As Bradfield remembers its former pupils who lost their lives in the World Wars, it is also important to mark the sacrifice of the many young men of the Bradfield Club in Peckham, who served during the First World War.  As part of a broader drive by British public schools to improve the lives of the poor and promote the spread of Christianity, in 1912 Bradfield took over the running of the Working Lads’ Club in the Anglican parish of St Luke’s, Peckham.  It continues to thrive today as The Bradfield Club. 

The outbreak of the First World War dramatically affected the operation of the club.  Reflecting the powerful influence of nationalism in contemporary Europe, a strong patriotic spirit had infused all its activities.  This was fostered by two of the club’s most inspiring leaders, its founder and manager Richard Frederick Hayward and Edward H. Clarke, its gymnastics instructor, who was idolised by the older boys.  Hayward had entered the Merchant Navy in the 1890s and became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1904, before being called to the Bar in 1908 and working as a maritime lawyer.  He was commissioned in the 22nd Battalion of the County of London Regiment (Territorial Army) in 1912 and served in its machine gun section.  ‘Realising the need of attracting the older lads in the home defence of their country’ and hoping to prepare those who might be caught up in a future conflict by some military experience, he encouraged club members to enlist, and by 4 August 1914 ‘all the machine-gunners in my Battalion, except the NCOs were lads from the Bradfield Boys’ Club’. Clarke, who had been born and bred in St Luke’s, and had assisted with the original Working Lads’ Club, also joined the regiment, becoming a sergeant and its gymnastics instructor.

With the onset of war, Hayward initially was medically unfit for general service and became a machine gun instructor, before being posted to France in 1916 with the Machine Guns Corps.  Clarke and the Bradfield Club boys volunteered for overseas service with the 22nd Battalion and were deployed to Givenchy in April 1915.  Almost immediately they raised a board above their trench inscribed ‘Play up Brads’.  This expression of esprit de corps, courage and determination was later adopted as the club motto.  Other members of staff volunteered, and the club’s Warden, Rev. John Douglas, estimated that in total more than 400 club boys served in the armed forces during the conflict.  They fought in many theatres of war, including Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt as well as in Flanders and France.  One club member was discharged from the army in France in 1915 when it was discovered that he was only 16½ years old.  Tragically, one of the first fatalities was Clarke, killed in May 1915 by an exploding shell while assisting a stretcher party.  One of his former gym squad wrote that characteristically, ‘He died like a hero, helping the wounded.’ Another much lamented loss among the staff was Old Bradfieldian Ronald Young Herbert of the Royal Field Artillery, who had introduced chess into the club; he was killed in September 1917.  Five assistant scoutmasters lost their lives.  Although the majority of club boys served in the army, there was a strong naval presence, including two seamen who died when the cruiser HMS Black Prince was sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.  

At the end of the war, the club’s known fatalities numbered 74, although Douglas believed that the true figure was nearly 100.  Ronald Herbert’s brother Robert was also killed in action. Their father, the solicitor Edward Herbert, whose five sons and four grandsons attended Bradfield, later purchased 5 Commercial Road, Peckham, and presented it to the club as a memorial to Old Bradfieldians and club members who died in the First World War.  A poignant collection of wartime postcards that were sent home to Douglas by club boys, some containing portrait photographs, is preserved among St Luke’s parish records in the London Metropolitan Archives.

We are very grateful to St Luke's, Peckham, for permission to publish images from its archives.

If you are interested in the work of  The Bradfield Club today visit their webpage to see how the club still supports the local community in Southwark and if you are interested in becoming involved in the club do email bradfieldsociety@bradfieldcollege.org.uk and will pass your details on.