Histories

Birth

Robert Thrale was born on 23 June 1896 in Nottingham.

Nottingham High School

He was an old boy of Nottingham High School, Arboretum Street, Nottingham, joining on 1 June 1907, aged 11. At the time, his family lived at 2 Petersham Street, New Lenton, Nottingham, and his father, also Robert Thrale, was a past student of Nottingham High.

Robert Thrale was bright, being one of ten annually awarded a Dame Agnes Mellers' scholarship of:

• five pounds p.a.;
• full tuition fees for three years.

The family paid one pound twelve shillings annually for books.

The first mention of his name in school records, aged 12, was:

Thrale IIB was convicted of scribbling his name in a certain office outside the school. He was reprimanded with a caution not to repeat the offence and told to inform others that further scribbling would be visited with severe punishment. Further, it was recommended that a notice be put up in the said office to the effect that punishment would be inflicted for any infringement of this rule.

A.W.D.Preston. School Prefects meeting. 12 May 1908

He may have been scribbling graffiti on the walls of the boys' toilets. In the prudish Edwardian era, toilets were euphemistically referred to as 'offices'.

By September 1908, Robert was in Second Form A with Mr W. T. Ryles as his form master. Of 28 boys, he ranked 10th in mathematics and 17th overall.

By September 1909, he was in Third Form A with Mr W. E. Ryles, brother of his previous form master, as his form master. He ranked 16th of 19 boys, 21st in mathematics (Set 3a), and 22nd in science. That year, he received the Bowman-Hart Prize for singing.

The following year, he was in Classical Fourth Form A with Mr Lloyd Morgan as his form master. He ranked 26th of 29 boys: 22nd in mathematics, 25th in chemistry, and 22nd in physics.

He left school in July 1910, likely due to the end of scholarship funding.

Post-school life

In April 1914, he was apprenticed to Bass and Wilford Chemist, 2 Upper Parliament Street, Nottingham. In 1916, he lived with his family at 13 Harley Street, Lenton, Nottingham.

Military career

He enlisted in the Territorial Force, 1/7th Sherwood Foresters, no. 2025, at Nottingham on 21 April 1914. On the enlistment form (Form E501), he falsely stated his age as 19 years 10 months, when he was 17 years and 10 months.

He served as a medical orderly (as his photographic portrait shows) in England until 27 February 1915 (313 days) and in France from 28 February 1915 until his death on 1 July 1916 (1 year and 124 days). He was promoted to lance-corporal (unpaid) on 13 August 1915, paid on 23 August 1915, and corporal on 28 December 1915. He was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal. He was captain of the battalion football team.

Killed in action 1 July 1916

As part of the 1/7th (Robin Hood) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, 139th Brigade, Corporal Robert Thrale supported the 46th (North Midland) Division’s diversionary attack on the Gommecourt Salient, Somme, aiming to capture Food Trench and Fork Trench between 'Little Z' and 'Orinocho' communication trenches.

The attack began at 7:30 a.m. Some troops reached the German front line, with about 12 reaching the second line before retreating. Thrale, a medical orderly, accompanied Captain J. W. Scott, the battalion’s Medical Officer, with a medical party behind the fourth wave, 5–10 minutes after the first. As the smoke concealing the German trenches cleared, the party emerged in full view and was caught in artillery and machine gun crossfire sweeping No Man’s Land. All but Captain Scott were hit immediately; he survived unscathed. The fourth and fifth waves were halted by 7:55 a.m.²

Among the medical detachment’s casualties were two 20-year-olds, including Corporal Thrale, and seven stretcher bearers. Captain Scott returned to the trenches, organising their defence amid heavy officer losses and treating some of the battalion’s 200 wounded. He received the Military Cross. Of approximately 750 men involved, 424 were killed.

Many battalion dead were unrecovered until March 1917, some unrecognisable. Thrale’s body was never found, and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He is one of four Nottingham High School students killed in this attack (three, including Thrale, in the same battalion), among 17 Old Nottinghamians on the Thiepval Memorial and 202 on the school’s First World War memorial.

Commonwealth War Graves register

Corporal 2025 1st / 7th Bn., Sherwood Foresters who died on Saturday 1st July 1916. Age 20.

Category	Description
Information:	Son of Robert and Elizabeth Thrale, of 13, Harley St., Lenton, Nottingham.
Cemetery:	Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France.
Panel number:	Pier and Face 10 C 10 D and 11 A.
Location:	The Thiepval Memorial will be found on the D73, off the main Bapaume to Albert Road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at the memorial on 1 July.
Additional information:	On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counterattacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter. In the spring of 1917, the German forces fell back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line and there were no further significant engagements in the Somme sector until the Germans mounted their major offensive in March 1918. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales, in the presence of the President of France, on 31 July 1932. The dead of other Commonwealth countries who died on the Somme and have no known graves are commemorated on national memorials elsewhere.

