Six senior pupils from the Nicolson Institute have travelled to Ypres in Belgium to take part in Pròiseact nan Ealan’s production, “Sequamur”, as part of a WWI history trip.
All of the S5 pupils -
Their first site visit was to the Tyne Cott War Cemetery -
Pupils on war history trip to Belgium
15 September 2015
The pupils, looking to find former pupils from The Nicolson who they had been told were buried here, came across the gravestone of Donald Kennedy, from Point Street, Stornoway, who had been killed in 1914, aged just 20.
In between trips to the Hooge Crater Museum, which had lifelike reconstructions of war scenes and a vast collection of the actual weapons and outfits used, and the Flanders Fields Museum, the site of the true story documented in the “The Wipers Times” film, the pupils took part in the nightly Last Post Ceremony, at the Menin Gate.
For one hour every night, traffic is stopped driving through this venue in the middle of the small town of Ypres, no bigger than Stornoway for the bugle call ceremony.
The six scholars, led by precentor, Lauren Matheson, sang the last three verses of
Psalm 72 in Gaelic in front of a packed crowd of about five hundred -
Alex John Morrison laid a wreath in memory of all The Nicolson Institute pupils who had lost their lives in WW1.
They also took part in Pròiseact nan Ealan’s production of ‘Sequamur’ in front of a packed audience in the Ypres Cultural Centre.
The production is based on the story of William Gibson who was headmaster at the Nicolson in the early 20th century, and who later greatly regretted encouraging the boys he was teaching to go off to war.