Service of Remembrance 2026

This year's senior Service of Remembrance 2026, held on 11 November, began with a moving version of Parry's 'Crossing the Bar', with the Last Post, a minute's silence and Reveille before the National Anthems and prayers led by Heads of Houses. Ending with the wreath laying at the altar, it preceeded the Prep School Service that took place later in the morning. 

While the Chapel was still ringing with Our God our help in ages past, the Head gave a sermon in which he highlighted the lives of two Old Breconians who are also remembered annually Year 9's Battlefields Study Trip. The Head shared similar words with the Prep School before their service ended with the laying of home-made poppies in Chapel Yard.

We are very grateful to the Alex Wallace for allowing us to share his sermon.  

I am incredibly pleased to welcome so many of you to what is a very important service - a service that is a useful time to reflect, to pause, to remember, to consider what others have given for us, for many, the ultimate sacrifice. Today is our way of remembering all those who have lost their lives in war.

Earlier this year, there was the Year 9's Battlefields trip. I was shared a photograph of the graves of two Old Breconians buried there: C P Hazard and H B Davies. Mrs Kilpatrick, our Archivist, shared a wonderful post on these two former pupils. Some of you may already have seen the post, but I want to share some of it with you now.  

Sometimes, connections between Old Breconians emerge in surprising ways. None is quite as surprising as the connection between C P Hazard (School House 1904-07) and H B Davies (School House 1909-11). Both were boarders in School House, both played for the First XV and both left school for Oxford, but their careers at school and university never overlapped. 

It is easy to imagine them seated together at an OB dinner or on the touchline on Llandovery Day or watching a cricket match on a sunny Brecon afternoon. But we will never know whether they ever met, which makes such close proximity at Essex Farm cemetery even more poignant. 

The two young Old Breconians who – in slightly different eras – had sung in the same Chapel and played on the same pitches became two young Second Lieutenants who were killed in action near Ypres within days of each of other. They are buried just a few graves apart.   

Each of the graves, like all the others at Essex Farm, would originally have been marked by named wooden crosses. When the Commonwealth War Graves Commission replaced the original crosses with the more familiar white headstones, C P Hazard’s family arranged for their son’s cross to be retrieved and presented to his old school. It has been in the antechapel ever since. You'll see it in the ante-chapel on the right hand side when you exit the Chapel today.  

In 1931 Mrs Hazard wrote to the Headmaster, the Reverend J L Phillips (Headmaster 1921-31) to thank him for placing the cross in the antechapel. She wrote, “I very much like to think of it there”. 

Her simple words poignantly convey an emotional connection to Christ College, a place that had been such an important part of her son’s life. The enduring strength of that connection speaks of a sense of belonging that links different generations of the same community through shared experiences, traditions, memories – and Remembrance. 

Today the school’s Remembrance Service to honour those who gave their lives in conflict and to ensure that the courage and sacrifice made by Old Breconians such as C P Hazard and H B Davies is never forgotten. 

I hope you take time to really reflect on today’s service. What does it mean to you? We will all no doubt have different responses and feelings when we come together at such moments. There is no right or wrong way to feel. I hope it makes you feel. I hope it makes you reflect.  

For me, I find it quite emotional to think of young men and women - not much older than my pals here - giving their lives for us. Maybe we need to be thankful, perhaps it helps us to put our current concerns into perspective. Maybe it is a chance to think about forgiveness.  

My own grandfather was shot down over Belgium, his co-pilot died on impact. They landed in woodland and he was discovered by a 6-year-old girl. My grandfather knew he was about to be captured and gave this young girl his watch and any other valuables he could find. He was sent to a prisoner of war camp - Stalag Luft 3 (the setting of the Great Escape). He was a mathematician and headed up the Maths department within the camp. One of the roles he and his team had was to calculate the length of the tunnel, sadly events went wrong. The tunnel fell short and it was a lifelong regret for my grandfather. I have read his memoirs but, like many war veterans, he rarely talked about the war. Never once did he complain or apportion blame. Never once was there an ill word said about the enemy. To forgive is a truly powerful gift. 

To all of you, thank you for joining us for this special service of Remembrance.