Q&A: war memorials at St Cross Church
There are four WW1 memorials in St Cross Church, Holywell – two also record information about the fallen in WW2.
St Cross parish War Memorial
WWI fallen: AS Adams, FF Hunt, EV Giles, CB Wren, TW Haydon, EH Freeman, HE Miller
St Peter’s-in-the-East parish War Memorial.
This was in the parish church of St Peter’s–in-the-East, which is now the Library of St Edmund Hall. It was brought to St Cross and placed on the north tower pier facing the St Cross War Memorial when St Peter’s was closed as a parish church. It is now permanently fixed in the south aisle next to the St Catherine’s Society memorial.
WWI fallen: R Andrews, J Balaam, C Butler, GRW Dickinson, H Griffith, RB Macan, E Rix, A Roe, AF Salmon, THS Townsend, MB Wilks, J Williams
WWII fallen: HC Nicholl-Smith
St Catherine’s Society War Memorial
For information about the Society, see the History of St Catherine’s College.
WWI fallen: RA Abrams,T Baker, EK Bonsey , EW Brooks, AC Burrows, T Cann, BM Carpenter, HF Clarke, HTS Cole, HC Crichton, F Dann, R Dell, WR Dibb, GRW Dickinson, HJ Dunn, Rev.VS Dunstan, KM Dyott, H Garth, Rev HJB Green, NGB King, C Lakin, C Lewis, DG Lloyd-Williams , DJ Macdonald, Rev GH Merrikin, WC Milne, JA Moore , JHC Morris, AC Neale, PLS Phipps, HT Pitcairn, GH Pollard, CB Shrewsbury, S Spencer, TG Thomas, TJB Trowman, CS Unwin, OT Walton, THH Ward, FL Warland, FWWhitlock, EE Wicks, SA Wilkes, HMWillimas, TPC Wilson THH Wood, AJ Wooldridge
WWII fallen: HF Banister, WAO Chandler, S Coshall, CGP Cuthbert, KG Hope, EWG Hudgel, PO Johnson, EA Legrand, EW McKeeman, AS Mitchell, GS Morris, HC Pugh , LF Sheppard, RWO Spender, JR Stephen, MD Thomas, BG Tillyard, CW Turner, ACA White, WD Paul.
Transcriptions and other information are repeated here, along with lists of the other known burials in the church. For more information about the war memorials and other commemorative inscriptions in St Cross Church, see JH Jones’ history of the building and parish. All surviving parish records, including burial records, are at the Oxfordshire History Centre. Balliol does not keep copies in the church.
Also at St Cross church is the WW1 memorial of the Balliol Boys’ Club; more information here, and all names listed here.
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- St Cross parish war memorial (WW1)
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- St Peter’s in the East parish war memorial (WW1, WW2)
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- St Catherine’s Society war memorial (WW1, WW2)
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- access to St Peter’s, Boys’ Club & St Catherine’s war memorials at St Cross church
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- Balliol Boys’ Club WW1 memorial
Short leave courses at Balliol during WW2
I receive regular enquiries about individuals who attended short leave courses at Balliol during WW2; unfortunately the reply is a fairly simple and standard one, and I hope this post will help to explain the lack of records at the college.
Balliol’s Broad Street site was occupied by Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) from the autumn of 1939 until August 1943. Other wartime organisations housed at Balliol included the Joint Recruiting Board and the Institute of Statistics, which remained until 1946. The Short Leave course programme began on 9 August 1943 and ended in October 1945. The few students in residence were housed next door in Trinity College.
