On the 11th November, the school community gathered to honour and remember those in the armed forces who have died in wars or conflicts, particularly those who had attended Nottingham High School.

Wreaths were placed by the Chair of Governors, Steve Banks, Head Boy William and Head Girl Bea, CCF representative Ben and Phil Renshaw (ON 1967-1974) on behalf of the Old Nottinghamian Community.

The Last Post was played by Year 11 student Alex.

Claire Daley, Head of History, gave an address exploring ‘the forgotten of the forgotten’ of World War One – the ninety-five thousand Chinese farm labourers, who volunteered to leave their remote villages and work for Britain in the First World War as part of the Chinese Labour Corps.

The contribution made by the Chinese Labour Corps was barely recognised at the end of the war in 1918, and has been practically obliterated since. There is no tribute to them among Britain's forty thousand war memorials. Indeed, there are no descendants in Britain because they were refused any right to settle after the war and many of the records of their service were destroyed in the Blitz of the Second World War.

So, why were Chinese men recruited to work for Britain during the First World War and what happened to them?

As the First World War progressed, the need for more manpower became acutely problematic. The increased use of ammunition and supplies necessitated by trench warfare led to increased imports, which in turn put enormous strain on Britain’s transportation services. Depots, workshops, factories and ports were all desperate for manpower. Britain initially turned to women to fill these vacant roles.

However, the tremendous losses seen during the series of British offensives of 1915 meant that labourers who previously worked behind the front line were now required to go to the front. It was thus the realisation that Britain did not have the man or woman power necessary to prepare for the great offensives of 1917 that persuaded the British Authorities to consider the importation of Chinese labourers to France and Belgium.

By August 1916 the War Office had made an enquiry to Sir John Jordan, British Minister in Peking, for his view regarding the prospect of employing Chinese labour. At first, the scheme was to recruit ten thousand labourers from British Territory in Hong Kong to avoid difficulties regarding China’s neutrality. However, it became clear that labourers from Hong Kong were not suited to the cold climate of Europe.

As recruitment in Hong Kong was not recommended, the British had to consider other options. The French pioneered a scheme to recruit labourers to serve as non-military personnel, with negotiations being conducted by government officers posing as civilians to protect the Chinese Government and its neutrality in the war. Following these negotiations with Beijing, the British Government and the War Office made the initial decision to use Wei-Hai-Wei, a British-leased territory, as a recruiting depot, which allowed them to recruit without restrictions.

Each recruit was allotted a number and given a brass disc for identification. In order to become a member of the Chinese Labour Corps, the recruits needed to pass medical inspection. They then received a uniform and equipment. By January 1917, the first Battalion of the Chinese Labour Corps was ready to sail. Many came from such remote farms that when they reached the tall buildings and busy waterfront of Shanghai, they thought they had arrived in Europe. In fact, it was only the start of an appalling journey on which many died. The journey took the Chinese recruits by ship across the Pacific, six days crossing Canada in sealed trains to avoid paying landing taxes, on by ship to Liverpool, by train again to Folkestone, and on to France and Belgium, where they lived in labour camps and worked digging trenches, unloading ships and trains, laying tracks and building roads, and repairing tanks.

Some who died on the voyage are buried in Liverpool, and two thousand more lie in Commonwealth war graves, but some sources believe up to twenty thousand died. They worked 10-hour days, seven days a week, and had three holidays including Chinese New Year. When the war ended and other men went home, they worked on until 1920, clearing live ordnance and exhuming bodies from battlefield burials and moving them to the new war cemeteries.

Despite the initial need in negotiations to protect Chinese neutrality in the First World War, China declared war on Germany in August 1917, when a German torpedo sank the French ship Athos, with the loss of 543 Chinese lives. In 1919, China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This was because the British and French broke their promise that in return for Chinese support, the Shandong peninsula, which had belonged to the German Empire prior to its occupation by Japan in 1914, would be returned to China. Instead, the Treaty of Versailles transferred the Shandong peninsula to the Empire of Japan.

Furthermore, When Britain distributed 6 million commemorative medals to all who took part in the Great War, those received by the Chinese bore only their numbers, not their names, and were bronze, not silver. In a painfully symbolic metaphor for the way in which the Chinese Labour Corps contributions have been commemorated, the Chinese were also painted out of a giant canvas exhibited in Paris at the end of the war. It was believed to be the largest painting in the world, and showed a victorious France surrounded by her allies. It was begun in 1914, but had to be changed in 1917 to include the arrival of the United States – the space was found by painting over the Chinese workers.