Herre August Rothe was the German master at King Edward’s School.

Little was known about Rothe until last year when the archivist at King Edward’s School received an email from an academic at Universität Zürich regarding his career.

Considerable research has now been undertaken which has added several key pieces to the Rothe jigsaw and given a tantalising glimpse of his character.

Records confirm that Rothe was appointed language master (French and German) at King Edward’s School in October 1881. From the Chronicles and OE Gazettes of the time the school learnt that as a teacher he was sound, practical and thorough, although his stern, irascible disposition often meant that all but a select band of older, more proficient boys found him less than inspiring.

However, one old boy admitted that whilst he was a good scholar, “and had a deeper knowledge of old English language and literature than most men in the town”, the boys did not behave well towards him. “He was a foreigner and I regret to say we treated him very badly.”

Despite these seemingly strained pupil-master relations, Rothe was deeply committed to the boys and for many years acted as judge or steward in games and sports at school.

On his retirement in June 1912 he presented the school with the Rothe Cup for Inter-House football competitions. The boys reciprocated by presenting Rothe with a silver bridge box sent “through the unsatisfactory medium of the post”.

Rothe’s letter of thanks was published in the Chronicle, March 1913.

It stated: “I wish to thank you and the whole school most heartily for your beautiful present. I shall always value your present highly as a souvenir of my long connection with the school.

“If I did what I could to earn your gratitude, I only did my duty to the school and your parents; still it is most gratifying to hear from you that, in spite of the difficulties with which my path was beset, my work among you was much appreciated.

“Of these difficulties the unsatisfactory nature of the political relations between our two countries was perhaps the weightiest, and they have affected not only my life among you but also to a certain extent my work at the school.

“Boys naturally reflect in their politics the atmosphere of their homes. What wonder, therefore, that the opposition to most things German should have been extended to the language it was my lot to teach.

“In one of his last communications your headmaster (Cary-Gilson, whose son was killed in the Battle of the Somme) asked me to tell my friends that England did not want war with Germany.

“I may reply with the words of one of our Chancellors that ‘no sane German wants war with England’. I for one, as many of you know, have never believed that Germany has the intention of provoking a quarrel with this country and I have never ceased to believe in the possibility of a pacific solution of all the difficulties arising between our respective countries.

“In the Germany of the last century, which I know better than the present one, there was a solid sub-stratum of friendship, not to say love, for England, based on racial, religious and intellectual ties, and I decline to believe that the tension of the last 10 years has entirely obliterated that feeling.

“I am delighted indeed to see that there has been a marked improvement in the political outlook of late.

“England and Germany have never yet faced each other in battle array, but on the other hand have fought side by side on many battlefields.

“The big countries of Europe are no longer as ready as in former times to fly at each other’s ears, and it seems to me that the only legitimate warfare and the only one worthy of our more enlightened century is the bloodless competition in the domain of science, commerce and art.’’