Boys visit Belgium Battlefields to Remember the Fallen
Forest pupils paid their respects to the soldiers who gave their lives in the Great War during a moving trip this month to the battlefields of Belgium.
More than 60 Year 8 pupils made the trip to Belgium to see for themselves where so many men fought and died during the Great War.
During the trip the boys visited the beautiful town of Ypres, moving onto Flanders Fields museum, Menin Gate, Tyne Cot and Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. The group also visited the Essex Farm Cemetery, the site where John McCrae is believed to have written his famous ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem. Surrounded by silence 12 year old pupil, Sean Hutchinson, read the poem out-loud, ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row…..’
The group moved on to their final stop at the Hooge Crater Cemetery where the sunken garden offers a reminder of the battlefield that once surrounded the area.
“Our guide had looked up a soldier from Horsham who was buried there” said Mrs Harrington, History Teacher at Forest School. “We found his headstone and read our final poem to him ‘We shall keep the Faith’ – ‘Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields, Sleep Sweet - to rise anew...
You could have heard a pin drop, it was a very emotional moment and a fitting end to what was a very thought provoking trip” added Mrs Harrington.
