Lest We Forget.

It’s been 106 years since the ANZAC forces landed in Gallipoli, and ever since the centenary, the ANZAC Day service at Oxford has been a school wide event. With the flag left flying at half mast, today has been a day of remembrance. The junior school spent the morning with history teacher Mr Thompson, looking at a veteran’s war medals and reading ANZAC stories, learning about the soldiers who fought for our freedom more than a century ago. And then at half past 12 the whole school came together out on the courts by our flagpole.

More than 2,500 New Zealand men died at Gallipoli, thousands of kilometers from home, and today is about remembering those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. The grass that surrounds the flagpole has been covered in crosses, white markers that bear the names of New Zealanders who didn’t make it back home. As the ceremony opened, Mr Thompson began by talking about the veterans in his own family, and their connection to the war. Even a century on, we still honour the soldiers who fought in WWI, and senior students Lauren Morris and Shaugn Kilgour spoke about the personal significance ANZAC Day holds for them.

It’s clear that ANZAC Day remains hugely significant for the generation of today, even as the ancestors who fought in the war become more and more distant. Their actions 100 years ago are still remembered, and at the end of the moving speeches, the Ngai Tahu Song of Remembrance was played. Kua Huri ko te Rautau is a mourning song, a lament that honours fallen soldiers and grieves their loss.

Many students have spent the past week making flowers and wreaths, and with Mr Green playing a beautiful rendition of The Last Post on the bugle, the wreaths were laid at the foot of the flagpole. Mr Thompson then joined Mr Douglas, President of the RSA and war veteren, in reciting Rudyard Kipling’s well read poem, Lest We Forget. Once the time honoured Ode of Remembrance was read, and the senior boys performed an impressive haka, Mr Green returned to his bugle.

As he plays Reveille, the flag is raised to full mast, and the ceremony finishes in time with the last notes of the song. The ANZAC Day service was a moving one, and it continues to be a significant ceremony for Oxford. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.