Within a collection of diaries and correspondence of the Spencer family of Cookham, there are some letters to Sydney Spencer (1888-1918) from John Maxwell Image (c.1842/3-1919). Image advises Spencer on how to prepare for his admission examination to University of Oxford and much of this advice would likely still resonate with prospective students today. These letters also provide a moving insight into the calm before the storm ahead of the outbreak of the First World War.
Readers may recognise the significance of the surname, Spencer. Sydney was the older brother of renowned artist, Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959). John Maxwell Image was close to the family and would go on to marry their sister, Florence Image née Spencer (1883-1962) who was around 40 years his junior in 1915. Image was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, so in advising Spencer he was able to draw on his own academic background and his wealth of life experience.
John advises Spencer on how to prepare for his examination in his letter of 15 December 1913. He recommends 3-4 hours revision a day and 'take your share of cheerful amusement during this month and your brain will be all the clearer'. He encourages a calm approach, warning that ‘the man who is nervous shows himself many points below his real worth. And what is there to be nervous about? These people wish you to pass. You will find them kindly and reassuring’.
The next letter from Image, dated 28 January 1914, reveals that the advice paid off and Spencer was successful in his examination. Image proceeds to advise Spencer on the important matter of developing a social life in Oxford. He writes that ‘you need not live isolated or lonely, - as sometimes befalls a man in a large College’. However, he warns, ‘be in no hurry to strike up intimacies. These will come gradually, but surely. They are not to be lightly undertaken’. Like many students today, he suggests, ‘run with the Varsity crew... join as regularly as you are able in Hockey or other sports. Your health and your spirits will be benefited – and you will, pleasantly, enlarge your circle of acquaintances’.
Unfortunately, Spencer’s university experience would become overshadowed by world events. Just a few months later brought the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914. Spencer took the decision to join the Officers’ Training Corps at Oxford in January 1915, before eventually joining the 5th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. He was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during a conflict near Morlancourt in August 1918 and he was sadly killed in action at Épehy on 24 September 1918. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry for Sydney Spencer can be accessed online.
With this knowledge, the most poignant line in the letter of 28 January 1914 is the final one which reads, 'you are entering on what will prove the four sunniest years of your life – and may God bless you to enjoy them’. However, this time would bring anything but sunny years. This sentence is a moving reminder that these years spent in higher education should have been some of the happiest, but this was not to be for so many people.
These letters demonstrate how records from before the war can often provoke an emotional response because they show the lives that were left behind by fallen soldiers and how life could have been so different in other circumstances. The relatable advice about pre-examination nerves reminds us to reflect on how everyday people with everyday worries were impacted so tragically in the First World War.
If you are interested in reading more letters relating to Sydney Spencer’s experiences during the war, you can view transcripts online on the Berkshire Voices WWI blog.
Below are typed transcripts of the letters mentioned:
Transcript of D/EX801/77/8:
T.C.C.
15 Dec 1913
My dear Sydney,
Of all dangers that can beset a candidate in his examination the very deadliest is FUNK. The man who is nervous shows himself many points below his real worth. And what is there to be nervous about? These people wish you to pass. You will find them kindly and reassuring. You feel sure that you will do badly in the Examination - Well, you probably will – and so will many of the other candidates. The Examiner expects very little, - merely to see that you possess intelligence (you would indeed be unlike your family, did you fail in that respect), and know just enough to enable you to profit by the lectures.
There will be no viva voce. You will be examined only in passages which you have read and consequently ought to know. Therefore there will be no dictionary.
January 13th is about 4 weeks off. Now you will be very foolish if you stupefy and muddle your wits by desperate over-work. On the contrary, you should slacken. Work, say, not more than three or four hours a day. Revise what you have already read and learnt. Attempt nothing new. Go steadily over the old ground, making sure that you have it “burnt into you” - and never flurry. You know already quite enough – provided that you really do know it. Therefore take things as all in the day’s work. And when the day of trial arrives, you will find the Examiners prepared to make every indulgence for you. They don’t demand from you learning, but good sense. You possess the good sense, and they will put the learning into you.
Take your share of cheerful amusement during this month, and your brain will be all the clearer.
Sincerely, and with warm good wishes,
J. M. Image
Transcript of D/EX801/77/7:
T C
C
28 Jan[uar]y ‘14
My dear Sydney,
Thank you for your letter.
I am sincerely glad and most heartily I congratulate you upon being now a member of Oxford University - “a citizen of no mean city”, but rather of one whose glorious influence, if you will profit by it, must henceforth colour your whole life through.
Mr Baker appears to be shewing a warm individual interest in you. I am particularly pleased that he wishes you to read for Mathematical Schools. You may be trusted to read and work steadily: and he, I trust, will see to it that you do not dull your brain by overwork.
I notice also that you need not live isolated or lonely, - as sometimes befalls a man in a large College. St Catherine’s has a society of its own, to which you are made welcome.
Be in no hurry to strike up intimacies. These will come gradually, but surely. They are not to be lightly undertaken.
On the other hand, don’t hold aloof. Mix with the men in games and in the debating Hall. Be natural & pleasant. Strive against permitting yourself to feel disdain. Remember what was said of “certain which trusted in themselves and despised others”. I think from a passage in your letter that you feel yourself liable to this tendency. Fight it down.
Frankness, simplicity, - and no entanglements.
Oxford has not a healthy climate, and you have a most delicate chest. Your knowledge of this delicacy should keep you, permanently, on your guard, and thus out of harm’s way. Take no risks.
Run with the Varsity crew (if you have the wind), join as regularly as you are able in Hockey or other sports. Your health and your spirits will be benefited – and you will, pleasantly, enlarge your circle of acquaintances.
As to Music, which I believe to be your gift and your favourite enjoyment, I look to your finding in Oxford opportunities for organ practice in some one or other of the Churches or possibly in a College Chapel.
You are entering on what will prove the four sunniest years of your life – and may God bless you to enjoy them.
Most sincerely yours
J M Image