Three Hundred Sons of this House

On Remembrance Sunday each year, the Dean leads an Act of Remembrance in front of the War Memorial in Pembroke’s cloisters. Members of the College attend, wearing gowns as a mark of respect, to honour the memory of the Pembroke men who died in the First and Second World Wars.

Of the three hundred and eight names inscribed on the First World War Memorial outside the Chapel, three were College staff. Twenty-four College members of staff fought in the First World War; the fatality rate reflects the national average of one in eight men killed.

The three hundred and five College members on the memorial are listed in order of matriculation year, not of rank. They represent twenty-seven percent of all the Pembroke men who served, which puts the Pembroke fatality rate at roughly twice the national average. This is largely due to the fact that almost all of the Pembroke men in uniform were officers – the casualty rate faced by officers was twice as high as that for men in the ranks.

Just over a third of the one hundred and forty-nine Pembroke men killed in the Second World War served in the Royal Air Force, which carried a similarly high casualty rate. Pembroke’s Second World War Memorial is inscribed on the back of the Cloister pillars. It currently faces the 1914–18 Memorial across a display of wooden crosses bearing poppies, placed to mark the centenary of the death of each College member who died during the war of 1914–1918.

Vivit memoria trecentorum domus filiorum qui pro patria militantes posuerunt vitam

- ‘The memory of the three hundred sons of this house who gave their life as soldiers for their country lives on.’

A full list of the Pembroke members who died in the First World War can be accessed on the College website. The Dean will also be holding the Two Minute Silence at 11am on Armistice Day (Wednesday 11th November) in the Cloisters for those who wish to attend.