Remember Mrs Spreckley

Headmaster’s Routh Assembly Address
Monday 8th November 2021

Good morning and welcome back to the second half of the Michaelmas Term. When we finally came back together in September, I made the point that, because of the pandemic, many of you had never experienced some of the School’s oldest traditions. Thankfully, things like Routh, Chapel, and sports fixtures have now been reinstated. House Song had to be rescheduled, but will soon take place, and I wish you all well for that. And of course, we can look forward to all our Christmas rituals and celebrations at the end of this term.

Before then, this week in fact, we have another tradition to observe. Namely, Remembrance Day. On the actual day, this Thursday, we hold a brief ceremony under the flagpole outside the Chapel, to commemorate the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War, at 11:00am on the 11th day of the 11th month.

If you are nearby during Break and wish to observe, you are most welcome to do so. Either way, please remain silent around the Green as it is conducted. Following that, on Sunday, we hold our formal Remembrance Services. Your attendance at one of those is expected, and parents and OBs are also welcome to attend.

As I say, many of you have not been to one of these services before. In fact, some may never have been to any memorial observance. So, understandably, you may wonder why we bother. Most of you will know the day commemorates those who lost their lives in war, predominantly the two World Wars of the last century.
Commemorates, not celebrates. Remembrance Day does not glorify war. Far from it. It is intended as a time for us all to call to mind the great tragedy of war, and to pay our respects to those who perished, and to all whose lives were impacted. Neither is it some kind of historic taunt about winners and losers. All sides lose when nations take up arms against each other.

Simply put, Remembrance Day is, as the name suggests, a moment to remember. Indeed, one of central elements of any Remembrance Day service is the Ode that is read out, taken from a poem called “For The Fallen”. During the service, someone will recite:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
At which point, all those who gathered (which will be you this week) should repeat the final line together:
“We will remember them.”

Which is easy to say but, as the years go by, increasingly harder to do. Because in order to remember something, you need to know about it in the first place. And even if you do know about it, it needs to have relevance to remain stuck in your memory.

Not that many years ago, both those things were true for most people. In the years that followed the Second World War, most people had their own personal, usually painful, first-hand experiences to recall. Even in the later decades of the 20th Century, most of us had parents or grandparents who had been directly involved.

But in the past twenty years, those connections have faded. Today, very few of you will have a direct living connection with anyone who was touched by either of the World Wars. In my lifetime, the last veteran of World War One has died. In your lifetime, the last of those who fought in World War Two will also pass away. Who, then, are you supposed to remember? And why?

The why is fairly easy. As a great philosopher once said,

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

All well and good. You can learn about dates and battles. Death tolls and casualty figures. But how are those numbers relevant to you personally, in 2021? How can you make this week’s acts of remembrance mean more? That’s what Bromsgrove’s observances are about.

A service has been held at this School every November for the past 102 years, partly to help each new generation of pupils understand why we should never be in a hurry to start another war. However, our commemoration is more than just a history lesson. It is more personal than that. It is also a tribute to those lost from our own School family. Tomorrow, a field of 197 poppies will appear underneath the flagpole, each one inscribed with the name of a Bromsgrovian who died in the wars of the last century. Please respect that installation, but do take a moment read some of the names. Realise that each was a young man, not very much different in age or aspiration than you are today.

That connection is there for you all. Not a single nation amongst the 53 that are represented in the School today was untouched by the two World Wars. On Sunday, we remember not just the fallen English Tommys, but the toll that was taken on young men in every country.

But not just young men. Overwhelmingly, it was them who paid with their lives in war. Yet women were not immune. Some fought, many others suffered the loss of their sons, husbands, brothers, fathers. Often barely out of school, little more than boys. When we read out the names of the fallen, I often wonder how it must have been for the mother who first heard that awful news.

