NUNNERY Wood High School students travelled to the battlefields and memorials of World War One in France and Belgium in order to return a wooden remembrance cross, found in Worcester, to its rightful place.

Bee Bannister, a teacher and former serviceman who accompanied the trip, found the wooden cross by Worcester rubbish reclamation centre on Bilford Road.

Despite an appeal to reunite it with whoever had dropped it there, it remained unclaimed and so it was decided to return it to the grave of the person detailed on the cross.

It seemed unlikely that the cross was actually intended to be thrown away.

Twenty eight Year 8 students and four members of staff travelled to France and Belgium and located the memorial for the soldier who had died in Tyne Cot cemetery. His body was not recovered and so his name is on the memorial wall in the cemetery.

Students then laid the cross as well as a wreath at the site.

Jack Wise, who laid the cross, said: “I thought it was important to lay the cross because the soldier deserved to be recognised for what he did. I wanted to go on the trip to show my respect for all of the men who were killed and to actually see the extent of graves and memorials.”

Mr Bannister said: “The cross had a lot of information on it including, the soldier's name, rank, service number, and date of his death, so it obviously meant something to someone.

"Being an ex-serviceman I had always wanted to visit the battlefields and this gave me the ideal incentive to be involved in a school visit and return the cross.

"Some of the children had relatives buried in the many cemeteries that we visited and enjoyed the task of finding named graves, and they were very keen to find the memorial to Private Alfred Perry of Bromsgrove and replant the cross."

The trip was partly sponsored by local businesses; DNT Ltd, are specialist in steel products, and Karvas, who work in military defence. The company very kindly donated printed t-shirts for students to wear on the trip and to keep as a souvenir.

As the centenary of World War One approaches, the school is busy planning a range of activities and opportunities to commemorate this.

All departments in school will have the opportunity to contribute, with the final event being a remembrance evening to be held on at 7pm on November 9. The event will be open to the school and wider community.