The School Song

SCHOOL SONG

We boast not our antiquity

Our legends old, our glorious past,

No claims to long descent have we:

We trust we hold the future fast.

For us the work of making straight

The path scholars new will tread

For us the task of sowing seed

Which will provide the daily bread.

For us the taste of doing right

For us the joy of duty done

For us the strife of memory

Of fights well fought, of fields well won.

A record then, which shall not fade,

We must entrust to future days

Secure that they in turn will strive

To fight the fight to share the praise.

Chorus

A foremost place we claim,

Let none our claim deny

Our friends we shall not shame

Our foes we do defy

A glorious future we all hail

The Trinity County shall prevail.

I wonder how many of us, do not, in fact, recall the School Song. When did we sing it – and who wrote the words and who wrote the music?

The words are glorious and appear (together with the music) as the first and last page in the book “Trinity, a School with a Past”

However, what many of us will remember, as I am reminded by Kemal Ghafur (1951) and who still retains his Trinity Hymn Book, is that the hymns we sang at the beginning and end of term were

“Lord behold us with Thy blessing” and “Lord dismiss us with Thy blessing”

After 50 or so years, Kemal and I actually remembered the music for these, and managed to la la a couple of verses over the phone together - does anyone remember what the music was called ?

The words were written by Henry James Buckoll 1803-1871 for Rugby School chapel. He was educated at Rugby and Queen’s College, Oxford, obtaining his BA in 1826. and becoming an assistant master at Rugby.. He took Holy Orders in 1827.

His works include:

Collection of Hymns for Rugby Parish Church, 1839

They are both worth repeating here, and I am sure will bring back memories of many assemblies.

Beryl Skinner(Hayter) 42 - - Website Editor

Kemal's poem (published on a separate page) is worth reading. Click here for link

AT BEGINNING OF TERM

Lord, behold us with Thy blessing

Once again assembled here;

Onward be our footsteps pressing

In Thy love, and faith, and fear;

Still protect us, still protect us

By Thy presence ever near.

For Thy mercy we adore Thee,

For this rest upon our way;

Lord, again we bow before Thee,

Speed our labors day by day;

Mind and spirit, mind and spirit

With Thy choicest gifts array.

Keep the spell of home affection

Still alive in every heart;

May its power, with mild direction,

Draw our love from self apart,

Till Thy children, till Thy children

Feel that Thou their Father art.

Break temptation’s fatal power,

Shielding all with guardian care,

Safe in every careless hour,

Safe from sloth and sensual snare;

Thou, our Saviour, Thou,our Saviour

Still our failing strength repair.

AT END OF TERM

Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing,

Thanks for mercies past receive;

Pardon all, their faults confessing;

Time that’s lost may all retrieve;

May Thy children, may thy children

Ne’er again Thy Spirit grieve.

Bless Thou all our days of leisure;

Help us selfish lures to flee;

Sanctify our every pleasure;

Pure and blameless may it be;

May our gladness,may our gladness

Draw us evermore to thee.

By Thy kindly influence cherish

All the good we here have gained;

May all taint of evil perish

By Thy mightier power restrained;

Seek we ever, seek we ever

Knowledge pure and love unfeigned.

Let Thy father-hand be shielding

All who here shall meet no more;

May their seed-time past be yielding

Year by year a richer store;

Those returning, those returning

Make more faithful than before.