Remembrance Day

Dear Parents

Welcome back! I hope that you all had a relaxing half term.

Next week, we have the commemoration of Remembrance Day. Every year, on 11th November at 11 o’clock we commemorate Remembrance Day or the end of the First World War (11th November 1918, known as Armistice Day). It is a moment for all of us to stop and stand in silence for two minutes to remember those who died in the war and also all wars over the past hundred years.

I thought that I would put into context some of the statistics of WW1:

• 21 million people were wounded and 8 million were killed from both sides during the war between 1914 and 1918
• Life expectancy for the soldiers on the front line was 5 months in 1914 and 10 months by 1918
• On 1st July 1916 – at the Battle of the Somme – every minute for 24 hours, the British lost 15 men, with 25 men wounded. On the first day, 21,000 died and 36,000 were wounded. It was a 141-day battle and the casualties topped 1 million with 300,000 soldiers dead. (It is an interesting fact that Adolf Hitler was wounded in the leg during that battle but survived)

What is difficult for all of us in 2021 is to try and think about an event that happened over 100 years ago. I have urged the children to speak to you and ask if you have any family members that were involved in the First and Second World Wars. I would be keen to hear your stories.

This week, I shared a story with Year 3 and 4 about Walter Tull who was a British Army Officer who paved the way for equality and inclusion with his dignity and strength. He was an outstanding footballer before the war but once World War One broke out, he joined the Middlesex Regiment. He fought at the Battle of the Somme; suffered from ‘shell shock’ (a term for PTSD) and was promoted to Second Lieutenant becoming one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in the British Army. He was praised for his ‘gallantry and coolness’ by those around him but was fatally wounded at the Battle of Bapaume in March 1918.

Finally, I would like to include one of my favourite poems written by a doctor, John McRae, who was in Belgium during the war and noticed the mass of poppies (now used to symbolise ‘the fallen’) growing in the battlefields.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

I hope that parents will be able to join us next Thursday (details to follow) at our Remembrance Service at school.

Richard Brown

Headmaster