War Memorial Quadrangle
The subscription fund for a memorial to Old Aluredians who fell in the Great War was opened in 1916. The final memorial comprised a stone cross placed in the Chapel Quadrangle and a marble slab bearing the names of the fallen on the wall leading to the Chapel.
The memorial was designed by architect Walter E Tower who had designed the Chapel and was dedicated by the Bishop of Bath and Wells on 6 March 1920. The inscription at the base of the cross can be translated as ‘To the Old Aluredians who died gloriously for their country 1914-1919. From afar they await the last trumpet call’.
The memorial to those Old Aluredians who fell in World War II comprised a new science block at one end of the Memorial Quadrangle and was dedicated on 6 July 1957 by HRH Princess Margaret. A Gate of Honour, designed by Lawrence Bradshaw, leads off the Quadrangle to the new building, central to which is a marble memorial containing the names of the Old Aluredians, a master and a member of the domestic staff who fell.
The War Memorials are a focus of the school’s commemorations of Remembrance Day. Each year, after a special Chapel service, the whole school gathers in the Quadrangle while the names of the fallen are read out. The Last Post is played and a serving Old Aluredian lays a wreath at the Cross. Books of Remembrance for the fallen of both wars are just inside the Chapel. Anyone who wishes to consult them is free to do so.
