The Old Cliftonian Lodge No. 3340 Roll of Honour 1914-1918

 

As the centenary commemoration of the Great War draws to a close we remember four casualties from the OC Lodge. Needless to say their number is modest because most of those who died had no time to become Freemasons.

 

Kenneth Lee Warner Mackenzie was the son of an Indian Civilian, and before coming to Clifton as a day boy in 1888 he had boarded at Blundell's. This experience left him 'thoroughly unsound' in Classics, but Clifton's masters worked their magic, and though still 'slovenly and impatient' they had some hope of making a scholar of him. This was not to be, as on leaving school in 1892 he went to Sandhurst and then into the Indian Army. He fought with distinction on the North-West Frontier in 1897-8, being awarded two clasps to the campaign medal. On his return to England he became a joining member of the OC Lodge in November 1911. He rose to be a Major in the 62nd Punjabis and at the outbreak of war in 1914, he found himself on the regimental staff. It was while he was bringing his beloved Indian troops (part of the 10th Indian Division) across to Egypt to help protect the Suez Canal that he contracted a chest infection. He died in Ismalia on 28 November 1914. He is commemorated on the Suez War Memorial and in his local parish church in Tadcaster, Yorkshire.

 

Edward Henry Swinburne Bligh was in School House from 1898 to 1903, from a cadet branch of the family of the Earls of Darnley. He proceeded to Pembroke College, Cambridge with an Exhibition and took a Second Class in first part of the Natural Sciences Tripos. After that he changed direction and went to the Inner Temple, and was called to the Bar in 1908. Initiated into the Western Circuit Lodge No. 3154, he became a joining member of the OC Lodge in January 1914. At the start of the war he was commissioned in Drake Battalion of the Royal Naval Division, a unit formed from RNVR and Royal Marine reservists for whom there was no immediate place afloat. The Division was sent to Gallipoli, where Bligh, who had advanced to a temporary Lieutenancy, served in the trenches around Cape Helles. Going forward with a wiring party, he was shot by a Turkish sniper and later died of his wounds on 10 September 1915. He is notably commemorated in a stained glass window in the North Transept of Winchester Cathedral.

 

Robert Sebag-Montefiore was in Polack's, Clifton's Jewish House, from 1896 to 1901, where he was at first reckoned 'a clever little boy, well trained all round'. There was weakness later ('work inaccurate'), and though somewhat improved he remained 'very muddly and untidy'. He nevertheless went on to take a First in Greats at Balliol, and then read for the Bar at the Inner Temple. He was initiated alongside his brother, Charles, into the OC Lodge in March 1909. He stood for East Hill in the Liberal Unionist interest in the two General Elections of 1910, but could not dislodge the sitting Liberal member T.R. Ferens, a prominent local figure. He had better success at a lower level, and for three years he represented Clapham on the London County Council. When the War came he volunteered for overseas service with the 1st Line Regiment of the Royal East Kent Yeomanry, which was immediately despatched to the Turkish front. They sailed from Liverpool in September 1914 aboard RMS Olympic (sister ship of Titanic); on reaching Gallipoli the regiment was attached to the 42 (East Lancashire) Division. Montefiore, who had been promoted Captain, died on 11 November 1915 from wounds received in action at Cape Helles. A year later his mother and his widow provided £5000 in commercial stock to found scholarships for Clifton boys or recent leavers who showed 'reasonable prospects' of obtaining a First Class in a Final Honour School of the University of Oxford or 'some correspondingly high standard' of work in the University.

 

Arthur Stone was in Watson's from 1891 to 1896. He began badly ('ill mannered and disorderly') but soon improved in everything except Mathematics, becoming Captain of the Shooting VIII and of the Engineer Corps. He went on to King's College, Cambridge, and was Captain of the University Shooting VIII in his final year. He was in the winning team of the Veterans' Cup at Bisley in 1899 and 1900, and played in the Kent XV for the 1902-3 season. Meanwhile he was studying Law, and after qualifying as a Solicitor in 1903 he practised in London. Also in 1903 he became Secretary of the Old Cliftonian Society, a post he retained to his death; in that capacity he was involved in preliminary plans for the Memorial on which his name was fated to appear. He was subsequently a petitioning and founder member of the OC Lodge at its consecration in 1908. During the War he rose rapidly from the ranks to a Half Colonelcy and command of the 16th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. Following the award of the Victoria Cross to his brother, Walter, Arthur was awarded the DSO in January 1918, and in May he received a second Mention in Despatches. During the summer he was in London, when he received his decoration at Buckingham Palace and was able to attend AGM of the OCS. After returning to France he was killed in action near Ramicourt on 2 October 1918. A fortnight later the OCS Executive Committee gave formal expression to their profound grief at this fall in the hour of victory. At the same meeting they sent a message of admiration and appreciation to another Old Cliftonian, under whose command that victory was about to be attained.

​

This article was written by Dr DS Knighton and W Bro Jonathan Walker and originally appeared in the Festival Booklet at the PLSC Festival held at Clifton College in 2019