Loretto pupils to perform at Belgian Remembrance event

THE choir and pipers from Loretto School will be performing in Belgium on Remembrance Day to commemorate the 147 pupils who were killed during the First World War.

The Musselburgh school has a long-standing link with Heilege Familie School in Ypres and pupils will be travelling to the town to join in a number of commemorative events.

The link with Heilege Familie School was forged by John Elder, head of history and politics at Loretto, who is organising the November visit. He said: "They will learn that war is not glorious but glorious things happen in war.

"One such event is the Christmas truce of 1914. An old boy of the school, Major Buchanan-Dunlop, played a major part in this. He started the truce by getting his troops to sing carols to the Germans.

"The carols were from the programme of carols sung at Loretto's Christmas service, a copy of which had been sent to Major Buchanan-Dunlop."