Remembrance Sunday 2018 – Marking 100 Years

This week saw the Corps marking the centenary of the Armistice. For five days the senior cadets were busy selling poppies around school, and on Thursday they made their own personal tribute to the Old Boys who fell in the Great War, planting named crosses on the Headmaster’s lawn. Sunday 11 November was, of course, the main event in our acts of Remembrance as a very large congregation of pupils, parents, staff and OCs gathered under grey skies. To mark the 100 years, a special guard of honour slow marched onto parade and bowed their heads as the Head Boy, Sgt Haynes, read out the school’s Roll of Honour. Then, to the evocative strains of Tipperary, a 150-strong parade of cadets marched on under the command of CSgt Jack Palmer to pay their respects. After words from the Padre and the Headmaster and a poem beautifully read by FSgt Charlotte Cross, silence fell across the country and thoughts turned to terrible and humbling sacrifices made for our peace and freedom. At the Last Post, played beautifully by cadets under Mr Brian Hill, CWO Emma Knight lowered the CCF Banner in tribute, before the Reveille brought it up again as a symbol of the new life so dearly paid for. This year more than ever, the service was a sobering reminder of the destruction of warfare and a statement of the gratitude of the living for the sacrifices of the dead. All the cadets and bandsmen who took part deserve great credit for their efforts, on Sunday and throughout the week, to honour and remember their forefathers.

Lt Mathew Owen