We Will Remember Them

Alleyn's staff and pupils from both the Senior and Junior Schools joined together as a community today, to observe Remembrance as part of a whole School assembly in the Quad.

The event was a moving affair, led beautifully by School Chaplain Reverend Liz Lander and included talks from Head Jane Lunnon and School Captain Nana-Yaw. The School CCF contingent and Alleyn's School musicians combined perfectly to play their roles in a compelling service, complete with laying of wreaths and the bearing of the colour.

Mrs Lunnon spoke posed the question, "Why do we remember?" and went on to describe the Paths of Peace, built around the story of a thoughtful young man, Douglas Gillespie, who had a beautiful idea 100 years ago; an idea that was made real 100 years later by another, much older visionary. The full text of the Head's address is copied below.

We are incredibly grateful that we are able to gather safely together to observe such important moments in time, something that those embroiled in current day conflicts around the world are not able to do, and we give thanks for the Courage of others, in other times and countries, who fell to gain our freedom.

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The Paths of Peace

Why do we remember? Particularly, why do we still remember and honour, those killed in a war more than 100 years ago? What’s the point? Shouldn’t we leave history where it is?

In answering that, I want to tell you a quick story. Two weeks ago, I was invited to the book launch of a new book, called Path of Peace. This is the book. It is (in part) the story of a chap called Douglas Gillespie, a very young 2^nd lieutenant sent to fight in the 1^st World War. Like most young men of his time, he set off to war, full of optimism and bravura and confidence and an indomitable belief in the power of Britain and its empire. He, and his brother Tom were posted to the Western front, on the Vimy Ridge between Northern France and the Belgium Boarder.

Not long after arriving in the trenches, he wrote a letter to his Headmaster at Winchester College. In it, he presented a gentle and surprising idea. A vision for turning the whole line of the western front into a “path of peace” - a via sacra, which would run all the way from Switzerland to the English Channel.  An extraordinary and beautiful vision.

This is what he said in that letter to his Headmaster: “I wish that when peace comes, our government might combine with the French government to make one long Avenue between the lines from the Vosges to the Sea. The ground is so pitted and scarred and torn with shells and tanged with wire, that it will take years to bring it back to use again. But I would make a fine, broad road in the “No Man’s Land” between the lines, with paths for pilgrims on foot and plant trees for shade, and fruit tress, so the soil should not be altogether waste. Then I would like to send every man, woman and child in Western Europe on pilgrimage along that Via Sacra, so that they might think and learn what war means from the silent witnesses on either side”.

The silent witnesses…

Tragically, like so many others, young Douglas Gillespie (along with his brother Tom), both became two of those silent witnesses. Tom was killed in 1914. And Douglas, the Gillespie’s one surviving child, was killed on 25^th September 1915, in the catastrophic opening hours of the Battle of Loos. His body, lost in the mud of northern France, was never recovered.

In this sense, tragic though this story is, there is nothing unusual about Gillespie’s life. That sequence of events, was, as we know, all too frequently repeated. What is remarkable and unusual about this young man though, is that his letter, his vision, means he did in fact, have a lasting legacy, it is that which inspired Dr Seldon’s book, Path of Peace.

Douglas’ letter, written in 1915, lay dormant for nearly 100 years and was rediscovered at the end of 2014. Anthony Seldon saw it… and instead of just doing what others might do, reading it, thinking, oh that’s sad, putting it down, Anthony thought – wow, what a thing. What a great idea that young man had… an idea that perhaps speaks to us down the centuries. It led to Anthony, aged 68, on his own, without support, without much of the right kit, and with only a very vague sense of the route, setting out, last year to walk for 40 days, along that western front line, suggested by Gillespie. He walked all 621 miles of the Western front, to finally fulfil Gillespie’s lovely vision of turning this site of chaos and carnage and death into a pilgrimage for peace. He has duly done that, and that has, in turn, led to the official creation of the Western front way – all 621 miles of that route, now marked with footpath and cycle paths and available for people to travel, as a way of expressing their commitment to peace and connection and their belief in humanity.

So, why do we remember? This is why. We remember and honour and respect the past because of all it can teach us. Douglas Gillespie, a brave, thoughtful young man, had a beautiful idea 100 years ago. Another brave and visionary, much older man, picked it up 100 years later, and made it happen.  We have our own conflicts and struggles and unrest to deal with, but as we do, we should remember the amazing capacity that we all have, as individuals, to make good things happen and to stand up for love and peace and goodness.

And there is so much hope and power in that, as the familiar poetry of the hymn we are about to sing reminds us:

“For her ways are ways of gentleness

And all her paths are peace…”