John McGlashan College, a boys’ school associated with the Presbyterian Church, was founded in 1918. At least 274 old boys and seven masters saw active service during the Second World War. Their names are listed on the school’s roll of honour, a bronze tablet unveiled in the old school hall on 7 March 1954.
The roll of honour is now housed in the school’s Memorial Chapel and Hall, opened on 18 August 1960. A plaque above the original chapel entrance reads:
LEX DOMINI LEX MUNDI / THIS CHAPEL AND ASSEMBLY HALL IS DEDICATED / TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY / FOR THE SACRIFICES MADE BY OLD BOYS OF / THIS COLLEGE IN WORLD WAR 1939 – 45 / DEDICATED BY THE VERY REV. J.D. SALMOND M.A. PhD.
A bronze tablet on the chapel exterior records the actual opening date of the new building which housed the chapel and college kitchen and dining hall. The photographs of 29 former students who were killed in action in the Second World War and one old boy who was killed in the Korean War (Oliver Cruickshank) are displayed in the cloister between the chapel and the dining hall.
See: War Memorial Chapel and Hall: Official Opening and Dedication, Dunedin, 1960; John McGlashan College, 1918-1968: History and Register, Dunedin, 1971, pp. 31-5, 41-3, 58-9, 63-8; Ted Friedlander, Robert Harold, Supreme Sacrifice: 30 ANZAC stories from John McGlashan College, Dunedin, 2003.
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