AS the school fell silent at 11am on 11 November, five pupils from a Chester school were among those leading the country in reflection and commemoration in London.

The King's School Chester was one of just seven schools represented at the Cenotaph on Thursday morning for the Western Front Association's (WFA) Armistice Day service of remembrance.

Edmund Hartley, Estella Lally, Lily-Ella Barnard, Gemma Christie and Imogen Aldridge joined guests of honour Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central, Mayor of South Yorkshire and a former British Army Major, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, as well as representatives from the Chinese Labour Corps and Caribbean Labour Corps.

During the ceremony, Actor Nick Bailey read John McCrae’s famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' and also paid tribute to Walter Tull, a professional footballer and one of Britain’s first black British Army officers. Tull lost his life at the Second Battle of the Somme and has no known grave but is remembered at the Arras Memorial in France.

King’s History teacher Seb Neal accompanied the pupils to London. When asked about the continued importance of remembrance, he echoed the words of Rich Hughes, Trustee of the WFA.

He said: "The commemoration this year is very important because we now enter a second century since the end of the Great War. As well as the tragedy and scale of loss, modern society was shaped by the war and can only be understood by reference to the changes it brought about."

In school, a two-minute silence was held and two wreaths were laid at the King’s War Memorial by Infant and Junior School pupils.

The Last Post was played by pupils Calum McCaig and Jake Bywater, and the Exhortation read by Mr Tallan Gill.