Remembrance Sunday 2022
This week saw the Corps proud and humble in its connection to the Armed Forces as it marked the Armistice. For five days, senior cadets were busy selling poppies around school, and on Friday all cadets wore their uniform to lessons and participated in the school’s service for Armistice Day.
Remembrance Sunday was, as always, the main event in our Acts of Remembrance as a large congregation of pupils, parents, staff and OCs gathered under a weak Autumn sun. The service began with a Guard of Honour, who slow marched onto parade and bowed their heads with arms reversed as the Heads of School read out the Roll of Honour, while Dr Sinclair added a plangent lament on the bagpipes. Then, to the powerful accompaniment of the band, a 150-strong parade of cadets marched on under the command of RSM William Baker to pay their respects. After words from the Padre and the Headmaster and a poem beautifully read by Cpl Candice Bortey, 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 and pupils, CSM James Willimont lowered the CCF Banner in tribute, before the Reveille brought it up again as a symbol of new life so dearly paid for. The hard work of the cadets, the skill of the musicians and the lovely singing of ETS during and after the service conspired to produce a moving morning, a sobering reminder of the destruction of war and a statement of the gratitude of the living for the sacrifices of the fallen.
We will remember them.
Capt Mathew Owen
OC Army Section
