A book of poetry borrowed from an English school library has been returned more than a hundred years after it was borrowed. As the BBC tells it, “Poetry Of Byron” was recently brought back to St Bees School, near Whitehaven, in the north of England.
A couple living in Wales discovered it in their library. Inside the blue cloth-bound book they could read the name of Leonard Ewbank as well as the location of the school, accompanied by the date September 25, 1911.
A student died during World War I
Questioned by the BBC, the current director of the school, founded almost 430 years ago, declared that the school felt “honored” to recover this work. He also noted that the person who had borrowed it at the time, Leonard Ewbank, had been killed in action during the First World War.
According to records, born in 1983, he was a student at St Bees between 1902 and 1911 before moving to Queen’s College, Oxford. He was shot in the head in February 1916 and buried in a military cemetery in Belgium.
“It’s amazing to think that a piece of St Bees history has returned to us after all these years,” the school’s headteacher said.
Source: BFM TV