Second World War
Mr Hugh Elder, Headmaster, 1938-1946
In spite of such efforts, the School continued to struggle through the thirties, and with a threatening world situation, the School called for a younger Headmaster to resuscitate it. In 1938, 33-year-old Hugh Elder was appointed and Mr. Bolton went on to be Headmaster of Watford Grammar School.
With just 168 boys in the School (100 below the maximum), Mr Elder made some radical suggestions in his first meeting with the Governors, proposing that day boys of junior age be admitted, and that junior boys be reorganised to form a separate unit known as Dean Close Junior School. Classrooms were to be constructed in the shell of what had been stable buildings at the end of Fortfield garden and, as far as possible, he said that the Junior School should have its own staff but remain under the control of the Headmaster. He also made the suggestion that football should give way to rugby, a suggestion that was immediately taken up.
Changes were going well when, in January 1939, Mr Elder received a 'bombshell' letter, heavily sealed and marked 'Secret', from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works. The letter informed him that in the event of war the buildings of Dean Close School would be requisitioned for national purposes and that he should find other premises in which the School could be carried on. He was also warned not to disclose this information to any other person. Even when Ministry officials came to inspect the School, they acted as interested parents so that suspicions were not aroused.
It was arranged that the Senior School should migrate to Monkton Combe and the Junior to remain in Cheltenham, due to its number of day boys, where it could lodge with a failing preparatory School, Glyngarth. Four days after the declaration of war, Dean Close was formally requisitioned and the entire School and all necessary equipment was moved the forty miles to Monkton Combe, having to fit into emergency quarters within the School and the nearby village. The move also necessitated the dismissal of most of the domestic staff, many who had been at the School for many years.
In the event, the Government did not move into Dean Close and the buildings were released back in May 1940. Although returned to Cheltenham, School life was hardly as usual. 'Fire Pickets' went on the lookout every night for bombing raids, senior boys contributed to Home Guard duties, and lack of domestic help meant boys had to undertake various chores in the kitchen, stoking the boilers, and out on the playing fields. School holidays were spent working on local farms.
The School Committee decided that for the duration of the War there should be no formal Speech Day, but a weekend in June was fixed for Commemoration, when parents were invited to visit their sons and attend a special service in Chapel.
In the autumn of 1940, at a time of heavy air-raids in Britain, numbers in the School began to increase due to the movement of children away from city areas. A new feature of that term was the first appearance of a representative Rugby football team where matches were played against other schools, the first being against Monkton Combe at home, which Dean Close won. Sadly it is recorded that of the fifteen players who won that match, five were killed later on War service, another lost the sight of one eye and the captain was wounded and taken prisoner. That was what the War meant to those who were schoolboys in 1940.
In December of that year the School itself was bombed. There were five bombs in all, three falling harmlessly in open spaces, but one hitting the Junior School and wrecking the classrooms. Fortunately, the School had broken up that day so no one was hurt.