THE SCHOOL WAR CRY

When I joined Wandworth School in 1953 the School War Cry was much in evidence particularly on the rare occasions when it was announced during Assembly that the First XV had won a match!

I was not sure that I had picked up the chant correctly until 1957 when the following explaination appeared in The Link.

From: The Link December 1957

Dear Sir,

During the recital of the "History of Wandsworth School" delivered so interestingly and beautifully by the prefects at this evenings function at the School, I was somewhat surprised to hear it mentioned that the origin of the School war cry was shrouded in mystery. I attended the School from 1932 to 1938 and even as long ago as that we thought that we had satisfactorily solved this question. And so, for what is is worth, I give you the version that circulated at that time---as near as I can remember it. As might well be expected, it was the much-loved but redoubtable Mr. Ascher who had a hand in such a blood-curdling concoction, and to him properly belongs the authorship of the cry. The story runs thus.

It appears that one day, when all the boys were supposed to be out of the classrooms and assembled in the Hall, Mr. Ascher discovered several truants who had settled themselves in Classroom "G ", in every expectation of comfortably cutting the assembly. He naturally descended upon the miscreants in the full fury of his wrath and vented his emotions in his characteristic manner. Some remarkable events then took place in the sequence.

(1) Mr. Ascher bade the boys to vacate the room.

(2) He bellowed at them as only he could.

(3) He uttered voluble and incomprehensible expletives, the meaning of which are unknown to this day, but which could be either his own private code or an altogether laudable attempt to shield the ears of his victims from more orthodox but damaging swear-words.

(4) He then ended by apostrophising "Wandsworth" in tones of absolute disgust that it should be capable of breeding such indiscipline, thereby causing him more anxiety and grey hairs than any advance in age could occasion. It will now be seen how the cry originated by following it step by step as set out above.

(1) "Come aht er 'G' , come aht er 'G' , come aht, come aht"
(2) "Kiari, "kiari, WAH ! ".
(3) "*** ? ! ** ? L/P !O ?R ****FT % ! Z ".
(4) "WANDSWORTH ! "

It need hardly be said that Mr. Ascher had no idea of creating the cry as an addition to his two other splendid pieces of work--the School Song and Hymn. His only intention was to put the fear of the Almighty into the boys, and that he succeeded in so doing. is evident from the fact that in recounting the episode afterwards the culprits could only imperfectly recall the words he had used. It is to their mis-translation or mis-interpretation of his outburst that the cry in its ultimate form was due. And so electrifying and awe-inspiring was the effect of these words on that imperishable group of boys that they thereupon decided that the formula could well be used for the similar purpose of intimidating opponents of the School on the rugger field. From that, it grew into a general rallying cry and entered into the history of the Schools' annals where, it is to be hoped, that it will always find a place.

And if, Sir, you and your readers consider this to be an apocryphal account of the origin of the cry--I would pose you this question. Can you think of a more likely one?"

Yours sincerely,

"KAMATE"