Abbreviations

AAC = Army Air Corps

ADC = aide-de-camp

Adjt = Adjutant

ADS = Advanced Dressing Station

AEF = American Expeditionary Force

AFC = (1) Australian Flying Corps (2) Air Force Cross (inst. 3 June 1918)

AIF = Australian Imperial Force

ANZAC = Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

AOC = Air Officer Commanding

ASC = Army Service Corps

attd = attached

Bde = Brigade

BEF = British Expeditionary Force

Bn = Battalion

BRCS = British Red Cross Society

Bty = Battery

C-i-C = Commander in Chief

C.C.J. Webb: Clement Charles Julian Webb (1865–1954, diarist and Fellow of Magdalen 1889–1922)

CB = Commander of the Bath

CCS = Casualty Clearing Station

Cemy = Cemetery

CID = Committee of Imperial Defence

CO = Commanding Officer

Coy = Company

Cpl = Corporal

CRL: NC = Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, Neville Chamberlain Papers

CSM = Company Sergeant-Major (senior NCO in a Company)

CWGC = Commonwealth War Graves Commission

CWS = Chemical Warfare Service (USA)

DAD = Deputy Assistant Director

DCLI = Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

DFC = Distinguished Flying Cross (inst. 2 July 1926)

DL = Deputy Lord Lieutenant of a county

DLI = Durham Light Infantry

DNB = Dictionary of National Biography

DNM = Did not matriculate at Magdalen

DSC = Distinguished Service Cross (inst. November 1914)

DSO = Distinguished Service Order (inst. 6 September 1886)

EA = Enemy Aircraft

EEF = Egyptian Expeditionary Force

FBA = Fellow of the British Academy

FOO = Forward Observation Officer

GHQ = General Headquarters

GOC = General Officer Commanding

GSO = General Staff Officer; GSO1 = General Staff Officer (Grade 1)

HA = Hostile Aircraft

HAC = Honourable Artillery Company

HAG = Heavy Artillery Group

HB = Heavy Battery

HE = high explosive

HLI = Highland Light Infantry

HMCN = Her Majesty’s Canadian Navy

HMHS = His Majesty’s Hospital Ship

HMI = His (Her) Majesty’s Inspectorate (of schools)

HMPS = His Majesty’s Paddle Ship

HMT(S) = Hired Military Transport (Ship)

IARO = Indian Army Reserve of Officers

ICS = Indian Civil Service

IWM = Imperial War Museum, London

Jasta = Jagdstaffel (German = Squadron)

JP = Justice of the Peace (Magistrate)

KC = King’s Counsel

KCB = Knight Commander of the Bath

kia = killed in action

KOSB = King’s Own Scottish Borderers

KOYLI = King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

KRRC = King’s Royal Rifle Corps

KSLI = King’s Shropshire Light Infantry

kwm = killed, wounded and missing

LG = London Gazette

LI = Light Infantry

LRB = London Rifle Brigade

LWD = Left without taking a degree

MC = Military Cross (inst. 1 January 1915)

MCA = Magdalen College Archives

MCBC = Magdalen College Boat Club

MCS = Magdalen College School

MEF = (1) Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Gallipoli and Thessalonika); (2) later also Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force)

MGC = Machine Gun Corps

MiD = mentioned in dispatches

MM = Military Medal (inst. 25 March 1916)

MMGS = Motor Machine Gun Service

MO = Medical Officer

MT = Motor Transport

MVO = Member of the Royal Victorian Order

NA = National Archives (previously the PRO) at Kew

NCO = non-commissioned officer

Nkg = No known grave

NoM = not on Magdalen’s War Memorial

NSY = North Somerset Yeomanry

ODNB = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

OR = other rank (i.e. a soldier who is not an officer))

OTC = Officers’ Training Corps

OTU = Operational Training Unit

OUA (DWM) = Department of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library

OUA = Oxford University Archives

OUBC = Oxford University Boat Club

OUOTC = Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps

OUOTC = Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps (established 1908

OURoS = Oxford University Roll of Service

OURV = Oxford University Rifle Volunteers

OUVRC = Oxford University Volunteer Rifle Corps (the predecessor of the OUOTC and popularly known as “Godley’s Army” after its CO Alfred Denis Godley (1856–1925), Fellow of Magdalen in Classics (1883–1912), Honorary Fellow (1912–15). From 1900 to 1905 he had commanded the 4th Bn of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire LI. He was also a senior figure in Oxfordshire’s recruitment programme and by the end of World War One he had risen to the rank of Acting Brigadier). See Thomas Herbert Warren, ‘Mr A.D. Godley. Public Orator, Parodist and Wit’, The Times, no. 44,000 (29 June 1925), p. 16; and E.C. Godley, rev. Richard Smail, ‘Godley, Arthur Denis (1856–1925)’, ODNB, 22 (2004), pp. 581–2.

