; R.'s manage-
ment of Club, 277-8 ; R. and War,
323-
Dimbleby, Mrs., 275.
>fcDingle, A. J., 173, 173 n. 3, 181,
183, 203-4, 229, 394.
Donald, Rev. C. S., 95, 149, 270 ;
pis. facing 154, 375 ; memories of
R. at Boys' Clubs and Camps, 112-4
last meeting, 329.
Donald, Grahame, on R.'s personality
in football, 171.
Dorrien, Sir H. Smith, 338.
Douglas, Sir Charles, 146.
Drew, Mrs., 377 n.
>JDugdale, Rev. R. W. (Dick), vi, 4,
10, 13-4, 20, 58, 102-3, 130, i3 2
136, 139. r 4 2 , 145, 158, 208-9, 228,
249, 256, 268, 299, 313, 319, 338, 347,
357, 375 J pl- facing 375 ; on R. at
Grasmere, 93-4. 383 n. ; work for
Schools, 133-4 ; last day in England,
D
332-3 ; death of, 369 ; May 5, 1916,
thoughts on, 399.
Eastwood, J. C. B., Lt.-Col. i2th Lan-
cers, Base Commt., C.B., C.M.G.,
336.
Eden, Mrs., 73.
Edith (Kingzett), nurse, memories,
33-4 5 games with R., 35.
Edward, Ronald's elder brother, Dr.
E. P. Poulton (Teddie), viii. 60, 107-
9, 184, 316, 395 ; in Oxf. v. Cambr.
hockey team, 79, 184 ; memories of
R. work, ii ; at O. P. S., 63-4;
in Rugby sports (1904"), 72 ; over-
work (1913), 253; Uncle's will,
280, 283, 374 ; at Swindon, 308,
312-3; atChelmsford,322 ; on foot-
ball at Rugby, 69 n. ; origin Ball.
Boys' Club, 150 ; R. to early let-
ters, 47, 49, 50, 52 ; congratulation
on hockey, 79 ; sympathy in Final
Schools, 80-1, 83 ; games and work,
82 ; La Caillere, 138 ; first days of
War, 311-2.
Eldridge, J. M., 'October Memories'
by, *72-3.
Evans, Sir Arthur, 49, 50, 175; see
also under ' Ronald ' ' Youlbury '.
Evans, J., 221.
Evelyn (Wells), 43, 315, 319; mem-
ories of R. as child, 43-4.
Evers, C. P. (Claude), Bt.-Maj., Rugby
School O.T.C., Housemaster, Rug-
by, viii, 5, 95, 101, in, 145, 256,
295, 333, 338, 357 5 Pl- facing 375 ;
on R.'s character, 8 ; political and
social views, 13-4 ; Rugby lecture
on Roman Wall, 102 ; walking-tour
with, 134-5; R- and the 'Anna',
141-2 ; memories at Rugby and later,
104, 106, 383-8 ; at Camp, 109-10 ;
R. to on boy immorality, 66-7, 151 ;
religion at Camp, 158 ; selection as
International, 205-6; R.'s will and,
375-
Evers, R. W., drowned in 1912,
walking-tour with, 134-5.
Evers, Sybil, 206, 387.
Fag, Rugby memories of, 88-9, 382 n.
Fanshawe, Mrs., 280.
Fanshawe, R., on R. on the Iffley Rd.
ground, 164.
Fisher, C. W. Corbett, vii.
{Fisher, Charles, 56.
Fisher, Gerald T., Capt. 1/3 Gurkha
Rifles, 145, 273-4, 314.
Fisher, Miss Marjorie, 129 ; R. to on
first month of War, 313-4.
d2
404
INDEX
{Fletcher, W. G., 147.
Flint implements, 73-4, 76, 80, 84, 86,
136, 361 ; article on, 91 ; in scholar-
ship exam., 100 ; prize for, 102;
paper on, 125.
Football (Rugby) :
Harlequins, 101, 117, 119, 121, 168,
174-5, 188-9, 194, 200, 208, 231,
330 n. ; first game with (1908), 205.
International, Table, 229.
v. France (1909) 206, 231-2 ;
(1913) 238, R. on, 212 ; (1914)
222-7, 242-3, R. on, 225-7, illustra-
tion, 225, pi. facing 230.
v. Ireland (1909) 206, 232; (1912)
209, 235-6 ; (1913) 238, R. on,
212; (1914) 217-20, 240-1, 381,
R. A. Lloyd on, 218-9.
v.Scotland (1909) 206, 232-3;
(1911) 207-8, 234, R. on, 167;
(1912) 209, 236; (1913) 238-9,
R. on, 212; (1914) 220-1, 241-2,
R. on, 329.
v. South Africa (19 13) 168-9,210,
236-7, R. on, 212-3.
v. Wales (1910) 207, 233 ; (1912)
208, 234-5; (1913) 211, 237-8,
R. on, 212, 'practice' for, 394;
(1914) 216-7, 239-40, R. on, 217.
