Rich and powerful, Ettie Grenfell, Baroness Desborough was ‘the holder of an unrivalled position in the Edwardian worlds of wit and fashion, caparisoned with the glittering treasures of grace, charm and intelligence, a great lady who never lost her eminence’ (Ettie: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough’ by Richard Davenport-Hines).

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Commemorated for his poem ‘Into Battle’ in Westminster Abbey alongside the other Great War poets, Julian Grenfell ‘was a splendid figure of a man, over six feet high, with two greyhounds, a famous Australian stock-whip, and an immense enjoyment of life … On May 13, 1915, he was wounded near Ypres, and twelve days later he died in hospital at Boulogne. (Balliol College War Memorial Book 1914-1919).

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‘Billy and Julian were among the most brilliant men of their generation … alike in their complete fearlessness both of bodily danger and in mental adventure: they went straight for the truth as they saw it with a simple directness which sometimes got them into difficulties but always carried them through … He was killed at Hooge on July 30, 1915.’ (Balliol College War Memorial Book 1914-1919).

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Known for his poem ‘Achilles In The Trench’, found on his body when he was killed in Cambrai on 30 December 1917, and ’possibly the most brilliant of all the Balliol men killed in the war was Patrick Houston Shaw- Stewart … His firsts in Mods in 1908 and in Greats in 1910 were foregone conclusions … By 1913 he had become a managing director in Barings’. (Balliol College War Memorial Book 1914-1919).

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‘In early life he was not strong and his health never permitted him to go to Public School … What first brought him into the life of (Balliol) was the Boys’ Club … with a strong sympathy and a fine sense of justice, he needed practical expression for his convictions, and found it in the friendship with the poorer boys of Oxford’. He was killed at Hooge on 30 July 1915. (Balliol College War Memorial Book 1914-1919).

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With a record five tries inn the 1909 Varsity match and capped at rugby for England while at Balliol, Ronald Poulton-Palmer led his country to the Grand Slam in 1914 and was killed on 5 May 1915 at Ploegstreet. ‘In Balliol he turned naturally to the Boys’ Club, an outlet for that desire to serve the working classes which an observer said was a passion with him.’ (Balliol College War Memorial Book 1914-1919).

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‘What people call a ‘character’ … one had the nonsensical feeling that here was someone as large as life - and a good bit larger … A great human.’ (Neville Talbot, A Memoir’ by F.H. Brabant). Present at the celebrated Christmas Truce football match in 1914, he published ‘Thoughts on Religion at The Front’ in 1917. His brother Gilbert was killed alongside Billy Grenfell and Keith Rae at Hooge on 30 July 1915.

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A Balliol Boys Club boy.

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A maid at Taplow Court, one of the stately homes owned by Lady Desborough.

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