OUVRF = Oxford University Volunteer Rifle Force

Ox. & Bucks LI = Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

Pte = Private

QOOH = Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars (Oxfordshire Yeomanry, in the TF)

RA = Royal Artillery (broken into three in 1899; reamalgamated in 1924)

RAAF = Royal Australian Air Force

RAC = Royal Aero Club (Aviators’ Certificate)

RAF = Royal Air Force

RAFM = Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, London

RAFR = RAF Reserve

RAMC = Royal Army Medical Corps

RAOC = Royal Army Ordinance Corps

RASC = Royal Army Service Corps

RB = Rifle Brigade (which is a regiment and not a brigade in the strict sense)

RCAF = Royal Canadian Air Force

RE = Royal Engineers

Regt = Regiment

RF = Royal Fusiliers

RFA = Royal Field Artillery

RFA = Royal Field Artillery (1899–1924)

RFC = Royal Flying Corps (merged with the RNAS on 1 April 1918 to form the RAF)

RGA = Royal Garrison Artillery

RGA = Royal Garrison Artillery (1899–1924)

RHA = Royal Horse Artillery (1899–1924)

RMA= Royal Military Academy

RMC = Royal Military College (Sandhurst or Woolwich; Royal Military Academy since 1947)

RN = Royal Navy

RNAS = Royal Naval Air Service (merged with the RFC on 1 April 1918 to form the RAF)

RNR = Royal Naval Reserve

RNVR = Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

ROH = Roll of Honour (published in the Magdalen Register 1934)

ROTC = Reserve Officer Training Corps

RSM = Regimental Sergeant-Major (the senior NCO in a Bn or Regt)

RVO = Royal Victorian Order (inst. 1896)

SAA = small arms ammunition

SOE = Special Operations Executive

Sqdn = Squadron

SWB = South Wales Borderers

TA = Territorial Army

TF = Territorial Force

under the Haldane Reforms)

UPS = University and Public Schools (Brigade or Regiment or Battalion)

VAD = Voluntary Aid Detachment

VC = Victoria Cross (inst. 29 January 1856)

VHCE = The Victoria History of the Counties of England

w.e.f. = with effect from

WFF = Western Frontier Force (Egypt)

WO339/ and WO/374 = officers’ personal files from World War One that are held in the National Archives

WO95/ = One of the Battalion war diaries from World War One that is held in the NA

WRAF = Women’s Royal Air Force

wria = wounds received in action

Notes

The Officers’ Training Corps

The OTCs (Officers’ Training Corps) consisted of the Senior Divisions (Universities) and the Junior Divisions (Public Schools and Inns of Court). In 1914 there were 23 contingents in the Senior Division and 166 in the Junior. Between August 1914 and March 1915 20,577 commissions were granted to former members of the OTCs. In January 1915 it was decided that NCOs and suitable men who were recommended by their COs would be given a short, four-week-long officers’ training course in such units as the Artists Rifles (the 1/28th Battalion of the London Regiment), the Honourable Artillery Company, the Inns of Court OTC, and Senior Contingents of the OTC (such as the Oxford University OTC). If the candidates were considered suitable, they were commissioned and sent to Young Officer Companies, which were attached to the Reserve Brigades, for further training while waiting to be posted to their units. The Royal Military Colleges at Sandhurst and Woolwich continued to train candidates for Regular commissions with shortened courses that lasted four and six months: these were later extended to eight months and a year.

OT 4/2 is a bound book in the Oxford University Archives and a Record of Officers from 1909 to 1926. Although it is paginated and indexed, it contains only a small number of records, only three of which relate to Magdalen men killed in action: Rodolph Algernon Perssé, John Leslie Johnston and Alwyne Chadwick Hobson.

Oxford Examinations

The Registers of Undergraduate Examinations in the Oxford University Archives (UR 2/1/+ volume number) start comprehensively in 1891. They are organized according to the year of matriculation, then alphabetically, and each candidate has a page.

Before World War One, the Oxford Examination system was extremely complex and in need of modernization or at least streamlining. But to put matters simply, it consisted of three parts: (I) Responsions, (II) the First Public Examination and (III) the Second Public Examination.

(I) Responsions, popularly known as “Smalls” and “Little Go”, were a kind of university-wide entrance examination that was taken either before or soon after matriculation and whose purpose was to check the quality of the candidates being admitted across a diversity of colleges. Exemptions were granted to candidates who possessed an Oxford & Cambridge Certificate or one of a wide range of recognized School Leaving Certificates; Rhodes Scholars were normally also exempt.

During the pre-1914 years, candidates usually took two papers and answered simple questions – Responsio (Latin) = a reply or an answer – on two “stated subjects”: Greek and Latin Language, and Mathematics (Arithmetic and Elements of either Geometry or Algebra). Some candidates opted to take one of a range of “additional subjects” in order to gain exemption from the FPE paper in Greek and Latin Literature. The examination was abolished in 1960.

(II) For the First Public Examination (FPE), every candidate took a paper on Holy Scripture, normally in the Trinity Term of their first year, in which they were questioned on one of the synoptic Gospels, St John’s Gospel, and either The Acts of the Apostles, or part of the Old Testament.