Inter- 1 Varsity.
1908 R. and the team, 167-9,
173-4, 182, 189-92.
1909 R. and the team, 121, 175-6,
!95-7; the game, 169-70, 177-8,
182, 194, 197, 233, 329-30.
1910 179-80, 182, 201.
1911 180-4, 202-4, 245.
1909-11 the fallen of both teams,
393-4-
Liverpool Team (1913-14), 215-6,
218, 288, 395 ; R. A. Lloyd on, 218.
'Scissors' trick, 218, 241.
St. Helens, 213-4, 227-8.
Training and practice, 208, 216, 261,
394-
Ford, Rev. F., C.F., 368, 370.
Fowler, T. G., 216, 395.
fcFraser, R., Capt. 6th Rifle Bde.,
349 n. 2, 393.
Furse, Rt. Rev. Dr. M. B., Bishop of
Pretoria, Ronald's burial, 366-7.
Fyson, C. 147.
JGallaher, D., Sergt., Auckland Bn.,
N. Z., 240.
Galsworthy, J., 245.
Gamlen, J. C. B., Capt. 1/4 Oxf. &
Bucks. L.I.,M.C., address toO.P.S.,
56.
Gamlin, H. T., Admiralty, 191.
Gane, Dr. E., on R. as a Rugby
leader, 220-1.
Gardiner, Denys, 127.
Garnett, J. C. Maxwell, Principal of
Manchester Coll. of Technology,
C.B.E., Ronald's brother-in-law,
295,317, 364-
>JGarnett, K. G., vi, 334.
Garnett, Mrs. Maxwell, see ' Mar-
garet '.
Garnett, Peggie, 364.
^Garrett, H. F., Capt. 6th E. Yorksh.
Regt., vi, 74, 77, 81, 109 ; on games
and work, 65-6 ; to R. on Confirma-
tion, 78 ; entering the XV at Rugby,
82 ; coaching lower games, 89 ;
Suvla B. expedition and, 89-90 ;
death of, 89.
Gaskell, Roger M., died in 1908, 93.
Gathorne-Hardy, G. M., Capt., M.C.,
pi. facing 368.
^,Geen, W. P., 2nd Lt. gth K.R.R.,
179, 1 80, 200-2, 393-4.
^Giles, F. W., death of, 362 ; grave,
368 and pi. facing.
JGillespie, T. G., 244.
{<Gilmour, Allan, Capt. Yeomanry,
394.
Gilray, C. M., Lt. 6th Rifle Bde., M.C.,
169-70, 178, 190, 194, 196-7 ; me-
mories of R., 393.
Goodenough, F. C., 258.
Gore, Rt. Rev. Dr. C., late Bishop of
Oxford, 258.
Gorton, Rev. N. V. (Gortey), 139,
150 ; memories of R. at Balliol,
r 36-7, 39-3 5 the ' Anna ', 143 ; R.
to, 245, 259.
Gotch, the late Prof. F., 62.
^Gotch, Roby M., vi. 115; walking
tour with, 134-5.
Gotley, A. L. H., Lt. N. Rhodesian
Police, 234.
Gould, A. J., 191.
Grant, J., 285, 287 ; on R.'s politics,
12; R. at Manchester Coll. of Tech-
nology, 293-4 5 R- an d working-
men, 297.
Grant, J. G., 395.
Grant-Asher, see ' Asher'.
Green, Prof. T. H., 23.
Greenwood, J. E., Lt. 4th Gren. Gds.,
222.
Grenville, Sir Richard, 56.
Gripper, H., 315, 320, 336, 339, 363 ;
memories of R. at Chelmsford, 397.
Gripper, Mrs., 315, 336, 372; me-
mories of R., 308, 325, 397-8; R.
to, 320-1, 339, 363.
INDEX
405
Guedalla, P., Legal Adviser W. O.,
100 ; help given by, viii.
Haldane, Lord, 144, 147, 258.
Hamblin, S., 349 n. 2.
Hambridge, N. W., Ronald's death,
373-
Hamilton, G. M., 150, 245 ; on R. at
Ball. Boys' Camp, 153.
Hamilton, Sir Ian, 144.
>{<Hands, R. H. M., Capt. S. Afr.
F.A., 393.
Harcourt, Dr. A. G. V., memories of
R., 33.
Harding, F., Pte., Reading Boys'
Club, 272, 306.
|Harding, Horace, Pte., Reading
Boys' Club, 274, 396.
Hardy, A. Claude, 46, 80, 295 ; on R.
at Mather and Plait's, 286-7.
