On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, boys from our Prep School and Upper School, staff and governors will come together for an Armistice Day assembly, to remember and commemorate those who fought in the two World Wars and also the 12,000 British Servicemen and women killed or injured since 1945.
Inscribed on the walls of the school’s Memorial Hall are the names of 756 Old Bedfordians who lost their lives in the two World Wars. Shockingly, the total number lost in World War 1 equates to nearly twice the number of boys who left Bedford school during those years of terrible war, and in World War 2, exactly one third.
Five of these men were awarded the Victoria Cross, the very highest and most respected award in the United Kingdom’s honours system, only awarded for exemplary bravery shown ‘in the face of the enemy’ – in most cases awarded posthumously. The five men were; Second Lieutenamt Montagu Moore, Sub Lieutenant Arthur Tisdall and Major George Wheeler, killed in action during World War 1, and Major Henry Foote and Acting Captain Frederick Peters killed in action during World War 2.
Additionally a Remembrance Sunday service will take place in the School Chapel followed by the laying of poppy wreaths outside of the Memorial Hall.