#RemembranceDay2019 WeWillRemember BePartofIt

[bablake]

Remembrance

On Monday, we held our annual Remembrance service. This is always an important date in the School year and a time to reflect on the sacrifice made by former pupils and staff and to remind ourselves about our responsibilities to encourage peace and reconciliation. In WW1 almost 800 former pupils and staff served, 96 did not return and in the Second World War another 700 former pupils and staff served, 98 did not return. Their names are recorded on the memorial at the back of the hall and the organ was installed in memory of all who fell. There are some photos from the service that can be found in a Flickr album from the day.

Major Robert Thomas spoke to us during the service. Major Thomas attended Bablake School from 1967 to 1971 and spent most of his working life serving with the Army, including operational tours in the Gulf, the Balkans, Northern Ireland and Cyprus. His final job within the Army was to command the Colchester Personnel Recovery Centre, a unit dedicated to enabling the recovery of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and servicewomen, wounds and injuries mainly sustained on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since retiring in 2016 he took up the position of Secretary to The League of Remembrance, which was formed in 1915 to support the widows and dependents of those who never returned from the battlefields of the Great War. The rest of this bulletin is an abridged version of his talk.

“The foundations for the manner in which I act today were laid at Bablake. I came here, as a fresh-faced youngster of 11, having been fortunate to qualify for a place through the ‘direct grant programme’, a splendid initiative that allowed children with academic ability, but whose parents had insufficient means, to attend school such as Bablake. My time here was excellent. Besides the marvellous learning, the outlook broadening after-school activities, and the tremendous sporting opportunities, the school began to embed in me a set of priceless values and standards, and a moral framework. Traits that would subsequently guide my way in later life.

I enlisted in the Army in 1976, a decision that set me upon a path that I have never really looked back on. What was the Army like? Very similar to Bablake in many ways. The dinners were not brilliant and I had lots of very stern looking people continually barking orders at me and telling me to hurry up. As with Bablake, however, it provided me with a framework for life, and embedded in me similar values and standards. Respect for others; humility; compassion; mercy; seeing through the exterior of an individual to get to know the real person beneath; and most importantly of all service before self. It also instilled in me moral courage. Quite simply the ability to stand up when you see something wrong, and regardless of how unpleasant things might become, the mind-set to intervene and try and put things right.

My last post in the Army was to command a Personnel Recovery Centre where I had the privilege of assisting brave men and women in their recovery. Trying wherever possible to get them back to the duty they loved, but sadly in many cases, as their wounds and injuries were simply too severe to allow further military service, to transition them back to civilian life.

What stood out above all else during this time, was these soldiers refusal to let their wounds hinder them, their positivity and joy for life and their unbending commitment to continuing to serve their nation. A humbling experience for me, but tremendously heartening too – I am extremely proud of every one of them.

My final thoughts. Try to put service before self. Acknowledge and remember the sacrifice of others though the way you live your own life. Do good in whichever way you can and help others wherever possible.”

The service finished with the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation, a copy of which can be found at at the Coventry Cathedral website.

Thank you

Thank you for the many kind words following my appointment as Headmaster of Bablake. I am very proud and humbled to be given the opportunity to lead this fantastic school. As you would expect, we fully intend to continue to deliver an exceptional education within our thriving and caring community, while embracing new challenges and opportunities. We now need to spend time listening to pupils, staff and parents to then put together a development plan for the school for the next few years. I will write to you soon about how you can contribute to this process.

(Bulletin No 15 - 15th November 2019)