Great Grandfathers

Our book, Harrodian Remembers documents Harrodian ancestors who fought in the Great War. Here their descendants reflect on their stories, 100 years on.

‘We will remember them’ promised the poet Laurence Binyon in For the Fallen, his classic elegy to lost youth penned in the early weeks of the First World War.  Thanks to the efforts of the Royal British Legion in particular, Britain and the Commonwealth have delivered on the pledge in the 100 years that have passed since then.  And over its 25 year existence, Harrodian has done its bit to honour their memories too. Every year, all three school age groups take part in their own remembrance assemblies and poppy campaigns, as they are this week.  And in 2014, to coincide with the start of the Great War, the School decided to produce Harrodian Remembers.  This special book, written and edited by Andrew Nowell, Harrodian Head of History, documents the dramatic and moving stories of diverse Harrodian ancestors’ wartime achievements and sufferings.

Harrodian Remembers is available at reception or the senior office in return for a £5 contribution to this year's poppy fund (while stocks last).

In the run up to the 100th Armistice anniversary on 11th November, we decided to revisit the book by asking two families that  featured in it, the Bergins and Egans, for their personal reflections. How had they learnt what their ancestors did in the war and how did they plan to keep their memory alive in the future?

What was most striking about both families’ experience, was how little had been passed down by word of mouth. As Harrodian Remembers recounts, Charles Bergin, (top), a second lieutenant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and great grandfather of two current Prep School Harrodians, Charlie and Harry, was an authentic war hero. Lieutenant Bergin volunteered in 1916 and  served with distinction, taking part in the Hundred Day Offensive that concluded the war and winning the Military Cross for leading a daring and perilous attack on a machine gun nest near Cambrai and disarming and capturing its occupants in 1918.

Yet for all his bravery, as Tom Bergin, Harry and Charlie’s father recalls, his grandfather’s war experiences were largely a closed book to his family even though he spent his final years living with them.  ‘We were hugely proud of him and there were mementoes – his tunic and helmet and  the press clipping about his MC (above) around the house,’ says Mr Bergin.  ‘But he never spoke of the war and was an austere sort of man, possibly because of the hellish experience he’d been through.’

A similar reluctance to re-open physical and mental wounds suffered in the First World War may account for the sketchy knowledge of his ancestor’s war record on the part of Geoff Egan, father of current Harrodians, Sebastian and Jess (shown below with James Egan's medals).  ‘My grandfather never told my father much, except that he had been sent home after being shot in the leg by a sniper so I knew very little when I was a boy,’ recalls Geoff. Taking part in Harrodian Remembers became a family research project that revealed James Egan (above) had been a private and later a sergeant in the Liverpool Pals regiment and that he had fought in the notoriously bloody Battle of the Somme in 1916 before the sniper wound that ended his war service.

So what do the young descendants of these old soldiers make of their stories a century on? Are today’s Harrodians old enough to connect with the experience their great grandfathers endured? They’re doing their best. Harry Bergin explains that reading and watching War Horse at school gave him an insight both into  Lieutenant Bergin's war service and the work of his maternal grandfather, Arthur Carter (below) who served as a military vet in wartime Mesopotamia. For the Egans the research continues. Jess interviewed her grandfather about the war on a recent family visit and Sebastian promises that the family will not forget its wartime heritage. ‘Even though it’s a long time ago it’s important that we continue to remember these individual stories and that we don’t forget how many people lost their lives,’ he says.