Spring Grove School, Wye – Community Concert – Remembering 1918

13 Nov 2018

Two school communities came together in Wye Parish Church last week to mark the centenary of the ending of World War I, and to remember those who have given up their lives in all wars. Children from Spring Grove School and Lady Joanna Thornhill Endowed Primary School joined forces to lead a packed church in songs and poetry, and to tell the stories of some of the men whose names appear on the War Memorial in Wye.

The service opened and closed with a moving bagpipe lament and a rousing rendition of ‘Scotland the Brave’, played by Lance Corporal Mahesh Gurung of the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers. It was a thrilling way to open what was to be a moving and often poignant afternoon. With standing room only in the church, the attentive congregation encompassed an age range almost as wide as the 100 years that have passed since the signing of the Armistice. The importance of children as young as five years being part of this act of remembrance was underlined by Bill Jones, Headmaster of Spring Grove School, who introduced the speakers from both schools, and personally led much of the singing.

The whole church joined in rousing renditions of World War I classics including ‘Roses of Picardy’, ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’ and the challenging tongue-twister ‘Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers’. A local string quartet played throughout, most notably providing the background music as the children told the stories of the men from Wye who had lost their lives in the Great War. These stories had been researched by the children from Spring Grove School, and were read out by representatives from both Spring Grove and Lady Joanna Thornhill. This story-telling formed the central part of the afternoon, together with poetry reading that included a beautiful recitation of Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’.

The concert drew to an end with a minute’s silence, signalled by the Last Post and Reveille played with great accomplishment by Spring Grove pupil, Alice. Then the whole congregation joined in ‘Jerusalem’ – composed in 1916 by Sir Hubert Parry to reinforce British resolve during the First World War. It was a fitting way to end a wonderful concert that brought the community in Wye together, young and old, in both laughter and tears, and most importantly sent out the message:  ‘We will remember them’.