Remembrance Day 

On Wednesday 11 November, the school came together on the Chapel Oval to commemorate Remembrance Day. This is one of the rare opportunities in our busy lives where we can collectively pause and consider how fortunate we are, acknowledging that our good fortune is built upon the hard work and sacrifice of others.

Remembrance Day began as a memorial to those who fought and died in World War I and that this still a major focus. Four-hundred-and-seventy-five former studentsofScotch College had enlisted to serve by end of that conflict, which was over half of all Old Boys at that time. Of those enlisted, 104 were commissioned, 34 were decorated for bravery, and 78 students and four staff died. A critical part of our service is the reading out of the names of these men who never returned to Australia.

Our short but powerful Remembrance Day oration was given by Michael Silbert, President of the Old Scotch Collegians. His reflection revolved around the poem, In Flanders Field by John McCrae, written in 1915 whilst on the battlefront and just after he had buried one of his best friends. The poem is reproduced below. Michael reminded us of the unimaginable conditions and the almost unbearable pain of loss which so many families endured.

The poem is a simple reminder that there are things worth fighting for; that even amongst the death and mud and blood and stench, there is beauty in the world. It is a reflection on the tenuousness of life, and an exhortation to make the most of it; a plea from those who have sacrificed their lives for us to make something of ours. As Michael said, it is a poem which embodies the hope that their sacrifice will not have been in vain.

There is one line which captures this so clearly:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

It reminds me of the line in our own school song, passing the baton from one generation to the next, in the hope that they will be able to do right by others and make the world a better place.

Wreaths were laid by representatives from the three sub-schools and the OSC as our Pipe Major played The Flowers of the Forest. Our service concluded with the reading of the Ode, followed by the Last Post and a minute's silence – the opportunity to engage in silent contemplation. As the piper played Up in the Morning Early, the flag wasraisedand we continued with our lives.

Although the fields of Flanders have been returned to their previous serenity and the singular significance of agriculture once more holds sway there, that landscape still bears the geographic scars, and our memories should also carry those scars. When we forget, we begin the dangerous descent into disrespect.

Memory keeps us humble; it reminds us of the need for vigilance. Forgetting allows us to fall into the trap of arrogance, where we presume to be better able to manage our affairs than previous generations. That is an attitude to which we ascribe at our peril. Indeed, it is folly.

The opposite of memory is not forgetting, or even amnesia, which I think is an inability to remember. It is ignorance – a lack of desire to recall the past or find out what happened. Perhaps, in the long run, what those OSCs and others were actually fighting for was to release future generations from the grip of ignorance. Ignorance has always been the great weakness of human beings because it leads to fear, and fear is at the root of so much bitterness and cruelty.

Lest we forget 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses, row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie, 

In Flanders fields.   

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch; be yours to hold it high. 

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields. 

Mr James Hindle
Director of Student and Staff Wellbeing