Hardy, H. H., Maj. Rifle Bde., M.B.E.,
Headmaster of Cheltenham, 77, 95,
in ; the Grasmere party and, 93,
383, 383 n. ; New Romney Camp
and, 156-7.
Hardy, Mrs. H. H., 369.
Harris, J., 349 n. 2.
Hartley, Harold B., Brig. Gen. R.E.,
M.C., C.B.E., Fellow and Tutor of
Balliol, 100, 123; on R.'s qualifica-
tions (1910), 124-5; ( I 9 II )> J 36-
Haslam, Dryland, junr., R. on eve of
War, 310 ; R. to, 325-6.
Haslam, Mrs., 268, 326.
Haslam, Joyce, R. to, 250-1.
Hawkesworth, C. E. M., Housemaster,
Rugby, 71, in, 154.
Hearn, J. W. (Molly), 192.
^Heath, A., Pte., Reading Boys'
Club, 396.
Heaton, E. J., 269.
Hebak, Fraulein, 34.
Helm, Rev. G. F., C.F., 367.
J*Hepburn, M.. grave of, 343, 347.
Heyrod St. Boys' Club, Manchester,
300-2.
Hide-and-seek, St. Helens, 59, 165.
Hilda, Ronald's eldest sister, the late
Mrs. E. W. Ainley Walker, iii, 32,
34, 153, 330 n. ; love of her school,
30 ; as family leader, 42, 101 ; in
Oxf. v. Cambr. hockey team, 79,
184 ; as Hermione, 134 and pi.
facing ; death of, 4, 375 ; memories
of Ronald, 4, 7 ; as a child, 42 ; at
Rugby, 108 ; at St. Helens (1913),
213-4 ; Reading, 254. 257 ; with his
Club boys, 275 ; in training, 323-4 ;
to R. at Rugby, 90; R. to, 48, 69,
70-1, 78-9, 83, 87, 91, 93, 99, 120-1 ;
fr. Manchester, 286, 288-90, 294 ;
in training for war, 312, 315, 316-7,
319, 332 ; fr. Flanders, 352.
Hill, C. G. R., 395.
Hinton, W. P., Capt. R. Irish Regt..
348.
Hirst, G. L., 239.
>IHodges, H. A., 173, 173 n. 5, 190.
Hogg, D. B., 307.
Holcroft, E. S., 337, 337 n. 2.
Holland, Rev. Prof. H. S., 377, 377 n. ;
origin of Boys' Club movement, 23 ;
R.'s football, 195, 199.
>JHolloway, B. H., Capt. R. Sussex
Regt-, 393-
Holmes, H. C., Lt. Irish Gds., 266.
Hooge, death of Keith Rae at, 144.
^Huggan, J. L., Lt. R.A.M.C., 220.
Hugh Oldham Boys' Club, Manchester,
302-3.
Hugh-Jones, LI. A., Egypt. C. S., 3,
86, 103.
Hughes, Rev. W. Hawker, Fellow
and Tutor of Jesus College, 32.
1 Ixion ', on R. and ' broken time ', 215.
Jackett, E. J., 232.
Jackson, C. N., Fellow of Hertford,
175; R. and the 'Varsity Quarter-
mile, 186.
IJackson, R. R., 395.
Jacobs, C., 213, 227.
James, William, 15 n.
James, Rev. Dr. H. A., late Head-
master of Rugby, 80, 82, 95-6, 107,
122 ; on R. at Rugby, 65, 108, 389 ;
on R's Ball. Exhibition, 101.
Janet, Ronald's youngest sister, the
late Mrs. C. P. Symonds, iii, 28, 32,
61, 70, 130-1, 135, 206, 270, 286,
308, 358, 361 ; pi. facing 244 ; love
of her school, 30 ; of animals, 75 ;
engagement, 154 ; the Christmas
pantomime and, 318 ; death of, 375 ;
memories of Ronald music, 10 ;
religion, 20 ; as a child, 43 ; games
with, 59 ; last meeting with, 322,
332-3; R. to, 119, 125-6, 128-9;
to Janet as ' mother ', 26, 80 ; on
Rugby work, 95 ; on Grasmere,
115-6; entreaty for replies, 116-8;
congratulations on games, 103-4,
121-2, 126, 129; on Ball. Boys'
Club, 151-2; a strenuous birthday
(1913), 265-6.
Jenkin, Prof. C. F., Lt.-Col. R.A.F.,
C.B.E., 116, 128, 136, 157; on R.
as student, 135, 390.
Johnston, W. R., 222, 222 n.
406
INDEX
Jones, Sir Alfred, 74.
Jones, Mrs. Harrison, 250.
