Kent College Remembers

13 Nov 2018

On Friday the 9th of November, the Junior and Senior School community at Kent College gathered together to remember the fallen of the First World War.

On Friday the 9th of November, the Junior and Senior School community at Kent College gathered together to remember the fallen of the First World War. To mark the centenary of the Armistice, staff and students at Kent College have been working together to produce an art installation titled ‘to end all wars.’ The project was inspired by a student trip to Ypres in February has been organised jointly by the Art and the History departments. Over the past few months, every member of the Kent College Community, were invited to make a terracotta ‘tile’ that will become part of a large permanent artwork. Each ‘tile’ is slightly curved to resemble part of a shell case (inspired by those the students saw by the trenches during a school trip). The surface of the tiles have been individually decorated in different ways. The tiles could be impressed with a religious symbol, texture created using real pieces of Ypres shrapnel and patterns or a message of remembrance inscribed in the clay. Each tile has been personalised and individualised with a thumbprint and initials. When seen together the tiles create a giant poppy. Tiles have also been made which have been inscribed with the names of the fifty members of the Kent College community that fought and were killed during the war. Headmaster, Julian Waltho and the Head of History, Graham Noble have written a book about the Old Boys of Kent College who died in the conflict called ‘A richer dust concealed’. This is available to buy via the school office. A service of remembrance was followed by members of the school community laying individual tiles to commemorate those from the school who had died in WWI to the sounds of The Last Post.