From: Ronald Gillen (gillen@nconnect.net)
Date: Thu Mar 22 2001 - 06:09:22 PST
1940 by Alasdair Hawkyard Towards the end of the Blitz in 1940, and shortly after the start of the Christmas Term, Harrow School was hit by incendiary bombs. In a single night some three hundred bombs fell among the buildings or in the grounds. However, there is no point in thinking that the Germans had planned beforehand to bomb the School. There were strategically more important targets in the locality, with Fighter Command based at Bentley Priory in Great Stanmore, with the railway linking London with the industrial Midlands and North running nearby, and with factories as important as the Kodak works situated in the town. What happened seems simply to have been this. A series of German bombers involved in a raid over London, to save fuel on their return flight, dumped the remainder of their cargo near the parish church, which with its spire is an obvious navigation point for any alrcraft flylng near London. A line of bombs fell on the Playing Fields, the Parade Ground, the Museum Schools, Speech Room and The Grove. Both the Museum Schools and Speech Room caught alight, the more serious blaze being in Speech Room. First on the scene was the School's own fire brigade which had been instituted earlier in the year by the Head Master, Paul Boissier. However, the real work of extinguishing the fires was done by the local fire brigade with its auxiliary force. The roof of Speech Room was burnt, the worst damage being sustained in the vault behind the proscenium. The organ in Speech Room did not survive the combination of bombing, blazing debris and water from the firemen's hoses. A recrudescence of the fire in the smouldering timbers had to be put out the following morning. In mid-November the Ministry of Information released a bulletin about the incident 'some weeks ago', and for propaganda reasons made much of the part played by the boys in it: several days later The Harrovian referred to the bulletin without mentioning the 'heroic' aspects which to the Ministry had made the incident particularly newsworthy. In the photograph an unidentified Harrovian in seen carrying his souvenirs of the occasion. Notwithstanding, The Harrovian's terse report of the bombing had an unexpected and significant consequence, for it was to lead within three months to the Prime Minister visiting the School on 18 December, just two days before the end of term. How soon Winston Churchill (who entered The Head Master's house in 1888) learned of the bombing is unknown, but what is certain is that it was his private secretary, John Colville, who told him of the matter. Until that moment Churchill had never mentioned the School to Colville 'except with dislike'. Now Churchill observed that the School was 'courageous to remain on the Hill and not to emigrate to more peaceful pastures'. He went on to dictate a telegram to be sent to the Head Master: 'I am sorry to hear that Harrow has been bombed and hope that the damage is not serious. You have all my sympathy. Stick it. Winston S. Churchill' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~> Make good on the promise you made at graduation to keep in touch. Classmates.com has over 14 million registered high school alumni--chances are you'll find your friends! http://us.click.yahoo.com/03IJGA/DMUCAA/4ihDAA/rIBVlB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: timewitnesses-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/