Newport Technical And Art Schools Silver Medal 1905

Technical and Art Schools Newport Medal. Engraved: presented to Archie Boyles Moon for D Certificate School of Art 1905.

The medal appears to be silver but is not hall marked, diameter 30mm, thickness 4mm.
Research has revealed some interesting facts about Archie Boyles Moon.

He was born in Braunton, Devon, in 1882. Moved to Newport where he was a teacher until the First World War. In a newspaper report of his marriage in 1911 it was stated that he was "the youngest member of the Newport Board of Guardians, an ex-officio member of the Newport Trades' Council, and an ex-President of the Newport I.L.P." Various news reports relate how he sought to help the needy and the young. (The ILP, Independent Labour Party, was formed in 1893 and was pacifist, believing that war was "sinful".)

When Archie was called up to fight in the First World war he declined to serve on moral grounds. Even though he subsequently offered to serve in a non-combatant unit he lost his job as a teacher at Bolt Street School and was locked up in various prisons for over two years in total. For some of the time during his imprisonment he was on hunger strike.

After the war Newport Education refused to take him on again as a teacher. Some news reports suggested it was partly due to his political stance. He later got back into teaching and by 1939 he was headmaster at Magor School. He died in Jersey in 1948.

AB Moon A B Moon Archie Moon Archie B Moon