The idea for the Courses came from AD Lindsay (Master of Balliol 1924-1949) but their administration was through a University committee and the War Office and we have no formal records about them. The courses were based in college premises, which at that time housed other categories of war work as well, but they were not part of the University of Oxford curriculum and course participants were not members of ‘their’ colleges (though many had fond memories of their time here and some continued the connection later in life) or of the University. Balliol holds very little information about the courses themselves and less about individual participants. Below is an extract from John Jones’ Balliol College: a History regarding the WW2 Short Leave Courses, pp280-1.:
‘The Courses each ran for about a week, comprising lectures on aspects of English life and culture, discussions and social events. Some seventy or eighty servicemen [and -women], mostly American and Canadian but with a sprinkling of British and other nationalities, attended each Course. There were only short breaks between Courses, and several thousand people had passed through the College in this way when the programme ended in October 1945. The drive and finance came from the Westminster Fund, a private trust for the promotion of Anglo-American understanding, of which Lindsay was a trustee; local administration was in ths hands of a Committee chaired by him, wth Giles Alington of University College as coordinator. Two Balliol dons were regularly involved as lecturer: MR Ridley and JN Bryson. Every effort was made to make those attending feel that they were welcome, and inthat they had joined the College in a small way, as indeed the certificates they were given on departure implied.
‘As the bureaucratic aspects of the Courses had nothing to do with Balliol itself, there are no systematic records in the Archives. In particular, very few names of the participants are known to the College.’
From a brochure advertising ‘The Flying Deck University’ (coordinating all kinds of education for American forces personnel in Britain), ‘Short Courses at British Universities: Officers and enlisted men are eligible to attend a week’s course in a variety of subjects at England’s outstanding universities. The courses, taken while the soldier is on leave or furlough, normally begin on a Monday afternoon and extend through the following Saturday. Personnel live on the college campus and take part in college activities consistent with the course. The fee for each course is £3 12s. 0d. for officers and £1 12s. 0d. for enlisted personnel. This includes the cost of billet and food. Currently, courses are available at the following institutions: Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham U., Leeds U., Edinburgh U. and St Andrews University, Scotland and Stratford-on-Avon.’
Course certificates: certificates of participation in Short Leave Courses were not issued by Balliol College, and the college cannot issue replacements.
There are several small deposits of relevant material about the Short Leave Courses in the archives:
- MISC 46. Material, including many photographs, re Short Leave Courses, 1945.
- MISC 74. A photograph showing Mrs Evelyn Beale (Hospitality Hostess) with a “Short Leave Course” group on the hall steps in 1945, and associated correspondence.
- MISC 98.10 Correspondence with a participant in a Short Leave Course in 1944; including a list of names of those attending the Course beginning on 31 July 1944, and also a copy of a letter from Giles Alington, Course Secretary, giving details of the domestic and other arrangements. Also similar material re the Course beginning 26 Feb. 1945 deposited in 1992, with correspondence etc. Ditto Course 24 July1944 deposited in 1996.
Images are now online HERE of:
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a sample certificate of participation in a Short Leave Course
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all lists held at Balliol of participants in short leave courses: 24 July 1944, 31 July 1944, 26 Feb 1945
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all programmes held at Balliol of short leave courses
The archivist would be glad to hear from anyone with further information about, programmes from or lists of participants in short leave courses at Balliol College via email: archivist[at]balliol.ox.ac.uk.
American servicemen at Balliol during WW2
Balliol College ran Short Leave Courses for thousands of mostly American and Canadian servicemen and women between August 1943 and October 1945. The Courses each ran for a week, comprising lectures on aspects of English life and culture, discussion and social events. They were intended to be a break from military life – interesting and intellectually stimulating, but relaxed. Course members lived in college and had the use of the college library. As administrative aspects of the Courses had nothing to do with Balliol itself, there are no systematic records of the Courses or their participants in the Archives. Course participants were not registered with the College or the University.
Brock, Peter. Against the Draft: Essays on Conscientious Objection from the Radical Transformation to the Second World War. University of Toronto Press, 2006. Partial preview available here via Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=5fe6gbDyDhEC&output=html
An earlier version of the chapter dealing with the formation of the Universities Ambulance Unit at Oxford is:
Brock, Peter. ‘Six Weeks at Hawkspur Green: A Pacifist Episode during the Battle of Britain.’ Peace and Change 28:2, pp271-293. Published online by Wiley InterScience, March 2003. Available by subscription (free to Oxford PCs).
Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts 