Blogs • Revd Tim Hurd (Former Chaplain)

Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War One. The impact of that conflict on a generation - and on the College - can scarcely be overstated. Lives were forever changed or lost. Lovers and families bereft. The College corridors haunted by the memory of far away friends and young lives cut short.

The Selwyn College dining room is given in memory of two young men - brothers - who lost their lives on the other side of the world. I include the following reflection we used on ANZAC Day this year:

The Brothers’ Hall, the dining hall, is named in honour of two former Selwyn students,
brothers, who lived and died in an age of war.
This accident of birth saw them, and not us, living in a dangerous time.
Their sense of duty and adventure saw them serve.
Their courage saw them do so with distinction.

John and George Massey from Invercargill were 24 and 21 respectively when they died,
far from home, in “the war to end all wars”, World War One.
There were many in the First and Second World Wars who were killed before they saw 19.

John was studying at Cambridge University and enlisted at the start of the war.
He received a commission in the Royal Field Artillery, eventually promoted to Captain.
He was killed fighting to save his gun battery being out-flanked in May, 1918.
Of his men, only four survived, with but a single gun among them.
John’s body was not found until 1927.

George, his little brother, also joined the Field Artillery,
reaching the rank of Second Lieutenant
and was killed at the Somme on 27 June 1916.

John Massey, was awarded the ‘Croix de Guerre avec palme’, the highest French decoration.
He had previously been given the Military Cross for bravery.
John was a deeply religious man with a high sense of duty.
A senior officer wrote of him:
‘I count it one of the privileges of my life to have known him.
I shall always remember him for his many gifts and steady ripening of powers,
the gift of friendship, a rare delicacy of scruple and sterling courage.
Brave, affectionate, and soldierly,
he drew to himself the trust and admiration of those who knew him.
He loved his men and they him.
He was one of those few to whom it is given to “leave footprints in the sands of time.” ‘

The Brothers’ Hall was donated to the College by George and John’s mother and sister
in 1930, a testament to their living and dying.
The memorial tablet above the doors was unveiled by Sir James Allan, one time M.P.,
whose own son John is remembered in a stained glass window to your left.
He fell at Gallipoli. He too was a student when war broke out.
34 members of this church died in WWI alone.

We will hear in a moment the names of Selwyn students and exies,
young men who walked the College corridors, who never came home.
Today we remember their sacrifice, and the cost for all who have served in time of war
or who have struggled in the cause of peace.

Mrs Massey asked that the following inscription
be placed on the memorial for her two sons, the brothers:
“Thus these men died, an example of a noble courage
and a memorial of virtue not only unto young men, but to all their nation”.
Their example of service and the terrible cost of war, we remember this day.