A Fitting Memorial

Shrewsbury School’s main war memorial stands at the meeting place of all the avenues leading from the School. At its centre is a bronze, life-size statue of Sir Philip Sidney (one of the school’s alumni) on a large rectangular plinth and in military costume, dressed as he would have been when he was fatally wounded during the Battle of Zutphen in 1586. In 1948 a low stone wall was erected, partly surrounding the Sidney memorial, inscribed with the names of Old Salopians who died during the Second World War. The location of the main school building, high on a bank above the River Severn, must be the envy of many boating clubs around the country. The Royal Shrewsbury School Boating Club has its boathouse on the banks of the river below the School. It was built in memory of John Edwin Pugh a Lieutenant in the RAF who served on HMS Princess Royal. He died on 12th November 1918, the day after the Armistice – of wounds received just prior to it - aged only 19. The boathouse was donated by his father, the “owner of a well-known Coventry motorcycle manufacturers” and opened by Sir Frederick Sykes, the Director of Civil Aviation. Pugh was a distinguished oarsman during his time at the school, having won the Challenge Oars, rowed stroke in the Head of the River crew and was in the School Eight at Henley. It is difficult therefore to think of a more fitting memorial.

The Pugh Memorial Boathouse