Remembrance Service at Cookstown High School

At this short service, led by Rev Michael Currie, wreaths were laid by David Lennox on behalf of the Former Pupils’ Association, and the Head Girl on behalf of the school. The Head Girl, Sophie Dornan, read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrea, and the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Mrs Lynne Dripps read from Psalm 90. Deputy Head Girl, Anna Millar, gave The Exhortation, taken from those famous words of Laurence Binyon which begin, “They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old”.

The chamber choir sang ‘Gentle and Lowly’ by S Brewster, T Brewster and R Brewster, and the Last Post and Reveille were sounded by Mrs Blackwood and Emily Glasgow. Sam Purvis gave the ‘Kohima Epitaph’, and Jack Suitor played the Lament. Following the laying of the wreaths, Deputy Head Boy, Theo Thompson read ‘For the Fallen’ by L Binyon.

As part of the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings, Principal, Miss Gwyneth Evans, reminded the audience of the significant role that Killymoon Castle played in the war effort.

Killymoon Castle was home to the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division of the US army. More than 600 American army personnel were stationed there; officers stayed in the castle, while paratroopers were housed in Quonset huts. It is estimated that about 300,000 American military personnel were deployed to Northern Ireland by the end of the war.

Soldiers spent three months at Killymoon before being dispatched to England for the final preparations of the operation to land in France, an event that would forever be known as D-Day. By the end of World War 2, 153 paratroopers who stayed at Killymoon had died.

There are many artefacts in the castle and for 80 years it’s basement walls have been the canvas for hundreds of handwritten messages from American soldiers preparing for D-Day. One of the names on the cellar wall reads: PT Tony J Vickery 505. Prcht. Inf, US Army, Atlanta.’ Paratrooper Tony Vickery was 18 years old when he parachuted into Normandy on the 6th June 1944. Five days later on the morning of the 11th June Tony Vickery was on sentry duty whilst the soldiers he was with were catching up on some sleep in a ditch when a group of German soldiers came into view from nearby woods. He waited until they were approximately 10 metres from his position before opening fire with his machine gun. The fight lasted less than 30 minutes during which Tony was Killed in Action. For such bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and is buried in the American cemetery in Normandy.

Miss Evans concluded by saying ‘It is the brave and courageous actions of many heroes like Tony Vickery that we owe a great debt of gratitude as they fought for the liberty and freedom that we enjoy in our country today and they must never be forgotten.’