Remembrance Day, the Armistice Centenary 2018 13.11.2018
Twyford School Art Department created a stunning canvas to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. Lianne Hinxman, Head of Art at Twyford, created and painted the 7ft x 9ft canvas, which had to be hung from the Art Room rafters in order to be painted. The wall of 400 fabric poppies either side of the canvas were created by every child in the school during the course of Art classes this term. They are hung on ‘Court’ wall, itself the end wall of the Memorial Library that was built in 1923 as a memorial to the 81 Old Twyfordians who had lost their lives in the War. About 350 Old Twyfordians served their country during World War One – quite a figure for a small school which numbered, on average, 70 pupils at this time.
The entire School community from Nursery to Year 8, all staff, contractors and some parents gathered on Court shortly before 11am on Friday 9th November for a short Remembrance service. Poems were read, and Year 8s read the roll of those who died. At 11.00 am, the School bell was rung 11 times and Ian Naylor, our Brass instrument music teacher played the Last Post and the Reveille.
We were also delighted that an Old Twyfordian was one of the Sand Portraits in the wonderful project that Danny Boyle curated entitled ‘Pages of the Sea.’ Sand artists and volunteers at 32 beaches around the country etched giant portraits of soldiers who died, on the sand, as a tribute to those who fought in the Great War. The vast majority of British troops left by sea and Boyle came up with the project as an informal, nationwide gesture of remembrance. Andrew Keeling, Twyford School’s History teacher and Archivist has just published a book on Old Twyfordians who lost their lives in the War and therefore recognised the name of Captain Edward ‘Teddy’ Hain.
Edward Hain was the son and heir of Lady Catherine and Sir Edward Hain, a prosperous Cornish shipping and land owner. Edward was born in St Ives, living in Treloyhan Manor (now a hotel) overlooking Carbis Bay.
He was head of his house at Winchester College, Hampshire, and went up to New College, Oxford, in 1906. In 1912, while working for his father, Edward joined the Cornish Squadron of the 1st Devon Yeomanry and the next year married Judith Wogan-Browne of Naas, Kildare. At the outbreak of war, he rejoined his regiment and was promoted to captain a fortnight later.