William Ernest Powys (1888-1978) was born on 3 March 1888 at Montacute in Somerset, the tenth child of the Rev. Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), vicar of Montacute, and Mary Cowper Johnson (1849–1914).
William attended Sherborne Preparatory School (under headmaster William Heitland Blake), and from September 1902 to April 1906 he was a pupil at Sherborne School, where he boarded at The Green, then run by housemaster T.W. Wilson. During his time at Sherborne School, William played in his House XV rugby team, came second in the half-mile handicap race (1905), entered a drawing of a mill in the summer sketch competition (1905), and took part in episode 10 of the 1905 Sherborne Pageant. William was placed in form II when he entered the School in September 1902 and by the time he left the School in April 1906 he was in form IVb.
William joined the Old Shirburnian Society in 1906 and remained a member until his death. In 1920, William donated £5 towards the Sherborne School War Memorial Fund, and in 1936 he subscribed to the H.R. King Memorial Fund, headed by his brother Littleton Charles Powys (1874-1955) to found a scholarship at Sherborne School for the education of boys who show a proficiency in English studies and to ‘perpetuate the memory of one whose outstanding characteristic was his profound love of English poetry and of the English countryside.’
In 1914, William emigrated to East Africa and farmed at Kisima in Timau, Meru County, Kenya. During the First World War, he served in Bowker’s Horse (the East African Mounted Rifles), a locally raised irregular cavalry unit which fought in German East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania) against General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s guerrilla army. After the unit was disbanded, he joined the East Africa Supply Corps driving cattle from the Belgian Congo to the troops in the East, for which he was awarded the Croix de Chevalier de l’Ordre de Leopold II.
On 12 July 1938, William married Elizabeth Sophy Cross (1896-1963), daughter of the Hon. John Edward Cross (1858-1921) and Sophy Katherine Mary (née Sandbach) (1865-1946). Elizabeth was the sister of Mary Georgiana Cross (1901-1973) who in 1923 had married Aubrey William Hooper MC (1889-1987), an Old Shirburnian who in July 1923 purchased Sherborne Prep School from Littleton Charles Powys.
William Ernest Powys died on 9 October 1978.
Online resources:
William Ernest Powys and the 1905 Sherborne Pageant (pdf)
The Green athletics team, 1906 (inc. William Ernest Powys)
William Ernest Powys on passenger list departing from London for Mombassa, 1914
Medal card of WE Powys, Corps East African Mounted Rifles Regiment
‘Some Notes on East African Sheep Farming’ by W.E. Powys (pdf)
The Powys Family and Sherborne School
An insight into the Powys family through the diaries of Henry Robinson King by Rachel Hassall, 2020
Books written by or about Old Shirburnians (including by members of the Powys family)
Links:
Kisima Farm Limited
The Powys Society
The Sundial Press
The Powys Collection, Dorset History Centre
The Powys Family Collection, University of Exeter
For further information about the Sherborne School Archives please contact the School Archivist.
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