J’ai essayé de trouver des informations au sujet de mon arrière-grand-oncle ; mais malheureusement c’était très difficile. J’ai trouvé qu’il était sur la « Willochra » qui est parti le 16/10/1916. Mais je n’ai pas pu trouver beaucoup d’informations. En conséquence j’ai décidé de faire mon projet au sujet d’un ancien étudiant de Wellington College. Il s’appelait Alexander Baston (A.B.) McColl.  

{I tried to find information about my great-great uncle; but unfortunately it was very difficult. I found that he was on a ship called the “Willochra” which left on 16/10/1916. But I didn’t find lots of information. Consequently I decided to do my project on a former Wellington College student. His name was Alexander Baston (A.B.) McColl.}

I still plan on finding out about my great-great uncle in WW1, however I decided to make this a side project and focus on finding out about a former boy of my school. I will continue to post any information I find about Cornelius Keppel.

Wellington College is a school which is very proud of its history. I have spoken to many Wellington College old boys in recent years, and I know that every single one of them cherish the years they spent at the school. The school pride of ‘Coll’ boys is extremely powerful, and I know that I will struggle with leaving the school at the end of the year. Perhaps this is why we feel a strong duty to honour those old boys who sacrificed so much.  1643 Wellington College old boys served overseas during WW1. 220 of these young men made the ultimate sacrifice. Our ANZAC assembly is tomorrow, and we will be remembering those who made the whole nation proud of their efforts in WW1. Wellington College has recently created a group of crosses outside our assembly hall in order to commemorate our old boys.

Lieutenant Alexander McColl was born on 28/05/1892 and lived at 62 Salamanca Road, Wellington. He embarked on 16/10/1914. McColl was killed in action on 02/07/1916 in Armentieres, France. I am particularly interested to do my project on Alexander because I can remember doing a History project on him in Year 9. I would love to be able to visit his grave during the trip.

I have read that McColl sent one final letter to his parents before he passed away. I look forward to reading this letter in order to see how much of an insight it can give me about McColl’s time at war.