Commemorating the WW1

Canons Life / Autumn 2018

Commemorating WW1

COMMEMORATING THE CENTENARY OF THE ARMISTICE

Each November, we have, as a School, traditionally marked the season of remembrance with a special assembly, but, in this particular year, we wanted to include more events and projects right across the NLCS community to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice in 1918.

From the start of term ‘There But Not There’ figures appeared in the school buildings and in the grounds – perspex outlines of First World War soldiers, like ‘ghosts’ - with one figure added each week so that, as we approached 11th November, there were eight figures in total, three of whom joined us for our Remembrance Assembly in the Hall on 9th November. Special displays of material from our own archives

and from the Imperial War Museum provided a stunning backdrop to events in the Library and a banner with ‘100’ marked out in red poppies drew us all into the season of remembrance. The Music and Drama departments joined forces to present a special programme of words and music from the Great War, showing how men and women of that grim and uncertain time found solace and inspiration in poetry, song and instrumental music, with poignant pieces, all performed with immense skill, insight and respect. We decided to focus on some of the lesser-known voices of the First World War, those of women, and of soldiers from far beyond our shores who fought alongside British soldiers in a war so distant from their homes. The distinguished author and historian, Mark Bostridge, came to give a talk on Vera Brittain, whose celebrated memoir Testament of Youth is a searing account

of what it was like for a young, academic and spirited woman to live through the Great War and to lose her brother, fiancé and almost every young man she had ever MARK BOSTRIDGE known. The role played by women was also taken up by our Debating Society who revisited a powerful and controversial debate first held by NLCS pupils in 1918, that ‘This House would support the conscription of women.’ A century on, our students looked back to what girls might have said on both sides of the argument exactly one hundred years ago and their arguments and observations, set in the context of 1918, made us reflect on a very different society and world.

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Canons Life / Autumn 2018

The main theme of History and Politics Week which took place as we approached the actual commemoration of the ending of the First World War, was of the huge contribution made by soldiers from across the British Empire, especially India. The writer Shrabani Basu spoke to a large audience at History Society about the role of Indian soldiers in so many spheres of conflict; she made wonderful use of contemporary photographs to suggest how alien this European war was to men born thousands of miles away from the mud of Flanders. Mr Dwyer took up this theme in his Nicholson lecture, rigorously examining the oftenunderestimated impact of the War on India, with villages sometimes losing a whole generation of young men, but India, as a nation, gaining a new-found sense of identity and confidence.

During morning break on that day, the School community gathered in the grounds to mark the dedication of a new cedar tree, a memorial bench engraved with words by the poet Edward Thomas, and a thousand poppy plants. Ceramic poppies, made by students, teaching and support staff, were placed among the real plants by individuals representing every part of our School community. The new garden will, we hope, prove to be a tranquil, beautiful and lasting memorial to the generations who have gone before us and sacrificed so much to defend the peace that we now enjoy.

Friday 9th November saw the main acts of remembrance within the School. The Hall was decorated with paper poppies made by every student in the Senior School; these were inscribed with personal messages of reflection and gratitude and were interspersed with Latin tomb inscriptions created by students in Years 7 and 8. In our assembly, Mr Goward spoke movingly about the great silence which fell once the fighting had come to an end and soldiers returned home – men forever changed by their experiences of war, and an immeasurable sense of loss and grief often overshadowing the nation’s celebrations. Three Year 9 students who had visited the battlefields near Ypres just before half-term recalled with extraordinary insight and maturity on what seeing the vast cemeteries and hearing tales of individual soldiers had meant to them

‘The men, the music piercing that solitude And silence, told me truths I had not dreamed, And have forgotten since their beauty passed.’

(From Tears by Edward Thomas (1878 – 1917) inscribed on the memorial bench)

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