Our heroes deserve honour

On 28 January 1970, an incredibly tragic accident occurred. Known as the Daleside tragedy, 23 Henley schoolchildren were killed when a train hit their bus.

- Richard Chemaly

There is a tremendous story of bravery too in a matric pupil who gave his own life to help younger children get off the bus.

The local community would have annual services at the memorial. However, in 2020, 50 years after the accident, they decided to cease the formal annual services.

Sitting at my school's Remembrance Day service with a poppy on my lapel, I figured that the tradition had been going on quite long.

Few people living have any memory of World War II and the armistice day remembrance services have been going on since the end of World War I. So, what's the point? How can we remember what we never knew?

Some schools have even called off this tradition citing it as a glamourisation of war. It's a silly reason to not remember and reflect on the people who gave their lives for us.

Nobody is claiming that recognising the class of 1976, with a public holiday even, is a glamorisation of protest. You might be reading this in German were it not for fallen soldiers.