I picture the Telegram boy turning into her street, that dreaded War Office message in hand. Imagine her silently praying that he would walk past her gate, deposit his grievous news at any other house but hers.
See her reading the first few words of that single stark line “The War Office deeply regrets to inform you…” Literally, a death sentence. Even now, a century on, how uncomfortable to picture any mother being told her son has been killed. Fathers grieve too of course. But each of us knows the special bond we have with our mother.

“We will remember them.” Let me help you with that this morning. Give you one story to remember. Of a woman called Mrs Spreckley, mother to a son named Ralph. She gave birth to Ralph in 1893, and he grew up not far from here, becoming a pupil at Bromsgrove in 1905. School House in fact, where he spent the next seven years. During which time, he did pretty much what you still do today. Played for the 1st XV and the Cricket XI. Edited the School magazine. Little else is recorded of him but he must have been an impressive young man, because in his final year was appointed Head of School.

Barely two years after he left Bromsgrove, the First World War broke out and, aged just 21, Lieutenant Ralph Lesingham Spreckley was shipped to France to join the fight. A few short months later, he was dead.

Leading his men in an attack on an enemy position, he had been shot in the leg. He hobbled back to an aid station, had his wound dressed, then returned to the fray.

But no sooner had he re-joined his men, he was shot again. Once more he dragged himself back to the medics to be patched up. Once more he returned to the frontline to urge his men forward. With his encouragement, they overran the position they were attacking. But just as they did so, Ralph was shot a third time. That bullet killed him instantly. For his heroism, young Ralph Spreckley was awarded the Military Cross. In fact, he was awarded it not once, but twice.

And there the story ends, in most history books anyway. But I invite you to ponder what happened when the news reached Mrs Spreckley. Ralph’s suffering was over, but back here, hers had just begun. Imagine the anguish. That telegram, the tears, the empty bed.

Perhaps not surprisingly, after she got that telegram, Mrs Spreckley turned to the School for solace. After all, young Ralph had spent a third of his life here. The great Headmaster of the day, Mr. Routh, wrote a personal letter of condolence to Mrs Spreckley. I have read others he wrote in a similar vein. They are deeply moving, difficult to finish.

In turn, Mr & Mrs Spreckley commissioned a beautiful carved oak kneeling desk, gifted to the School in Ralph’s honour. Our motto is inscribed on one side, on the other, the words “He led them with a true and faithful heart.” To this day, it resides in our Chapel.

That was 1914, the first year of the war. Regardless of the winds of world politics and the moral rights and wrongs of the cause, Mrs Spreckley knew only that she had lost her son forever. The child she had delivered into the world had been taken from it. That next year must have been brutally hard. Each season the first without Ralph. The first birthday, first Christmas, first holidays without her boy. But at the end of that year, there was worse to come. Because Ralph was not Mrs Spreckley’s only child.

In December 1915, the telegram boy appeared at Mrs Spreckley’s door once more. This time bearing the news that Ralph’s older brother, Arthur, had been wounded in action, also in France. He had survived, but was being shipped home to recover with his family. Tragically however, the hospital ship on which he was sailing was torpedoed by a U Boat off the coast of Crete and sank with the loss of all on board.

For a second time, Mrs Spreckley’s world must have collapsed. This time of course, she would have foreseen the grief to come. Once more, the School shared her sorrow. Arthur Spreckley had also been educated here, leaving the year after his younger brother started. A boarder in Gordon House, as it was then, he also played for the first teams, was also a School Monitor. Headmaster Routh wrote a second letter. Read the Spreckley name to another hushed assembly.

And still I have not told you the full story. Because Mrs Spreckley had not two children, but four. All sons and all gone to war. Can you even begin to imagine the devastation then, when two years after the news of Arthur’s death, another telegram. “The War Office regrets to inform you that Lieutenant GUY Spreckley was killed in action on 23 April 1917.”

A Bromsgrovian like his brothers, Guy had been in Gordon House. Like them, a member of the first rugby and cricket teams. Like them, a School Monitor. And now, like them, never to return home. His name read out by Headmaster Routh, whose own heart must have broken to see this loyal School family decimated.

