Remembrance at RGS Worcester
On Thursday, as we marked 100 years since the nation’s collective Remembrance traditions were first brought together, a commemorative Remembrance film was broadcast across the School to give pupils and staff the opportunity to reflect and remember.
The film presented our annual Remembrance Service, led by the Headmaster and included a moving performance from the RGS Chamber Choir and included a Guard of Honour from the School’s Combined Cadet Force. Wreaths were laid at the First World War and Second World War memorials in Perrins Hall by the School Captains during the Service.
![Perrins Hall - Remembrance at RGS Worcester Perrins Hall - Remembrance at RGS Worcester](https://www.rgsw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IMG_2206-scaled.jpg)
![Remembrance at RGS Worcester Remembrance at RGS Worcester](https://www.rgsw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Remebrance-Day-cakes-11-Nov-2021-3-of-5-scaled.jpg)
With the School being the sixth oldest in the world, cherishing the past is always important at RGS and Remembrance Day serves as an important reminder for everyone in the School community. Reflecting upon this, please see below a selection from the School’s Archives, honouring the many alumni who died in war:
Photograph of The Royal Grammar School Worcesters – 1st Football Team, 1911
Archibald Edward Gibbs (back row, second from left) – Archibald (1904-12) and his brother, Gilbert (1902-08), were both pupils at RGS having grown up on Sunnyside Road in Barbourne. Tragically, the brothers were to die within days of each other in April 1917; Archibald during the Salonika Campaign in Greece where he was serving with the 11th Worcestershire Regiment, and Gilbert in France where he was serving with the Somerset Light Infantry. The bodies of the brothers were never found, but they have been memorialised at St Barnabas Church, Worcester; on the Perrins Hall Memorials, and at the locations where they died fighting.
![Photograph of The Royal Grammar School Worcesters - 1st Football Team, 1911 Photograph of The Royal Grammar School Worcesters - 1st Football Team, 1911](https://www.rgsw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Archive-for-Remebrance-10-Nov-21-14-of-27-scaled.jpg)
![Laurence Barnard Carlton Laurence Barnard Carlton](https://www.rgsw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Archive-for-Remebrance-10-Nov-21-25-of-27-scaled.jpg)
Edgar William Venner (bottom row, last on the right) – Edward (1909-12) was a member of the 16th Manchester Battalion, otherwise known as the ‘Manchester Pals’, who had “gone over the top” on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. His date of death is recorded as 9 July 1916, though his body was never found and it is likely he was killed on 1 July – the first day of the Somme campaign when there were some 60,000 British casualties in what was to be the worst day in British military history.