Remembrance

Rememberance Margin
All the former students of the School who gave their lives in the three major conflicts in the twentieth century are commemorated on memorials in the North Aisle of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Boer War Memorial photo

Boer War

First World War Memorial

WW1

Second World War Memorial

WW2

Photo of Adam Drane’s Headstone

Headstone

Rememberance Margin

The Association has been invited to take part annually in the Remembrance Day commemorative events in the town, and it is proud to do so.

The 2024 Act of Remembrance

A short video of the Parade following the Act of Remembrance on Sunday, 10th November 2024. Click the button to play.

And some photographs of the ceremony (by Clifford King). You can hover over a picture to pause it, or click the right or left arrows to navigate or restart the show.


The 2023 Act of Remembrance

November 11th fell on a Saturday in 2023 and provided us with an excellent opportunity to combine Old Burians’ Association events over that weekend. On Friday, 10th November, King Edward VI School held their Remembrance Service at The Cathedral. Students read the “Roll of Honour”, naming every former student of our school who gave their lives in WW1, WW2, and subsequent conflicts. Saturday, 11th November saw the Old Burians’ Association AGM take place at the School in Grove Road in the afternoon, with a number of members also taking part remotely via Zoom. This was followed in the evening by the annual OBA Reunion Dinner in The Lower Hall at the School, enjoyed by 36 members and guests. Students from the School provided excellent musical entertainment during the evening.

Photographs by Clifford King

The next day, Sunday, 12th November, Old Burians were represented at the public Service of Remembrance at The Cathedral, finishing in time to move to Angel Hill for the 11 o’clock Remembrance Parade. Old Burian David Blackmore and his wife were accompanied by two of the current students in laying a wreath on the War Memorial in memory of former students from our school who lost their lives serving in the Armed Forces.

Following the event some of the Old Burians who attended met up for lunch at ‘The Fox’.


Looking back – The 2022 Act of Remembrance

On Friday Morning, 11th November, six Old Burians represented the Association at the School’s Remembrance service in the Cathedral. There were about 600 students present! As the pandemic has prevented this event in the last two years, logistics and organisation on the day were a little shaky, but none-the-less, OBA members processed with the Head Girl and Head Boy with poppy crosses. These were placed on the three memorials in the north aisle of the Cathedral as has been our tradition for many decades. It was good to revisit the brass Boer War memorial further down the north aisle towards the west end. It has only four names of students who lost their lives in that conflict, compared with the larger numbers on the stone WW1 and WW2 memorials, but remans important and must not be overlooked.

On Sunday morning, two more members joined Charles Hamel-Cooke and his wife Yvonne at the 10.00 service at The Cathedral. Charles read one of the lessons in the service. Following that, we joined the huge crowd on Angel Hill, where Eric Davey represented the OBA (sadly, Eric passed away in September 2023), and laid our wreath on the war memorial with all the forces representatives and various Bury organisations who participated in that ceremony.


The OBA at the 2021 Remembrance Day event

It was wonderful for the Old Burians Association to take part in the services to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Charles Hamel-Cooke and Adrienne Williams read the lessons during the service in the Cathedral with David Blackmore laying a wreath at the Bury St Edmunds War Memorial and representing us at the reception in the Athenaeum with Eric Davey.