Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

Alfred Vivian Stanfield was in the Benson from 1898, a prefect and member of the XI. He went on to Clare College Cambridge, at the same time as Siegfried Sassoon, before returning to Wellington as an assistant master in 1911, and becoming Tutor of the Orange.

In December 1914, Stanfield along with three other Old Wellingtonians were commissioned as territorial officers on the unattached list on the strength of their service with the Wellington OTC.

Stanfield was posted to the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment as a subaltern in March 1916, and died at the Somme less than five months later on 16 August. He was 31.

It was Stanfield's posthumous bequest to Wellington that was used to relay the floor of Old Hall with the current floorboards as the room was transformed from the former dinning hall into its current form, becoming at the same time a memorial to the fallen. Sixty-four Old Wellingtonians are known to have died in the battle of the Somme.

Masonic :

He was initiated into Old Wellingtonians Lodge in 1912 on the same day as His Highness Prince Maurice of Battenberg was initiated. He was an Entered Apprentice and did not progress further.

Image: IWM (HU 126852)

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley
• Website : Old Wellingtonian (Heroum Filii) Lodge No. 3404
• Researcher : Tom Hawley
• Image : Imperial War Museum