While researching her family history, Rosemary Rudland contacted the Development Office regarding her great-uncle, Jack Cecil Watson, OH 1906-15, who was killed while fighting in World War 1.  We were able to share information held in the school archives about his time at Hymers College.

Recently, Rosemary has written about her great-uncle, Lieutenant Jack Cecil Watson in the October 2024 edition of the Royal British Legion Paris Newsletter, giving an insight into his final days:

Passchendaele, Flanders, 1917:

In his book, ‘The War in Outline 1914-1918’, infantry officer and historian Basil Henry Liddell Hart writes that, shortly after the end of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, a principal coadjutor of Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, paid a visit to the scene.

When his car neared the fringe of the battle-line, he was so appalled by the land "battered, beaten, and torn by a torrent of shell and explosive…hills and valleys alike were but waves and troughs of a gigantic sea of mud", that he burst into tears, crying "Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?". Such were Flanders’ open fields, once peaceful, fertile countryside with peasant farms and hamlets, now barely concealing thousands of human and animal bodies who had slipped and often drowned in the giant shell-holes, or pounded into dust. “No battle in history was ever fought under such conditions as that of Passchendaele."

One of those lost in that treacherous slime, and never found, was my great-uncle, Lieutenant Jack Cecil Watson, 10th Bn Middlesex Regiment. Born in East Yorkshire in1896 to John and Emily Watson, Jack entered Hymers College, Hull, in February 1906 (the 944th name in the ledger book), here he earned his First XV Colours, with the commentary "Has played many good games, and is quite good considering his size", and was promoted to both Library and school prefect. He left in May 1915 to join the army, Sadly, many former students and staff were to lose their lives in the Passchendaele offensive, and one day the dreaded message arrived: “We hear with much regret that Lieut.J.C.Watson, Middlesex Regt. has been reported wounded and missing. He is well known to most Hymerians, and we hope that e’er long better news will be received.”

But the “e’er long better news” never came, and losing their younger son was a bitter blow to my great-grandparents. A stained-glass window was placed in Holy Trinity Church, Hull, dedicated to his memory, and John Watson had a brooch made specially for his wife in the form of the crest of the Middlesex regiment. I’m proud to have inherited this memento of the "Die-Hards", surmounted with the Prince of Wales feathers and inscribed “Ich Dien” and “Albuhera”. The term “Die-Hard”. was attributed to the regiment in honour of the determination and bravery of its Commanding Officer, Colonel Inglis, during the 'bloodiest battle of the Peninsula War’ - Albuera, fought on 16th May 1811. The Middlesex Regiment is the only regiment in the world whose motto has become part of our English language.

Killed on the Western Front, at the age of 21, but not forgotten. Jack’s name is commemorated on a panel high up on the South Rotunda at the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, which bears the names of 33,771 British and 1,165 New Zealand servicemen who fell from mid-August 1917 until the end of the war. Both the Memorial and the cemetery, just 12 km from Ypres, were designed by Sir Herbert Baker and John Truelove. Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in the world and contains 11,968 graves. A tragic reminder of the post-war battlefield clearance, 7 out of 10 graves have no personal identification.

Last May, 47 students from Hymers College went on a study trip to France and Belgium to explore the battlefields, enrich their understanding of the GCSE case study on trench medicine, and visit the graves of Old Hymerians who lost their lives in WW1. Every year in November, the school pays tribute to the 208 pupils killed fighting for the country, by holding a Remembrance Service when all their names are mentioned.

On behalf of my family, I would like to thank all the students and staff involved in this long-term research project - and particularly Victoria Bastiman, Alumni Engagement Officer, Helen Robinson, and team, from the History Department - who, by their relentless work on the very meaning of the war’s sacrifice, keep the stories of the Old Hymerians alive, and bring to mind the iconic last line of Laurence Binyon’s famous poem, For the Fallen: We will remember them.

Rosemary Rudland
Member RBL - Paris Branch

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