WELLINGTON COLLEGE WAR MEMORIAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 131, 2 March 1928, Page 9

WELLINGTON COLLEGE WAR MEMORIAL

OPENING CEREMONY BY GOVERNOR-GENERAL TODAY AN EXQUISITE COLOURED GLASS WINDOW (Written for “The Dominion” by Charles Wilson.) The Wellington College Old Boys’ Memorial Hall, which will be formally opened to-day by His Excellency the Governor-General, is, when the existing wooden building disappears, to form the centre, the heart of the college that is to be in the future, a fitting centre of secondary education in Wellington.

As it stands on elevated ground and separate from the strictly educational buildings, it will at once be seen to be a building of which not only the College Old Boys’ Association, but Wellington as a whole, may well be proud. The grave serene beauty of the build-

ing, designed on the lines of the imposing Erythyn at Athens, the chaste simplicity of its decorative panels, and its imposing columns, the utter lack of anything like flamboyance, all do credit to Mr. C. A? Lawrence, the architect.

The hall provides a fittingly dignified setting for what all visitors must regard as its special jewel, the exquisite coloured-glass memorial window, the work of Messrs. Kelly and Co., London. At the top of the window is the New Zealand coat of arms with, to the right of the central figure of a young knight in armour, and to the left, the two inscriptions respectively, “Death is swallowed in victory,’’ and “Their name shall live for evermore.” The figure of the youthful knight is an impressively beautiful composition, executed in harmoniously blending colours. Upon the face of the figure I seem to detect a suggestion of that feeling of ecstasy which poets and artists have so often associated with the dying hero. At the foot of the window runs an inscription which will be read with justifiable pride by generations to come of Wellington College boys, honourably recalling the patriotism and prowess and noble self sacrifice of those of their forerunners who fought and who perished in the far distant battlefields of the Old World: To the glory of God and in honourable memory of (he old boys of the school who gave up their lives for God, King, and Country in the Great War, 1914-1918. “Greater love hath no man than tin’s.” It is unfortunate but unavoidable on the part of the memorial commitU'c ol the Old Bovs’ Association that the bronze memorial tablets (made by Martvn and Company) to the memory of the fallen have vet to arrive. When once they are placed in position they cannot fail to enhance, bv contrast of the dark metal tablets and the coloured glass, the impressive and most artistic heautv of the whole memorial. j

Twr> or three verses of Lawrence Binyon’s noble poem. "For the Fallen,” lines which can be found in honoured places in connection with not a few of the school war memorials seen by the writer in England, have a pathetically appropriate association with any tribute to the noble dead, and more particularly with a memorial to young men such

as those to whom this memorial window has been erected: — They went with songs to the battle, they were young, [ Straight of limb, true of eye, steady j and aglow, I They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. Well, indeed, does this memorial hall window express a feeling which will, I am certain, animate the hearts of all college boys, and young Wellingtonians one and all of the future, a feeling which inspires the verse:— They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. It is good to know that the Memorial Hall is to be used for school prayers and school formal ceremonies only, and never as a place of social entertainment. It is to be kept sacred to its dominating spirit of proud and loving memory. It is good and most seemly that this is to be so. In addition to the memorial window and bronze tablets, shortly to be placed in position, there will run, right round the hall underneath the windows, marble tablets carrying the names of all who went to the Great War from Wellington College. The proud record of the instituiton is that nearly 1700 voung men went, and of these 220 made the supreme sacrifice. A glorious record, indeed! All present to-dav at the opening will, I feel sure, agree that not onlv is great credit due to the College Old Bovs’ Association for that fine spirit of initiative, liberality, and powers of organisation. but both the architect, Air. C. Lawrence, and the Fletcher Construction Company, who were responsible for the successful carrying out of the erection of the building, are fairly entitled to congratulation.