Staff and pupils observe act of remembrance at Alleyn’s school in Dulwich
A school’s staff and army cadets joined an act of commemoration as lockdown hit its annual parade and service.
Staff and pupils of Alleyn’s School in Dulwich gathered in the Great Hall to observe a moving act of commemoration On Sunday.
Headmaster Mr Skinnard introduced the service, which was then led by Alleyn’s Chaplain, Rev Lander.
Zeb, a musician in Year 10, sounded the Last Post and the Reveille, and those gathered respected the silence while wreaths were laid at a drum altar in the Great Hall, marked by a regimental drum from the Great War.
Major Benest represented the Combined Cadet Force contingents of the three Foundation Schools, Alleyn’s, Dulwich College and JAGS, and School Captain Morgan delivered a reading from John 15:9-17.
Alleyn’s Great Hall is a site of memorial for the fallen from the school, and therefore it returned to one of its original uses as the Remembrance was observed.
The drums are those of the 21st (First Surrey Rifles) Battalion, The London Regiment, a Territorial unit which had its headquarters in Flodden Road, Camberwell.
The division had just deployed on its annual summer camp on Salisbury Plain when war was declared in August 1914, and was at once recalled and mobilised for war service, landing at le Havre in France in March 1915.
Usually on Remembrance Sunday, Alleyn’s CCF and Edward Alleyn Club, in conjunction with CCF from Dulwich College and JAGS, parade through Dulwich Village to a commemorative service at Christ’s Chapel.
Due to Covid-19 related restrictions, these activities were unable to go ahead in their usual format this year.
A short film of the event is now available for viewing on the school’s website here.
Pictured top: The act of remembrance
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