Joseph, H. W. B. , Lt. i st V. B. , Oxf. &
Bucks. L. I., Fellow and Tutor of
New College, 93.
Kauenhoven, C. T., Lt., 363.
^Kay-Shuttleworth, L. U., 147.
Keats, John, 376.
Keppell, J. J. G., Capt. R.A.V.C.,
343> 348-
Kerry, A. H. G., Capt. R.E., 187.
>IKing, J. A., Lnc.-Cpl. i/io Liver-
pool Scottish, 236.
Kirby, A. C., A.D.C., B. E. Africa,
266.
Kluck, Gen. von, 340.
Knott, F. H., Capt. Wiltsh. Regt.,
M.C., 181, 183, 200, 202-4.
Lagden, Sir Godfrey, on Rugby
football, 165-6 ; the two Ronalds,
331 ; R. to, 330 ; to R., 330-1.
J Lagden, Ronald O. , vi, 92, 173,
173 n. i, 178, 180-1, 185, 187, 202,
207-8, 210, 393-4 ; death of, 330-1.
Lankester, Miss Fay, on R. as a child,
39-
Lankester, Sir Raj r , 39.
Leather, Miss (Mrs. Powell), on R. at
kindergarten, 40.
Leather, George, 395.
Legge, Miss, 324.
Leighton, A. F., Lt. R.F.A., M.C.,
184.
Lewis, A., 349 n. 2.
{Lewis, B. R., Maj. R.F.A., 179,
183, 393-4-
Lloyd, R. A. (Dick), 216, 241, 349,
395; pi. facing 218; memories of
R., 205, 217-9.
Lloyd, T. W., 395.
Lock, Rev. Dr. W., Warden of Keble,
32.
Lockhart, J. H. B., 2nd Lt. Seaforth
Highlanders, 179.
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 265.
Loom of Youth, 65-6.
Lowe, C. N., Capt. R.A.F., D.F.C.,
M.C., 220, 224, 229, 237, 240, 242.
Lucas, C. C., on Ronald's death, 45.
Lynam, A. E., 52.
Lynam, C. C. (Skipper), Headmaster
of O.P.S., 48, 51, 69 ; principles of,
45 45 n., 46, 53 J R- * O.P.S., 45,
64; R. and, 63-4; to O.D.'s at
Rugby, 80 ; to R. on 1909 'Varsity
match, 178.
Lyon, G. H. D'O., Commander R.N.,
191, 200.
!<Maclachlan, R. C., Brig. Gen.,
D.S.O., 147.
{<Maclagan, G. S., 211.
JMaclear, Basil, 349, 349 n. i.
Macleod, K. G., Capt. Gordon High-
landers, 170, 174, 287.
Magdalen Carols, R.'s love of, 71,
122-3, 2 45-
Manchester Boys' Clubs, 286-7, 300-4.
Manchester Coll. of Technology, 265,
285, 287-8, 290, 297 ; R.'s work at,
293-4-
Mann, Miss, 118.
Mann, Miss N., 118, 154.
Mansbridge, A., and Mrs., 258.
Marcon, C. W. S., Capt. Oxf. and
Bucks. L.I., 184-5, ^1-
Margaret, Ronald's second sister, Mrs.
Maxwell Garnett, 32, 34,59, 71, 75,
92, 118-9, 269, 287 ; on R.'s religion,
17.; influence on R., 25-6, 42 ; col-
lecting with, 52 ; play with, 62-3 ;
at dances with, 75-6, 87 ; R. to
on Rugby games, 69-70 ; the 1904
sports, 73 ; the S. African tour, 80 ;
with R. at Swindon, 308, 312-3 ;
R. to fr. Chelmsford, 317 ; fr. Flan-
ders, 347, 363-4.
Margarine, R. on preparation of, 294.
Maritz, G. J., 196.
Marriott, C. J. B., Capt. R.A.S.C.,
185, 209, 212, 282, 331 ; on R. as
International, 228-30, 395.
Marshall, Prof. Alfred, 19.
!Martin, Pte., Reading Boys' Club,
328.
Martin, Hugh, Maj. R.F.A., D.S.O.,
177-8, 190, 192, 196-7; football
practice with R., 165.
Mather and Platt's, 228,307 ; R.'s work
at, 286-93, 297.
Mather, Loris E., Capt. R.E., 292-3.
Mather, Sir William, 256, 265, 292,
297 ; memories of R., 281-2, 290-1.
Maurice (Caladine), Pte., Reading
Boys' Club, 272.
May, R. S., 146.
J<Maynard, A. F., Lt. R.N.V.R., 220.
4<McAfee, L. A., Lt 8th Rifle Bde.,
393-
McHardy, E., 210, 213, 237.
Mclntyre, Mrs., 99.
Michell, W. G., Housemaster, Rugby,
98.
