Brave, Vigorous Life

In the First World War, over a thousand former pupils of Fettes College in Edinburgh served in the armed forces; a quarter lost their lives. This was not surprising. Since it opened in 1870, Fettes had loyally served the British Empire, sending out soldiers, administrators, missionaries, teachers, and traders. They wrote back to their old housemasters, telling stories of adventure which were printed in the school magazine. The pupils eagerly debated the military issues of the nineteenth century, and in 1908 gained a cadet corps in which they could be trained for war. Brought up to value leadership, hero-worship, unquestioning loyalty, and physical toughness, the boys of Fettes were ideal recruits for the British Army. This book illuminates a vanished world, told through the letters, recollections, and poetry of pupils, former pupils and masters. It is a unique insight into the moral and cultural hinterland of the young men, some only eighteen years old, who would lead British troops into battle in the Great War. Anyone who is interested in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, in military and educational history, or in Scotland's role in the British Empire, will be interested in these previously unseen documents. Ideas which now seem shocking or romantic were cheerfully expressed by both pupils and teachers, and contributed to a mentality which made joining up in 1914 not only necessary, but noble.