World War I Roll of Honour - The Clove Club Hackney Downs School

EDITORIAL (91/17)
Three years of war have wrought great changes in the School; in times of peace, having a different
editor of the REVIEW each term of the year, as we have now, was unheard of. Yet ‘tis true, and this is the
only Editorial you will have from our pen.
In this issue we bid farewell to S.W.Joslin, our late editor, whose polite but cruel sarcasm filled this
page last term. He made a splendid head monitor, combining the fine elements of sport with a wonderful
intellect. It is not often that we have such a scholar as Joslin, matriculating with five distinctions, and, at the
same time, taking the keenest interest in every branch of sport. When the time came for him to don khaki he
again brought honour to the School by passing ninth in all England into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
He has taken up an honourable profession, and one for which he is distinctly fitted, and we hope to see him later
on with more than one star on his cuff.
Week by week our Roll of Honour grows; as old boys, who left us only two or three terms ago, become
eighteen, so they are drafted automatically into various branches of the Service. Unhappily, however, we have
to record that since April of this year eleven gallant fellows have been killed in action. Most of them we
remember quite well at school, and it is very hard to bring ourselves to the cold thought that they are gone for
all time, and that we shall never again see their familiar faces in the school building. Yet we must be consoled
by the knowledge that they could not have died better than in fighting for England, and for Liberty.
The discussion, so frequently heard nowadays, concerning the end of the War only reminds us that if
fighting continues for a year or more from now, and this is quite probable, most of us who are now enjoying
the last few months of school life will be with the Colours; and it serves as a stimulant to our efforts as schoolboys
and Britons to carry on as well as lies in our power while we are still at home. There is a governing influence
which acts on the heart of every schoolboy, not only teaching him the difference between right and wrong, but
breeding in him a fine love for his country and an appreciation of sport in all its forms. As he grows into
manhood this influence, this Schoolboy Spirit, develops slowly but very surely into the manly qualities of
patriotism which have shown themselves in the morale of our troops on every front. These men would never
have been imbued with such a love of fair play had it not been for the spirit that was bred in them when they
were at school.
So we must remember that if we play the game while we are still wearing the cap and badge, we shall
be fit and ready to take up the sword unflinchingly when we are needed..
R.P.Stewart, Editor.
The School Savings Bank is still as active as ever, and steady progress is being made. The number of certificates
purchased, up to June 30th, 1917, was 380.