Miers, Sir Henry, 258.
Millar, W. A., 213.
>JMillard, Sergt, 349 n. a.
Milner, Lord, 378.
>!<Mobbs, E. R., Col. Northamptons,
D.S.O., 231-2.
INDEX
407
Moberly, W.H., Capt. Oxf. and Bucks.
L.I., D.S.O., Fellow of Lincoln,
56 ; on R.'s personality, a, 3 ; Hugh
Sidgwick and the O.P.S., 45-6.
Moore, G., Capt. R.A.M.C., 315.
Morant, Sir R., 258.
Morey, F., 91.
Morkel (four Morkels in S. African
team), 213.
Morley, Rev. R. W., 272, 374, 306 ;
pis. facing 267, 309; on R. and
Reading Boys' Club, 267, 328 ;
meeting of May 7, 1915.395-6.
Mortimer, M. W., Maj. Suffolk Regt.,
T.F.R., 140.
Morton, H. J. S., Capt. R.A.M.C., 348.
Mott, J. R., 116.
Muhr, A. H., 224 ; illustr. on 225.
Mundy, J., 288 ; R.'s football and,
216, 228 ; to R. on gifts to Army
employees, 292-3.
Mylne, Rt. Rev. Bishop, 78.
Nicholas, F. W. H., Capt. Bedfordsh.
Regt., Attached Staff, Bde.-Maj.,
M.C., 196.
JOakeley, F. E., Lt. R.N., 57, 229,
240-1.
Ollivant, Alfred, on Rugby School,
67-8 ; memories of R., 5 ; at Camp,
158-9 ; as Rugby player, 166-7,
219, 227-8 ; at Reading, 249 ;
' R. W. P. P.,' 230.
Openshaw (Crossley) Lads' Club,
Manchester, 300-3.
Osborn, Prof, and Mrs. H. F., 39.
O'Sullivan, Denis, 57.
Ovens, A.B., Flight Sub-Lt. R.N.A.S.,
179, 183.
Owen, Bert, 263.
Owen, Miss M. E. O'B. ; on R. at
school of (1896-7), 41.
Oxford and Bermondsey Mission, R.
and, 119, 375.
Oxford Pageant (1907), 92.
Palmer, A. C, Capt. R.A.M.C., 206,
232.
Palmer, Alfred and Mrs., R.'s uncle
and aunt, 48, 62, 290.
Palmer, Eustace E., R.'s cousin, 41,
61, 368.
Palmer, George, M.P. for Reading,
R.'s grandfather, 124, 253 n., 266.
Palmer, Rt. Hon. G. W., M.P. for
Reading, R.'s uncle, 10, 20, 135,
139, 210, 249, 254-5, 261-2, 275,
291, 294 ; suggests career for R.,
123-4 J discusses R.'s future, 264-5 ;
death and will of, 280-5.
Palmer, Mrs. G. W., R.'s aunt, 253,
262, 281, 285, 317-8, 373-
Palmer, Geoffrey H., R.'s cousin, 339-
40 ; on R. in Flanders, 341.
Palmer, Howard, R.'s cousin, 262.
Palmer, Lewis, R.'s uncle, 32.
Palmer, W. I., R.'s great-uncle, 23.
Parsons, Miss G. I., on R. at 2|, 36.
Paterson, Alec, Capt. 1/22 Lond.Regt.,
M.C., 251.
Payne, C. A. L., on football at Rugby,
96-7.
Payne-Smith, Rev. W. H., Rugby,
74, 76, 80, 95.
Pelham, the late Prof. H. F., Presi-
dent of Trinity, 121-2.
' Pepper ', Janet's parrot, R. and,
74-5.
Percival, Rt. Rev. Dr. J., formerly
Headmaster of Rugby, 68.
Perkins, B., Capt. 4th Wore. Regt.,
Reading Boys' Club and, 276-7,
306, 309, 328. ; pi. facing 309.
^Perrin, Coy-Sgt.-Maj., 365.
Pillman, C. H., Capt. Dragoon Gds.,
M.C., 218, 220, 235, 239, 242.
Plumer, Gen. Sir H., 368.
Pocock, E., Pte., Reading Boys' Club,
396.
!<Podmore, H., vi, 116; on R. as a
friend, 6.
Portus, Rev. G. V. (Jerry), Austral.
Milit. Censor, 392 ; on R.'s football,
171-2 ; R. and 1908 team, 174.
Poulton, E. B., R.'s father, R. to fr.
Rugby, on implements, 84 ; Silver
Wedding, 86; Ball. Exhibition,
zoo- 1 ; fr. Chelmsford, 308-9, 332 ;
fr. Flanders, 340-1, 355-6, 359-61,
364-5 (his last letter).
