Oxford College receives approval to add foreign soldiers to WWI memorial

The BBC reports that The Queen’s College, Oxford, has received permission from Oxford City Council to add five additional names to its First World War memorial, including three German soldiers who were former students.

The decision, approved following a proposal submitted in spring 2024, will see the names added to the existing 121 names on the college's memorial commemorating former students who died during the conflict.

This move follows similar decisions by other Oxford colleges over the past century. New College led the way in 1930, followed by Merton and Magdalen Colleges in 1994, and University College in 2018. The Queen's College described their addition as an "appropriate and unobtrusive response" that was "justified by the need to remember all members of the college community who died".

The additional names

The five names to be added are:

German students:

• Carl Heinrich Hertz (born Hamburg, 1893; died France, 1918)
• Erich Joachim Peucer (born Colmar, 1888; died Italy, 1917)*
• Gustav Adolf Jacobi (born Weimar, 1885; thought to have died fighting, 1914)**

Other international students:

• Paul Nicholas Esterházy (Hungarian; matriculated 1901; died Poland, 1915)
• Emile Jacot (served Royal Warwickshire Regiment; wounded and died of injuries, 1928)

*Colmar was part of the German Empire at the time of Peucer's birth but is now in France.
**Jacobi is already commemorated on a memorial at Rhodes House, Oxford.

Contrary to the BBC report suggesting uncertainty about Emile Jacot’s origins, research indicates he was born in Birmingham in September 1895. Census records from 1901 and 1911 show him residing in Handsworth, Staffordshire, with his family. Jacot later became a sculptor, winning the Prix de Rome for Sculpture in 1926 for a piece entitled Sport. He died in March 1928 at a clinic in Montreux, having succumbed to wounds received during his military service.

Ongoing debate

The inclusion of former enemy soldiers on British memorial continues to generate discussion within military history circles. Supporters argue it reflects the international nature of these educational institutions and acknowledges the tragedy of war affecting all nations. Others maintain that British memorials should remain focused on those who served the Crown.

The Queen's College joins a small but growing number of institutions that have chosen to remember all their former members, regardless of the side on which they fought.

The Western Front Association encourages informed discussion about all aspects of the First World War. This story highlights the complex questions surrounding commemoration and remembrance that continue to evolve nearly a century after the conflict's end.