Students will parade alongside personnel past and present at Armed Forces Day on Sunday 30 June.
Around 100 students from the DEC’s five secondary schools will join former and serving personnel in a march along Douglas’s promenades at 3pm and at a church service that follows it at the Villa Marina at 3.45pm.
It is the sixth time that schools have taken part in Armed Forces Day, a national event. Schools first got involved in 2007.
Jack Gibney, Deputy Head Boy at St Ninian’s High School, who will study history at Oxford University from the autumn, will read a lesson, as will Sea Cadet Kathryn Sharman, a student at Ballakermeen High School.
The day culminates in afternoon tea and an evening of entertainment at the Villa Marina, at which students mingle with veterans.
Andrew Wilkinson, Assistant Subject Leader in History at St Ninian’s, said:
‘Armed Forces Day is a superb inter-generational project, where pupils and veterans can get to know each other in an informal setting after the ceremony itself.’
St Ninian’s will again be setting up a TV studio at the Villa Marina and interviewing Armed Forces personnel past and present. Among those taking part in Armed Forces Day are contingents from 45 Commando, 12 Regiment Royal Artillery, 103 Regiment (Territorial Army) Royal Artillery as well as Major Andy Bridson and Marine Joel Bridson of the Royal Marines; Warrant Officer class 1 (Master Gunner) David Moffitt of the Royal Artillery; Guardsman Joseph McDonald of the Scots Guards; Corporal Graham Bell and Sapper Mark Ellams of the Royal Engineers and Sergeant Dave Cheval of the Territorial Army.
Tim Crookall MHK, Minister for Education and Children, is delighted schools are taking part in the event.
‘Armed Forces Day is an important date on the secondary school calendar,’ the Minister said. ‘Our students learn about past conflicts and the effect they had on life today, but for them be able to march alongside, and mingle with, veterans like 93-year-old D-Day veteran Hector Duff and his colleagues brings history off the pages and into sharp focus for them.
‘Today’s secondary students have been fortunate to grow up in relatively peaceful times, yet there are young people from the Isle of Man, some not much older than them, serving in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in testing situations all over the world. For students to march alongside these homecoming personnel is particularly poignant.’
Brigadier Norman Butler CBE chairs the Armed Forces’ Day committee, which has the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor, President of Tynwald and the Chief Minister and is made up of representatives of all the Island’s ex-service organisations.
He said:
‘The Armed Forces Day Committee is delighted once again to receive such tremendous support from the schools of the Island. It is a hard fact of life that the majority of veterans are now in their late seventies plus and the only way that the flag of remembrance can be carried forward in the long run is by involving our youth. The interest and enthusiasm of our students is a source of great pride and reassurance for us.’
The event will also see the Isle of Man Army Cadet Force’s brand new banner blessed by the Archdeacon of Man, the Venerable Andrew Brown. The banner will be carried by Rob Johnson, another Ballakermeen student. The escorts will be Sebastian and Alexander Devereau, students at Queen Elizabeth II High School.
Application forms for free tickets for Armed Forces Day can be obtained from the Villa Marina box office, the Manx Welcome Centre at the Sea Terminal, the Manx Legion Club in Douglas or local commissioners’ offices or return the form that will appear in next week’s newspapers to Ann Wilson at 1 Kensington Avenue, Douglas IM1 3ET.
