Oulder Hill's head boy and girl lay wreath at Whitehall Armistice Day remembrance service

Date published: 12 November 2021

Staff and students from Oulder Hill School laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London yesterday (Thursday 11 November) as part of the annual Armistice Day service of remembrance for those who served during World War One.

The school’s head boy and head girl, Alfie Wild and Imaan Mahmood, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph on Whitehall on behalf of all the staff, students and governors of Oulder Hill.

Oulder Hill was one of just two schools from the North invited to take part in the commemorations, and one of seven nationally.

This is the second time Oulder Hill has been invited by the Western Front Association (WFA) to lay a wreath in London, having first been invited in 2019.

Rebecca Tarran, Head of Humanities at Oulder Hill Community School, said the invite was “a huge honour.”
 

Read more: Oulder Hill pupils to lay a wreath at Whitehall Armistice Day ceremonyPublished: 08 November 2019

It is 27 years since the WFA campaigned to reinstate the Armistice Day ceremony after it lapsed in 1946 in favour of Remembrance Sunday.

The WFA was formed with the purpose of furthering and maintaining interest in The Great War. It aims to educate, and to perpetuate the memory, courage and comradeship of all those who served their countries on all sides during the 1914-18 war.

This year’s ceremony at Whitehall was led by actor Nick Bailey, who delivered a reading of ‘In Flanders Fields’ by Canadian poet John McCrae, who died in January 1918.

He also said a few words at the Cenotaph about Walter Tull, one of the very first Black British Army officers of The Great War who lost his life at the Second Battle of The Somme in 1918.

Tull, who was also this country’s second Black professional footballer, has no known grave but is remembered at the Arras Memorial.