STUDENTS, staff and parents gathered on the Gordon’s School parade square on Friday morning last week to commemorate the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who was the school’s patron.

Prayers were led by the school chaplain, the Rev Graham Wright, and the Last Post was sounded.

The school’s pipes and drums then played the lament Flowers of the Forest and a two-minute silence was observed.

Union flags at the secondary school in West End were lowered to half-mast when news first broke that the Queen had died. Members of the school community were invited to light a candle in the chapel in her memory.

Gordon’s, the national memorial to Victorian military hero and philanthropist General Charles Gordon, has enjoyed a long and proud association with the Royal Family, and in particular the reigning monarch.

The school was established in 1885 as a memorial to the general on the insistence of Queen Victoria. It was originally the Gordon Boys’ Home for “necessitous boys”, initially based near Fareham in Hampshire and moving to West End in 1887.

Gordon’s evolved over the years to become the state boarding and day school it is today, and the reigning monarch has always been its patron.

The Queen’s father, when he was the Duke of York and she was Princess Elizabeth, was chairman of the Gordon Foundation executive committee from 1924 to 1936. The young princess is believed to have watched her first film at the school, with boys from what was then Gordon Boys’ Home.

The school last welcomed the Queen for a visit during its centenary celebrations in 1985, when she unveiled a commemorative plaque.

The Queen, together with her husband Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, generously donated to the school’s centenary appeal, which raised more than £300,000 to modernise the buildings.

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was very much a part of Gordon’s rich heritage and we were proud that she was patron of the school, continuing an unbroken line of sovereign patrons since Queen Victoria,” said headteacher, Andrew Moss.

“Her Majesty’s visit to the school in 1985, its centenary year, is a treasured memory of Gordonians who witnessed the event.

“The school joins the nation in mourning the Queen, whose legacy of faithful leadership and selfless service will be remembered by generations and will inspire future generations.”

This Sunday’s whole-school parade will be dedicated to Her Majesty.