History of Sedbergh School in 50 Objects #22: Ashburton Shield
In July 1914 the streets of Sedbergh were lined with cheering crowds and fluttering bunting. The victorious Sedbergh team were returning from Bisley with the Ashburton Shield. The Sedberghian magazine of 1914 captured the scene:
‘…that afternoon was spent by most in decorating for the arrival of the VIII, with strings of bunting and triumphal arches. Excitement grew with the day, and despite the rain it was in the happiest frame of mind that the Corps Bugle Band and the Sedbergh Brass Band turned out to give the victorious team a royal welcome. The VIII were hardly prepared to see the best part of the town at the Station to greet them. They entered a decorated brake drawn by thirty members of the Corps. Heralded by the Corps Band the procession made its way through the town amid the cheers of the united populace, and eventually arrived outside the Gymnasium where the VIII were seized bodily and carried shoulder high to the Pavilion steps.’
Rifle shooting had only began at Sedbergh in the previous decade when in 1901 the Sedbergh School Rifle Corps was formed as a Company of the 2nd (Westmorland) Volunteer Battalion of the Border Regiment. Discussion about the formation of such a unit had been ongoing for some time. A letter written to the Sedberghian magazine in 1886 first proposed the idea with others following suit and writing in support of the proposal. A pupil debate discussing the pros and cons of setting up a Rifle Corps was held in December 1900 with a landslide win in favour of setting up the Corps.
An ’extra half’ was granted to accommodate the first recorded meeting of the Rifle Corps in October 1901 and from then on, the calendar is littered with drills, ‘skirmishes’ and field days.
The Rifle Corps paraded for the first time in November 1901 in mufti, and in full uniform the following March. The Corps’ activities were supported by the building of an armoury and a small range.
The Ashburton Shield competition was established in 1861, and is awarded annually at the Bisley Schools meeting of the National Rifle Association to the winning school shooting team. Sedbergh first competed at Bisley in 1905 and has participated annually ever since. The 1914 victory was the first time Sedbergh won the Ashburton Shield. Subsequent victories followed in 1921, 1996, 1997 and 2018.
The pages of the Sedberghian magazine swelled with what Headmaster Weech called ‘epinikion verses’ celebrating the victory. One poem, ‘Either With It or On It’ includes a third stanza as follows:
Ten years in vain they practised,
Ten years they shot in vain
In sun and wind, in cloud and storm
In (also) Sedbergh rain:
Till in the eleventh season
Since first they had begun it
The shield fulfilled their dearest hopes –
They actually won it!
The successful VIII were Corporal R.G. Mountain, Lance Corporal E.A. Collier, Corporal A.H. Lee, Private P.K. Digby-Jones, Lance Corporal O. Tuke, Lance Corporal J.G. Hutchinson, Cadet Officer W.F.D. La Touche and Cadet Officer W.L. Fawcett.
All eight of those named above served their country in the Great War, either on the Western Front, the Indian Frontier or in the Middle East. Tuke and Hutchinson were killed. Four others were wounded but survived.
