Discovering the story
Hugh first encountered the Balliol Feud while reading ‘For Poulton and England’ by James Corsan (2009). He was hoping to find a reference to his grandfather who had played rugby for the Harlequins around the same time as Ronnie Poulton, There was not that but, intrigued by the Balliol Feud and the destinies of Billy Grenfell and Keith Rae, Hugh sourced a reprinted copy of ‘The Life of Ronald Poulton’ by his distraught father (1919). He was moved and inspired by this:
‘All Keith Rae’s last year, it was a nightmare to him. One can’t exaggerate the harm it did ... Although the feud between the leaders of the two sides was so bitter, a beautiful and touching end was brought to it by the stress and strain of the war.’
Hugh was inspired to find out more and commenced research into the truth behind the feud. Now, after years of extensive research, including over 50 books, time spent at Balliol archive in Oxford and meetings with the living relatives of the real life characters of the play, the full truth behind the issues, personalities and extraordinary incidents within the Balliol feud are revealed, for the first time in history, in his powerful new full length play, Into Battle
A True Story
In 1910, amid deep social discord in Britain and a catastrophic gap between the rich and poor, two Oxford University students, Keith Rae and the aristocratic Etonian the Hon. Billy Grenfell fought a well documented and bitter feud at Balliol College, Oxford that encapsulated the social conflict in Britain before WWI. However, both Keith and Billy died fighting alongside each other in the same regiment, in the same battle and on the same day.
Hugh Salmon’s incredibly moving, effecting and humorous debut play Into Battle, tells for the very first time, this true story that exemplified the elitist culture of the British establishment and the arrogance of the ruling class. This feud is touchingly resolved on the battlefields of the First World War.
The Balliol Feud
'These Balliol Etonians ... were arrogant, rowdy, and exclusive, but ... were not mere sprigs of fashion. They were prizewinners, both athletic and academic ... All of them loved poetry, and many wrote it. Several had outstanding good looks'. ('The Life of Ronald Knox' by Evelyn Waugh, 1959).
'The explanation of the (Etonian) Annandale Society as a disintegrating force is sought in an intolerant and aggressive spirit too often found among men from a single school.' ('The Life of Ronald Poulton' by Edward Bagnall Poulton',1919).
'He (Keith Rae) was extraordinarily bitter. It was a serious disintegrating influence right through the College. In the last two years I was up, the whole College was divided in the most bitter feud. One cannot exaggerate the harm it did.' (Neville Gordon, Balliol undergraduate. Letter to EB Poulton).
‘Ettie gloried when Billy won the top classical scholarship at Balliol … but Billy, too, was a bully ... In June 1912 Billy was sent down for three terms after an Annandale Society riot in the college.’ ('Ettie' by Richard Davenport-Hines. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2009).
'The Annandale Society’s dinners would often be followed by ‘waterfalls’ in which quantities of the college’s crockery would be sent cascading down staircases'. (History of the University of Oxford, Vol.VII. Oxford University Press, 2000).
'Charles was in the full swim of the social life of the College. His Eton friends were all around him ... the escapades of a certain dining society, the Annandale, brought him into disfavour with the authorities - and its exclusiveness with the rest of the College'. ('Charles Lister; letters and recollections, memoir by his father, Lord Ribblesdale, 1917).
'His attitude came out clearly over the Annandale affair. Some of its members ... carried rowdyism and exclusiveness to unnecessary lengths and disgusted a good many men we liked in college.’ ('D.R. Brandt: Some of his Letters' edited by Charles Clay, 1920).
'Julian (Grenfell) wrote his book (aged) twenty-one... an astonishing work for a boy to have written in 1909 ... Billy was a large, affectionate, gentle person; but could be insufferable'. ('Julian Grenfell' by Nicholas Mosley. Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 1976).
'The alcoholic escapades of the Balliol bloods got their mention in the gossip columns of the press ... (Ettie's) friends were becoming dubious about her exact relationship with Patrick, and the rumour-mongers were at work.' ('Patrick Shaw Stewart. An Edwardian Meteor' by Miles Jebb. The Dovecote Press, 2010).
In 1908, the College acquired, in R.W. Poulton, a science exhibitioner. And Neville Talbot became the junior dean. Under the influence of these two Balliol’s tone was completely changed. By 1914, (they had) 'effectively discouraged manifestation of noisy insobriety.’ ('The Oxford of Raymond Asquith and Willie Elmhurst' by M.G. Brock, 2000).
‘During the spring and summer of 1911 the festering crisis at Balliol regarding the Annandale Society gradually worsened into a serious feud over the behaviour of the Eton rowdies now led, after Julian Grenfell’s departure, by his younger and taller brother Billy.’ (‘For Poulton and England’ by James Corsan, 2009).
'(In 1912) Billy Grenfell ... was sent down for three terms. There was a charge of assault.' ('The Children of The Souls' by Jeanne MacKenzie. Chatto and Windus, 1986).
'At Balliol, Billy was a central figure in the Annandale Society whose values and boisterous behaviour Keith deplored. As brother officers, they made reparations to their friendship.' ('Cameos of the Western Front' by Tony Spagnoly and Ted Smith. Pen & Sword, 2004).