"The memorial, with its 167 names, shows the great sacrifice made by the boys of Harris Academy - names which cover the whole history of the school from James Tosh, one of its earliest pupils, to lads who had scarcely entered the Higher Grade department when the war began. Five out of six successive dux medallists appear on the lists and many of the brightest spirits in the school made the supreme sacrifice."

For many years after the Great War, a Remembrance Day Ceremony was enacted in the school. Two minutes silence was observed, poppy wreaths were laid on the memorial, and the whole school filed past the remembrance board. The meaning of this ceremony was summed up by an S2 pupil :

"At eleven o'clock, the bugle was blown. This was the signal for silence and, for two minutes, all was still. A great hush fell over the whole school and one and all, during that short time, were filled with a mixture of joy and sorrow - sorrow for those who had been so brave and unselfish during those four horrible years of struggle, and gladness at the thought that these dark days were in the past, and that the children of today will not live to be the soldiers of tomorrow."

The author of this article for the School Magazine was too shy to attach his (or her) name. It is a sobering thought that this pupil was exactly the age to be caught up in the Second World War. A second memorial on the main staircase marks the sacrifice of Harris pupils in this conflict.

Remembrance - World War Two