Pyne, Eric Wilfred

Eric was born in Castletown in the Isle of Man and was baptised on 26th March 1897.  He was the youngest of five children, all of whom had been born in Castletown.

By 1901 the family had moved to Warwick where Eric’s father, Horace Seymour Pyne was the Headmaster of the Boys Middle School, situated at 17 The Butts.  The family lived on the premises and consisted of Horace and his wife Hannah Huxley Pyne, Horace (13), Mona Grace (12), Ethel Huxley (10), Arthur Huxley (9) and Eric (4).  There were also a nephew, two boarders and two servants living in.

Eric’s sister, Mona, died after the census was recorded in 1901.

By 1911, Eric’s father had become Headmaster at Warwick School and all of the family were living on the premises, in Myton Road.  Both Eric and his older brother, Arthur, were pupils at the school.

Eric was an active and popular member of the Warwick School community – he was a Senior Prefect as well as Captain of the school’s cricket and football teams.

An account of Eric being missing appeared in the Warwick Advertiser on 26th May 1917:

Eric’s father commissioned a new window for the school chapel – here is an account of the dedication of the new west window (Warwick School Chapel) from Dennis Castle:

‘My father attended the unveiling of Spear’s west window of the chapel in 1925.  It was intended as a commemoration for all the school’s war dead, but Pyne really intended it to be a personal monument to his son Eric, who died at Gallipoli.  Certainly, I know that Mrs Pyne always considered it to be “Eric’s window’. (courtesy of Warwick School, Archivist)

Eric’s father Horace, died in 1950 and his mother, Hannah died in 1955.  The family had moved to Folkstone in Kent.