The British School at Ypres.
Appeal to Head Masters.
THE YPRES TIMES
REPORT BY THE SCHOOLMASTER.
The Eton Memorial School at Ypres stands close to the ruined Cloth Hall on
the same site as St. George's Church and the Pilgrims' Hall, now nearing
completion, and the whole forms one of the finest war memorials in the world.
The School, as its name suggests, was built in memory of Old Etonians who
gave their lives in the defence of Ypres during the Great War, and a tablet on the
south wall bears the names of the fallen.
The main object for the foundation of the School was to provide a British
education for the children of British residents in the Ypres Salient. In the town
and its surrounding villages there is quite a large colony of employees of the
Imperial War Graves Commission, and it is the children of these men who form
the greater part of the scholars. They formerly attended Belgian schools, where
they were taught entirely in Flemish, and there was the danger that these British
children would grow up with practically no knowledge of the English language .or
of the traditions of the British Empire for which their fathers fought.
The School Avas opened on April 29th last, and forty-eight boys and girls were
enrolled, of ages varying from five to thirteen years. About a quarter of them
spoke English fairly well, others spoke a little English with a very strong foreign
accent, while the remainder spoke only French or Flemish.
On account of travelling difficulties, it was impossible for the children in the
outlying villages to attend school. However, the authorities of the Imperial War
Graves Commission have generously arranged for transport by charabanc, and now
the children from villages as far distant as Ploegsteert, Messines, Kemmel, etc.,
are brought in every day.
The School has now seventy-two pupilsthirty-nine boys and thirty-two girls.
The teaching is entirely on British lines, with emphasis on the study of the English
language, which has been so sadly lacking in the past. French also is taught, and
so the scholars will become bilingual. Thus these children will grow up quite
British in outlook and well able to maintain the spirit of the British Empire.
H. Morris.
FIELD-MARSHAL Lord Plumer and Archbishop Lord Davidson have
given their support to a scheme providing for the education, at the cost of
some of the schools of England, of a number of British children at the British
School at Ypres in memory of those who fell in the defence of the Ypres Salient.
An appeal, bearing their signatures, has been addressed to the headmasters of
schools, with the request that they will reply as soon as possible to:
The Hon. Secretary,
Ypres British School,
Old Etonians' Association,
Weston's Yard,
Eton.
The appeal points out that the defence of the Ypres Salient was probably the
most important and the most successful task entrusted to the British Army in the
Great War, adding:"About 250,000 soldiers here gave their lives for their
