GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The Union High School paused on Friday, 9 November, to pay respect on Remembrance Day, a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of the armed forces who have died on duty since World War I.
Remembrance Day is usually observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918, as the major hostilities of World War I were formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.
Reverend Oriel Alby led the devotions, while the headmaster, William Pringle, spoke about the significance of the day, and its relevance to the youth of today, and that now, thankfully, a great many South Africans, have no personal experience of war, no way of knowing the anguish of enforced separation, or the greater grief of separations made permanent. Pringle told the story of Old Unionite Lt. Victor De Kock RN, MBE, DSC, and MID, South Africa's most decorated sailor.
He was born in Clarendon in 1919, matriculated at Union High in Graaff-Reinet and died at the age of 23 years having earned the highest of military honours.
He was the South African Navy's most decorated war hero, the only officer to receive three awards for gallantry. He was one of four members of the Union High School 1937 first cricket team who were killed in action during the Second World War. Charles Maasdorp, head boy of the school in 1951, then played the Last Post and the Reveille while teacher Hanno Sparrius lowered and raised the national flag. Wreaths were laid by the head prefects, Jenna McNaughton and Peter Watermeyer, and by John Crankshaw on behalf of the Old Unionite Association.
"By this act of remembrance, we cherish and nurture this possession, their gift. We prove an understanding both of its value and its cost. We build a bridge across time. By recognising both what has been lost to us and what has been gained, by renewing our pledge to remember, we declare, of all our fallen: 'They are not missing. They are here'," said a Union spokesperson this week.
James Rose-Innes, a Grade 9 learner at Union High School, penned this remarkable poem this week in honour of Poppy Day.
100 Years AGO
100 Years ago, the war was done
Finished with it's awful run
Creating heroes who were brave
But only to be celebrated at their grave.
There was great joy to the end of war
But also great sadness which bore
into the hearts of men
Who experienced it there and then.
Our condolences are poured into a poppy red,
Representing the blood that was shed.
Warriors on boats, fields and in the air as well
We had to bid farewell.
I should hopefully never know the effect of war
Because of those courageous men
Who fought bravely so
100 years ago.
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