We have just finished publishing my new book about the High School’s casualties in WW2. Here is the front cover:
And here is the blurb from the back cover:
In the Footsteps of the Valiant: The Lives and Deaths of the Forgotten Heroes of Nottingham High School (Vol.1).
This is the first volume of a series detailing the Old Nottinghamians of all ages who sacrificed their lives in the cause of freedom during the Second World War. After nearly five years of ground breaking research, I have been able to add at least forty new names to the official casualty list. I have also uncovered details of the fates of almost all of these hundred and twenty casualties wherever they died, from Saskatchewan to Iran.
This is not, however, a book just about death. I also tell the stories of their lives: their families, where they used to live and their years at school with Masters very different from those of today. You will discover their boyhood hobbies and their sporting triumphs, where they worked as young adults and the jobs they had. Most of all, you will find all the details of the conflicts they fought in and how they met their deaths, the details of which were completely unknown until I carried out my groundbreaking research. And all this is spiced with countless tales of the living Nottingham of yesteryear, a city so different from that of today.
No tale is left untold. No anecdote ignored.
The book has 348 pages and is 24 x 19 cms in size (9½ inches x 7½ inches). Any profits will go to ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and the RAF Benevolent Fund.
The title refers to “the Valiant” because for the last hundred years or so, the hymn sung in the very first assembly of the school year is that old favourite, “He who would valiant be”. The hymn was the only one ever written by John Bunyan, the author of “The Pilgrim’s Progress”. Here are the words of the three verses. They don’t write them like that any more:
“He who would valiant be ‘gainst all disaster
Let him in constancy follow the Master
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrimWho so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound – his strength the more is
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight
He will make good his right to be a pilgrimSince, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit
We know we at the end, shall life inherit
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say
I’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim”
Here’s the video:
Apparently the boys back in the 1920s wanted to sing the original unexpurgated John Bunyan version, but were not allowed to. Verse 3 lines 1 and 2 used to be:
“Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend,
Can daunt his spirit “
Verse 2 lines 5 and 6 used to be equally exciting with:
“No lion can him fright,
He’ll with a giant fight,”
You can read all about it here.
This hymn has nowadays become the Battle Hymn of the SAS.
One Old Nottinghamian was killed fighting with the SAS in the Mediterranean theatre. Another died at Arnhem:
And another in Iran:
Another in Burma:
Another in Egypt:
In Leicester:
In Greece:
And in Saskatchewan, Canada:
And now, after nearly five years of completely original and ground breaking research, at least forty new names can now be added to the old list of eighty.
And the hitherto unknown details of the fates of almost all of these hundred and twenty casualties have been discovered.
The full story is available here.
John Knifton 