Tribute set down in stained glass
Two Glenwood School pupils who died young in World War I are immortalised at St Paul’s Church, reminding people of their sacrifice
MANY countries around the world remember the war dead in November each year. Wreaths are laid at cenotaphs, schools and churches, reminding us of the sacrifice that every war exacts on even the smallest community. One school that has instilled that reminder of sacrifice on its boys is Glenwood High, which lost 169 former pupils in war.
On Remembrance Sunday, the deputy head, Kevin Jordan, and two Grade 11 pupils laid a wreath at Durban’s Cenotaph.
He then took the two boys, Renako Brynard and Lunga Ncube, to St Paul’s Anglican Church to see a stained glass window.
There is an intriguing story behind this window in the Lady Chapel.
Among the saints and martyrs are two boy scouts, Arthur Mccabe and Archibald Lee.
Both boys were altar boys at St Paul’s and were also pupils at the Technical High School (now Glenwood High). In addition, they were members of the Queen’s Park Swimming Club which trained in the Town Baths next to St Paul’s.
The scouting movement arose from an initiative proposed by Lord Baden-powell in 1907 and quickly gained popularity in the six years before the outbreak of war in 1914.
Mccabe and Lee were quite possibly founder scouts attached to the St Paul’s Troop. Many scouts volunteered for war service. In the Durban City Hall, there is a plaque with the Roll of Honour of the many scouts who died in the Great War.
Mccabe was a private with the 4th Regiment, SA Infantry when he was badly wounded at Bernafay Wood, Somme in France.
Aged 19, he died of his wounds on July 15, 1916, and was buried at the Corbie Community Cemetery.
Lee was a private with the 2nd Regiment, SA Infantry when he was killed in action at Gauche Wood, Somme on March 21, 1918. His body was never found. He was 18. His name is on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing.
No war prior to World War I resulted in the loss of life in such great numbers across so many countries.
Mourning was no longer just a private matter, but a collective tragedy.
It led to the erection of monuments and cenotaphs and the unveiling of plaques in public buildings in even the smallest town or village.
The decision to memorialise Mccabe and Lee in stained glass was an extraordinary gesture.
The considerable cost was raised through donations from the parish and the Scout Troop.
Both boys were still teenagers when they died; only a year or two earlier, they had been schoolboys enjoying their sport and, no doubt, getting up to mischief.
Both boys must have been held in high esteem, but war snuffed out their youthful promise.
The beauty of their stained glass images, based on actual photos, is both a tribute to their achievements and the tragedy of their deaths.
In admiring the stained glass on Remembrance Sunday, two 17-yearold Grade 11 Glenwood boys must surely have sensed the footsteps in
which they follow.