Poulton, Mrs., Ronald's mother, on R.
as a child, 42 ; timidity at O.P.S.,
61-2 ; Boys' Clubs, 152-3, 269 ; the
Italian visit, 254-6 ; at home, 390 ;
to R. at Rugby, 381 ; in Vlth, 88 ;
the last match, 102 ; leaving Rugby,
107 ; R. to fr. Rugby, 76-7, 95-6 ;
on ' Vlth power ', 82 ; University,
83 ; Silver Wedding, 85 ; leaving
Rugby, 107 ; fr. Reading, 257 ; on
plans, 264 ; Boys' Camp, 268 ; fr.
Manchester, on uncle's illness, 280 ;
work at M. and P.'s, 287-8 ; fr.
Chelmsford, 308-9, 318-9 ; fr.
Flanders, 346-7, 353. 357-8, 361-2.
Poulton, Dr. E. P., see ' Edward'.
Poulton, Mrs. E. P. (Frida), 316.
Poulton, Miss (Aunt Lily), 316.
408
INDEX
Povey, W. (Bill), 285 ; on R. at H.
and P.'s, 260-2 ; last meeting, 327 ;
R. to, 262-3.
>JPowell, Kenneth, Pte. ist Infantry
Btn., H.A.C., vi, 68, 73, 80, 33011.,
389 ; R. on death of, 330.
l^Purves, W. D. C. L., Lt. pth E.
Lanes. Regt., 177, 393.
Pym, J. A., Maj. R.G.A., M.C., 235.
Rae, Edward, 160, 252-3 ; pis. facing
"5. *33-
Rae, Gray Kynoch (Bino), Capt. 4th
W. Lanes. R.F.A., pis. facing 115,
133-
>J<Rae, T. K. H. (Keith), vi, 10, 18,
!33, !& 245, 254, 270, 285, 324 ;
pi. facing 133 ; on boy immorality,
67, 67 n., 151 ; the 'Anna', 140-1,
143-4 ; death at Hooge, 144, 150,
1 60 ; memories of R., 150; Ball.
Boys' Club, 150-2, 156-8, 162-3 5
R.'s practical joke with, 252-3 ; last
meeting with R., 320 ; letters fr. on
R.'s death, 159-61 ; farewell to R.,
335 ; R. to, 127, 130-2 ; on Magda-
len Carols, 122-3 ; teaching, 124,
251; exams., 'Anna', &c., 138-40.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 56.
Ranjitsinhji, 188.
Reading Boys' Club, in addition to
Sect. XI, vi, 246, 262, 266, 326-8,
341, 390, 398 ; letters fr. Club boys,
306 ; the 1914 Camp, 309-10 ; May
7-10, 1915, 395-6 ; thoughts on a
new Club, 303-6.
Reading Univ. Coll. and Boys' Club,
246, 276, 328.
>IReiss, S. L. (Stephen), Lt. R. Berks.
Regt., vi, 131, 133, 136, 139, 245,
270 ; on R.'s character and religion,
18-20; Ball. Boys' Club and, 150,
162 ; R.'s practical joke and, 252-3.
Roberts, A. D., 235-6, 241.
Roberts, Lord, at Rugby, 84-5.
Rogers, Rev. T. Guy, M.C., C.F.,
328 ; on the 1912 Camp, 268.
^RONALD,
On Socialism and other political
views, 12-3, 257-9,313,316; Trades
unions, 288, 298-9 ; the War inevit-
able, 149, 310; see also 'Flint im-
plements', 'Football', &c.
Places visited before the War by,
excluding names frequently men-
tioned and those with football asso-
ciations only.
Blaenau Festiniog, 120-1 ; Broad-
stairs, 126-7 ; Caddenabbia, 255 ;
Dublin, 206 ; Eastbourne Coll., 126 ;
Grasmere, 6, 10, 93, 115-6, 383;
Little Stretton, 126; Milan, 255-6;
Morgins, 118-9; Miirren, 183, 244
and pi. facing ; Northumberland,
134-5 ; Paris, 63-4, 256 ; Pyrenees,
119-20 ; Repton, 132, 257-8 ; Rhos-
colyn, 130, 139 ; River Wye, 136-7 ;
Roman Wall, 81, 93, 102 ; Touraine
(La Caillere), 137-9 > Wengen,
122-4, J 78, 207; York (Brit. Assoc.),
87 ; Youlbury, 49, 50, 60, 71, 175.
Roosevelt, Romanes Lecture, 128.
Rose, G. K., Major 1/4 Oxf. & Bucks.
L.I., M.C. and bar, 352.
|Ross, J. E., 216, 395.
Royle, H. H. E., 395.
Rugby School Marshal, 385 ; memories
of R., 108.
Russell, A. L. N., pi. facing 154.
