In memory of those who gave their lives in war and conflict, the school gathered in the Chapel for a Service of Remembrance. Alumni were welcomed back, for the hundredth anniversary, to pay tribute to students and masters of Hurst who lost their lives at war .
The service focused on the 193 pupils and masters of Hurst College who sacrificed their lives in the service of their country. During the Prep School service, 193 poppies were laid on the altar, representing each member of the Hurst community killed at war, and in the Senior School, their names were read out before the school fell silent at 11am. A poignant moment in both services was the sound of the Last Post, this year played by Sophie S (Year 8) and Matthew G (LVI).
Following the Remembrance Service, alumni and guests made their way to the Cricket Pavilion for the presentation of a plaque to commemorate the centenary of the dedication of the pavilion as a memorial to the alumni who gave their lives during the Great War (1914-1918).
To read more about the Senior School and Prep School
“ The scheme for a war memorial is taking shape. The thing to avoid is vagueness. It is not a memorial of strangers, whom we honour for their greatness of soul alone; it is an attempt to keep green the memory of those whose hands we have clasped, of those who have shared with us in many a frolic, many a game, of those whose absence we shall feel for many a year to come. ” Headmaster Reverend Coombes wrote in February 1917