Remembering the fallen

QE’s Combined Cadet Force played a leading role as School and borough marked Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

Led by the CCF’s new commander, Captain Alexander Masson (pictured below), the boys joined other local cadet forces, veterans, representatives of the Gurkhas and adult reservists from the London Borough of Barnet for a parade service at St John’s Church, High Barnet.

The Remembrance Sunday activities included the wreath-laying ceremony at the war memorial outside the church and the parade back through the town, culminating in the march-past, with the Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, Martin Russell, taking the salute.

All the contingents and their families gathered at the Barnet Army Reserve Centre, where they assembled in formation outside in the yard. After the parade was dismissed, they enjoyed a buffet lunch and drinks.

On Armistice Day, 11^th November, the School held its own act of remembrance. This included the two-minute silence observed in every classroom.

Senior members of the CCF marched in front of the School and then Zarius Meher-Homji, the most senior pupil in the CCF, laid a wreath as the Last Post was played. Year 12 pupil Hugo Flint read the best-known verse of Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen – starting “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old”. The poem was first published in The Times in the early weeks of World War I.