KELVINSIDE Academy’s thriving Combined Cadet Force contingent will lead its memorial service this Friday 9th November.
A distinguishing feature of the leading Scottish independent school situated in the West End of Glasgow is the fact that its chief charitable purpose is its preservation as a war memorial.
Kelvinside Academy was opened in 1878 by the Kelvinside Academy Company. After the First World War, as a memorial to former pupils who had been killed in action, The Kelvinside Academy War Memorial Trust was formed and the assets of the company were acquired by the Trust.
Kelvinside Academy rector, Robert Karling, said: “Altogether, some 177 former pupils and teachers are commemorated on the war memorials for both world wars and the idea of service is at the core of our values.
“The Remembrance Service is therefore a very important occasion in the life of the school.”
In the week leading up to the service, it is the tradition for senior pupils to lead assemblies to explain the purpose of remembrance. This year, the senior cadet in the school’s Combined Cadet Force, Hamish Miller, discovered a photograph of the prefects in 1909.
Of the 16 boys in the photograph, eight lost their lives serving their country.
“Hamish said that, like boys today, these young men would have played rugby on the fields at Balgray before enlisting years later to fight in Flanders, Gallipoli and the Somme,” said Karling.
“The grandson of a Polish pilot who fought in the RAF at the Battle of Britain in WW2, Hamish urged the pupils to research their family history to find grandfathers and great grandfathers who had served in the wars.”
Worship at the school’s Remembrance Service is led by the rector and senior pupils. It includes readings, war poetry and the choir will sing a rendition of ‘I vow to thee my country’ arranged by Jenny Cunningham, Kelvinside’s director of Music.
Senior cadets from the navy, army and air force sections will be in uniform and will lay wreaths at the war memorials.
The minute’s silence will be broken by the playing of the pipes.
On Sunday 11 November, cadets form the school’s CCF will take part in the Service of Remembrance at Milngavie.
ENDS
For further information please contact Robert Karling at Kelvinside Academy on tel 0141 357 3376
Issued on behalf of Kelvinside Academy by Liquorice Media tel 0141 561 4018 www.liquorice-media.com
Date: 8th November 2012
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