Out in force: QE’s entire CCF marks this year’s Armistice Day

QE Barnet’s 2026 Armistice Day commemoration saw the whole Combined Cadet Force involved for the first time.

In previous years, only a small honour guard has taken part in the ceremony on 11th November, but this year, all 70 cadets turned out for a parade outside and they were then allowed to continue wearing their uniforms during lessons throughout the day.

The CCF also played their part in Barnet’s civic parade on Remembrance Sunday.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our wreath-laying ceremony and the School-wide two-minute silence at 11 o’clock give current pupils and staff an important opportunity to pay tribute to Old Elizabethans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the two world wars and other conflicts. It is also a time during which we reflect on conflicts going on today around the world.”

One hundred and thirteen old boys of the School perished in World Wars I and II, with others killed in subsequent conflicts.

The QE CCF contingent’s sergeant, Jasmaan Sahota, of Year 13, led the eight-strong honour guard as they took part in the ceremony in front of QE’s World War I memorial in the Crush Hall, the foyer close to the Main Building’s entrance.

Jasmaan read Laurence Binyon’s famous 1914 poem, For the Fallen, while senior cadet Tapash Gurung, also of Year 13, laid a wreath, and Year 10’s Gabriel Ward played the Last Post on the trumpet.

Captain Richard Scally, who is also QE’s Head of Aquatics, said: “By having all 70 on parade and then allowing them to keep their CCF uniforms on for the remainder of the day, we helped raise awareness about the importance of remembrance.”

QE is one of only a small number of state schools to have a CCF. It was established in 1992.

On Sunday, as they have done for the past three decades, the School’s cadets joined other uniformed services for Chipping Barnet’s Remembrance Sunday parade. This departed from the Army Reserve Centre and marched to the Chipping Barnet War Memorial outside St John the Baptist Church, arriving to the tolling of a muffled bell.

After prayers for those who died in the service of the Crown, a two-minutes’ silence took place, followed by wreath-laying, with Jasmaan and Tapash laying QE’s wreath together.

The parade, including around 30 cadets from QE, then marched back along the High Street to the Army Reserve Centre.