Respect for The Fallen
‘That was beautiful, thank you mate’.
The words of a young student who came up to me and shook my hand after watching the Remembrance Ceremony at Middlesbrough College on Friday morning.
I was deeply touched by his words and gesture.
It showed that the decision to hold the Remembrance Ceremony at a time when hundreds of College students and staff were around was the right one.
Since 1995 I have been involved with acts of remembrance to commemorate the 11 former pupils and staff of Middlesbrough High School who died in the First and Second World Wars. That year I found two very large, and heavy, Memorial Boards in a store cupboard. I arranged for their installation on the walls on what was then part of Teesside tertiary College and for remembrance ceremonies to be held. When the college relocated, as Middlesbrough College, to Middlehaven in 2008, I arranghed for the Memorial Boards to be relocated to the new site, prior to the demolition of the old buildings.
Since Middlesbrough College opened in 2008 we have held the Remembrance Ceremony on a Saturday morning. It has always been a quiet occasion, attended by Old Boys, Governors, the Principal and a few members of staff and the occasional student.
This year it was held in the midst of a normal, busy day for the College.
Yet at the heart of the Ceremony, the Silence to remember those who died in past conflicts, you could have heard a pin drop.
The moment of remembrance was impeccably observed.
Throughout the Remembrance Ceremony there was a sense of deep respect. As I told the history of the two Middlesbrough High School Memorial Boards, their links with the College and the stories of some of the 208 men commemorated thereon, I could see that everyone – not just the invited guests but the hundreds of students, staff and other College users who had taken a moment out of their busy lives to stop, to observe the proceedings - was listening with interest and respect.
In a link between past and present, two students from the College gave sensitive and moving readings of two poems. Joanne Amir read ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae – written amidst the horrors of Ypres – whilst Emily Roche read a modern poem ‘War Memorials’ by John Forder.
We were particularly honoured to welcome to the Ceremony Major (Retd.) Tony Warriner MBE and other representatives of the Green Howards.
Major Warriner joined College Governor John Autherson and Middlesbrough High School Old Boy Gordon Woods to lay a wreath in memory of those killed in World War One, whilst the College Principal, Zoe Lewis, was assisted by the two students, Joanne and Emily, to lay a wreath in memory of those who died in the Second World War.
Middlesbrough High School had a close association with the Green Howards, with at least thirty of the one hundred and eight men who died in World War One having served in the regiment, and an Old Boy who served in the Green Howards being awarded the Military Cross in 1944 for his bravery on D Day, only to lose his life a few days later whilst attempting to save some of his men.
As the three Green Howards Standards were dipped and the bugler played The Last Post, the sense of occasion was almost overwhelming.
As it should be.
We Will Remember.
For more images from the Cermony click here