Bryony Rose, History of Art at Oxford Brookes University, volunteer with the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History in 2021.
During the final semester of my third (final) year at Oxford Brookes, studying History of Art, I undertook a month’s worth of volunteering for Peter and Tom at the OCMCH. It had been something that I was keen to carry out ever since I visited the Centre at Brookes’ Harcourt Hill Campus, during a second year module, looking at gallery curation.
I was intrigued by the different collections housed and wanted to broaden my knowledge of how these collections were run, stored, looked after and used by research fellows and groups. After months of email correspondence, and after the opportunity was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t until my final few weeks of university that I got the chance to begin my placement.
My role over the four weeks was to produce condition reports for two collections housed at the OCMCH: The Methodist Church House Collection and the Bletchley Park College/Lady Spencer Churchill College Collection. My job was to record any damage to the artworks and their frames. It was a very intricate procedure, and I had to ensure I handled these pieces carefully as many were very delicate. The overall experience in handling these goods and looking intently for any damage was priceless – I consider myself extremely lucky as I doubt any other art institution would give this role so freely to a volunteer to carry out. As well as helping out Peter and Tom, I’m excited to have added another ‘string to my bow’ of experience in the art historical field to further aid me in finding a career in this sector following my graduation this summer.
I really enjoyed my volunteering and it was a shame to begin the placement so late into the university term. I would urge anyone to seek out a volunteering placement. Not only does it widen your knowledge of a particular field of work, the opportunity to connect with new people is invaluable.
Most usually known as the only woman ‘salaried’ WW2 war artist, Evelyn Dunbar (1907-1960) was artist-in-residence at Bletchley Park (teacher training) College in 1957, and painted the ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ panels for the library which moved with the college to Wheatley in 1966, and are still in place. The original plan had been that she would paint a mural across the back wall of the hall, for which the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History holds some exquisite studies.
Recently a collection of her sketchbooks has been rediscovered, which have now been acquired by the Centre. Following her sudden death in 1960, her studio contents were packed up and stored. Much emerged a few years ago, from the loft of a converted oast-house in Kent, including preparatory sketches for ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega,’ which the university bought. However, the sketchbooks were in an outhouse, where they have suffered predictable deterioration.
Her drawing and painting was accomplished, and in recent years has been appreciated more, especially following an exhibition at Pallant House, Chichester. Her works are in the Tate and other major galleries. These sketchbooks will add considerably to artistic and general appreciation – they include early work from her schooldays but also sketches for her wartime work, where her great contribution was depicting women’s contribution to the war effort, in hospitals, farms or the ‘home front’. Once they have been conserved (for which the Centre is applying for significant external funding), these will be a very important collection for research and understanding of her art.
The sketchbooks are currently undergoing conservation assessment and will be made available for research after appropriate treatment.
“The Joy of human sexuality as God’s gift and the place of every human being within the grace of God”[2]
Two fairly similar statements made by two Methodist churches. The first by the United Methodist Church, the second by the Methodist Church of Great Britain. On the nature of sexuality, and that it is within God’s gift, these two churches agree. Beyond this, the two stances could not be more different. For LGBT+ History Month 2021, this blog posts traces the attitude of the Methodist Church in Britain, using material from across our collections to see how they have adapted with the times, from a place of disapproval, to a place of acceptance within the Church.
The attitudes of both churches stems from the Bible which, it was argued, has some very clear teachings on homosexuality. The Book of Romans (1:26-7) describes homosexuals as ‘shameless’. 1 Corinthians (6:9-10) lists homosexuals alongside thieves and murderers. The Book of Leviticus (18:22 and 20:13) refers to acts of homosexuality as ‘an abomination’, and even goes as far as to state that anyone caught committing an act of homosexuality should “surely be put to death”. The problem faced by many, however, is that the Bible also argues that all of mankind is made in the image of God, and that God loves everyone.
