“On 11 Nov 1918, Claud Cockburn, then aged 14, covertly threw the keys of the main gate of his school out of an upstairs window to a soldier waiting below… to allow the soldiers being trained locally to break into Berkhamsted School and thrash it in retaliation for the refusal of the headmaster, Charles Greene, to call a school holiday to celebrate the armistice, which had just been declared. Charles Greene… [father of] novelist Graham Greene, supported the war, but he was acutely aware of its terrible cost. Greene, a liberally minded man with great force of character, had had the grim experience of seeing those whom he had just been teaching called up when they reached the age of 18 and, all too often, they were reported killed or wounded a few months later.” (Independent, 9 Nov 2018).
WWI books Berkhamsted in WWI and Men of Berkhamsted: Lest We Forget still available from the Society @ £5 each + p&p.
Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society 