Reverend Canon Simon White led our Remembrance Service on Tuesday. Year 9 form representatives and cadets were in attendance and our Senior Students laid wreaths on behalf of the school, the Edwardians Association and the Foundation Governors in remembrance and tribute to all who suffered or died in war.

In World War One, 58 Old Boys and one member of staff paid the supreme sacrifice. Most of them found their last place of rest far from home: in Belgium, in France, in Gallipoli, in Poland, at sea; many of them have no known graves.

In the Second World War, by a strange coincidence, yet another 58 Old Boys perished in War – this time together with two members of staff. Only a few of them are buried in the UK. The remainder lie in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, in Iceland and Italy, in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, in Burma and in Singapore. Again, many have no known grave but the sea.

In the Korean War of 1953, one Old Boy was killed while fighting for the United Nations in the cause of world peace.

In gratitude for the service and sacrifice of all these young men – their average age was only 24 – Erin Thompson took the reading and Mr Tedder read The Pride of the Poppy.

The service ended with the Last Post played on trumpet by Matthew Turner and Will Straughan supported by Ms Waterhouse.