Homosexuality was partially de-criminalised in Britain in 1967. This partial decriminalisation allowed for ‘acts of homosexuality’ to occur in private, and only between two adults over the age of 21. A step towards equality, but not yet equal. The law continued to change, albeit it slowly. In 2001, laws regarding the legal age of consent were adjusted so that there was parity, regardless of gender or sexuality. In 2004, LGBT+ couples were granted the right to a civil partnership. Finally, in 2013, the ‘Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act’ allowed LGBT+ couples to marry. Changes within the Methodist Church have been slower, and do not yet fully permit equality.
Among the more vocal opponents of LGBT+ rights were members of the Voice of Methodism movement, who expressed their views through the association’s magazine which was published from 1964-1996. Their complaints included that in light of the 1986 Education Act schools would have the right to ‘promote wrong views of sex education and the family’ (December 1987), and further discussion of ‘practices of this kind’ was banned (March 1988). This statement held firm throughout the rest of the magazine’s run, apart from in reference to decisions made at Methodist Conference. Following a report at the 1990 Conference, the magazine went so far as to remark that they believed that ‘the business of ‘human sexuality would be an unfortunate interlude happily forgotten in Methodist history’. This was far from the case.
Voice of Methodism Magazine (December 1987)
Voice of Methodism Magazine (March 1988)
The primary evidence of a shift in Methodist attitudes towards accepting LGBT+ individuals can be seen from the early 1990s.[3] In 1993, Conference formally accepted a set of resolutions which would shape Methodist policy over the decades that followed. The Derby Resolutions, as they came to be known, affirmed ‘the joy of human sexuality as God’s gift and the place of every human being within the grace of God.’ They went on to state that ‘a person shall not be debarred from the church on the grounds of sexual orientation in itself,’ and that ‘Conference recognizes, affirms and celebrates the participation and ministry of lesbians and gay men in the church.’ These resolutions finished by stating that ‘Conference calls on the Methodist people to begin a pilgrimage of faith to combat repression and discrimination, to work for justice and human rights and to give dignity and worth to people whatever their sexuality’. These resolutions accepted the LGBT+ community and separated the Methodist Church from the traditional view of homosexuality as a sin. A later letter from the President of Conference, Rev. Brian Beck, also stated that ‘homosexual orientation of itself is [not] a sinful state’. The Derby Resolutions did, however, state that Conference reaffirmed ‘the traditional teaching of the Church on human sexuality; namely chastity for all outside marriage and fidelity within it’.
This remained the official attitude of the Methodist Church throughout the 1990s, and into the twenty-first century. In 2019, the Methodist Church published the report of its Marriage and Relationships Taskforce. This taskforce had been appointed to review, and update, the attitude of the Church towards marriage and relationships. The resolutions of this report, therefore, would be the first changes to the Church’s position since 1993. Resolution 10/8 promises the greatest change, stating that ‘The Conference consents in principle to the marriage of same-sex couples on Methodist premises throughout the Connexion and by Methodist ministers’.
Whether this ‘in principle’ decision becomes actuality remains to be seen, with the final vote on this report (and its resolutions) due at this year’s Conference (June – July 2021). Regardless, an ‘in principle’ acceptance of LGBT+ marriages on Methodist premises, and by Methodist preachers, shows just how far acceptance and equality within the Methodist Church has grown in the past half a century. The Methodist Church is also the only Church in Britain to, even hesitantly, accept the proposal of LGBT+ marriage. Conversely, the United Methodist Church has stated that ‘sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage’, finishing its statement by reaffirming that ‘The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching’, [4] demonstrating the distance on this issue between two of the leading Methodist bodies either side of the Atlantic.
200 years ago, on 16 January 1821, a boy was born in the Orphan House in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to a Wesleyan minister, Rev. John Rigg and his wife Annie McMullen. This child went on to be a leading Wesleyan educator, minister, author and editor: Rev. Dr. James Harrison Rigg.