School war memorial

Robert Thrale is commemorated on the:

• War Memorial, which stands in the school grounds and faces Arboretum Street;
• Roll of Honour, displayed in the school foyer.

To the glory of God In last and grateful memory of those former members of this school who by the sacrifice of their lives for the cause of their great Country in the Great War 1914 - 1918 and the Second World War 1939 - 1945 ennobled the traditions which they had here received.

War Memorial inscription

1922 War Memorial unveiling ceremony

On Saturday, November 11th 1922, the school war memorial was unveiled by the Duke of Portland. It was a life-size statue in bronze, representing a young officer leading his platoon to the attack, and had been designed by an Old Boy, Colonel A.S.Brewill D.S.O., the commander of the 7th Sherwood Foresters throughout most of the war. The statue was cast into bronze by Henry Poole A.R.A. Originally, the school had asked Earl Haig to perform the ceremony, but he was unable to do so.

The Duke of Portland arrived at the Forest Road gates and was met by a party including the Mayor, the Sheriff and the Headmaster. The boys of the school were all gathered on the east lawn, with the privileged ticket holders standing on the west lawn. In a reserved enclosure close to the statue sat the relatives of the fallen.

The ceremony itself began with the singing of the original School Song. This was based on one of the odes of Horace and began with the words “Integer vitae scelerisque purus”¹. It was accompanied by the City Police Band, and “the sonorous Latin words floated sweetly on the crisp, autumnal air, and turned one’s thought inevitably to bigger boys now lying dead in France and Flanders who had often sung the same song.”

The Duke of Portland, standing at the top of the school steps, then made a short speech reminding everyone of the purpose of the memorial, namely to show “…the respect, honour, and admiration which we feel for the Old Boys who laid down their lives in the Great War.”

He then descended the steps and pulled the Union Jack off the statue.

Unveiling of Nottingham High School War Memorial on 11 November 1922.

A party of the O.T.C. then saluted, and the buglers of the Robin Hood Rifles sounded The Last Post. The Mayor, on behalf of the whole city, laid a magnificent wreath, followed by boys who represented the Upper School, the Lower School, the Preparatory School, the staff and the Old Boys’ Society. Principal A.R.Henderson read a passage from the scriptures. His son, Roy Henderson, sang a specially composed song “What are those which are arrayed in white robes?”, and then the Bishop of Newcastle gave an address, and dedicated the memorial. After the hymn, “O Valiant Hearts, who to your Glory came.”, the “Reveillé” was sounded and the National Anthem sung. In what must have been a touching sight, the young boys of the school then smothered the steps of the monument with Flanders poppies.

“So did the School honour her glorious dead.” Inside the school, an illuminated Roll of Honour, executed by the school’s Art Master, Mr.E.P.Betts, was put on permanent display. It records full details of soldiers’ regiments, their ranks and the dates of their deaths.

The High School’s wise choice of a statue to commemorate those who perished in the Great War may well be viewed by later generations as one which occupied, as it were, the moral high ground. Other public schools were to spend their windfalls in what would seem to us, nowadays, perhaps, somewhat less acceptable ways. At one school, for example, the Bursar was given a new office, and at another, the Headmaster received a new house, with a pleasant garden, and four acres of land.

Nottingham Journal. 13 November 1922.

Contemporary remembrance

A photograph of Robert Thrale, donated to the school, is kept in the school archives.

School remembrance trip to Thiepval 2004

In 2004, 41 students and 5 staff from Nottingham High School for Boys travelled to the Western Front Battlefields. They marked the commemorative engraving of Robert Thrale on the Thiepval Memorial with a small poppy cross. Student James Banks was tasked with searching for his name and leaving a cross as a mark of respect. There are 17 Old Boys of Nottingham High School commemorated at Thiepval.

On Friday, 15th October, at the unearthly hour of 5.30 am, the entire staff of the History Department and forty-one boys gathered outside the school and waited for the tardy coach. Our transport, though slightly overdue, did eventually arrive, and after a brief passport-related delay, we set off for France. A “Welcome Break” was had by all at Toddington Services, and we promptly met our guide, Mike, at Calais a little after 11.30 am. We enjoyed a smooth ferry trip, but I observed while on deck the rather bleak clouds gathering around the northern coast of France. Once in France, it began to drizzle, and the weather continued spasmodically to do so throughout the trip.

Our first stop was the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge, about eight kilometres northeast of Arras. The Memorial consists of two jutting limestone pinnacles, into which, in some places, are carved statues, the most famous of which is the Weeping Woman. This saddened figure represents Canada - a young nation mourning her fallen sons.