Indeed, in the years that followed the end of the war, Routh bestowed upon Mrs Spreckley the greatest honour he could think of. He wanted to erect a lasting memorial to all his boys who had died in the Great War. It stands today; you visit every week. It is our Chapel. And on 2nd March 1930, Mrs Spreckley was the guest of honour at a ceremony where she was invited to lay its Foundation Stone.

To lose a child is a tragedy. For a mother to lose a son in the prime of his life, especially tragic. But to lose three sons is almost beyond comprehension.

Mercifully, the remaining Spreckley brother, Herbert, survived battle and lived well into his eighties, dying in 1974. We can only hope that he brought Mrs Spreckley some comfort in her final years. But still, I think of her often when I enter our Chapel. I have no idea what she looked like, but I find it frighteningly easy to picture her loss. Losing a child is our worst fear as parents.

So, in the coming week, if you wonder what all the fuss is about, I invite you to call to mind Mrs Spreckley. I know it is harder for your generation to repeat that line “We will remember them” with conviction. But that shouldn’t stop you from taking a moment to learn a little about what was sacrificed in the name of war. Not just by those who died, but also by those who had to go on living without them.
 
Presentations
The results of two House competitions last term were:
Junior House Basketball
3rd place- School House and Lyttleton
2nd place- Elmshurst
1st place- Wendron Gordon
I invite the captain of Wendron Gordon to come forward and receive the trophy.

LIVth House Badminton
Combined results from both A and B competitions
Girls’ winners: Ottilie Hild Boys: Lupton
I invite the captains of Ottilie Hild and Lupton on stage to receive the trophies

Greenpower Kit car
Just before the break, DT’s Greenpower race team competed in the international finals at Goodwood, battling through 80 other teams, and eventually ending up 3rd place in the Kitcar category and 17th in the overall F24 category.

I invite the following to receive the trophy:
Ollie Rodriguez-Harris
Amelie Jackson
William Jackson
Jack Ryan
Jacob Moore
Lucy Cattell
Harvey Phillips
Ffion Wright.

Review
Charity Run
I start by acknowledging Oakley House, who completed a 5k run last Half Term, with every member of the House participating. Through sponsorship they raised an impressive £709 for Women’s Aid, which provides refuge and support for victims of domestic abuse.

CCF
Well done to all the CCF cadets who took part in the training camp in Tiddesley last week.

Motor Racing
Congratulations to Freddie Slater, who won all his races before half term and was then was lucky enough to interview Lando Norris for Sky Sports.


Table tennis
Congratulations also to those who competed in the Worcestershire County Table Tennis trials. Highlights included:
Darren Hui being ranked No 1 Junior
Merrick Yeung, No 1 Cadet boy
Karis Cheng, No 1 Cadet girl.

National Cup Rugby Match
Good results for the U15 and 1st XV who progress through to the next round of the National Cup this term. We wish them well with those campaigns.

Netball National Cup
Well done also to the U14 and 1st Netball teams who both won their District competitions.

Tennis
Good news from the tennis courts, with Josie Ward qualifying for the quarter-final of the Shrewsbury Winter Open and Paulina Jurkowska reaching the semi-final of the British Tennis tour in Exeter. The U14 Boys Tennis team also played well in the regional finals.

Golf
Finally, a great effort from the School’s Golf Team, who have progressed to the Midland’s Semi-Final.  

Preview
Tomorrow a team from the NHS will be in School delivering Covid vaccinations to pupils in LIVth, UIVth and Vth Form.

On Thursday evening there is the first Parents Consultation of the year for the UVIth.

On Saturday there is the Sixth Form Opening Morning with many visitors expected at School.

And of course, as I have mentioned, we commemorate Remembrance Day, briefly on Tuesday and then at our services on Sunday. Please do take some time to learn and remember.

Please now stand as we say the Grace together.