Honour for forgotten heroes after school's detective work

THE forgotten First World War soldiers who attended and taught at a city high school are to be remembered with a new memorial in their honour.

Pupils and teachers at Tynecastle High are carrying out painstaking research into the school's history to identify their predecessors who fought and died in the Great War.

As the school was built in 1912, it was previously thought that no-one from Tynecastle had been called up to fight for king and country.

But, after the discovery of a plaque at a car boot sale which read, "To Tynecastle's war dead 1914", the school's history department began to investigate the possibility that pupils and teachers may have fallen in the Great War.

After trawling through log books from when the school first opened and matching old registers up with the Commonwealth War Graves records, the research team have so far discovered 14 pupils and one teacher who fought and died on the front line.

The school plans to unveil a new First World War memorial when the new Tynecastle High opens next December.

As well as the 15 dead soldiers, the history department has also discovered the existence of two survivors – the Thomson brothers – from a photograph taken in 1918. Not much is known about the brothers, and the school is particularly keen to hear from their relatives to try and piece together what they did after the war was over.

Neil McLennan, principal teacher of history at the school, said: "We are digging up Tynie's lost boys one by one.

"We would like to set the kids a cross-curricular challenge and get the art department and technical department to come up with an appropriate memorial.

"There are documents referring to the fact that a lot of technical teachers went away to do munitions work and home economics teachers trained soldiers up in domestic sciences, so Tynecastle was helping the war effort in various ways."

The research has also taken them back to the few months war poet Wilfred Owen spent teaching English literature at the school during his time recovering from shell-shock at Craiglockhart military hospital.

Mr McLennan is investigating how Owen's time at the school from September 1917 influenced his poetry as part of the project.

He said: "He came down from Craiglockhart war hospital with a group of other officers but the only one I've been able to identify is Owen because it's corroborated by letters to his mother where he mentions the school very fondly.

"He had a very close relationship with the kids and I'm convinced that Tynecastle had a lot of influence on his poetry.

"I'm convinced that Anthem For Doomed Youth was inspired by seeing the children whose fathers and brothers had fallen and what impact the war was having on families back home and the loss of innocence."

Lieutenant Colonel Roger Binks, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, said: "This certainly is a good idea because it allows people to find out how to do research, widen their experiences and pick up stories that they would never have found out otherwise."

Mr McLennan is appealing to the public to get in touch with him at [email protected] if they have any information or photos of pupils and staff from Tynecastle High who fought in the Great War.

REMEMBERING THE FALLEN

Pupils and teacher from Tynecastle High who fought and died in the First World War

Alexander Grimmond Henderson 19 July 1918, aged 19. Black Watch (Royal Highlands)

Ronald Forbes 27 February 1919, aged 19. Native of Edinburgh. Highland Light Infantry

R Thomson 11 August 1918, aged 19, of Caledonian Crescent, Edinburgh. Royal Scots

William George Stirling 18 August 1918, aged 18, of Downfield Place, Edinburgh. Kings Own Scottish Borders

Donald Urquart Addison 14 April 1918, aged 19, of Westfield Road, Edinburgh. Kings Own Scottish Borders

J Samuel 21 September 1918. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)

W Forwell 16 September 1918, aged 20, of Duddingston Park, Portobello, Edinburgh. Enlisted in 1914. Seaforth Highlanders

Alexander Gerard 1 August 1918, aged 19. Royal Scots

Alexander Murdoch 19 August 1918, aged 19. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)

Thomas Rigby Ronald 5 October 1918, aged 19, of Gorgie Road, Edinburgh. Royal Field Artillery

John Williamson 13 September 1918, aged 19, of Saughton Avenue, Edinburgh. Royal Scots

Gordon Porteous Leighton 28 June 1918, aged 18, of Myrtle Terrace, Edinburgh. Kings Own Scottish Borderers

James Stephen Orkney 15 April 1918, aged 19, of Westfield Road, Edinburgh. Norfolk Regiment

George Swan 10 April 1918, aged 19, of Gorgie Crescent, Edinburgh. Machine Gun Corps Infantry

Gunner William Stewart Anderson 9 October 1917, aged 33, teacher.