Rev. Dr. J. H. Rigg, Principal of Westminster College, 1868-1903
J. H. Rigg was educated, and then taught, at Kingswood School near Bristol, before teaching elsewhere, offering for the Wesleyan ministry in 1845. After twenty years serving in the circuits, he was appointed Principal of the Wesleyan Normal Institute in Westminster, latterly known as Westminster Training College.
Westminster College Photograph Album, Ph/1/a/2
According to Pritchard’s Story of Westminster College, Rigg was the only individual even considered for the role. It was under Rigg that Westminster, founded by John Scott seventeen years earlier, became thoroughly established, and began to grow and flourish into the renowned Methodist teaching college it is remembered as. Rigg’s tenure saw the creation of The College Rule, the adaptation of the buildings for modern conveniences (electricity and extended indoor plumbing), and better record-keeping. Within the first five years of Rigg’s tenure, and also following the 1870 Education Act, the Wesleyan Education Committee established a second teacher training institution (Southlands) to meet the increased demand on Westminster’s facilities. Rigg was Principal of Westminster until his retirement in 1903, when he was succeeded by Rev. Dr. H. B. Workman.
In addition to being principal of Westminster, Rigg was heavily involved in both national and Methodist aspects of education. He sat on the inaugural London Board of Education from 1870, and can be seen in the centre of the artwork depicting this.
‘The First London School Board’, John Whitehead Walton (1815-1895, Guildhall Gallery
It was whilst on the Board of Education that Rigg, and the Wesleyan Education Committee, heavily argued against the 1902 (‘Balfour’) Education Act, which Nonconformist educators throughout the country believed would negatively impact them, in favour of Church of England and Catholic schools. Rigg also argued for universal education and un-denominational (state ran) school access in every area, something also championed by the Wesleyan Education Committee, and also accepted policy by the Wesleyan Methodist Church as a whole. It was not until the Education Act of 1944 that the Methodist Church believed that this aim was met – something that featured heavily in the Conference Agendas for 1943 and 1944.
Within the church, Rigg was an establishment figure, Chairman of Districts and twice President of Wesleyan Methodist Conference (1878 and 1892), overseeing reform which is described as making “the union of the various Methodist bodies a clear possibility”. He was also treasurer of the Wesleyan Missionary Society 1881-1909. He published extensively, contributing several letters and articles for The Times and Watchman newspapers, and writing books on topics such as Methodist doctrine (1850), elementary education in Europe (1873), the life of Jabez Bunting (1905), and the leaders of the Oxford Movement (1895). On Wesley, Rigg published The Churchmanship of John Wesley (1869) and The Living Wesley (1875). As well as penning items for publication, Rigg helped establish the London Quarterly Review in 1853, becoming editor from 1883.
J. H. Rigg died in 1909, leaving an extended family. His son was James Rigg (a barrister and contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography); one of his daughters became a renowned headmistress and the other, mother to John Telford (who later edited and published Wesley’s Letters).
Thomas Dobson, Collections and Digitisation Officer at the Centre, is currently working towards a PhD thesis titled, ‘Training to Teach: Westminster College and the development of Higher Education, 1925-63’
Born in Ghana, Dr. Francis Lodowic Bartels was educated at Cape Coast Methodist Primary School from 1915 and later at Mfantsipim School. With a King Edward VII scholarship he attended Westminster College, then in London, between 1931-35. He was in the second year of students who took a degree at the University of London (in his case Kings College), before a final year of teacher training.
Francis Bartels in Westminster College group photograph (detail), 1932Westminster College Fourth Year group photograph, 1934
He returned to Ghana to teach at Mfantsipim School until 1945 (latterly as acting headmaster), when he left to train in England as a professional teacher. From 1949-1961 he was the first black African headmaster of Mfantsipim School, and was appointed O.B.E. in 1956.
An outstanding and innovative educator, among his many talented and influential pupils was Kofi Annan, later Secretary-General of the United Nations, who said of him:
Most of us can point to a teacher who changed our lives. In my case there can be no doubt that that teacher is Francis Bartels. Each day takes me a little further on the road he helped to pave. Each day I look back in gratitude….
