On 28th October 1914, the first Bootham Old Scholar fell.
Clarence L. Bentley, Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, was killed in action.
He was born in 1894, and attended Bootham between 1906 and 1908. He was 20 years old when he died.
According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, he passed out of Sandhurst as war was declared. He is included on the Le Touret Memorial.
In September 1953 a workman digging drains for the new kitchen block found a hoard of medieval coins. An inquest was held in the John Bright Library, and the coins were declared Treasure Trove. The Yorkshire Museum in York, which now holds the coins, is doing some research about the collection. If you remember the hoard being found, or attended the inquest, it would be lovely to hear from you. Please get in touch with the Archivist, Jenny Orwin (Jenny.Orwin@boothamschool.com).
An article was written about the find by R.H.M Dolley and I.H. Stewart, click here to read it.
The 1914 Annual Report was approved by Committee, and included the following statement by Arnold Rowntree: ‘It will be the desire of all that Bootham shall take its right part at this critical period in the history of our country. We hope that something of the spirit of self-sacrifice and earnestness which is manifesting itself in the nation in so many ways will be found amongst the boys. Special ambulance lessons are to be taken, there is a desire to sacrifice personal pleasures for the sake of those who are in need, and the School are making themselves responsible for the maintenance of a Belgian family. But beyond the mere desire to relieve present anxieties, we trust there may be amongst the boys the determination to work hard that they may equip themselves for the great task of reconstruction that lies before us, reconstruction based upon a truer understanding of God’s will and a greater determination to carry out that will in every department of life. It is the earnest desire of the Committee that strength and wisdom may be given both to the staff and to the scholars to meet this time of stress in a courageous spirit, and to turn it to good purpose.’
Back in April I mentioned that I was looking at new software for a catalogue. I’m hoping that the catalogue will be online for people to have a look at by the end of the year. I’ve now spent a few months adding to it, and at the moment I’m working on all the societies and other activities.
An archive is arranged hierarchically, so that the context is kept. I’m working on ‘series-level’ entries for the whole archive (a series is a group of records, within a larger group, that all relate to the same purpose, for example we’ve got a series of Natural History Society annual reports). After that, we’ll be working on adding more detail for specific parts of the archive where this is likely to be most useful, although that is a long term project!
What is exciting is that it will be much easier to search the new catalogue, and explore it using all the connections to people, events, places, other records and so on. We can also add digital images of the records to the catalogue, so we can gradually increase what people can access online.
Watch this space!
A photograph of a gymnastics display from 1920 that I came across last week while I was working on the sports records.
