A ROLL of Service, listing the 297 pupils from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Wimborne who served in the First World War, has been unearthed in an old store room.

It was discovered during a hunt for information on the history of Wimborne’s Royal British Legion, founded in 1921.

It is believed the roll was handed to the British Legion in the 1950s when Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School was amalgamated with other schools to become the new QE, and at one time was displayed in the club Memorial Hall.

The illuminated roll contains the names of those who served in the armed forces including the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army. Of particular interest, and about which nothing is known, was the Bournemouth Athletic Corps.

Two members of staff were also members of the Royal British Legion.

They were Phil Bollon, secretary at Queen Elizabeth’s School, Pamphill, and Patrick Swinnerton, a schoolmaster at Queen Elizabeth’s School who was a Second World War prisoner of the Japanese.

Alan Marsh hopes to publish the short history of the Wimborne Royal British Legion in 2010 with part proceeds going towards the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

John Raymond, recently installed branch president of the branch, presented the roll to QE School headteacher Andy Puttock, watched by branch chairman retired Capt David Hoyle and Alan Marsh.

Mr Puttock said: “It will provide invaluable evidence for our students, who study the war as part of the curriculum, as well as a superb heritage piece to have pride of place in the new school.

“As we build our state-of-the-art school of the future, our students rightly constantly remind us of their pride in being part of the oldest free state school in the country, a heritage which they hold very proud indeed.

“The roll of honour is another very important piece in that jigsaw.”