Remembrance Day Postcard Project

The last few months, the History Department and our Archivist, Ms. Devenney, have focused on our ‘Lest We Forget HGS Project’ to pay our respects and remember those who served and sacrificed.

Although our traditional Remembrance Day Services were held across both the Primary and Secondary School, in the run up to Remembrance Day our pupils sent out postcards to the last known addresses of former pupils who died in WWI.

It all started back in May when they decided to embark on a project which involved sharing stories about Hutchie former pupils and staff who died during WWI. Postcards, written by our S3 pupils and the School Archive, were sent to the last known addresses of those men who lost their lives during the war. It is hoped that on this Remembrance Day, along with all who pay their respects at the School’s War Memorial, there would a further 129 people thinking of these men who sacrificed their lives.

With John Buchan unveiling the school’s war memorial in 1921, the school made a promise not to forget the lives, service, and sacrifice of our former pupils and staff members.

Our former pupils who volunteer in the School Archive, along with Ms Devenney, have been working for the last two years to uncover the stories of these men and bring to light the stories of those men who were left off the war memorial (their deaths were not reported to the school at the time.) Former pupil, David Galloway (Class of 1968), has delved into their lives and helped us to know more about them, their families, jobs, and the regiments they joined. Their stories are often sad, some families lost several sons, some bodies were never recovered, the youngest was only 16, but the sense of pride in these men glows from their families’ reports and their stories in the Hutchesonian magazines. We hope this project will honour these men and our promise to them.

We hope to hear back from some of the postcard recipients, and hope they will take a minute today, on 11th November, to remember the person who lived at their address many years previously and the sacrifice they made for us.

We will remember them.

If you would like more information on the former pupils who died in WW1, please get in touch with the school archive at archives@hutchesons.org