Ypres Dedication Service

This weekend more than 30 members of Repton School’s choir, together with dozens of Old Reptonians and Governors, are travelling to Belgium for an  Evensong Service at St George’s Memorial Church, Ypres, during which a new plaque to the 355 Reptonians who fell during the Great War will be dedicated.

The idea for the plaque came from Jonathan Fry, the Chairman of Governors, and his wife Marilyn. They visited St George’s last summer as part of a Battlefield Tour and noticed that there was not a Repton School plaque among the many there.

As a result the School contacted the Chaplain of St George’s to obtain consent for one to be erected and to hold a dedication ceremony during Evensong.

The Repton ceremony is being held on the same weekend that The Sherwood Foresters, with whom School has strong connections, has a memorial dedication on the Western Front to the 11,000 of its men killed there in WW1.

The Choir will sing during the Sherwood Foresters’ Memorial Service which will include the unveiling of the Foresters’ memorial and the planting of an oak tree, cloned from the Mighty Oak of Sherwood Forest. The choir will be accompanied by the bands of the Mercian Regiments during this service at Tyne Cott on October 24.

The School plaque dedication ceremony will be held during Evensong the following day. (Sunday 25 October) Wreaths will be laid by a current pupil, an Old Reptonian and a Governor.

Ahead of the service, the Choir will go on a battlefield tour which is being tailored to include visits to battlefields where Old Reptonians fell. The pupils will also go to two of the major trenches during their stay.

Commenting on the weekend the Headmaster Robert Holroyd said: “We are honoured to have been given permission to dedicate a plaque to our old boys and, indeed, to take part in the Sherwood Foresters’ Memorial Service.

“Our pupils are encouraged to take an interest in the history of Repton and in the roles those who have either been pupils or staff here have played in the history of the nation as a whole. The Great War is a very important element of that.

“There is much talk of the level of awareness among young people about the importance of World War 1, and this very special weekend will certainly underline that at Repton and give students a personal connection with it.”