MISC EMF

Reference code

MISC EMF

Title

Eton Memorial Fund

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

The College set up a small committee as early as December 1900 to consider the form that the memorial to the Etonians killed in the South African war should take. Little appears to have been done until 1902, when an Executive Committee was set up, chaired by the Head Master. A General Meeting of Old Etonians approved their proposals that the memorial should consist of a record of names in College Chapel, a commemorative monument and 'a building worthy of the School, including a Library and a Hall'. (Warre had long agitated for a building in which he could address the whole school at once). It was subsequently decided by the Executive Committee, advised by a Committee of Taste, that the monument should take the form of the redecoration of the east end of College Chapel. The College purchased the site of Mr Tatham's house and the Executive Committee, advised by a Committee of Taste, arranged a competition of architects to produce a design for the Memorial Buildings, as they came to be called. The chosen architect was L.K. Hall. These papers include a few plans but add little to our existing knowledge of the debates that raged over the design and furnishing of the Hall in particular. The building was opened by King Edward VII in November 1908 but not formally handed over to the College by the Committee until 1910.