St Dunstan's College Remembrance Day Service 2023

St Dunstan’s College Remembrance Day Service 2023

Friday 10 November

ORDER OF SERVICE Opening Prayer: Reverend Colin Boswell Reading 1: Anthem for Doomed Youth

by Wilfred Owen read by Dunstonian John Woolman (‘76) What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Music: Anthem no. 1 Hear my Prayer, O Lord

by Henry Purcell Reading 2: MCMXIV by Philip Larkin read by Head of School, Rio Myers

Those long uneven lines Standing as patiently As if they were stretched outside The Oval or Villa Park, The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An August Bank Holiday lark; And the shut shops, the bleached Established names on the sunblinds, The farthings and sovereigns, And dark-clothed children at play Called after kings and queens, The tin advertisements For cocoa and twist, and the pubs Wide open all day; And the countryside not caring: The place-names all hazed over With flowering grasses, and fields Shadowing Domesday lines Under wheat’s restless silence; The differently-dressed servants With tiny rooms in huge houses, The dust behind limousines; Never such innocence, Never before or since, As changed itself to past Without a word – the men Leaving the gardens tidy, The thousands of marriages, Lasting a little while longer: Never such innocence again.

Music: Anthem no. 2 Behold the Lamb of God

by Georg Frederic Handel

Reading 3: For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon read by the Head, Nick Hewlett With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; They sit no more at familiar tables of home; They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night; As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end, they remain.

Reflection: Reverend Colin Boswell The Last Post performed by Olivia Cleverley-Lynch 2 Minute Silence Reveille Laying of wreaths by the Coxswain and the RSM, Pre-Prep pupils, Dunstonians John Woolman (‘76) and Iain Macdowall (‘81), Nick Hewlett (Head) and Gemma Davies (Head of Junior School) Concluding Prayer: Reverend Colin Boswell

Stanstead Road, London SE6 4TY Charity number: 312747 A co-educational, independent College for ages 3 to 18 www.stdunstans.org.uk 020 8516 7200