Remembrance has long been an essential topic for Royal High School History. The assembly hall at Regent Road had a portion at the South end devoted to Remembrance, while the Barnton campus has since 1968 devoted the majority of the Memorial stage to it.
This article will feature a number of former pupils whose heroics have been described in Schola Regia editions, during annual remembrance services, and in the digital history. It will also include a number who for whatever reason have not been featured, including those who died in accidents.
In both World Wars, many of the candidates were outstanding pupils, leaving school with prize honours, and as School and sports Captains. Many others did not win honours, but served and in many cases gave their lives.
The article will also in due course describe the artefacts on display, including the WW1 and WW2 War Memorials. A slide show of Remembrance through the years has been included at the end of this article, and a substantial Remembrance Overview is available here
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2023 Remembrance Service
The 2023 Remembrance Service was held on Friday 10th November, attended by the whole of Years S5 and S6, invited guests, and many teachers.
The event followed the established format, and the keynote address was based on pupils and former pupils whose deaths were marked by the creation of prizes and trophies. Click here for an illustrated PDF of the keynote address.
The following slideshow is a compilation of the images which accompanied the address on the big screen as it unfolded.
Click on any of the images in the gallery below to enable a full-screen slideshow.
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2023 Battlefield Trip
School Depute Head Maxine Hughes reported on the well attended and very successful May 2023 trip. The fifty strong party of pupils and teachers visited Memorials at Black Watch Corner, Christmas Truce, Menin Gate, Tyne Cot and Vimy Ridge. The story of Former Pupil Lieutenant Colonel Philip Bent VC was told to the pupils whilst at the Tyne Cot Memorial. Philip Bent was killed while leading a charge on 1st October 1917 at Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke, Belgium, and while he has no known grave, his name is listed on the Tyne Cot memorial.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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2022 School Remembrance service
The remembrance service was held on Friday 11th November, with an invited audience and in the presence of all S5 pupils, numbering around 200. The service followed the time-honoured format, including the laying of wreaths, the turning of a page of the WW2 Roll of Honour by the youngest pupil, and the reading of a tribute to Former Pupils (FP’s) who died in the arena of War. Click here to see the video of the whole service.
This tribute has in recent years concentrated on WW1 and WW2, but this year, the five FP’s who died while on active service since 1945 were the subjects.
Two died in Malaya, one in Cyprus, and two in UK as a result of accidents. Read the tribute here. While details of all five deaths were included, particular mention was made of Christopher Stuart Gray, killed in Penang, Malaya in 1951 during the Malay uprising. Christopher, a deck cadet, was on his first overseas assignment, and went ashore with two shipmates, sadly being shot and killed by insurgents in central Penang. We managed to locate his younger brother, also an FP, who attended the ceremony with his family, and later walked through the Memorial door, a ceremony he had not managed to undertake as he left school. A full description of the incident is included in the tribute, and a photo gallery of Christopher’s life is included below – click any of the images to enable a full-screen slideshow. A tablet containing the five names will be created and positioned on the wall of the memorial stage.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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2021 School Remembrance service
The 2021 Royal High School Remembrance video presentation, which was once again shown as alternative to the services which took place prior to COVID, includes the text of the tribute, including the deaths we will now describe. The names include two School Captains, but also two young pupils who became victims of War.
The pupils who were among the subjects of the 2021 School Remembrance video are James Lewis Gilmour, Thomas Sutherland Brotherstone, along with Billy Scott and Ronnie Sinclair.
James Lewis Gilmour
James Lewis Gilmour was School Captain in 1938-1939, Captain of rugby and Games Champion in 1938-39, and joined the Royal Scots as a private in 1940, before accepting a commission in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1941. He was engaged to be married late in 1941, then returned on leave in January 1941 to be married. He left almost immediately, his regiment being deployed to Egypt via the Cape, where he is recorded as being a visitor. As a lieutenant he was active in the El Alamein campaign, tragically being killed in action on 25th October, 1942, aged just 21. He kept a detailed scrapbook for most of his life, which affords us a very private view of his school, army and private life. Click here for an extended article.
His epitaph surely has to be the beautiful poem engraved on his headstone in El Alamein:
- The spot on which he fell
- Might well disclose
- That, where his body fell
- A thistle grows
The extended article should be read in conjunction with the photo gallery shown below. Many of the images are reproduced from his scrapbooks.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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Thomas Sutherland Brotherstone
Thomas Sutherland Brotherstone was Captain of School, Rugby and Cricket in 1931.
He was an International Rugby trialist in 1932 and 1933, played in the Inter-City (Edinburgh v Glasgow) matches in 1931-1934, and was a member of the winning RHS FP team at the 1934 Melrose sevens. He was granted a commission as Acting Pilot Officer early in 1939, and in 1941 went to Canada to train as a bomber pilot, then as a Pilot trainer.
He returned to UK in 1942, moving to Turnberry in Scotland in May 1942. He was conducting a training session on 29th December 1944, when his Warwick bomber crashed at Prestwick airport. Young trainee pilot Harry Holmes was killed at the site of the crash, while Thomas Brotherstone survived but died the next day. His son, who was aged one at the time of father’s death, and his great-niece have contributed to the article. His great-great niece is (as of 2021-22 session) a fourth-year pupil at the school. Click here for an extended article.
Tommy’s son Terry has written an article about his father which can be accessed here
The extended article should be read in conjunction with the photo gallery shown below. Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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Billy Scott and Ronnie Sinclair
William Cunningham Howden Scott (Billy) and Ronald Moore Sinclair (Ronnie), second and third form pupils respectively in 1941, were killed in an accident on 20th April that year involving unexploded ordnance on the A702 road near Woodhouselee Farm, Glencorse, a few miles south of Edinburgh. The school’s reporting of the circumstances of the incident, while expressing sorrow for the tragedy, and sympathy for the grieving parents, was not otherwise flattering of the young men. Some might deem that inappropriate considering that their deaths would have been virtually impossible but for the advent of WW2. The story came to light when Morningside cemetery volunteers noticed the close proximity of the headstones, the mention of ‘RHS’, and the lack of further explanation. They are buried alongside each other in Morningside cemetery.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
The RHS digital History Remembrance article is available here
The Remembrance gallery
The following gallery is a selection of images from our archives, depicting various stages of the creation and dedication of our many symbols of remembrance.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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Remembrance Day Service tributes
For the past several years, a teacher or other individual has given an address at the Annual Remembrance day service, usually identifying Former Pupils who died in armed conflict. The following are a few of the addresses – click to enable a PDF.
- 2017 – Kate Fraser’s tribute – Eight FP’s, from the first WW1 casualty in 1914 to the last in 1918
- 2019 – Kate Fraser’s Tribute – Captain Douglas Ford, M.C., and Flight Officer John Cruickshank V.C.
- 2020 – Kate Fraser’s Tribute – Six FP soldiers who died in the First World War
- 2022 – Alastair Allanach/ Maxine Hughes – FP’s in the armed forces killed post WW2
- 2023 – Maxine Hughes / Alastair Allanach – FP’s who died (in War and in peacetime) for whom prizes and trophies were established
The Royal High School Club 