Sevenoaks commemorates centenary of Will Goss Hicks

Will Goss Hicks, known locally as Bill, was first a pupil, and finally, headteacher of Lady Boswell's Primary School in Sevenoaks, when the school was housed in a town centre building on London Road which today is a restaurant, amazingly called "Bill's"

He was also the founder of 1st Sevenoaks Hicks' Own Scout Group, a scout group which is still flourishing.

Passionate about music and importance for children of singing and a member of the congregation at St Nicholas' Church, Will was engaged to Jessie Ellman when he signed up for active service in France.

He died from wounds on 3 July 1917 and is buried in Barlin Cemetery near Bethune in France.

Jane Churchill's "Degrees of Separation"

Lady Boswell's pupils with Apollo5 at St Nicholas' Church 

His great great niece, Jane Churchill found inspiration from his story to create her installation "Degrees of Separation" which was exhibited in the Kaleidoscope Gallery in Sevenoaks in 2011. This formed the basis of the artwork created by 240 students in a year long heritage art project involving 17 Livery Companies representing the trades behind the scenes of WW1 and generously supported by National Lottery players through the Heritage Lottery Fund.





We wove together all these elements to create a wonderful memorial day in his memory on Monday 3 July 2017. Apollo5 led a music workshop for students in year 5 at Lady Boswell's Primary School which included rehearsing a medley of WW1 songs for a concert at St Nicholas' Church where they performed against a backdrop of pictures from "Echoes Across the Century". Apollo5 performed both on their own and with the children, a programme inspired by the stories from WW1. A solo of Rusalka's Song to the Moon was exquisitely played by Tom Neilson from Archbishop Tenison CE School, one of the "Echoes" partner schools. Two cubs in uniform from Lady Boswell's laid a wreath of moths at Will Goss Hicks' memorial plaque in the church. the wreath was made by Jane using paper moths created by students from St Thomas' Primary School in Sevenoaks on their recent visit to Guildhall Art Gallery.

St Thomas' Primary School pupils in art workshop at Guildhall Art Gallery

Jane gave a short presentation about the installation at Guildhall Art Gallery to round off the event, explaining her family connection and introducing her Great Aunt Jean, Will's niece, to the audience.

"Echoes Across the Century" at Guildhall Art Gallery 

Jane and producer Alison Truphet, left immediately for France where they spent some time at Will's grave to reflect on the centenary of his death, his influence on the "Echoes" project and the impact of his story on all the thousands of visitors to the installation at Guildhall Art Gallery over the last three months.