Our pupils and staff gathered outside the pillars of Main House to remember those servicemen and women who lost their lives in the First World War and subsequent conflicts fighting for their country.
Martin Barker, headmaster, explained to the pupils: “The reason we are gathering here on this particular day, as we approach the 11th hour of the 11th day, of the 11 month, is because this is the time and date that saw the end of the First World War in 1918, in which tens of millions of lives were lost. Of course, wars have continued across the world ever since that time and, sadly, we continue to witness the many tragedies, which come as a result of such actions with the current conflict in Ukraine. And so, we honour, by standing here silently, wearing poppies, the servicemen and women who have given their lives so that we may continue to live our lives freely and safely.”
Troop Leader, Alice, read 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae to the gathered school, which was followed by a one-minute silence. The silence was broken by The Last Post played on the trumpet, by Patrick.
We honoured wartime heroes such as Paddy Woodhouse, who was based at Westbourne House during WWII, alongside many others, when it was the officers’ mess for the nearby RAF fighter station at Tangmere. We first heard about Paddy from Andrew Dobson (Old Westbournian Parent of Barnaby Dobson in 1998) and when he and his niece, Rebecca Bayliss, visited Westbourne House when tracing the heroic wartime record of Rebecca’s grandfather, Paddy Woodhouse (Henry de Clifford Anthony Woodhouse).
Rebecca said: “It was wonderful for me to visit Westbourne House to get some sense of where my Grandfather was staying while at Tangmere.”
Paddy’s wartime story is fascinating and, if you visit Tangmere Military Aviation Museum, you can now read about Paddy’s achievements in the Bader room. A professional aviator before the war, Paddy was based at Tangmere on a couple of occasions during WWII, firstly flying with Douglas Bader and Hugh Dundas and then taking over from Bader after he had been shot down and taken into German captivity. He flew dangerous missions across the globe, including time spent in Burma (1942) fighting the Japanese, later escaping across the Bay of Bengal in a little boat.
In March of 1943 he was posted again to training units, as Commanding Officer in the rank of Group Captain (equivalent to Colonel ) aged 27. He didn’t want staff jobs and in May 1944 voluntarily reverted to Wing Commander in order to get back to operational flying. This was despite his superiors’ wishes to keep him away from the front line: by 1944 he was one of only five remaining pre-war professionals still on operational flying and valuable to the RAF for his extensive combat and training experience.
He resumed operational flying on the 21st June 1944 and was killed by British anti-aircraft fire in the night of 12th - 13th August, aged 29.
We thank Rebecca for the picture of Paddy, drawn by Captain Orde, when Paddy was leading Eagle Squadron.
Additionally, to support the children with their understanding of Remembrance, the Pre-Prep children were visited by two serving members of the British Army, Warrant Officer Class 2 S Payne and Major Sam Abayomi. After learning about the importance of working as part of a team and the comradeship of being in the Army the children had an opportunity to say a big thank you for all that the armed forces do to keep us safe. The Reception children also created their own poppies whilst reflecting upon and developing their understanding of Remembrance Day.