Dear Parents,

In this column reference is made from time to time on aspects of our Wellington ethos, and how staff and students seek to develop and apply these in the daily life of the College.  Last term we considered the ‘Wellington Identity’, the five “I’s”, over several weeks, and this term we introduced discussion of some of the many ways in which we encourage the development and practice of Wellington values.  Our core School values, as expressed in the College’s Mission statement are ‘Kindness, Courage, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility’.  I recently shared my thoughts on Responsibility and Respect in this column.

This week, the Second Master, Mr Jeffrey, writes on the theme of Courage.  The week ahead is Remembrance Week in most countries across the world, and is therefore an apt time to reflect on the value of courage, sometimes referred to as the virtue on which all other virtues depend.  In Remembrance Week, we especially bring to mind again the courage of the millions who sacrificed their lives in the awful wars of the last century, and since.  Today Mr Jeffrey pens a most-thought provoking reflection on this core value from the perspective of both the history of Wellington (on which Mr Jeffrey is an authority), and what the day-to-day application of this value should look like for our College community.  I commend Mr Jeffrey’s column to you.

With best wishes to all our Wellington families.  

Michael Higgins,
Master

COURAGE
 
“Even if some men had their faults, it is right that the courage to fight and die for their country should outweigh them”
From Pericles’ Funeral oration
 
This is Remembrance week in the UK and in many other parts of the world. It is the chance for those left behind to join together in the shared reflection - in two minutes of silence - on the sacrifice made by all those who have fallen in conflict since 1914. Wellington College holds this tradition particularly dear; over 1000 former pupils were killed in the wars of the 20th Century, and on Friday 11th November, the entire school community will stand in respectful silence to its fallen sons.
 
Much is spoken of courage on occasions such as these. The men who fought and died are universally credited with the courage to go to their deaths, driven by a recognition that their country’s future was more important than their own. This has most memorably found expression in the now-famous epitaph that in turn had its roots in a classical Greek epigram: “For our tomorrows, they gave their todays”. These men, in other words, died nobly and showed courage to the very end.
 
Courage is of course one of the five Wellington values. Happily, we no longer expect our pupils to display courage in the same ways their forefathers did on the battlefields of the last century. Instead,