I can remember his never-tiring efforts to broaden our horizons. To encourage us to open our eyes, speak our minds, and engage with the issues of the day and the world at large while never forgetting the traditions and values of our own society… he taught from the heart, not merely from books. He inspired thought and encouraged doubt, allowing us to discover ourselves in the process.
For Headmaster Bartels, education was about the formation of character rather than the mere transmission of knowledge. The mind was not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.
Following increased involvement in international educational organisations, in 1961 he joined UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) becoming head of the Africa Division, then 1967-69 Adviser on African Education to the Assistant Director-General for Education. In 1969-70 he was Senior Lecturer at the University College of Nairobi, then in May 1970 was appointed Ghana’s Ambassador to Germany, in Bonn.
Following a coup in 1972 that appointment ended but he continued to be closely involved in UNESCO work for the remainder of his life. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Ghana in 1989. He lived in Paris, where he died on 20 March 2010, just one week after his 100th birthday.
Dr Peter Forsaith is Research Fellow at the OCMCH, and is currently cataloguing Dr Bartels’s papers which are among our collections
We’re delighted to announce that we have received the generous gift of an original John Wesleyletter of 10 January 1789 to Walter Churchey of Brecon.
The letter was formerly in the custody of Greenock Methodist Church, and was first brought to light over 70 years ago by Oliver Beckerlegge as ‘A New Wesley Letter’ in the Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, vol. XXVII, part 4 (December 1949). Beckerlegge was a scholar and collector of early printed Bibles which are now in the collections of the University of Sheffield (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/special/beckerlegge).
Beckerlegge described the letter as addressed to Walter Churchey, a lawyer and Methodist with whom Wesley carried on a considerable correspondence between 1770 and his death. The ‘Great man’ discussed by Wesley in the letter is the poet William Cowper, who (as Bickerlegge noted) had recently achieved fame with ‘The Task’
Since arriving at the Centre, conservation work has been undertaken on the letter including its removal from an old frame, and acid-free treatment to prevent the ink from damaging the eighteenth-century paper.
Images of the letter are now digitally available for the first time at OCMCH Digital Collections: https://flic.kr/p/2jzCMtz
The OCMCH has collaborated with Digital Services colleagues at Oxford Brookes University to create 3D models of objects from our collections, allowing researchers to manipulate and explore the items in 360° through RADAR, the university’s institutional repository.
The first digital model to be made available online is of a Coadestone bust of John Wesley, made in London in 1793. Named for it’s inventor, Eleanor Coade (1733-1821), this ‘artificial’ stone was first synthesised in c1770. Over the following decades her company produced hundreds of designs, including coats of arms, sculptures, and interior ornaments and mouldings. The frieze above Wesley’s House in London was also executed in this material.
You can explore this object by following this link;
The 3D models of OCMCH objects were created by Learning Resources staff using photogrammetry. This process involves capturing images of an item from different angles and stitching together the photos to form a 3D shape. A large amount of overlap is required between each image to ensure accurate alignment, resulting in around 150 photos being required for each object. For smaller pieces, we place the item on a turntable which is rotated by a small amount after taking each image. With larger items, like the bust of John Wesley, we walk around the object to capture the image set. The advantages of photogrammetry for 3D model making include the ease of capturing the photos (any digital camera will do, including phones) and the photographic surface displayed on the final model, which makes for a very life-like virtual replica.
Gerard Helmich, Digital Services Developer at OBU
More objects from our collections will be available as 3D models soon. Follow the OCMCH on social media for the latest updates.
