The whole school came together on Wednesday 3^rd March at All Saints Church, Kingston, to celebrate the founding of the School and give thanks for all those who have acted as benefactors over the 449 years of its existence.

The theme of this year’s Act of Commemoration was ‘service’, a subject introduced by members of the Gibbon Society, and enlarged upon by members of the Middle School and Sixth Form involved in community service, the guest speaker, the Right Reverend Dr Richard Cheetham, OK, Bishop of the Kingston, in his address and the Head in her concluding remarks.

The words of the speakers were punctuated by fine music from the Junior Choir and Schola Cantorum and by congregational hymns, and the School Captain, Molly Hanson-Akins, read the lesson. Community Service was the focus of a series of personal talks, frank, honest and at times very moving, by members of the Middle School and the Sixth Form. Their accounts included stories of working in primary schools, with the homeless and with the disabled, as well as on charitable enterprises such as Project Why? in India. The congregation was left in no doubt about the importance and value of the work undertaken by so many of the KGS community on behalf of others. 

In his address, Dr Cheetham talked about greatness, evoking Mohammed Ali, Olympic champions and some of the School’s own sporting ‘greats’. Few can reach such heights, he said, but all have it in themselves to attain greatness through service. Service took many forms, he explained, and the School offered many opportunities. It was essential that we all recognised that making the most of those opportunities and realising our potential involved not just meeting our own selfish aims but also giving - of our time, our talents and ourselves. He concluded by hoping we would all find true greatness in lives of real service. 

The Head’s remarks looked back at the year, at KGS and in the wider world. The day was, she said, partly a celebration of all that we had done, partly a commemoration of the School’s founding and the many benefactors it has owed so much to over its long history. She drew on the lessons of the past, looking to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and finding many parallels with the modern world. Not least of these was the idea that education held the key to the future, and that the drive for education, then as now, was not purely a matter of practical necessity, but was borne out of a deep moral sense of purpose, which had at its heart a firmly-held belief in the ideals of service. 

The Act of Commemoration ended with a stirring organ carillon by Arthur Willis, played by Mr Jackson, and there was a retiring collection in aid of Amazing Children Uganda, a charity which provides school scholarships for young people living or working on the streets of Uganda.