Remembrance Sunday – remembering the Royal Soldiers’ Daughters School
At the end of the 10.30 am service on Remembrance Sunday the church laid a wreath at the war memorial outside our gates to remember those who had fallen in the First and Second World War. Later members of the Friends of the Royal Soldiers’ Daughters School came to lay their wreath in memory of their sisters who have died. Their school was founded in 1885, after the Crimean War, by Queen Victoria. The school was at 67 Rosslyn Hill and provided a home for the daughters of serving soldiers who had died or whose families were unable to look after them.
One of the women in the group was sent to the school when she was four and lived there until she went to work. Most of them had been confirmed at HPC and used to come to our Sunday School. Below is a photograph from 1963 of their Remembrance Day parade. I spoke to Sandy who said they would march to the church for the Remembrance Sunday service and then march to the war memorial near Whitestone Pond to lay their wreath.
Judy East remembers: “I was always glad to see them, in their bright red berets, filling the seats in the back gallery for the Remembrance service. It reminded us that what we were commemorating wasn’t just the soldiers of the two world wars but was an ongoing tribute to those who were still dying.”
There are three large graves in the Additional Burial Ground to commemorate girls from the school (at C104, F16 and F85). Below is a photo of one of these mass graves. The inscription includes details of the regiments their fathers served in. It is possible that an epidemic may have caused the death of many of the girls commemorated in this grave. There is also a grave for the Sailors’ Daughters (who lived at what is now Munro House) at G15.
