Students Play a Part in Festival of Remembrance
22/11/2011
Kathryn Mattison, Elara Nicholson and Michelle Taylor
Ahead of this year's tributes to fallen service men and women on Remembrance Sunday, four students from College's Haywards Heath campus, who are also local Senior Section members of Girlguiding UK were honoured to have been selected to act as stewards at the British Legion's annual Festival of Remembrance event at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Saturday 12 November.
First year student at the College's Haywards Heath campus, Elara Nicholson, 16, from Haywards Heath, joined second years Adelaide Elphick, 17, Kathryn Mattison, 18 and Michelle Taylor 17, who are all also from the town, to attend the event. The students had been selected to attend after they were recommended to Girlguiding UK Headquarters by their County Commissioner.
Throughout the day, the girls' job was to sell and re-stock programmes for the two concerts - the latter of which was attended by Her Majesty the Queen, and senior members of the Government. They were lucky enough to be able to watch the afternoon performance, and were amazed by the precision of the drummers and the skill of the marching bands.
Highlights of the day included going back-stage to meet some of the celebrity performers which included Cliff Richard, Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins, as well as seeing the Queen and the Prime Minister arrive at the Royal Albert Hall.
Student, Elara Nicholson said: "I was particularly touched by the part of the service where the inscription on the Kohima memorial was read out; 'When you go home, tell them of us and say: 'For your tomorrow we gave our today'', it really made me realise how much I personally have to be grateful for. Their sacrifice has meant that I have been able to grow up in a peaceful society."
All four students were very moved by the concert, especially when poppy petals started falling onto the audience during the two-minute silence. They all said that the experience was unforgettable, and that meeting and chatting to the ex-service men and women brought home the reality of the sacrifice they had made.