Methodist Portrait Prints provides access to over 2,000 historic portraits dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. These images chart developments in engraving techniques, to the advent of photography, and beyond. This project draws from the collections of the Wesley Historical Society, and builds on the success of British Methodist Buildings – a digital resource released by the OCMCH in January 2019 that has since been viewed over 300,000 times in less than twelve months
Many of the images in Methodist Portrait Prints are derived from leading Methodist periodicals. From its first publication in 1778, the Arminian Magazine included portrait prints. The Magazine was the initiative and promotional vehicle of John Wesley. In 1798 it became the Methodist Magazine, adding ‘Wesleyan’ to the title from 1822-1932 (when the main British Methodist sub-denominations united), finally closing in 1969. Despite being priced cheaply to achieve wide circulation, the quality of some of the prints is high. These images were often cut out and framed, or mounted into albums, as mementos of the individuals depicted.
Methodist Portrait Prints launched in December 2019. For further updates follow this blog, or find us on Twitter @OCMCHBrookes.
UK Disability History Month 2019 emphasises the roles of disabled leaders through history and their struggle for acceptance. In this blog post, Professor William Gibson puts the spotlight on an historical figure represented in our Digital Collections who embodies this guiding theme.
Benjamin Hoadly (1676-1761) is not widely known today, but three hundred years ago he instigated a religious controversy so great that it led to a five-year pamphlet war. The ‘Bangorian Controversy’ (named after Hoadly’s bishopric) focused on the issue of whether the Church could punish clergymen for their views. Hoadly argued it could not, stirring up a fierce debate prompting responses from clergy and lay persons around the country. What was more remarkable about Hoadly as a leading public figure of his time, was that he was disabled.
In 1692, while a student at Cambridge, Hoadly contracted smallpox. The illness was badly treated by an unskillful barber, and it was feared that Hoadly would lose his leg. Fortunately, Charles Barnard (a celebrated surgeon) saved the limb, but Hoadly was left physically disabled for the rest of his life. He used walking sticks in public, and crutches at home; and was forced to pray and preach kneeling on a stool or cushion to relieve strain on his weakened legs. Significantly for the period, this also prevented him from riding a horse. From the time of this illness, Hoadly never enjoyed good health. During his thirties it was feared that he was sinking into consumption. His insistence on taking the air in a chariot, however, which he did every day of his life, helped to keep the deadly respiratory complaint at bay.
Nevertheless, ill-health exerted an influence over much of Hoadly’s adult life. Writing in 1719 to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, Hoadly claimed that he had been so ill that his life had been in peril. The following year a bout of fever left Hoadly with red marks on his face so that he could not go out for a week. In 1717 he commented that he was ‘too ill to come out’ of his house, and he seems to have been plagued with colds and headaches. In 1731 he referred to the way he coped with his disability as ‘a man dragging life like a chain behind him’ and thereafter referred to life as ‘the chain.’ Later in life he often foiled requests for preferment on the grounds that he would not live long enough to redeem promises.
Hoadly’s disability was frequently used by his political and religious opponents to satirise him. In 1709, a print titled ‘Guess Att My Meaning’ depicted Hoadly as a follower of Oliver Cromwell, who is shown looking over his shoulder. Hoadly’s crutches are propped against the table, and the text refers to him as a ‘crooked stick’ and a ‘crippled priest’. In the same year, Hoadly (this time carrying a stick) featured in a print that accused him of attacking the Church. And in 1711, Hoadly was depicted with both a walking stick in his hand and a crutch at his feet in ‘The Apparition’.
Despite these deeply personal attacks, Hoadly’s disability did not prevent him from rising to the highest stations of the Church of England. He was a favourite of King George I, and was eventually appointed Bishop of Winchester – one of the most prestigious dioceses in eighteenth-century England and Wales. Remarkably, Hoadly lived until the age of 85 and was pugnacious and controversial to the end. Two years before his death, an attempt was made to defraud the Bishop of £3000, but Hoadly remained wily and sharp, proving in court that the man was a liar.
You can read more about Benjamin Hoadly’s life in William Gibson’s Enlightenment Prelate 1676-1761, Benjamin Hoadly (Cambridge: 2004). To learn about the guiding themes of UK Disability History Month 2019 visit https://ukdhm.org/
The first official two-minute silence for Armistice Day was commemorated in London 100 years ago, on 11 November 1919. To mark this anniversary, this post explores the story of William Thomas Forshaw (1890-1943), thought to be the first teacher awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War – and one of two Westminster College alumni to receive the highest and most prestigious British military honour.
