Rugeley Times - Saturday 08 June 1929 Page 6 RUGELEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL. A Dual Ceremony. PRIZE DAY AND UNVEILING OF THE WAR MEMORIAL. (list of names) ---

Rugeley Times - Saturday 31 October 1981 Page 4 Memorial to old boys War memorials from Rugeley's old grammar school have been found a new resting place. The two tablets bearing the names of 57 former pupils who died in the First and Second World Wars have been hung in the town's Old Chancel. And a re - dedication service is to be held there at 10.45 a.m. on November 11. A service was always held on Remembrance Day at the grammar school, and when it was replaced by Fair Oak School in 1968 headmaster Mr. Tom Smart continued to hold a modified version of the service. When Mr. Smart retired two years ago it was felt that the final link between the comprehensive school and the grammar school had been severed. The memorial tablets were taken down and stored until a final home could be found. The first tablet was unveiled in June. 1929. by Major - general Sir Percy Hambro. An old boy the Rev. A. J. Mercer conducted the service, and another old boy. Mr. E. H. Pascoe, presented the tablet to the school with the request that "it may for ever be preserved." The memorial plaque for those who died in the Second World War was also paid for by the old boys association. II was unveiled by the then Earl of Lichfield on September 8, 1948, and old boys Rev. Stanley Moore and Rev. Bert Matthews officiated. The address was given by another old boy, the Lord Bishop of Auckland. Bishop Simkin, who happened to be visiting relatives locally at the time. He told the school that old boys Henry and Gerald Nevin. who had died in the First World War, were buried under another memorial tablet in a remote Maori village in New Zealand. Mr. George Brown Snr., then president of the association, handed the tablet to the school. At the time of both ceremonies the headmaster was Captain H. H. Hutchinson. who retired in 1952 after 30 years. In the late 1920 s the school, which took fee paying and scholarship pupils from throughout the Chase, was struggling financially, and in February, 1929, the governors agreed to ask the County Council to take over. Captain Hutchinson tried to persuade them to institute a school leaving scholarship to encourage pupils to aim for university education. Few pupils stayed on to the fifth and sixth forms, and many from farming backgrounds left at often because they were "unfit for further education". Many of them are today men of substance.

Rugeley Times - Saturday 14 November 1981 Page 3 One in three of the old boys of Rugeley Grammar School gave their lives in World War I, said retired headmaster Mr. Tom Smart, on Wednesday. Speaking at the Armistice day rededication of the school's memorial, he used the order of service instituted by Col. H. H. Hutchinson as headmaster 60 years ago. The memorial has now been erected in the Old Chancel, remnant of the church where the school really began in the 16th Century, after being at Fair Oak School since the grammar school closed. Mr. Smart said this was probably the last time the service would be held. He had the card which had been the basis of the annual school service through all those years, and as he read from it the names of the fallen he personalised the list by using christian names where he hod known the lads. Only one name on the memorial was of a regular soldier, said Mr. Smart. All the others hod been called up or were volunteers. Those two wars hod been very much civilian wors, he said, and the names were of "ordinary" lads. He said he used to make this point at the annual school service, making the memorial an educational aid, not just a list of names. Wednesday's rededication was conducted by the vicar, the Rev. John Easton. Mr. Peter Howells gave a reading, Mr. Doug Beaumont said the Legion Sentence and Mr. Norman Hutchinson laid a wreath at the toot of the memorial. The trumpet calls were sounded by a school trumpeter from Fair Oak. A number of old boys and girls were present, besides other friends of the school. The oldest, Mr. Albert Godfrey Leigh (1908 - 1913) was afterwards able to recall most of the boys named on the 1st World War section, and incidents about them. Now 84 and living in the Haywoods, Mr. Leigh began as an at Averills, the Market Square chemists, and after retiring from his own business in Buckinghamshire in 1954 did relief work as a chemist until 10 years ago. Coffee in the parish hall afterwards gave an opportunity for reliving old times. The service was organised by Miss F. M. Stanway.