Tower and Town, December 2017

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Editorial: St Francis School

On 23rd September 1941, St Francis School was founded by Miss Phyllis Burden in Pewsey; now, over 75 years later, the school has been given the opportunity to edit the December edition 2017 of ‘Tower and Town’.

There followed a discussion between our Year 8 class and me as to what they could contribute. The children decided that as they were following a theme of conflict in their studies this term, perhaps they could connect the history of the school and aspects of Wiltshire with wartime; as well as St Francis being set up mostly as a direct consequence of World War Two, one of our current buildings was a World War One convalescent hospital.

You will find a mixture of factual and fictional pieces in here, from Lottie Royle’s sensitive description of First World War soldiers waiting to ‘go over the top’ to Mina Angus and Hannah Keighley’s article on wartime canine heroes. I hope you enjoy reading these items as much as Year 8 enjoyed researching and creating them.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, let us remember that 1918 finished on a note of hope so, especially after some of the dark events of 2017, it would be wonderful if we could start 2018 in a similarly optimistic manner.

Chris Murgatroyd