Merchant Taylors' School Act of Remembrance

11th November 2014

Shortly before the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the School gathered to make Act of Remembrance to all who have fallen in war, but, in particular on this centennial year, to those of the school who gave their lives in the service of their country in The Great War.

Father Bond began the service by citing Psalm XLVI: 'God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble' and remembered, "with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives in world wars and conflicts past and present have been given and taken away". Members of the Junior Common Room then underscored the commonality of humanity, the global nature of the catastrophe, and the universality of the yearning for peace, by reading verses from Psalms, Isiah and Lamentations in parallel with renditions of them in German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Mandarian.

The School then rose to sing the Processional Hymn, 'All people that on earth do dwell', remaining standing for The Act of Remembrance. They listened to the words of the Kohima Epitaph, "When you go home, tell them of us and say: for your tomorrow, we gave our today".  The Last Post then signalled the two-minute silence, from which we were recalled by the bugler's Revile.

Simon Everson, Head Master, then read from Laurence Binyon's "For the Fallen", and after prayers were offered and the School had sung 'I vow to thee my country', Lieutenant Colonel P S Reehal MBE MSc RLC then delivered The Address.

Lieutenant Colonel Patrick 'Patch' Reehal joined the British Army in 1995 at the age of 18. On graduation from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he joined the Royal Logistic Corps where he spent ten years specialising in support to Airborne and Commando Forces across the world from Norway to the Pacific. During this time, he was deployed to Bosnia as an intelligence office, collected weapons from rebels in Macedonia and served two tours of duty in Iraq. During the last ten years, Patch has commanded Gurkha soldiers recruited from the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas and he led his Squadron of 150 men on Combat Patrol operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.