Pass Degree Candidates normally took four other papers: (1) Greek and Latin Literature, (2) Either Logic or the Elements of Geometry and Algebra, (3) Latin Prose Composition, (4) Translation from Greek and Latin authors not offered under (1).

Honours Degree Candidates normally took five other papers: (1) Latin and Greek Literature (especially poets and orators), (2) Translation from Latin and Greek authors not offered under (1), (3) Latin Prose Composition, (4) Latin verse and Greek verse and prose composition, (5) one of four special papers. Honours Degree Candidates in Mathematics normally took two papers: (1) Pure Mathematics, (2) Elements of Mechanics.

Some academically aspirational candidates took a Subject Prelim instead of FPE, especially those reading for a degree in Natural Science (NS) or Jurisprudence.

(III) After passing FPE, Pass Degree Candidates normally selected three subjects from the List of Pass Groups (see below), spread across three terms, and took these for the Second Public Examination (SPE). But sometimes, it was enough for a candidate to take two Pass Groups after passing FPE in order to obtain an unclassified Pass Degree.

The Pass Groups were:

A (Classics): A1 (Greek and/or Latin Literature/Philosophy), A2 (Greek and Roman History), A3 (Classical Sanskrit), A4 (Persian Language), A5 (Arabic Language), A6 (Classical Chinese), A7 (Pali Language).

B (History): B1 (English History), B2 (French Language), B3 (Elements of Political Economy), B4 (Law), B5 (German Language and Literature), B6 (English Literature).

C (Elements of NS): C1 (The Elements of Algebra and Geometric Trigonometry), C2 (The Elements of Mechanics), C3 (The Elements of Physics), C4 (The Elements of Chemistry), C5 (The Elements of Zoology and Botany), C6 (The Elements of Rural Economy).

D (Elements of Religious Knowledge in Greek and Hebrew).

E (Military Science): E1 (The Elements of Military History and Strategy), E2 (Tactics, Map Reading and Field Sketching, Field Engineering).

It normally took three years to get a BA (Pass Degree), but as will become clear from the biographies, Pass Degree candidates who had a special reason for spending more time at Oxford – usually high-profile sport – could get leave to do so.

After passing FPE, candidates who had originally been admitted to read for an Honours Degree could lower their sights and read for a Pass Degree. There are many instances of candidates doing this during the period 1911–14 since this allowed them to reduce their time at Oxford and join the Army more quickly.

But before this began to become more commonplace, Honours Degree Candidates normally followed up FPE by taking Prelims or Moderations, both of which counted as part of the SPE. They then spent six terms reading for a classified Honours Degree, and this normally took a total of four years. There were, in 1912, nine Honours Schools: (1) Literae Humaniores (i.e. Classics), (2) Mathematics, (3) Natural Sciences, (4) Jurisprudence (i.e. Law), (5) Modern History, (6) Theology, (7) Oriental Studies, (8) English Language and Literature, (9) Modern Languages.

Firsts and Seconds were awarded for the first time in Michaelmas Term 1807. Then, from Hilary Term 1809, a third group of candidates was placed “below the line” under the Seconds. This status was changed to a Third in Hilary Term 1825 and the first Fourths appeared in Hilary Term 1831.

War-time Degrees

The Regulations relating to war-time degrees are printed in the Examination Statutes. But to put things briefly, War Decree (7) related to supplicating for the degree of BA whereby, if a member of the University was absent on Military Service for not less than three terms, he was permitted to supplicate for the BA provided that he had satisfied the Moderators in the Examination of Holy Scripture, paid a fee to the University Chest and had either kept or, under the provisions of War Decree (1), was deemed to have kept nine terms of residence.

A Note on Rowing

Henley Races in order of seniority:

1) The Grand Challenge Cup: Established in 1829 for VIIIs for all comers. The senior event for VIIIs, open to crews from all countries.

2) The Ladies’ Challenge Plate: Established in 1845, the second most senior event for VIIIs at Henley. It was open to any UK College crew (including Trinity College, Dublin) or Public School crew. After 1985 it was open to any College or School crew from any country.

3) The Thames Challenge Cup: Established in 1868 for VIIIs for Home and Overseas crews of “Club” rather than “Grand” standard. The current rules are designed to ensure that it is an event for “genuine” club crews.

4) The Stewards’ Challenge Cup: Established in 1841 for coxed IVs. In 1873 it was changed to coxless IVs and like the Grand Challenge Cup it was and is open to all comers as the senior race for IVs.

5) The Visitors’ Challenge Cup: Established in 1847 for coxed IVs. After 1874 it was open to coxless IVs but restricted to College crews from any country. After 2000 it was opened to include club crews from any country.

6) The Wyfold Challenge Cup: Established in 1847 but redesignated in 1855 as a new race for coxless IVs open to any club from any country, and in 1995 brought into line with the entry rules for the Thames Challenge Cup. 

NS = Women’s Royal Naval Service