Leslie Paton: Memory and Places In 2019 I was one of seven artists commissioned to produce a new engraving for the 400th anniversary celebrations of Dulwich College.
Before visiting the College I had completed a set of engravings, in 2018, commissioned by the Folio Society making work inspired by the poems of WW1 soldier-poet, Wilfred Owen. This was playing on my mind during my visit to the College and I was impressed with the enthusiasm the boys spoke about a History project which involved researching a name upon the war memorial. This space also seemed to resonate, and the placing of the memorial within the setting of the College where so many young people start to shape their lives seemed particularly poignant.
I chose Leslie Paton’s name simply because it was there on the memorial and decided to make something about remembering him, from the little I knew – a work of remembrance.
As part of my research I discovered Leslie Paton left Dulwich College for Sandhurst, and became a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots. He joined his regiment and was sent to France in February 1917; a few weeks later he was killed leading an attack on the German lines near Arras at the age of 19. I used maps of where he lived and maps of the front lines and trenches where he fought within the overall design and the development of the work, the patterns are from drawings I made of the floor within the main buildings.
Through correspondence with the family, I learned that Leslie’s brother William also died, aged 21, while their other brother Ralph survived and lived until 1976. Knowing this adds a deeper sense of the loss behind the names on the memorial, and makes the work of remembrance feel all the more poignant.
