A Noble Company

Major Malcolm ‘The Bobber’ Robertson OBEMC had been profoundly affected by his servicein the First World War at Ypres and on theSomme, and prayed that the boys of Sunnyside,the Winchester College house that he ran, wouldbe spared the like. By 1938, he knew that war wascoming again, and as each set of boys left he triedto follow their fortunes and to support them andtheir families as best he could.The resulting correspondence between TheBobber and former pupils in every theatre of war,as well as to and from their parents and siblings,forms a precious and unique record of the impactof the Second World War on the Winchestercommunity. Together with photographs, diaries,and memoirs from almost all the forty boyswho sat down with The Bobber for the 1938house photograph, their letters provide us witha vivid depiction of the wartime careers of theboys, for whom Robertson felt a huge personalresponsibility. In this magnificent book thesesources reveal the boys’ doubts, successes,boredom, captures, narrow escapes, loves, lifechangingwounds, and – in the case of exactlyone in four of them – their deaths.A Noble Company is an ambitious projectwhich gives the reader an inspiring insight intothese young men’s wartime experiences.