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| One of two paving stones in Oxford for Noel Chavasse, awarded two Victoria Crosses for bravery, the only person in WWI to receive two VCs. |
Corpus Christi lost nearly half of the undergraduates admitted between 1912 and 1914; losses at other colleges were not far behind.
In total, 351 Corpus students and alumni saw active service. Of these men, 90 were killed, one-fourth of those serving.
These losses, according to the College, were the highest of the Oxford colleges, because Corpus had a high proportion of “public school” (elite British schools, mostly boarding schools) graduates.
These losses, according to the College, were the highest of the Oxford colleges, because Corpus had a high proportion of “public school” (elite British schools, mostly boarding schools) graduates.
Recruits from Oxford colleges were overwhelmingly public school men who were quickly commissioned as junior officers. Their lives as leaders in the front line were generally short. (During the Normandy invasion, the half-life of American first lieutenants was the shortest of any rank.)
Of the 90 Corpus alumni casualties, 15 had earned an order (two Victoria Crosses, nine Military Crosses and four Mentions in Dispatches) during their World War I service. Aside from Corpus Christi College alumni who died, two Corpus staff members were killed in the war, A. Clifford and H.G. Ward. https://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/Roll-of-Honour-1914-1918-Introduction/
Of the 90 Corpus alumni casualties, 15 had earned an order (two Victoria Crosses, nine Military Crosses and four Mentions in Dispatches) during their World War I service. Aside from Corpus Christi College alumni who died, two Corpus staff members were killed in the war, A. Clifford and H.G. Ward. https://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/Roll-of-Honour-1914-1918-Introduction/
The only person in World War I to receive two Victoria Crosses was an alumnus of Trinity College, Oxford – Noel Chavasse, a fearless medic. The bravery of the young men who went to war is as unquestionable as the folly of the war itself.
World War I is a reminder that the symbols of Oxford’s colleges and halls were born out of wars, and the needs of heralds and soldiers to identify the location of their leaders. Coats of arms became attached to colleges. They were often the shields of the founders, or of people the founders looked to for protection – a saint or king. Stories about the colleges help make each college and hall a special place. My collection of the arms and stories became a book, Oxford College Arms (links to Amazon).
As an American, I am asked how I became interested in Oxford’s arms. It began in Yorkshire when at ten years of age I was sent off to Ampleforth College and ate my meals in the Great Hall of Gilling Castle. Its giant stained-glass windows featured the shields and stories of the Fairfax family. General Thomas Fairfax, cousin of the Gilling Castle Fairfaxes, was the man who created Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army and invaded Oxford to hunt down Charles I.
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| Trinity College, gold field with blue chevron with four golden fleurs-de-lis on it, with three langued blue griffins, two and one, counterchanged in pale. Shield by Lee Lumbley, © 2018 by Boissevain Books. |
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| Corpus Christi College, with vulning Pelican ("in its piety") feeding its chicks. Shield by Lee Lumbley, © 2018 by Boissevain Books. |
Do they also tell the story of how generations gradually escaped some of these suffocating prisons? Yes.
For example, imagine what a great leap into the future was made by Bishop Oldham of Exeter and his colleague Bishop Foxe of Winchester, when they founded Corpus Christi College. From the beginning, as a great departure from existing practice, they decided in 1517 to open its doors to non-monastic scholars.
The left third of its shield shows another bird, the pelican, with blood dripping from its beak. The medieval world thought that pelicans poked their beaks down to pierce their breasts and feed their young with blood. It was called a “vulning” (wounding) pelican, “in its piety” – i.e., sacrificing its blood for its chicks. This is, of course, a metaphor for Jesus. Today, we know that a pelican puts its beak down on its chest not to wound itself but to push up food from the pouch below its beak. We can also interpret the message of the pelican in a more secular sense as one of a caring parent. “Oxford College Arms” was recently reviewed with enthusiasm by the online Oxford Alumni Magazine QUAD and was the subject of a "Guestwords" in the East Hampton, NY Star.