Salford Boys' Club, Manchester, 300-3.
Sampson, H. F., Lt. R.A.F., Kite
Balloon Officer, 200, 202.
Schlich, Miss Elsie, 129.
Schlich, Miss May (Mrs. Searle), 128-9.
Schlich, W. H., Pte. Artists' Rifles,
129.
Scholfield, J. A., Capt. & Adj. Manch.
Regt., 204. In the Cambridge
Teams of 1909 & 1910, but not in
1911. The 1911 captain was A. E.
Kitching, Capt. B. E. African
Forces.
Sellicks, F. J., 394.
Serocold, Col. O. P., 337 ; Ronald's
death, 365, 370.
Sewell, E. H. D., 202.
Shaftesbury Society, 116, 141.
Shakespeare at the O. P. S., 53-5.
Sharp, H. S., Capt. Yeomanry, 180.
Sharpe, G. M., Maj. 2nd R. Berks.,
Ronald's death, 371-2.
Shum, E., 213.
Sidgwick, F., help given by, viii ; pro-
logue by, 54-5.
Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, 33.
^Sidgwick, Hugh, Capt. R.G.A., vi,
55) 55 n ; 5 6 > 5 6 : n the O.P.S.,
45- 6 -
Silvester, J. M., on R. in O.T.C., 148.
Simpson, T., 231.
Smallwood, Dr., 315.
Smart, S., 349 n. 2.
Smith, A. L., Master of Balliol, 115,
143, ^o, 258.
Smith, C. H., Foreign Office, 186.
Smith, G. O., 238.
Smith, N. F., Surg. Lt. R.N., 252; pi.
facing 154.
Smith, W. A., 205.
INDEX
409
Smyth, J. G., Capt. isth Sikhs, V.C.,
132.
Solomon, B., 233.
({Spurling, Alfred, Sergt. Intelligence
Dep., killed in Boer War, 50, 57.
JiSpurling, Frank, Capt. i5th Rifle
Bde., 57.
St. Hill, E. A., Housemaster, Rugby,
119.
St. Hill, Mrs., 381.
Stanley, R. V., Maj. R.A.S.C., O.B.E.,
!75-
Stark, R. G. W., 2nd Lt. Shropshire
L. I., 120.
Stark, Miss Violet, 49.
Stegmann, J., 213.
{<Steyn, S. S. L., and Lt. R.A., 181,
183, 203, 394.
Stocks, A. D., and Lt. Coldstream
Gds., 270-2.
Stocks, J. L., Capt. isth K.R.R.C.,
D.S.O., Fellow of St. John's, 184.
Stoop, A. D., Capt. The Queen's
(R.W. Surrey Regt.), M.C., 68, 168,
207, 233-5 : R- in tne Harlequin's
and, 101, 188-9, 2O 5 ! R-' s first In-
ternational and, 192, 205-6, 231 ;
on fallen Harlequins, 330 n.
Stoop, F. M., Lt. M.G.C., 90.
Strachan-Davidson, Dr. J. L., late
Master of Balliol, 379.
Strand-Jones, Rev. J., 191.
Stuart, Hamish, 202.
Sumner, L. R. C., 349 n. a.
>JSutton, Alex G., and Lt. and Rifle
Bde., 379.
{Sutton, Eric G., Lt. 7th R. Sussex
Regt., M.C., vi. 379.
>ISutton, Eustace M., Lt. R.E., 35th
Div. Sign. Co., vi, 279.
Sutton, L. Noel, Capt. Berks. Yeo-
manry, 379.
Sutton, Leonard, 279.
>JSutton, W. Victor R., Lt. Berks.
Yeomanry, 379.
Svvann, Rev. S. E., 92, 104 ; on R. at
Rugby, 381-2.
Sydney, Sir Philip, 56.
Symonds, Dr. C. P., Capt. R.A.M.C.,
Med. Milit., viii, 130, 158, 368 ; on
R. and Boys' Clubs, 154-6, 304-5 ;
R.'s 'training', 185; R. to fr.
Flanders, 358-9.
Symonds, the late Mrs. C. P., see
'Janet'.
>!Sysum, S., 349 n. 2.
Talbot, Rev. N. S., C.F., Asst. Chap-
lain-General, M.C., 195, 392.
^Tarr, F. N., vi, 90, 170, 175, 178,
189, 190, 196-7, 231-3, 393; R. the
1909 team and, 176 ; Ronald's death,
164.
Taylor, G. P., 399.
