A.O.S.A. 2009 ANNUAL REPORT

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In early January 2009 when I was about to make a start on the news for the Annual Report, an interesting email arrived from a lady called Wendy Armstrong who is doing research for a book to be written on the Arts and Crafts Movement in the North East of England. She contacted Dick Dennis through the website for information, as a significant artist of that period was an Ayton scholar from the early 20th century, Philip John Basil Bennison. Unfortunately despite the efforts of Wendy and her team, it has so far proved impossible (as of early February) to locate any of Philip Bennison’s descendants, sadly, therefore we have no photograph of this remarkable man.

Philip Bennison came from Hartlepool and designed stained glass windows for several of the churches in the town; according to Wendy Armstrong, “Most of the few known windows designed by Philip Bennison have been lost or removed as churches were demolished. His windows from two of those churches, St Barnabas Church, Heortnesse Road, West Hartlepool and the Sacriston Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul are kept somewhere in Hartlepool Museum and Art Gallery's store; these I have yet to view. There still is one - the War Memorial Window - at St Mary Magdalene, in Hart, and another in St Oswald's Church, Brougham Terrace, West Hartlepool, this was dedicated to his mother. Philip Bennison also made the beautiful War Memorial in Redheugh Gardens, Headland, Old Hartlepool and I think your school’s Repoussé Copper War Memorial Plaque.”

The War Memorial Plaque hung in the school Dining Room, something most of us saw daily and barely noticed. It is now in the upper room of the Meeting House with the rest of our memorabilia under the care of Jane Campbell. It was unveiled in a moving ceremony, in the dining room, on Bank Holiday Monday 1921…

“The ceremony opened with the singing of Kipling's ‘Recessional.’ Old Scholar Allan Maughan read the ‘List of the Fallen’ and Florence Legge (the school nurse), a portion of ‘Wisdom III’. After a short silence, Frank Rivers Arundel (Headmaster 1895-1913) rose, unveiled the Plaque, and delivered the address. The closing hymn, ‘The Supreme Sacrifice,’ was followed by a few moments of silent worship, then Headmaster Herbert Dennis concluded the moving ceremony with the reading of a short poem. There were tears in our eyes, when we stood close beside the Plaque and read for ourselves the names of Our Glorious Dead.”

(Florence Legge the school nurse. was an indomitable lady by all accounts; she was in charge of the San, then accommodated in Chestnut, later Rawdon House. She would not hesitate to ”slip out the main switch at night,” if she felt that the masters, whose Common Room was in what became the Boy Prefects’ Room, and so separated from the rest of the house, were creating too much noise. The lighting for the whole of Rawdon House was controlled from the Sanatorium! At the time of the Memorial Service, Florence would just have completed her year as the Association’s second female President.)

Gill Jackson (Hinds 1950-55)

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