1st July 2026 marked the 110th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Our school archives and Memorial Hall have records of Old Hymerians who lost their lives in the First World War, and during the recent Battlefields tour, students from Years 9 and 10 were able to pay tribute to them. Taking in Ypres and the Somme, the students made acts of remembrance for Old Hymerians, including Bede Farrell and Tom Baker, who was actually killed on the first day of the Somme by the Lochnagar mine. The students also located the memorial for Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army.

During visits to Tyne Cot Memorial, Wellington Quarry's underground tunnels and Bapaume Cemetry, the students laid cards and wreaths; and Year 10 student Harry, moved everyone present with his heartfelt reading of John McCrae's famous poem "In Flanders Fields".
At the Menin Gate, Year 10 students Oscar, Harriet and Max, participated in 33,998th ceremony of remembrance, laying a wreath. Finally, the group visited the Thiepval Memorial, commemorating over 72,000 British and South African servicemen who died on the Somme battlefields. What a fantastic experience for these young historians; to commemorate and remember former pupils of the school.

We sweltered, but the day was an amazing combination of going underground at the Wellington Quarries, finding OHs and doing our own act of remembrance at Thiepval.  Lily marked the resting place of Old Hymerian Tom Baker for the first time at Bapaume Cemetery and we also visited the Lochnagar Crater where he was killed on 1st July 1916.  The cemetery doesn't seem to be a regularly visited one, so definitely the first time in 110 years that respects had been paid to him.

Mrs Robinson, History Teacher