G B P Shapland (Day Boy 1910-1912)

Photo: Lieutenant Geoffrey B P Shapland. With the kind permisison of the Shapland family. 

2024 brings to an end a ten year project of remembrance at Christ College that has commemorated the sixty-three Old Breconians known to have been killed on active service or known to have died as a result of the First World War. 

This year's Remembrance Service included remembrance of Geoffrey B P Shapland, who died on 15 November 1924. At the Service were representatives of Geoffrey Shapland's family, including his grandson Kevin, with whom we have been in contact since 2015. We were honoured that they were able to be present to hear the Head's moving address about the last Old Breconian known to have died as a result of the First World War.

Lieutenant Geoffrey Shapland's life encompasses much of the mythology of the First World War – enthusiastic enlistment while underage, action in the muddy trenches of the Somme, injury, convalescence, a return home to marry a local girl, and the continuing trauma of war. His tragic death is a reminder that many young men returned home deeply scarred by their experiences, and that the war did not end with the Armistice for them nor for their families. 

Geoffrey Bernard Penberthy Shapland joined Christ College in 1910 as a Day Boy. He left school in 1912 at the age of 14 to join the family tailoring business in The Struet in Brecon. A H Shapland, his father, was a well-known local businessman who employed a staff of tailors and dressmakers, supplying garments to the local gentry and tailored uniforms to the South Wales Borderers. 

Adding a year to his age on his attestation papers, the 16-year-old Geoffrey Shapland enlisted in September 1914. Believed to be 18 years old, he was gazetted Temporary Second Lieutenant to the 17th Battalion Manchester Regiment on 21 September 1915. His actual age was 17; he entered France in July 1916, just a few months after his eigteenth birthday. The Battalion had sustained heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme and was ordered to the Front again almost immediately, with assaults on Trones Wood on 10 July 1916 then Guillemont on the 30 July 1916. 

Though in one of the quieter sectors by September 1916, Geoffrey was wounded. He stayed with his battalion but just a few months later in December 1916, he was concussed by the impact of a shell early at Blairville. “Shaking and trembling”, he was later accompanied by another Officer to Headquarters where he was affected by another shell attack. 

Despite his physical injuries and apparent mental trauma, Geoffrey continued on duty for over three months until he was forced to leave France in February 1917, suffering from what was initially described as ‘shell shock’. An endless round of medical examinations followed, each recording frustratingly different interpretations of his symptoms. Hopeful of rejoining active service, Geoffrey applied for transfer to the Royal Flying Corps but he was declared permanently unfit and officially “discharged through wounds”. 

Geoffrey returned to work as a tailor to support his growing family, but the physical and mental effects of the war continued to affect his health. On 15 November 1924 Geoffrey B P Shapland took his own life at his father’s tailoring workshop. Details of his death and the subsequent inquest were published in the local newspapers. The “sad story of a young man’s sufferings as a result of his war experience” was revealed and the jury recorded that “in their opinion deceased’s condition was due to the injuries received in the war”.

Despite the frustratingly indecisive and inconclusive diagnoses by the various Medical Boards, it is evident that the local community understood the effect of war on one of their young men. The account of Geoffrey’s funeral in The Brecon and Radnor Express describes the large attendance of businessmen and personal friends, and that “along the route to the Cemetery blinds were drawn or shutters erected” as a mark of respect. Genuine sympathy for the family’s loss is recorded in the inquest report, and is equally apparent in the messages attached to the many floral tributes received and printed in the funeral report. 

Geoffrey’s younger brother, Eric (Day Boy 1922-1929), was a pupil in the school at the time and The Breconian published an obituary that similarly expressed deepest sympathy to his family “on the sad effect of war injuries which led to his tragic death”. 

Lieutenant Geoffrey Bernard Penberthy Shapland is buried at Brecon Cemetery. The funeral service in the church at the cemetery was conducted by the Reverend A E Donaldson (Master and Chaplain 1902-1955) who would have known Geoffrey as a schoolboy. 

In 2015 G B P Shapland's name was permanently added to the Roll of Honour at Christ College. He is almost certainly the youngest Old Breconian to have enlisted for service in the First World War.