Temple, Rev. William, viii, u, 14,
ao-i, 76-7, 77 n. i, 93, in; Me-
morial Address, v, vi, 5, 6, 6 n., 160 ;
on R.'s personality and religion, 8,
14-18 ; R. in Pyrenees with, 1 19-20 ;
reading-party with, 136-7 > at Rep-
ton with, 133, 358 ; R.'s thoughts
on Socialism, the W. E. A., &c.,
3 57~9 ! new Boys' Club, 305 ; last
meeting, 332-3 ; on R. at Rugby,
382-3.
Tennant, J. M., 233.
Thomas, W. E., Capt. ist K.R.R.C.,
M.C., 183.
Thompson, J. N., Lt. R.F.A., 349 n. a.
{(Thomson, F. W., 173, 173 n. 4.
{Thorne, C., Capt. 8th E. Surrey
Regt., 394.
^Thorne, H. U. H., 337, 346, 354 n.,
365 ; Ronald's death, 370-1.
Tomlinson, A. C., Qr.-Mr.-Sergt., 366.
Towner, W., rec'd Commission, 373.
Toynbee, Arnold, 23.
Trevelyan, Miss Doris, 129.
Truslove. , 373.
Tucker, , R.F.A., 271-2.
{(Turner, F. H., vi, 175, 178-9, 198,
200, 216, 318, 393, 395 ; R.'s tribute
to, 339-30.
Tyldesley Club, 222.
Tyndale, H. E. G., 117, ri7n.
Tyrrell, W. J., Capt, A.-Lt.-Col.,
R.E., D.S.O., M.C., 348.
Van Vuuren, T., 213.
Vassall, G. C., 69, 330; on R.'s sports
at O.P.S., 49-51 ; memories of R.,
380-1.
Vassall, H., Bursar and Housemaster,
Repton, 132, 331.
Vassall, H. H., Nyasaland C. S., 174-
6, 190-1, 196-7, 206.
Villiers, Maj., 368.
Vincent's Club, 114, 189, 199.
Viner, W., 363.
' W. L. S.', R.'s Manchester football,
216.
Wace, Rev. H. C., 324 ; on R. in the
O.T.C., 147-8.
{Waldy, Cuthbert T., vi, 254, 356-7,
363, 268 ; the War and, 310; R. on
death of, 316, 325-6 ; R. and, at
Reading, 336-7.
Waldy, Mrs., R. to, 326; to R.'s
mother, 327.
410
INDEX
Walker, Dr. E. W. Ainley, Capt.
R.A.M.C., Ronald's brother-in-law,
2, 119, 282; R. to, 217, 255; on
eve of War, 310-1 ; fr. Chelmsford,
315-6, 332.
Walker, the late Mrs. E. W. A., see
< Hilda '.
Wallace, A. R., 897.
Waller, Dr. A. D., and Mrs., Ronald's
uncle and aunt, 62.
'Wally', R.'s W. Highland terrier,
254 ; pis. facing 267, 309.
Wantage Hall, Reading, 276.
Ward, Ernest, 202 ; on R.'s first
Harlequin game, 205.
Warren, Sergt., pi. facing 309.
Washbourne, Pte., 349 n. 2.
Watney, R., 227.
>J Watson, C. C., vi, 79, 88, 103-4,
174; on R. at Rugby, 65, 71, 73,
97-9 ; joint captaincy at Rugby,
96-7 ; to R. on leaving school, 106 ;
last meeting, 221.
Watson, J., Ronald's death, 374.
^i Watson, J. H. D., Surg. R.N. ; 229,
239-40, 242-3.
Watts, D., 239.
Webb, Cecil D., 309.
Wertheimer, see ' Conway '.
Whatley, N., Fellow of Hertford, 244
and pi. facing ; on R.'s attitude
towards football, 12 ; R. in O.T.C.,
146-7.
Whitnall, S. E., on R.'s 'training',
185-6 ; memories of football, &c.,
210- 1 ; Ronald's grave, 368-9.
fcWill, J. G., Lt. R. Leinster Regt.,
220, 242, 394.
Williams, Rev. F. S., visit to, 126.
Williams, T. Gear, 307.
Williamson, A. W., 274.
Willink, F. A., Capt. 1/4 R. Berks.,
333-
ifcWilson, A. H., 2nd Lt. Rifle Bde.,
394-
Wilson, L. O., Lt.-Col. R. Marines,
C.M.G., D.S.O., 12.
Wodehouse, Rev. R., Ball. Boys'
Club and, 150.
Woods, Margaret L. (Mrs. H. G.),
48.
Workers' Educational Association, R.
and the, 258-60, 374.
Wright, C. C. G., Lt. Durham L. I.,
232.
Wright, J. M., 370.
Wright, Rev. L. W., C.F., 398.
Wycliff Hall, Oxford, 76.
Wycombe Abbey School, 48 ; Hilda,
Janet and, 30.
Printed at Oxford, England, by Frederick Hall, Printer to the University
TVNews
OpenLibrary