Local schools host Remembrance Day services

GLENWOOD High School held its annual Remembrance Day Service on Wednesday, 7 November.

In addition to the staff and schoolboys present, many dignitaries and members of the public attended, including the Natal Mounted Rifles, the Parabat Battalion, the South African Legion, Rhumbelow Moth Shellhole as well as local schools.

After four sentries were posted around the flagpole, various speakers explained the significance of the day and the symbolism of the poppies. The traditional Last Post, a minute’s silence and Reveille were part of the ceremony which ended with a final prayer.

As has become tradition, Glenwood boarders also helped the SA Legion place poppies on the graves of more than 600 servicemen who died in WWI and WWII and who are buried in Stellawood Cemetery in Durban.

ST Henry’s Marist College held a solemn Remembrance Day service on Friday in honour of those alumni who died during the Second World War as well as deceased Marist brothers who had taught at the College. Grade 11 pupil, Luke Seaborne, played the pipes alongside Stacy Grundy from the NMR Pipe Band. The moving service ended with the memorial bell being tolled and a pigeon released as each alumnus’s name was called out.

CLIFTON School also held its annual Remembrance Day service on Friday, to pause and remember those Clifton brothers who fought in wars for freedom.

Executive headmaster David Knowles addressed military guests, parents and learners present.

“Clifton School had not been established at the time of the end of the Great War in 1918, but since 2014, we have observed Remembrance Day here at Clifton. We do this, not to celebrate war, but rather to emphasise peace. We observe this day also to honour all those men and women from around the world, including our own old boys, who have served in the military, and those,including our old boys from the Prep, who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in order that we may have the freedoms we enjoy today,” he said.

Following the address by Rev Chris Meyer, the Last Post was sounded followed by a two minute silence, the Reveille and the laying of wreaths.

ON Friday, 9 November Durban High School hosted Old Boys, veterans, members of the Defence Force, Grade 8 and Blackmore House Boys and the staff of DHS at its Annual Remembrance Day Service.

At Durban High School a sombre Service was held in the Memorial Courtyard to commemorate the 100 years since the end of the First World War. 85 pupils sacrificed their lives in that conflict alone, a cold statistic until one realises it was almost two boys a month.

Lt Col Greg de Ricquebourg, a former DHS Old Boy and former Officer Commanding of Durban Light Infantry, called the Roll of Honour which includes 222 DHS men who died in the Anglo-Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and the Border War.

In his address the Head Master, Mr A D Pinheiro, observed that the Wall of Remembrance, washed by countless showers of rain and bathed in the warm summer sunshine, is all we have left of these wonderful Old Boys. But on this day, the school paid tribute to their memory.

The lesson and homily was addressed by Rev Michael Fourie and wreaths were placed along the Memorial Wall.

Obakhe Delubom, a Grade 10 learner, sang “Green Fields of France” unaccompanied and The Last Post was then performed by trumpeter Sergeant-Major Joseph, followed by a two-minute silence, the Reveille and a prayer and blessing by Rev Fourie, before the ceremony came to a close.

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