CRA AGM 13th November 2008

This year's AGM was held at Southover on 13th November. Attendance was up on previous years and the evening was full of reminiscence and debate as well as the formal business of the meeting.

The minutes will be published on the main CRA website shortly - in the meantime, the Chairmans report to the AGM for 2007-8 has been published. If you follow the link to:

http://www.c-r-a.org.uk/

and click on the link to "Membership Application Forms, Minutes, Rules & other documents" you will find the report together with minutes from previous AGM's. When time permits we intend to add the Chairman's reports from previous AGM's to ensure that the website provides a complete history of our Association.

Cornwall Boys

Shortly after Remembrance Sunday, in November 2008, I was visiting friends in Cornwall when, on information provided by our Chairman, Mike Crick, I was able to locate the graves of two former pupils of Christ’s College who had died during the Second World War and whose names are on the memorial in the school hall.

Fl Lt Ronald Frederick Gore RAF who died on 16 March 1944 lies in Grave No 24 in a Commonwealth War Grave plot in Illogan Cemetery in the churchyard of St Illogan near Redruth.

Lt Derek Albert Davis RN who died on 23 June 1945 rests in Grave No 18 in a similar CWG plot within the churchyard of St Merryn near Padstow. The nearby Cornish Arms contains information about the wartime Royal Naval Air Station named HMS Vulture which was active during the war just outside the village of St Merryn.

Brian Fuller (CCF 1951-57)
CRA President.

Former Christ’s College Boys at Gallipoli

As this time of Remembrance it may be of interest to Centarians that the Headmaster incorporated the following text into his address at the Cadet Remembrance Day Parade on Sunday.

In October 2008 a small group of Old Finchleians and, more specifically, ex-cadets and members of the cadet Centarian Regimental Association, visited the First World War battlefields on the Gallipoli Peninsular in Turkey.

In 1915 this campaign had seen some fierce fighting with terrible casualties being experienced by both the Turkish defenders and the Allied invading forces consisting mainly of British, Australian and New Zealand troops. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) which landed there are commemorated in many military cemeteries in the area situated above Anzac Cove which Turkey recognizes as a memorial site and which is visited every year by ANZACs on 25th April, Anzac Day, the day of the initial landings.

Research by Old Finchleian President, Mike Crick had revealed that two ex-pupils of Christ’s College, named on the School War Memorial, had lost their lives in this campaign. The group of Centarians consisting of Brian Fuller, David Groom and John Millen discovered the whereabouts of these two boys – not much older than senior boys in the school today.

Eric Wyatt Patton who was at CCF from 1906 to 1910 had joined the 3rd Battalion of the Australian Infantry, died on 9th May 1915 and is remembered on the Memorial to the Missing in Lone Pine Cemetery just above the landing beaches at Anzac Cove.

George Horace Smith was also at CCF from 1905 to 1907. He joined the 8th Battalion of the Australian Infantry and died on 27th April 1915, aged 22, just two days after the landings and is buried in Shell Green Cemetery also just above Anzac Cove.

On Anzac Day in 1985 near the landing beaches a memorial was unveiled which contains the famous reconciliation statement made in 1934 by Turkish leader, Kemal Ataturk:-

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives …… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours ….. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well”.