Pearson - The boys of Shakespeares School in the Second World War

Wishing to commemorate those boys who had been lost in the First World War in a way that would be a lasting memorial to them, and would always be a tangible reminder to succeeding generations, the school governors agreed to the building of the Memorial Library in the south-west corner of the school quad. Composed of Warwickshire oak timber framing, the building was filled in between with plaster panels and with a brick lining, the whole being set on a plinth of local limestone. The interior was open to the roof, supported by two oak hammerbeam trusses, and the windows were filled in with lead lights, and some of the glass came from an old disused screen in Holy Trinity Church. The north window contained stained glass panels showing Henry V praying the night before the Battle of Agincourt, and was given by Mr and Mrs Howard Jennings in memory of their two sons. The bookcases and the bronze memorial tablet were presented by the historian Sir George Trevelyan. The Library was formally opened and blessed in May 1923. On Benefactors Day in June 1955, an additional memorial plaque with the names of those Old Boys killed in the Second World War was dedicated. On the same day at the Church Street entrance to the school by the Guildhall, the Old Boys Association presented Memorial Gates dedicated to those who gave their lives in the 1939-1945 war.

The dedication of the School Gates on Benefactors Day. In the picture, left to right, are: Mr G. Q. Jaggard, the headmaster, Leslie Watkins, the Reverend E.F.S. Wilmot (reading from the service paper), the Reverend T.M. Parker and the Vicar (Canon Noel Prentice).

The Bishop of Coventry, Dr N. V. Gorton, dedicates the 1939-45 War Memorial in the Library. Headmaster Leslie Watkins is on the left and Canon Noel Prentice on the right.

The Archive of the school is based in the Memorial Library.

Memorial tablet.

The following magazines and books were consulted for reference and inspiration, and all are gratefully acknowledged:

Magazines

Aircraft magazine: March 2011

TIME magazine: 28 April 1941; 23 June 1941

Books

Ambrose, Stephen E.: Wild Blue (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Baker, Paul: Yeoman Yeoman The Warwickshire Yeomanry 1920-1956 (The Queens Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry Regimental Association, 1971)

Barker, Ralph: The Thousand Plan (Airlife Publishing, 1992)

Bayly, Christopher and Harper, Tim: Forgotten Armies (Penguin, 2004)

Beaton, Cecil: Winged Squadrons (Hutchinson, 1942)

Bierman, John and Smith, Colin: Alamein War Without Hate (Penguin Viking, 2002)

Bishop, Patrick: Battle of Britain (Quercus, 2010)

Bishop, Patrick: Bomber Boys (Harper Perennial, 2008)

Bishop, Patrick: Fighter Boys (Harper Perennial, 2008)

Botting, Douglas: The D-Day Invasion (Time-Life Books, 1978)

Ciardi, John: Selected Poems (University of Arkansas Press, 1984)

Collins, William: A Short History of the Stratford-upon-Avon Boat Club (George Boydon and Son, 1974)

Crook, David: Spitfire Pilot (Greenhill Books, 2006)

Doherty, Richard: A Noble Crusade (Spellmount, 1999)

Doherty, Richard: The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II (Osprey, 2007)

Fallada, Hans: Alone in Berlin (Penguin Classics, 1994)

Faulks, Sebastian: The Fatal Englishman (Vintage, 1997)

Fogg, Nicholas: Stratford: A Town at War 1914-1945 (Sutton Publishing, 2008)

Ford, Ken: Dieppe 1942 (Osprey Publishing 2003)

Gellhorn, Martha: The Face of War (Granta Books, 1998)

Goss, Chris: Brothers in Arms (Crecy Publishing, 1994)

Hastings, Max: All Hell Let Loose (Harper Press, 2011)

Hastings, Max: Armageddon (Macmillan, 2004)

Hastings, Max: Bomber Command (Pan Books, 1999)

Homes, Richard: The Oxford Companion to Military History (OUP, 2001)

Jarrell, Randall: Collected Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969)

Keegan, John: The Second World War (Viking Press, 1990)

Kershaw, Ian: Hitler Nemesis (Allen Lane, 2000)

Largent, Willard: RAF Wings Over Florida: Memories of World War II British Air Cadets (Purdue University Press, 2000)

Latimer, Jon: Burma: The Forgotten War (John Murray, 2004)

Lavey, Brian: Churchills Navy (Conway, 2006)

MacDonald, Callum: The Killing of SS Obergruppenfhrer Reinhard Heydrich (Macmillan, 1989)

Majdalany, Fred: Cassino (Longmans, 1959)

Milner, Marc: Battle of the Atlantic (Tempus Publishing, 2003)

Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea (Cassell and Co, 1951)

Munson, K.: Aircraft of World War II (Ian Allan, 1962)

Orr, David and Truesdale, David: The Rifles are There (Pen & Sword, 2005)

Parsons, Rev. Laurie: A History of Radford Semele (Radford Semele PCC, 1974)

Ramsey, Winston G.: The Battle of Britain Then and Now (After the Battle, 1982)

Rhodes, Peter: For a Shilling a Day (Bank House Books, 2010)

Richards, Jeffrey: Happiest Days (MUP, 1991)

Richie, Alexandra: Fausts Metropolis (Harper Collins, 1999)

Saunders, Hilary St George: Royal Air Force 1939-1945, Volumes I to III (Her Majestys Stationery Office, 1954)

Smith, Colin: Englands Last War Against France (Orion Books, 2010)

Swift, Daniel: Bomber County (Hamish Hamilton, 2010)

The Battle of Britain (His Majestys Stationery Office, 1941)

Thompson, R.W.: Dieppe at Dawn (Arrow, 1958)

Waller, Jane and Vaughan-Rees, Michael: Blitz The Civilian War (Optima, 1990)

Woolf, Virginia: The Diary of (Hogarth Press, 1977)

Wynn, Kenneth W.: Men of the Battle of Britain (CCB Associates, 1999)