The surrounding landscape is pocked and pitted by shell holes, which create a landscape best likened to Teletubby Land, as the shelling here was extremely intense, and the front lines just metres apart.

I left the ridge shocked and repulsed by the sheer volume of life that had been lost at just one nation; a feeling that was to be repeated constantly at every monument or cemetery we were to visit.

We then drove to our accommodation, the welcoming Château D’Ebblinghem, a 19th-century Château turned hostel located 8 km east of St Omer in the Pas de Calais region of Northern France. After a filling dinner and an evening of relaxation, we settled into our beds and enjoyed a needed night of rest.

We spent the next day touring the Somme Battlefield. Among other sites, we visited the Lochnagar Crater and the Thiepval Memorial. The crater is the product of the “sapping” that went on during the battle of July 1916, part of the attempt to destroy the Germans before the allies “went over the top”. While most of the operations failed to achieve this end, any German in the vicinity of this explosion stood no chance on 1st July 1916. Then, the crater measured 300ft across and 90ft deep; though much reduced now, the crater still packs a pretty impressive punch to the visitor.

Our next stop was the Thiepval Memorial. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the names of 72,000 British soldiers are carved into the stone of this massive memorial. Without wishing to appear irreverent, it looked to me rather like an overdressed Christmas cake; indeed, the French planning authorities only agreed to it on the condition that it would be screened by trees.

After locating my assigned Old Nottinghamian, Robert Thrale, I placed a small cross in his memory. Thrale attended the school on a Dame Agnes Mellers scholarship between 1907 and 1910, and to read about a particular Old Boy re-humanises the terrible loss suffered, as one often becomes detached from the reality that there are people behind the names on the School Memorial and Roll of Honour.

We set off for Belgium early the next morning, bound for Ypres. Having been virtually obliterated by the end of the War, its medieval shops and streets have been skilfully reconstructed so that the city might appear as it had done before the War. When you compare it to our equivalent, perhaps Coventry, the continental version comes out most favourably.

The In Flanders Fields Museum was spectacular - the combination of audiovisual effects, informative exhibits and computerised information points conveyed both factual knowledge and a sense of what it was like to live in Ypres during the War. Every five minutes, a huge simulated explosion rocked the building; an hour of shelling was quite enough for me, and I could not comprehend the horror of incessant bombing for years.

We then spent some time at the famous Menin Gate, another Memorial to the lost, which was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in the style of a Roman triumphal arch. Upon it are inscribed the names of a further 54,900 of the 'missing'. Every day, at 8 p.m., the local police stop traffic from passing underneath the gate, and the Last Post is played by buglers from the Ypres fire station.

After purchasing the obligatory Belgian chocolate, we piled onto the coach (some of our number feeling slightly ill) and headed off to Tyne Cot cemetery. Other than its being the largest British war cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot is an archetypal British war cemetery. “Row on row” of white graves stretch away in every direction, inscribed by default with “A Soldier of The Great War” and invariably adorned with the cross. 11,908 graves are registered within Tyne Cot, and on the wall at the back of the cemetery are the names of a further 34,927 men with no grave.

A stark comparison can be drawn between the relatively light, bright atmosphere of this cemetery and the close, dark feeling of the Langemark German cemetery we next visited. Here, the soldiers are often buried in mass graves, and the black stone is darkened by the lack of light that permeates the tree cover. It is a sad, depressing place, and incidentally, a favourite day-out for Hitler when he was in France during the Second World War. We were shocked to discover that our bus driver’s grandfather was commemorated at Langemark, and this served as a painful reminder of the hurt felt by the families of our past enemies, as well as that of our own.

Our last stop was the small Bridge House Cemetery, where we laid a wreath in remembrance of one Old Nottinghamian in particular, but also in honour of all Old Boys who died in the Great War. 2nd Lieutenant John George Roe attended the school between 1907 and 1910, and died during the Passchendale offensive of 1917. A few words were said by our guide, and a moment’s silence held. This was a fitting end to the trip, which had, to some extent, brought home the human cost of the First World War.

James Banks (student), 15-17 October 2004.

We gratefully acknowledge kind assistance and contributions from:

• Simon Williams and Peter Dowsett, Head of History at Nottingham High School for Boys, for sharing photographs and accounts of Robert Thrale;
• Wendy Henderson for providing additional detail about his early military career.

Footnotes

¹Book 1, Ode 22. In English, this line is often translated as "The man of upright life and free from wickedness."

²MacDonald, A. (2008). *A Lack of Offensive Spirit? The 46th (North Midland) Division at Gommecourt, 1st July 1916*. Birmingham: Iona Books.