Death Waits, by Percy Smith from the Dance of Death series, 1916-1919.

Image Courtesy of Percy Smith Foundation.

East London College Magazine.

East London College Magazine was the student magazine and continued throughout the First World War. The regular features of news from the college, poems, stories, jokes, sketches, cartoons, and reports from union societies, continued. But the roll of service became a new regular feature, reporting the fate of fellow students to their friends.

Click on the links above to view individual pages of the College Magazine. PDF's may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet connection. 

Image Courtesy of Queen Mary University of London Archives.

Student card of Robert Ernest Howe.  

Robert Ernest Howe registered at East London College in 1915, and left in 1916 in the second week of studies to join Artists Rifles(?). He never returned to complete his studies. A note on the card 'killed in war', confirms the reason. He would have been approximately 17.

Image Courtesy of Queen Mary University of London Archives.

The student cards of East London College students who fought or died in the First World War.

202 student cards have been located in the archives from the estimated 317 students who served in the war. Those who died were commemorated in a war memorial unveiled in the Library (Octagon) in 1923. In addition many staff also served in the forces or undertook war work. One notable example is of Albert Thurston (1881-1964), who was in charge of the safety of design of British Military Aircraft. A former student of East London College, Thurston had established the first university aeronautical laboratory in 1909.

Image Courtesy of Queen Mary University of London Archives.