Abingdon News No.53

The Abingdon Foundation, Park Road, Abingdon, Oxford OX14 1DE 01235 521563 • Edited by Jane Warne – [email protected] 01235 849123 • Design – www.petergreenland.com Abingdon Out of the Past Exactly twenty years and three months after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles a second world war broke out. Abingdon, although still a small school in 1939 – 177 pupils – has 427 names on its Roll of Service, 49 of whom died. Among the School’s dead were two brothers: Michael Holme, killed in the Fall of France in May 1940 and Denis, killed in Normandy in August 1944. Harold Ellison, killed in Burma in March 1942, had a brother, Cuthbert, who died in the First World War, whilst Anthony Leon Barnes, killed in a training accident in April 1940, was the son of Major Leon Barnes, killed in action in June 1918. Abingdonians were present at many of the major actions of the war: Douglas Woolf, on board HMD Ajax, witnessed the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee in December 1939. George Baker was killed in June 1940 in the evacuation from Dunkirk. During the summer of 1940 Roger Morewood became a Battle of Britain pilot, one of ‘the few’. In February 1942, Terence Charley was present when the British garrison in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese. He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. John Rayson piloted a Horsa glider in Operation Varsity, the successful airborne crossing of the River Rhine on 24 March 1944, and Russian speaker, Hugh Lunghi, was one of the translators at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July 1945) conferences. The 1950s Science Block You can now follow Abingdon School on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. @abingdonschool @ abingdonschool @abingdon_school Remembering the Second World War on the 75th Anniversary of VE Day A Tribute to the Past The School would like to pay tribute to the past, to those who took part in the two world wars, by making a gesture to the future – the alleviation of climate change. It will plant a swathe of trees in the School grounds, initially 124, one for each Abingdonian who lost his life in the two wars. Members of the School community will be invited to contribute to this project in memory of anyone, friend or family member whether an OA or not, who either served or died in the two wars. A record will be deposited in the School’s archives of both donors and those being remembered. (Further details of this project will be announced later.) Across the Generations Bernard Bury came to Abingdon School in 1907. Twenty-two years later, in 1929, he sent his son, John, here. After a gap of 86 years, John’s great grandson Edward came to the school in 2015. Since then Edward has been joined by his brothers, Henry and Oliver. The Bury family have donated a number of Bernard Bury’s uniform items to the School archives together with a beautifully painted shield with the School’s crest. Hugh Lunghi (centre) Roger Morewood Terence Charley Anthony Leon Barnes Bernard Bury (back row third from right) John Bury (back row right)