The next few pages are dedicated to those of us who are no longer with us. Sadly time waits for no Boy Soldier, just as all of us.
Please take a moment to look at each list provided by each College by following the drop-down links under the Roll of Honour button. Should you know of any others we have not honoured please take a moment to contact us with the relevant information.
Tony Church – the Arborfield Bard – sums up our feelings perfectly with this Ode…
Boys No More
The great adventure had begun,
We’d left our families, homes and gone
Away into the great unknown,
Apprehensive, feeling lost, alone,
And wondering what the future held,
Our hopes, though high, fear undispelled.
Then suddenly, no time to think,
Life’s one long round of work, eat, drink,
Sleep. Spit and polish rule our lives,
Yet slowly, imperceptibly arrives
The bonds of friendship, long to last
Throughout the years, strong and steadfast.
Friendships forged by joy and pain,
Shared escapades of loss and gain,
Yes, truly we were brothers all,
Stronger ties than blood recall
The mutual feelings that we shared,
And how we laughed and joked and cared.
We see them still through memory’s haze,
The bright, long, glorious, carefree days,
When youth enjoyed the summer long,
Erased, the hard times, strife and gone
The times when we felt low,
Just golden days in mind’s eye grow.
But time exacts its bitter toll,
And young men age, grow frail and fall
Prey to the ever rolling years,
Life’s toil and pain, sadness, tears,
No more the boys of days long past,
Till finally life ebbs, at last.
Yet though life’s span has run its course,
No need for anger, fear, remorse,
But privileged to have shared in part
The life of those, who from the start
Had given friendship unreserved,
No better epitaph deserved!
So we were blessed, much more than most,
To have that comradeship, though lost
In passing years our youth,
Those ties still bind and yet, in truth
They live on, young, as when first we met,
They don’t grow old.
We won’t forget.
©TeeCee