Temp. 2nd Lt. Frederick Crossfield Happold 9th Bn., N. Lan. R. For conspicuous gallantry. When the enemy exploded a mine, he at once collected a few men, rushed up and out-bombed a far larger force of the enemy in the crater until reinforcements arrived. After being wounded he continued to lead and encourage his party.
Career as a teacher and educationalist
After the war he taught at the Perse School, Cambridge from 1922 to 1928. It was here he started writing for public consumption with the publication of Two plays from the Perse School. He was then appointed Headmaster at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury in 1928 and married his wife Dorothy in the city in 1933. In 1936, their son David was born, who became a notable mammalogist. Frederick Happold was to remain as Headmaster of the school until his retirement in 1960. Regarding one of Happold's innovative educational techniques – the Company of Service and Honour – intended to improve his pupils' understanding of the community, Father Kenelm Foster O.P. wrote " a sort of modernist Grail or Solidarity which Dr Happold founded in 1935 at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury. This is his nucleus, his 'order', his new aristocracy, which is to permeate England: a little cohort of leaders, of seers, of doers.". He sailed to Australia where he was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Melbourne in 1937 for his pioneering work and publications on education. A year previously he oversaw the school becoming a public school and joining the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. In April 1941, two months after its foundation during the Second World War, Happold was commissioned into the Training Branch of the Royal Air Force as a Pilot Officer, a role he would fulfil for 5 years. In keeping with his interest in educational techniques he was a founding member of the New Education Fellowship. He strongly advocated source-based history study and the Oxford Local Examinations amended their History 'O' Level syllabus to include source-based exam questions. During his time at BWS and in his retirement he wrote many books on education and religion, the latter becoming staples of undergraduate theology reading lists. He died in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1971.
