CCF cadets played a pivotal role in the Duke of York’s Royal Military School Remembrance events to pay tribute to military personnel who have lost their lives in conflict.
In London, Rinnah Akinsanya from the school’s RAF section, was a member of the Royal British Legion Standard escort at the Festival of Remembrance, Royal Albert Hall.
Also in the capital, the school’s Principal Alex Foreman, students and staff took part in the Torch Lighting Ceremony of the British Torch of Remembrance at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.
School Principal Alex Foreman said: “Remembrance Day is a very poignant time for our students as many have parents currently serving in the Armed Forces. It is a deep honour that our students and staff take part in memorial events at Westminster Abbey, the Royal Albert Hall and in Flanders.”
In a service led by the Dean of Westminster Abbey, students formed a Guard of Honour to stand over the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior during the service, as well as a colour party and buglers.
Students first provided an Honour Guard in 1919 when the body of the ‘Unknown Warrior’ was brought back to Britain from the Western Front via Dover Docks. The British Torch of Remembrance was lit in Belgium after the First World War and then extinguished by the Nazis in the Second World War. The original torch was brought to Westminster Abbey to be relit and returned to Belgium; this tradition has continued every year since.
Back in Kent, students from the school provided a Guard of Honour, a colour party and buglers for the Service of Remembrance at Dover Marine Railway Station (now the cruise terminal) in support of the British Torch of Remembrance and South Eastern Railways, as the torch continued its journey to Ostend, Roeselare, Bredene, Ypres and Brussels.
Over in Belgium, representatives of the school and members of the British Torch of Remembrance, visited the Menin Gate and the graves of Dukies who fell within the Ypres salient between 1914 -18. They also took part in a march through Brussels city centre and a reception at Brussels City Hall .The following day they were privileged to exercise their right to be the sole British representatives marching in the King’s Armistice Day Parade where wreaths were laid at La Colonne du Congrès, the resting place of the Belgian Unknown Warrior, in the presence of Princess Astrid of Belgium.
On Remembrance Sunday, a parade with parents and families of students took place at the school’s war memorial. The parade was inspected by Principal Alex Foreman, Chairman of the Dukies’ Association Simon Daglish and Vice Principal Lieutenant Colonel Steven Saunderson.
This was followed by a chapel service in the school’s Royal Military Chapel of St Michael and St George, where the school colours were laid upon the altar in an act of reverential remembrance.
