Our start-point is, obviously, the chapel rail, giving his name but only the middle initial. To this we can add one further piece of information: in June 1916 the College published a War Supplement, listing all former students serving the armed forces of the Great War, and their whereabouts. All Winchester Training College archives (including those of its later identities King Alfred’s College and University of Winchester) are held at the Hampshire Records Office. Having no budget for the project, almost all work had to be undertaken on-line, but harvesting data from these records was old-fashioned leg-work, ably undertaken by Dee Sayers, one of our three researchers, who lived closest to Winchester. The result, however, was not encouraging: he was simply listed as Pte. H.J. Payne with no location or Regimental information. He was included in the list of men who left college in 1904.

We need to mention at this point that researching every other student was helped tremendously by the previous sterling work of John Hartley (Student 1963-1966). The results of his painstaking work, carried out in pre-Internet days, was committed into the care of others and was tragically lost. The one item which did survive was a spreadsheet summary of his findings, giving most of the following details: Full names, Date of Birth, Date of Death, Date of Studies, Regiment, Service Number, Rank, How Killed, Area of Death, Burial Location. However, Harry J. Payne’s entry is the only one that is blank. There is a note against it which says No details – prob not a war casualty. We were on our own.

But what of the unresolved Esher/Brentford problem? It was during an otherwise fruitless examination of a headmaster’s school diary from Tonbridge that the solution presented itself. The diary included the dates for the beginning and the end of each school term. Cross-referencing these with the dates of the census days, it became clear that the census data was gathered in the Easter school holiday. It had presumably been Harry’s habit to travel home to spend time with his family each Easter break.

Harry’s story was an enigma from beginning to end. It is in keeping therefore that he leaves us with unanswered questions about his time in Tonbridge and, more importantly, why he was included on the Memorial Roll.

The full jigsaw is pieced together in the narrative of Harry’s life.

Researcher and Author of this and the main Harry Payne narrative: John Vickers