Captain Angus Buchanan VC MC (left) Photo: IWM

A Welsh school is looking for relatives of 76 pupils who lost their lives during the First World War.

Monmouth School for Boys plans to re-dedicate its war memorial on Armistice Day, Monday, November 11. It hopes to trace as many of the descendants of the fallen and invite them to the ceremony.

The war memorial was originally unveiled in 1921 by former Monmouth pupil and Victoria Cross (VC) winner Captain Angus Buchanan.

Captain Buchanan won his gallantry award while serving with 4th Battalion, South Wales Borderers in September 1916.

The VC citation reads: “During an attack an officer was lying out in the open severely wounded about 150 yards from cover. Two men went to his assistance and one of them was hit at once. Captain Buchanan, on seeing this, immediately went out and, with the help of the other man, carried the wounded officer to cover under heavy machine gun fire. He then returned and brought in the wounded man, again under heavy fire.”

Buchanan was shot in the head by a sniper in 1917. Although blinded by the wound, he went on to study law at Jesus College, Oxford, rowing in the college VIII in 1919.

Anyone who has a relative listed on the memorial should email: boys.headsPA@habsmonmouth.org