The Headmaster, Head Boy, Head Girl, and Head of the Combined Cadet Force laid wreaths before the altar.

Pie Jesu, from Fauré’s Requiem, was sung by George M (Year 9) and the Last Post was played by Lydia R (Year 9).

Dom Alexander Bevan, OSB, opened the Service with these words:

Today is a day to remember wars in the past and wars in the present. A day for us to remember that in our world – in our everyday lives – there is sometimes a need to fight for peace and justice, and ALWAYS the need to pray for, and live for peace and justice. A day to learn lessons from human cruelty and lessons from human goodness and self-sacrifice, A day to pray for those who suffer today because of war. A day to pray for those many millions who have died in war; the good; the bad; the innocent; the guilty; the cruel; the kind; the hero and the coward: every single one of them children of God and our brothers and sisters.

Pray for those you know – grandparents, great-grandparents – who fought in war. And pray for those unknown men and women who paid the price for our freedom today. And pray for our world today. That their sacrifice may not be in vain but the price for peace in our world and in our hearts.

Twenty-one St Benedict's alumni died in the First World War and forty-seven were killed in the Second World War.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That marks 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.

John McCrae (1915)