RGS community joins together in moving Act of Remembrance

MORE than 1,000 RGS students and staff gathered around the school’s Memorial Stone, overlooking the original playing fields where so many boys and young men enjoyed playing rugby and cricket before the dark clouds of war changed their lives for ever.

The school community gathered together in a moving Act of Remembrance, paying tribute to the 100 former students and masters killed in both world wars.

We also remembered those who have served and died in subsequent conflicts while reflecting on the impact war has had on Ripon and its wider community.

The Memorial Stone which we all gathered round was established in 1922, when the Old Rips alumni association purchased a field for the school in memory of those who gave their lives in the 1914-18 war, the boundary of which they marked by installing the commemorative stone.

Since then, all our pupils have benefited from the Memorial sports field given to the school to honour the memory of those who died, sacrificing their today for our tomorrow.

Following the laying of memorial wreaths, which were later transferred to the Roll of Honour in the school library, staff and students went on to lay individual poppies on the Memorial Stone.

Our three trumpeters also played The Last Post and Reveille at a service in Ripon's Spa Gardens