A school boasting possibly the world's bravest alumni will take students to remember fallen heroes this weekend.

Rutlish School in Merton Park has two former students who have been awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.

Last week we celebrated the life of George Cates, whose valour saved the lives of countless men when he stood on a land mine to take its full impact in Bouchavesnes in 1917.

Now we can reveal he was not the only "Old Rut" who was presented with the VC.

John Henry Stephen Dimmer gained a Surrey County Council Scholarship to attend Rutlish School on Watery Lane, from 1896 to 1897.

After a short-lived career in the surveying department of the auctioneering firm of Ogden Sons and Olley at Wimbledon, his initial attempt to join the army was blocked as he was too short but in 1902 he joined up and by 1908 was made a 2nd Lieutenant of the Kings Royal Rifles (KRR) - a remarkable achievement in a very class-conscious regiment.

Dimmer arrived on 13th August 1914, and his battalion, 2nd KRR, was involved in the Battle of the Aisne before moving to the Ypres Salient to defend it from the advancing Germans.

But it was his bravery at Klein Zillebeke, Belgium, where he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

He wrote home to his mother: "On Thursday last about one o'clock we were suddenly attacked by the Prussian Guards – they shelled us unmercifully, and poured in a perfect hail of bullets at a range of about 100 yards.

I got my guns going, but they smashed one up almost immediately, and then turned all their attention on the gun I was with, and succeeded in smashing that too, but before they completed the job I had been twice wounded and was finally knocked out with the gun.

My face is splattered with pieces of my gun and pieces of shell, and I have a bullet in my face and four small holes in my right shoulder. It made rather a nasty mess of me at first but now that I am washed and my wound dressed I look quite alright."

Cynthia Clift, from Rutlish School, said the school is very proud of its former students.

"It's pretty amazing to have two VC's on a role of honour of 93. John Dimmer was shot several times, once through the jaw, and he continued to fight under heavy shelling. Its quite remarkable the man's bravery."

John became a local and national celebrity, even being afforded the freedom of the Borough of Wimbledon - an offer he politely declined.

Mrs Clift will take a group of 35 students to France and Belgium this weekend to leave tributes to various Old Ruts commemorated on Menin Gate, where they will take part in a service before going on to the Tyne Cot memorial and Thiepval arch to the missing of the Somme.

 

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