REMEMBRANCE DAY: 100 YEARS SINCE THE DEATH OF HERBERT SHUTT (L 1901-05)

Shutt


This Remembrance Sunday coincided with the 100th anniversary of the death of Herbert Shutt (Lupton 1901 – 05). He is one of the 257 Sedberghians remembered as part of the OS Club Pilgrimage (http://pilgrimage.sedberghschool.org). Over the 2014 – 2018 WW1 centenary commemoration period the Old Sedberghian Club has pledged to mark the life and death of each Sedberghian casualty. A biography has been written for each man, a pledge has been made to visit the grave or memorial for each Sedberghian casualty and a series of ongoing events have been planned to recognise the sacrifice made by a generation of Sedberghians. The full collection of biographies can be viewed on the Old Sedberghian Pilgrimage website.

Herbert Shutt was at Sedbergh for five years, and achieved much in that time. He was a School Prefect and an all-round sportsman who competed enthusiastically in cricket, winning his 2nd XI Colours, and football. He was a Corporal in the School’s Rifle Corps and won his Proficiency Badge and Cadet Marksmanship. He gained entrance to The Queen’s College, Oxford, to read law. At Oxford, he was a keen oarsman, captaining his College VIII, and was an enormously influential character according to a fellow undergraduate ‘His five years left an indelible impression on the college’.

When war broke out, Shutt was married and working in the legal profession. Like other Sedberghians, he trained with the Inns of Courts OTC and gained a subsequent Commission into the Royal Scots Fusiliers, part of 3rd Division. He was musketry officer at the depot at Fort Matilda in Greenock before he was sent to France to join 3/1st Battalion RSF, part of 3rd Division, in July 1916. Four months later, aged 30, he died on the Somme, leading an attack on German trenches having been shot in the head.

Of the many tributes that poured in after his death, a fellow Oxford student said of him: ‘The best days of my life were my Oxford days, and Oxford would not have been the same to me without Cecil. Well do I know this, for I spent a year there after he had gone down, and missed him more than I can say. And besides Oxford, Florence and Venice I visited with Cecil, and for me will always be associated with him – three of the world’s finest cities with one of the world’s finest gentlemen.’

He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial which was visited by an Old Sedberghian Pilgrimage party in September 2016.

Preserving the Bronte Artefacts

Following the merger with Casterton School the archivist has been working to preserve the historic collection of documents and artefacts. The Heritage Lottery Fund North West have been delighted to hear about the collection and are working with Sedbergh School Foundation on a grant application that would see funding to catalogue the Casterton School material and create an exhibition and series of talks about the findings. This second round application is nearly ready to submit and the final element is to show that there is support for the project. Please fill out this quick 3 minute survey monkey questionnaire help us achieve funding. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VW23Y8N

Rev Bronte accounts in ledger