The boys’ school was still settling into its new home at Horsham. Edward VII’s statue had been put up during the holidays, and the Big School clockface illuminated. As term went on, the Chapel acquired its organ, lectern and four statuettes around the pulpit, and was dedicated by the Bishop of Chichester in the presence of some familiar faces from Newgate Street and Hertford.

The first Swimming Races were held, won by Mid B. The Masters defeated the boys at cricket; Gloucestershire county player H S Goodwin (Staff 1902-30, & subsequently) made 124. The newly founded Natural History Society was thriving, with an initial grant of £20 from the Almoners.

Speech Day took place for the first time since 1900 and consisted chiefly of dialogues in Latin, Greek, German and French, involving among others R N Flew (later a renowned Nonconformist churchman), F C Geary (a future Oxford classics don and CH Almoner) and H T Wickham (who joined the Indian Police, ran a prep school in Hove and was a devoted and (latterly) venerable OB, surviving until 1979). Senior Grecian B H Bell (later Sir Humphrey Bell, Chief Justice of the Sudan and Legal Secretary to the Sudan Government) delivered an Oration written by J D Beazley (later Sir John Beazley, ‘that greatest of Old Blue classical scholars’). Chairman of Council Sir Joseph Savory, acting as Lord Mayor, broke with previous custom to say a few words himself, to which the Headmaster, Dr Upcott, replied. There followed two hours of ‘gaiety and confusion’ in which ‘numerous fair apparitions’ dared to walk on the Quadrangle grass.

The Rev G C Bell (CH 1842-51, Headmaster 1868-76) resigned after 27 years as Master of Marlborough.

One of the best-liked Newgate Street masters, the Rev James Fraser Cornish (Staff 1876-02, President CH Club), died suddenly aged 51. There were two four-page tributes, one by the Rev Richard Lee (OB, Headmaster 1876-1902).

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