Remembrance Sunday 2014
Remembrance Sunday was marked with a moving chapel service led by the Rev Ivan Moore. Parents, staff, pupils and Old Bancroftians joined the two hundred members of the School Combined Cadet Force, as well as representative from the Sea Scouts and Cubs, as they remembered those who have given their lives in conflict. Before the service, the CCF marched along Whitehall Road and the High Road, before processing into the School grounds. Following the ceremony, a wreath was laid on the School War Memorial in the Quad by RSM Annabel Smith, while Provhat Rahman played the Last Post. The traditional silence was marked by all those present. A second wreath was paced at the School’s memorial gates, which commemorate the fallen of World War II, and a third was laid on the memorial tablet in honour of the loss of those associated with the School in Afghanistan.
To mark the centenary of the start of the Great War, 170 crosses were laid out in the Quad during the service, each one marking the death of a pupil or teacher during that conflict. Before the laying of the wreaths, each name was read out led by Mary Ireland, who called out the names of staff who had died in the First World War. The names included Lieutenant Francis Frost who has only just been named as one of the Bancroftians killed in action; thanks to the extensive research by Old Bancroftian Simon Coxshall (1970-1977) into all Bancroftians who were killed in the conflict, we have been able to add Frost to the School's Roll of Honour.