March Grammar and Neale-Wade Former Students Association (MGSNWFSA) remembered with honour two March Grammar School Old Boys at the National Commemoration of the Centenary of Passchendaele – The Third Battle of Ypres WW1
Current president, Mrs Christine Thorpe, of March Grammar and Neale-Wade Former Students Association attended the Commemorations in Belgium to mark the Centenary of Passchendaele,
In 1917 two former pupils of March Grammar School lost their lives in this battle of World War One. Mrs Thorpe laid a wreath at Tyne Cot Cemetery where Captain Frances Ford, a pupil and later master of the school, is remembered on the Memorial Wall as he has no known grave. Captain Ford of the Cambridgeshire Regiment was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on the first day of the battle 31st July 1917.
A visit was also made to the Commonwealth War Cemetery close to the town of Ypres, to leave a Cross of Remembrance on the grave of Driver R Crawley serving with Royal Field Artillery, who left the school in 1912 and whose family ran a grocery shop in Station Road, March.
The association, which itself celebrates its centenary in 2019, welcomes involvement from former students who can obtain further details at www.marchgrammarschool.co.uk
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