Forshaw was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Barrow-in-Furness on 23 April 1890, the eldest son of Thomas Forshaw, a head foreman at Vickers Shipyard. He was educated at Dalton Road Wesleyan School, Holker Street Boys School and Barrow’s Higher Grade School, before leaving to train as a teacher at Westminster College in London. On completing his course, Forshaw returned to his native North-West where he taught at Dallas Road School, Lancaster, and the North Manchester (prep) Grammar School.
Having enlisted in the Ashton Territorial Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, in March 1914 Forshaw was commissioned as a second-lieutenant and subsequently sailed to Egypt to continue his training and assist in the protection of the Suez Canal. After the Gallipoli landings in April 1915, Forshaw’s battalion were re-posted to the Peninsula. It was between 7-9 August of that year that Forshaw distinguished himself, leading a company in the defence of a key strategic position against waves of attacks by Turkish forces. Over the course of two days, Forshaw led by example, improvising bombs from jam jars and shrapnel which he lit with cigarettes he continually smoked throughout the assault. His citation for the Victoria Cross was published in the London Gazette of 9 September 1915,
When holding the north-west corner of the “Vineyard”, he was attacked and heavily bombed by Turks, who advanced time after time by three trenches which converged at this point, but he held his own, not only directing his men and encouraging them by exposing himself with the utmost disregard to danger, but personally throwing bombs continuously for 41 hours. When his detachment was relieved after 24 hours he volunteered to continue the direction of operations.
Three times during the night of 8th-9th August, he was again heavily attacked, and once the Turks got over the barricade, but, after shooting three with his revolver, he led his men forward and recaptured it.
When he rejoined his Battalion he was choked and sickened by Bomb fumes, badly bruised by a fragment of shrapnel, and could barely lift his arm from continuous bomb throwing.
It was due to his personal example, magnificent courage and endurance that this very important corner was held.
Stories of Forshaw’s gallantry were soon reprinted and circulated in the national and local press.[1] The Daily Record’s report on the actions of the ‘Teacher V.C.’ focussed on the transformative effect of war, stating that Forshaw’s example demonstrated that ‘what is potential in us is now emerging’
Teaching is about the last calling that one would imagine as demanding in man [sic] robustness of character and resourcefulness in conflict or competition, though the born teacher is a born disciplinarian[2]
Public notice of the award caused ripples of excitement among the staff and students of the institutions where Forshaw worked and had been a pupil – the honour of ‘V.C.’ was hastily added to the records of his former schools and colleges. And in the North-West, plans for grand civic presentations in Forshaw’s hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, Ashton-under-Lyme, Lancaster, and Manchester were on foot before his return to England.[3]
Westminster College Archive. A/4/a/3, autograph book, 1908-1929
During September 1915, Forshaw received a flurry of telegrams of congratulations as he convalesced in Egypt recovering from his injuries. One was from Principal H. B. Workman of Westminster College, whose telegraph carried the acknowledgements of the institution to its former pupil. Workman also urged Forshaw to visit fifty-three Westminsterians in the Royal Fusiliers who had recently moved to Abbassia Camp in Cairo – which he duly attempted to do, but could not locate them.[4]
When sufficiently recovered, Forshaw left Alexandria on 26 September 1915 on a ship bound for England. One of his first engagements on his return was to visit Westminster College, where he stayed the night of 8 October and gave a short address to the students there. As detailed in the Monthly War Bulletin, Forshaw’s visit was ‘almost the last incident’ at the College in Horseferry Road prior to its temporary relocation to Richmond.
