The Abingdonian 2019

18 The Abingdonian Remembering the Abingdon 1st IV It all began with this photograph – unnamed and undated it must have marked a special occasion – but what special occasion and when? The striped blazers and caps, which even in those days would have been cerise and white, indicated that ten people in the photograph were members of the Abingdon School Boat Club – the river was a bit of a giveaway too. As we have an almost continuous run of 1st crew photographs from 1881 to the early 21st Century, it wasn’t too difficult to identify the five Abingdonians standing together on the right as the members of the 1914 1st IV – from the right: Lupton, Davenport, Eason, Ellis (cox), Donkin. The Abingdonian then provided the names of the other five, the 2nd IV – from the left: Sanders (cox), Race, Parry, Cullen and Knowles. So, who was everyone else? Well, as I’ve found myself saying rather a lot just recently, Abingdon was a very small school in 1914. There were only 66 pupils on the roll that September term. Consequently I find I can quite easily recognise any boy from that era who appears regularly in a team photograph. In this way I recognised Wilfred Cyril Williams, standing fourth from the left, his identification confirmed by the Pembroke College, Oxford badge on his blazer. Williams went up to Pembroke in 1913. In fact, I could identify all the dark- blazered men: Burkett, Cooke, Woods, Enoch and Parker. The Abingdonian identified Burkett, Williams, Cooke and Woods as the Old Abingdonian 2nd IV and named FV Enoch, WH Enoch, Mills and Parker as the OA 1st IV. Laurence Greatbatch, the man in the long coat and cloth cap, coxed both OA boats. All the dark-blazered men, that is, except for the first on the left. He was more difficult. However, as I could recognise the man fifth from the right, wearing the pale blazer with the dark trim (a Jesus College, Oxford 1st VIII blazer), as the master in charge of rowing, Sidney Harold Baker, I guessed that the other man was Melville Chaning-Pearce, the assistant rowing master, who joined the staff from Worcester College, Oxford in 1913 – his identity confirmed by the Worcester College blazer he is wearing. The event turned out to be the Abingdon School versus Old Abingdonian annual boat race, which took place on Wednesday 4 March 1914. The OAs beat the school 2nd IV by three-quarters of a length in a time of 4 minutes 4 seconds; the 1st IV beat the OAs by seven lengths in a time of ‘3 mins 34 2-5. sec’. In reporting the event the 4 March 1914 members of Abingdon School Boat Club with two Old Abingdonian crews Arthur Davenport