Boys’ High upholds 99-year tradition

Commemorating fallen soldiers is always an emotional experience. With a ceremony that has been performed each year for the past 99 years on 11 November, the Potchefstroom High School for Boys took the time to remember their fallen soldiers from the First and Second World Wars and subsequent South African wars.
Armistice Day was the day that hostilities ceased, ending World War I at 11:00 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. It is observed worldwide, as at Boys High.

During the memorial service at the school, three wreaths were laid at the Light of Remembrance on the school grounds. Mr Wally Hopton, who matriculated in 1945, the headmaster, Mr Johan van Vuuren and Matthew Mbatha, head boy, all laid wreaths.
As part of the ceremony in the school hall, the names of the Old Moois who died during the wars were read. Numerous well-known surnames from families who are synonymous with the history of Potchefstroom were heard, such as Goetz, Van der Hoff, Haagner, Kinnear, Baillie, Luke and Velleman. A.C. and W Weeks were two brothers who both died in the Second World War.
Rev. Charles Kuhn of the Methodist Church of Potchefstroom delivered the address. The bugler, Peet du Toit, played the Last Post and Reveille on the trumpet.
This Remembrance Day service coincided with a reunion of Old Moois. Approximately 165 former students from as far back as 1945 attended the event.
Geoff Sandler, the head boy of 1972, also addressed the meeting, announcing that the class of 1972 had spearheaded the sponsorship to upgrade the science facilities at the school.