Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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[12] THE ASHBURIAN whole history. We seemed to see the pageant of England passing before us, her conquests, her successes, her trials, and a long list of names we had not perhaps called to mind for years seemed suddenly to spring up, Hastings, Agincourt, Crecy, The Black Prince, Cromwell, Drake, and a great feeling of pride and faith superseded the feeling of remorse and sorrow, and when the bells stopped and our thoughts turned once again towards Sandringham we knew somehow that there was nothing here for tears, nothing to wail. Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair. And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

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THE ASHBURIAN [11] EDITORIAL ON June 20th. term closes, and another school year is ended. Another school year: hut this year, surely, is distinguished by something that lifts it out of the category of just another school year, distinguished by something that in itself will remain a school memory as long as we live. There are few memories of our school days which time and tricks of memory will not distort somewhat as we grow older. As the affairs of the world, business and family life play an ever increasing part in our lives it will not be easy to recall all the things we would like to, those many incidents we thought so all-important while we were at school. Sometimes we shall experience difficulty in remembering the names of those boys who were our friends in the different forms. We may for- get who captained the hockey team that year we were in the Fifth, who won all the cups on our last Sports Day ; we may forget too who taught such and such subjects, but looking back we will recall that 1936 was the year in which a very kindly gentleman, our King, died. To us in Canada the memory of King George will always be associated with the radio. It was over the radio that we listened to his Christmas broadcasts ; it was by means of the radio that we were able, in a way, to share in the Jubilee celebrations, and it was over the radio that we heard those last bulletins and the simple announcement of his death, and the memory of that broadcast will re- main in our minds when the Italian conquest of Ethiopia and Germany ' s re- occupation of the Rhineland have long been forgotten. There was something particularly moving about that broadcast. There was nothing cheap about it, nothing sentimental. Official bulletins were read as soon as they were received, and between these announcements there was to be heard only the sound of Bow Bells ringing in the distance, calling, as it were, to the Empire to come and watch by the bed of its king. The thoughts of all those thousands of people listening to those bells, wait- ing, must have been very diverse. Some recalled, no doubt, the occasions when they had seen the King, riding in the Row, at Cowes, on one of the Jubilee drives ; others called to mind the King at the Front in those strenuous years from 1914 to 1918 ; others still, who had never seen the King, probably remem- bered the sound of his voice, and pictured to themselves his smile, so familiar from his photographs. A host of memories those bells called up. But our own thoughts that night in January were not so much of the life which, we were told, was moving peacefully towards its close, nor of the Queen, for whom one experienced an instinctive sympathy, but rather our mind seemed to centre on the Throne itself and on the man who would soon be called to carry on the traditions and uphold the ideals of a nation, of a people, of a

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THE ASHBURIAN [13] SCHOOL NOTES WE regret to record the death of Rev. W. S. Major who on many occas- ions in the past has taken services in the chapel. Last term Mrs. Forbes Angus presented the School with a framed copy of the late King ' s speech on the occasion of the Jubilee, and had frames made for Lord and Lady Bessborough ' s pictures to match. The following is an extract from the Ottawa Journal of March 13th: BYTOWN MUSEUM EXHIBITION To those interested in the evolution of Canadian education, the exhibit has proved of more than usual interest. Included are pictures of early school houses, and of teachers, and volumes of old school books. Much interest was taken in the picture of old Ashbury School House, on Wellington Street, named after the home of the Woollcombes that has been in Devonshire since 1497. We congratulate Dunning on winning a prize offered by the Canadian Authors ' Association for his review of the Oxford Book of Canadian Poetry. His review is printed elsewhere in the Magazine. On February 27th, the School was presented with a Great Dane. A pure- bred, and full of dignity, George endeared himself immediately to everybody, and particularly to Oliver, his Guardian Angel at Ashbury. Unfortunately George hurt his leg and in biting at the bandages with which the Vet. had tied it up, he was poisoned, and after a few days in the hospital he died. George was given to the School by Mr. Rodney Adamson of Toronto and Mr. Barry German of Ottawa. On May 21st, a School Golf Match was played at the Hunt Club. It was a perfect day and everybody enjoyed himself immensely. The match was arranged by the Headmaster and was open to any Masters or boys who could give an approximate guarantee not to take more than 120 shots for the eighteen holes. One boy, Ronalds, scored a 77, and one-third of the competitors were under a hundred. We congratulate Mr. Whitfield on being re-elected President of the O.V.C.C. This is the fourth year that he has held this office.