Remembrance Sunday in Oxford

Given the current restrictions I had to attend the Solemn Requiem for Remembrance Sunday at the Oxford Oratory through livestream, but the liturgy in the Extraordinary Form was as beautiful and fitting in its restrained dignity as ever.

My friend Tony Morris had a post about war memorials in Oxford both for the city and for the colleges and schools on his blog Morris Oxford. He writes about the Bonn Square memorial to the Tirah campaign on the North West frontier of 1897-8 as well as those to the Great War. Amongst these which he illustrates is that to three German members of New College who died in the war and which is a moving example of how college links transcend so much more here in Oxford. He also has the memorial to old pupils of the Dragon School, which brought to mind John Betjeman’s memory of the announcements of their deaths when he was at the school in Summoned by Bells. It can be seen at Bonn Bones

He also sent me the following piece from 2018 about my college Oriel’s commemoration of the 163 members who were killed in the First World War in the form of a grove of 163 trees at Iffley. It also has a link about the edition of the letters written by Provost Phelps to the families of those killed which were published as A Provost’s War by Oriel. It can be seen at World War I Centenary: Remembering Oriel's Fallen