At 11am on Tuesday [11 November,] over 2,000 students and 200 staff will stand in silent tribute in front of The Thomas Hardye School memorial gates in Queens Avenue, Dorchester, honouring Old Grammarians and Old Hardyeans who gave their lives in armed conflict. The tradition began in 1957 at Hardye’s School and has continued at the modern Thomas Hardye School.
Former pupils of Dorchester Grammar School, Hardye’s School and Thomas Hardye School are welcome to attend this annual occasion.
“It was 54 years ago- in 1960- that I attended my first Act of Remembrance outside those handsome iron gates and the stone pillars with the wyverns on top, then in Culliford Road. I recall it snowed that day in November 1960 and we all got very cold,” reminisces Old Hardyeans’ Secretary Michel Hooper-Immins. “It is still a supremely dignified tribute by today’s young people. We old boys and the Head Teacher are always very proud of them. We will welcome any former students to join the Old Hardyeans and the School for this most moving Act of Remembrance.”
The names of all old boys who fell in successive wars will be read by four pupils from the school. Then Head Teacher Michael Foley will lead the minute’s silence and a brief Act of Remembrance, culminating in the last post sounded by the bugler.
Thomas Hardye School is thought to be the only school in the South and South West to maintain this respectful tradition, where the classrooms are emptied and the entire school stands silently in front of the Memorial Gates. It began when the stone pillars and iron gates were consecrated in 1957 at Hardye’s School in Culliford Road. The Memorial Gates and pillars were rescued from the old school in 1995, before they were demolished and re-erected outside the new Thomas Hardye’s School at the end of Queens Avenue, complete with the twin stone wyverns- the School’s historic symbol- carved by the late Ken Batty, art master for many years.
“This memorial to those whose names are inscribed on the Rolls of Honour was erected by the old boys, parents and Governors. Dedicated 18 July 1957.” Inside the new School are two rolls of honour, one for Old Grammarians who fell in the Great War and the other honouring those in subsequent conflicts from 1939.
Many Old Hardyeans- old boys of Hardye’s School- will be present and Peter Foster, President of the Old Hardyeans, will lay a wreath at the Memorial Gates, as will the Chairman of Governors, the Head Boy and the Head Girl. The combined cadet force band will march and stand in the centre of the square in front of the entire school.
Founded in 1905 as the Old Grammarians, the Old Hardyeans- also known as the Hardyeans Club- is one of the most successful old school associations in the county, bringing together the old boys of Dorchester Grammar School and Hardye’s School, plus ex-students of the modern Thomas Hardye School. In the times of Queen Elizabeth I, it was Thomas Hardye [with a final “e”] described as a Yeoman of Frampton, who endowed Dorchester Grammar School in 1569. Hardye’s [shopping] Arcade today stands on the site. The Grammar School moved to Culliford Road in 1928- renamed Hardye’s School from 1954. The new Thomas Hardye School in Queens Avenue opened in 1992, encompassing the best traditions of the two previous schools- but admitting girls for the first time since 1569! Writer Thomas Hardy OM, who lived at nearby Max Gate, laid the foundation stone of Hardye’s School in 1927. He was no relation to Thomas Hardye, founder of the school, nor of Admiral Thomas Masterman Hardy!
Michel Hooper-Immins
