10 November 2023
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them”.
Maritzburg College paid tribute to the many Old Collegians who gave their lives in service of South Africa at the school’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony on Friday.
Staff, boys, and Old Boys gathered in front of the World War One Memorial outside Clark House to remember the 261 Old Collegians and three members of staff who died in battles and wars, since the first Old Boy died exactly 150 years ago while serving in the Natal Carbineers.
“Service, duty, loyalty and courage”
The Remembrance Day ceremony “is also an opportunity to pay sombre tribute to all people who have died in conflict, and to ponder such timeless issues as service, duty, loyalty and courage,” Maritzburg College said in a press release.
The ceremony, which includes the laying of wreaths and the lowering of flags to half-mast, is held annually, as close to 11 November as possible, the eleventh day of the eleventh month, and it ends at 11:00.
This year’s College ceremony was themed “Maritzburg College and the Carbineers”, in remembrance of the hundreds of Old Collegians who served in South Africa’s oldest regiment, who is now known as the Ingobamakhosi Carbineers, named after one of King Cetshwayo’s great regiments from 1879.
Speeches
Major E. Pascoe, an Old Collegian from the class of 1984, delivered a speech on Maritzburg College and the Carbineers, while Major-General I Deetlefs, from the class of 1964, a former Chief of Defence Reserves, read the Roll of Honour of Old Collegian Carbineers.
The Headmaster, Doctor Chris Luman, read The Ode of Remembrance, from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon.
After the speeches and wreath-laying, guests moved to the Wall of Remembrance where 10 new plaques were unveiled. Then, the Carbineers and other guests joined the wreath-laying party at the Memorial Chapel.
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