Westminster College Archives. Westminster Training College Monthly War Bulletin, no. 12 (October 1915)
In his speech, Forshaw regretted the loss of W. G. Morris of the Liverpool Scottish who had been killed in action at Hooge on 16 June of that year. They were two of twenty-five men from their year group at Westminster who had joined the King’s Forces. Forshaw also cited his involvement in athletics at the College as preparation for his actions on the battlefield. He stated that he ‘owed everything’ to his instructor Leigh Smith who had taught him to throw a rugby ball, and attributed his act of bravery to his experiences in ‘rugger scrums’, and of throwing the weight at the London Inter-Collegiate Sports meetings. Indeed, Westminster’s Inter-Year Sports competition at Tufnell Park Athletic Ground on 15 February 1910 was remarkable insofar that two future Victoria Cross recipients raced one another in the final of the 100 yards – Donald Simpson Bell pipping his older compatriot on that occasion
Westminster College Archives. Programme, ‘Westminster Training College, Fifth Inter-Year Athletic Sports, Tuesday, February 15th, 1910’
Forshaw’s stirring speech, struck through with allusions between warfare and collegiate athletics, clearly inspired the students at Westminster. Henry Wright (OW, 1914-1916) produced a striking sketch of Forshaw from life to commemorate the event. It was a matter of great pride to the College that Forshaw was the first teacher to be awarded the Victoria Cross, and the Westminsterian went as far as claiming that Forshaw had not fully realised the scale of his achievement until he ‘received the ovation at the College’.[5] As early as October 1915, the Governing Body discussed plans to erect ‘some permanent testimonial’ to Forshaw’s ‘great deed of endurance and daring’.[6] Their minutes recorded that ‘in the undying glory that he has won, Westminster College shares’.
Westminster College Archives. The Westminsterian, sketch of William Thomas Forshaw by Henry Wright
Greater accolades for Forshaw followed in his native North-West, but the Monthly War Bulletin reassured its readership of Westminsterians that ‘we are sure that he prizes most of all the affection and admiration of the members of his old College’. On 20 November 1915, Forshaw was again celebrated in London when the Westminster Club held a dinner in his honour at the Holborn Restaurant which was attended by over seventy alumni of the College. Toasts were led by Sir James Yoxall, Liberal MP for Nottingham West, General Secretary of the N.U.T., and fellow Westminsterian.
On 5 February 1916, Forshaw married Sadie Mollie Lee-Heppel, a nurse, at Barnet Registry Office.[7] And in 1917, he continued his military career by transferring to the 76th Punjabis, Indian Army, taking part in several campaigns before his retirement from the army in 1922. A further stint in the RAF Educational Service in Egypt followed, before Forshaw finally returned to England in 1925. His re-entry into teaching was not easy, however, and he was bankrupted attempting to establish his own preparatory school in Suffolk. This disappointment led to a change in career, and Forshaw subsequently joined the Gaumont-British film company.[8]
Westminster College Archives. A/4/a/i, Roll of Men in the King’s Forces
During the Second World War, Forshaw was a major in the 11th City of London (Dagenham) Battalion of the Home Guard, and was eventually relocated to Holyport, Berkshire, as an evacuee. It was at his home there that he died aged 53, on 26 May 1943. In contrast to the adulation he had received thirty years earlier, the Westminster Club Bulletin for September 1943 carried only a brief obituary recounting the actions for which he received the Victoria Cross.[9] In the wider press, Forshaw’s passing was reported in rather caricatured terms; the death of the ‘Cigarette V.C.’[10]
It is unknown whether Westminster College ever fulfilled their intentions to memorialise Forshaw, but there is evidence that they were interested in buying his replacement V.C. medal when it was offered for sale in 1964. Alongside Barrow Grammar School, the College eventually conceded to the 9th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, who secured the medal for £1150.
Forshaw was buried in an unmarked grave in Touchen End, near Maidenhead. It was not until 1994 that a headstone was placed in the churchyard marking his final resting place. Other civic memorials for Forshaw have followed, ensuring that his achievements will live on in popular memory for many years to come.
Westminster Oxford Research Network 