2025 Vic High Remembrance Day Launches A New Tradition

Vic High’s Remembrance Day ceremonies always reflect its history, but starting in 2025, that history is front and center each year as Vic High’s new replica Great War Banner hangs each November in the Lawrie Wallace Auditorium. The original banner was donated to Vic High in 1920 to commemorate all the Vic High students and staff who served in World War I. White maple leaves represented nursing sisters, navy blue leaves were for those who survived the war and came home, and red leaves were for those who gave their lives. At 13′ 6″ wide and 30′ long, it hung on the outside of the 1914 building facing Fernwood, but had become too fragile to continue the tradition. Irene Harrison, VHS 1955, who serves on the executive of Royal Canadian Legion #7 Britannia Branch, reminded the Alumni of its grant program, an application to fund a replica banner was submitted, and the Legion generously donated to create the half-size replica which can now be hung inside the school.

November 10, 2025, Vic High held its Remembrance Day ceremony, with 2/3 of the student and staff seated in the auditorium and 1/3 watching the ceremony via streaming to classrooms. Forces personnel with connections to Vic High were shown on the screen as students and staff took their seats.  Irene and her husband Keith Yoh, led the colour guard, Gerry Pash, VHS 1962, delivered the keynote speech, and Sam Lilas, VHS 2026, read In Flanders Field. A highlight of the ceremony was a moving video, available here, reminding everyone of the realities faced daily by armed forces personnel on our behalf.

The Alumni is grateful to Irene and #7 Britannia Legion for their generous funding of this ‘new’ Great War Banner, which can now be appreciated by all students and staff every year. While the banner will hang for several weeks each year, a permanent plaque about the banner is now installed on the wall directly below its location.

The TimesColonist published a front page, feature article on the banner – click here.