Cohorts of 1912

Forty-nine Magdalen men, including the heir to the throne, Edward Prince of Wales, matriculated in 1912. By the end of 1914 forty-two of these, including the Prince of Wales, were serving in the army and a further three enlisted in 1915. Of these, eleven, 24%, were killed during the war (Table 1). Eleven men including the Prince of Wales were awarded the Military Cross and two the Distinguished Service Order. A brief summary of the Military and future careers of those who survived is given in Table 2. Of the four who did not serve in the armed forces (Table 3) , one was unfit for service, two served with the YMCA and one was a Conscientious objector.   These last three men may give some indication of the opposition to the War in Magdalen. The most significant of these was the Quaker, Richard Brockbank Graham (1893-1957) who ‘was something of a leader amongst the conscientious objectors of town and university’[1]

[1] Bootham School Commemoration Scholarship Fund 1879-1929, p.24.