On Wednesday 11th November we organised our annual remembrance ceremony around the flagpole. Mr Burke said a few words before Theo 10S2 and Will 10G played the last Post. The whole school then observed a silence until it was broken by the Reveille. A copy of Mr Burke’s speech is below:

108 years ago almost to the minute the guns fell silent on the Western Front and the Great War came to an end. Today is Remembrance Day. Ever since 1919 we have gathered in ceremonies like this one to remember those who gave their lives in that terrible conflict and in wars since.

It is estimated that over 16 million people died in the First World War with British losses in excess of 900,000. Over 8,000 men from Gloucestershire died, 1666 from Cheltenham and 112 from Charlton Kings. Those 112 are memorialised on the war memorial by St Mary’s that many of you will walk past every day.

Men like Thomas Coombey who was a well-known footballer playing for Charlton Kings and Leckhampton and who worked as a gardener for Herbert Owen Lord, in his estate at Lilley Brook House which today is the Double Tree Hotel. He died during the first day of the Battle of Loos on the 25th September 1915.

Another name on the memorial is Lewis Williams. He lived on Horsefair Street and died on the very last day of the war—November 11th 1918. He was the youngest of five brothers who fought during the war. His elder brothers Frank and Frederick had died earlier in the conflict whilst two brothers survived. Imagine the anguish of his family. They must have been relieved that the war ended only to find out a few days later that he had died at the last.

Across Charlton Kings, Cheltenham and the whole country families would have to come to terms with the loss they had suffered. Private Charles Pearce from Cheltenham died in Mesopotamia on February 10th 1917. Exactly one year later his family posted the following message in the Gloucestershire Echo:

The call was short the shock severe
To part with one we loved so dear
His gentle voice his smiling face
No one on Earth can fill his place

Today we remember all those people who have died in war and we remember the families who were left to mourn the loved and the lost. Now Theo and Will will play the Last Post and then we will observe a moment of silence. The silence will be broken by the Reveille which will bring this service to a close.

Dominic Burke,
Balcarras, November 11th  2026