A SCHOOL reunion will have added poignancy this month as former pupils, staff and governors of Rivington and Blackrod High School commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

The Association of Old Rivingtonians holds an annual reunion weekend every October which includes a dinner and a thanksgiving service, the theme of which this year will be peace, in the school’s Victorian chapel.

David Kaye, of the Association of Old Rivingtonians, said: “This year, however, the service will have added poignancy and significance, as the former pupils, staff and governors of Rivington and Blackrod High School, and its Grammar School predecessor, will be commemorating the centenary of the 1918 Armistice, which mercifully brought an end to the horrors of The Great War.

“A total of 24 former pupils of Rivington lost their lives in the 1914-1918 conflict, and their names are perpetuated within the chapel’s exquisite stained-glass west window, which was dedicated in 1922 as the school’s permanent war memorial, funded largely via an appeal to former alumni.”

The association’s president, Jim Andrews, who was head boy at Rivington during the 1960s, will lay a wreath. Everyone is welcome to attend the service, whether former pupils are not.

Two days before, on Friday, October 12, the reunion dinner will be held at Brookfield Hall, Westhoughton, when guests will include members of staff and sixth formers from the school.

During the reunion weekend, there will be several fund-raising initiatives for the President’s Charity Fund, the beneficiaries of which are, Bolton Dementia Support Group and B.A.N.D.

Mr Kaye said: “The collection from the reunion service this year will be donated to the RAF Benevolent Fund, which is most appropriate in the RAF’s centenary year.”

The Reunion Service will take place in the chapel at 2:30pm on Sunday, October 14

Tickets for the meal can be obtained by ringing 01204 692654.