Lives of the First World War

Lieutenant-Colonel Valentine Leathley Armitage MC TD (1888 - 1964) was a British Army officer and schoolmaster. He was the headmaster of Bloxham School from 1925 and 1940, where he introduced a number of pioneering reforms. Armitage was born in Heidelberg, Germany to British parents, Revd Allan Leathley Armitage and Margaret Merwyn Drake. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and the Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied as a modern linguist. Between 1909 and 1911 he was a teacher and lecturer at the University of Rennes. He returned to England and became a schoolmaster at the Grange, Folkestone, then at Gore Court, Sittingbourne from 1911 to 1913, followed by Rossall School between 1914 and 1915. In 1915 Armitage was commissioned into the Northamptonshire Regiment and saw active service in the First World War. He also served with the Provost Corps between 1915 and 1919. He was awarded the MC for Gallantry.