LOVEDALE UNDER THE REV C B HALL

 LOVEDALE UNDER THE REV  C B HALL

In the last post, we covered the tenure of the enigmatic and dynamic Principal and Secretary of The Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School from 1933 to 1937- Rev. R W Simpson.

His successor was Rev C B Hall,M A (Oxon), described by an OL of those times as being " a typical British clergyman." The Rev Hall served as Principal and Secretary from 1937 till he passed away in office in 1943. 

He is seen in the photo below with his wife and Mr Dunk a Governor of the School Board. 

In terms of time, this period was only 6 years but they were exceptional six years which began the end of the British Raj in India.

The unprecedented and totally unexpected Abdication of King Edward VIII in December 1936 shook the Empire. He was succeeded by his brother the Duke of York who ascended the Throne as King George VI. By all accounts it is clear that the new reign started with overturning almost anything to do with the last one. King Edward VIII ( who now became HRH The Duke of Windsor) had left as King Emperor to marry a twice divorced American ,Wallis Warfield Simpson. 

I wouldn't be surprised if some animosity of the conservative Board of Governors towards Rev Simpson was because of his name! It is said they found willing members of the School staff to write complaining about him.

More importantly, 1939 saw the outbreak of the Second World War which went on till 1945. More and more boys from Lovedale - typically aged 14- were sent to the British Army Apprentice School/College, Chepstowe to be trained for enlistment in the Boys Army.  Some like Max Cocker were sent to the Royal Air Force Apprentice School at Halton. Others like Peter Hunt, son of  former School Bandmaster J B Hunt MM, IX Lancers  were sent to the Royal Navy. 

Some OLs like Max Cocker survived the war. He went on to write that wonderful autobiography, " Lovedale. The Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School, South India. A Personal Account" published in 1988. Cocker visited the School and spoke about his years there as a student. 

Some others like 18 year old Midshipman Peter Hunt RNR were not that fortunate. Hunt went down when the HMS Prince of Wales was torpedoed in Singapore in 1942. The King George V-class battleships HMS “ Prince of Wales” and HMS “Repulse” thought to be impregnable were attacked and sunk by Japanese dive bombers. Midshipman Hunt was one of the 327 lost in the HMS "Prince of Wales."

It would not escape the attention of aficionados of history that the mighty “HMS Prince of Wales” named after him, went down almost five years to the day when HRH The Duke of Windsor,  left the shores of his homeland having abdicated as King Edward VIII. 

(As an aside, did you play the pen and paper game of "Battleships" especially in the days when you were in the School Hospital due to mumps etc) 

The students were happy that Rev Hall continued with many of the changes brought in by Rev Simpson. 

In a speech to the students, he articulated his thoughts on what it meant to a Lawrencian.  

"As we are here in Lovedale as the result of the thrift and generosity of Sir Henry Lawrence, I should like each member of the school to try to set apart weekly a small sum to be used for others. I very much want to provide an Indian padre to devote himself to the moral and spiritual welfare of our Indian servants and their families. At present we can’t afford to do so. The annual Chapel collections amount to about Rs.1,300 which is less than one anna per head per week. I hope next year to introduce a system of regular weekly giving which will enable us to emulate the thrift and generosity of our founder. The list of his donations given annually to various charities in Calcutta, over and above his gifts for the Lawrence schools, is astounding when one remembers that he was never a rich man. As his thrift has benefited us, so let our thrift help us to share those benefits with others.”

“I want an intelligent and devotional study of the Bible to be a regular part of our daily school life, in accordance with the expressed wish of our founder. “From the outset,” he wrote “all the children at the Lawrence Asylum should have read the Bible"  The monthly notes of the Bible Reading Fellowship, which we have started this year, are I hope proving useful in carrying out this aim.”

Another character forming activity which Sir Henry Lawrence wished us to employ, is handwork of all sorts. “ I wish each boy to learn the use of his hands at some trade, I don’t care what it is. Let him cobble, carpenter, tailor, smith. this should be apart from telegraph survey, printing, or gardening work. Boys must be taught not to be ashamed to put their hands to anything to consider labour as honourable, and to see the advantage to themselves of being handy.” I hope to extend that side of the School’s activities considerably in the next few years. Making things for oneself is much more fun than buying things that other people have made.

Finally, or course, we have Sir Henry Lawrence’s famous order at Lucknow our motto : “Never Give In”. How often do we give in? Our work is criticized and we want to give it up ! (Have I heard a rumour of this year?)

The Rev Hall's end of speech rallying cry: " Let Lovedale then stand for trustworthiness; thrift and generosity; and determination