"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, beneath the crosses row on row, That mark our place; & in the sky The larks, still bravely singing fly. Scarce heard amid the guns below... We shall not sleep, though poppies grow. In Flanders Fields."

 

On Thursday 29th June Mrs Murphy, Mrs Hollowday, Miss Dunbar & Mr Cload accompanied 48 year 9 & 10 History students to the WW1 Battlefields in the Ypres Salient, Belgium.

 

We had a 4 hour tour of the area including: 3 cemeteries, 2 for the Commonwealth Forces & 1 for the German Military. Sanctuary Wood Trenches, gave a raw & realistic impression of the horror & cramped conditions the soldiers lived & fought in. The Condemned Cells & Shooting Post in Poperinge; a sombre reminder of the fate faced by those who found the constant demands of War too much to bear.

 

Back in Ypres & the final part of the day, we were proud to participate in the 'Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate.

 

There were many notable and memorable parts to the day: The shock & awe as our students took in the enormity of nearly 12,000 War graves at the Tyne Cot Cemetery of which 8,367 are unidentified. The excitement and emotion as some of them discovered the name of a possible ancestor. Noah Nelson-Smith reading aloud the Poem 'IN FLANDERS FIELDS' at Essex Farm Cemetery, in the very location it was written by Lieutenant Colonel John Mccrae. Maisie Cox reading a poem at the Shooting Post. Then finally, Billy Watson & Joe Curd representing Rye College by laying a Wreath of Remembrance for 'The Fallen of Rye'.

 

The Humanities Department hope this has been a memorable & poignant day for Rye College students.