Joint Head of School Viggo (Year 13) addressed School in Chapel on Thursday 8 May on the 80th anniversary of VE Day. He spoke eloquently and movingly about the importance of remembrance.
Viggo's Chapel sermon:
This week Britain is marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe, or VE Day. We join the commemorations this morning in Chapel, marking the end of World War II on the continent, and honouring those who served and perished during the conflict.
8 May – a surprisingly eventful date in human history.
On this day in 1886, a little-known pharmacist named John Pemberton sold for the first time his mixture of carbonated water and homemade syrup — a drink he would call Coca-Cola.
The 1970s saw the Beatles release their final studio album, 'Let It Be', and in 1980, smallpox was officially declared eradicated.
Sir David Attenborough was born on the 8th of May!
Each of these events shaped the lives of millions. Yet none match the significance of the moment we gather to remember today.
Today, on 8 May in 1945, the German armed forces surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe. Today, we mark 80 years since that victory — 80 years of relative peace in Europe.
VE Day is not simple, celebratory jingoism. Instead, it is a day of remembrance; a moment of reflection on the price that has been paid for freedom.
At Charterhouse, we are uniquely placed to commemorate this event. Consider, for example, this very building. It is no accident that our Chapel is the largest war memorial in England. Sir Frank Fletcher, Headmaster during the Great War, began fundraising for its construction when OC losses in the First World War surpassed the number of boys then at the School.
Such a sobering milestone is almost unimaginable today. If Dr Peterken had to make the same decision, we would have to have seen the death of every Second Year pupil (Year 13) since I was a Fourth (Year 9).
Boys left the School in June — as I will next month — and were killed by September. For Frank Fletcher, it was a tragedy beyond words.
Yet no less than 20 years later, Carthusians were once again called to action. 3,023 Old Carthusians served in the Second World War, and 351 of their names are etched into this Chapel.
And with each name, there is a story.
One such story is that of Lieutenant Arthur Haggie Beane, Saunderites 1936, who was shot down and killed over northern France on 26 of November, 1943.
After being shot down, Lieutenant Beane remained ‘missing in action’ for nearly 60 years, buried beneath the earth — until, in October 1992, a group of archaeologists came knocking on the door of a French farmer, Marcel Petit.
Convinced that a crashed German Messerschmitt lay beneath Petit's farm, the archaeologists requested permission to excavate.
Petit was adamant that no such crash had taken place. However, he said that if it was of interest to the archaeologists, he could show them where a Spitfire was buried instead.
In that Spitfire, laid an Old Carthusian.
And so, Arthur Haggie Beane’s remains were discovered — but not yet identified. Two important clues survived: a name tag on his flying boots, and a signature on a tailor’s bill inside his flying jacket.
The boots were traced to an elderly veteran in Canada who had always maintained that Arthur Beane had “pinched” them from him — something characteristically Carthusian.
By comparing the signature inside the flying jacket to that on Beane's enlistment documents, researchers definitively identified the remains as his own.
Arthur Beane’s discovery prompted the School to purchase a square metre of land on Marcel Petit’s farm. A memorial was built there by DT students, using reclaimed wood from the Founder’s Chapel and melted-down aluminium from the wing of Beane’s Spitfire.
It was unveiled on 8 May 1995, the 50th anniversary of VE Day. Thirty years later, it still stands in Normandy today, where it reads: "Here is a corner of a foreign field that is forever England."
Of the 132 Carthusians who entered the School in the same year as Arthur Beane, one in six lost their lives. Arthur’s younger brother Peter, also a Saunderite, was killed in 1941, meaning the Beane family lost both their sons to war.
I would like to thank OC Nick Townsend for sharing Lieutenant Beane’s story with me. As a pupil, he contributed to the construction of Beane’s memorial, and he is one of many Old Carthusians who regularly visit and maintain the graves of fallen Carthusians — from Chongqing, China, to New Albany, Indiana.
Arthur Beane’s story epitomises the enduring importance of remembrance.
As anniversaries pass, we continue to cherish the dwindling moments we have with the Greatest Generation. In America alone, 16.4 million servicemen and women took part in World War II. Of those, fewer than 66,000 are alive today.
VE DAY 80 will be the last major gathering of surviving WW2 veterans in this country; the last major opportunity to remember and celebrate their sacrifice, before it passes out of living memory.
In his victory day address to the nation, King George VI said: "We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace."
To honour their sacrifice, he stated, our task was to: "make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and for ours."
Thus, I pose one question to you all: How successfully have we fulfilled this vision? With war once again raging on European soil, and global alliances faltering, the task of defending freedom — and remembering the cost of surrendering it — seems more urgent than ever before.
As Sir Winston Churchill said 80 years ago, “We are here because of the sacrifices they made and the horrors they endured. This week, I urge the nation to come together and send a powerful message: we will remember them.”
Therefore, before we sing our hymn 'I Vow to Thee My Country', I would like to read out the Roll of Honour for the Old Carthusians killed in action on this day, May the 7th.
Captain Charles Campbell Hulton, Girdlestoneites, 6th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps, 7 May 1941.
Flight Lieutenant John Arthur Sword, Verites, 115 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 7 May 1942.
Charterhouse Archivist, Catherine Smith has installed two displays at the west end of Chapel, which include a photo of the very special memorial to Arthur Haggie Beane OC, constructed using wood from the original Founder's Chapel, and a model of a Spitfire made from aluminium from Beane's own spitfire.
