A SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD soldier who died in the Second World War was honoured during a school’s trip to the Normandy battlefields.
Teenagers from Horsforth School laid a wreath at the grave of Jack Banks who was one of just four Commonwealth soldiers under 17 to be killed in the 1944 Normandy campaign.
Students at the school recently staged a play inspired by the young soldier’s sacrifice. A group of boys, including two actors from the play, paid tribute to Jack at the Jerusalem Cemetery near Bayeux. The Last Post was played by student Frank Lavelle.
Callum Flesher, who played Jack said: “We were honoured to be able to lay the wreath at Jack’s grave and think for a while about what happened to him a young lad just a little older than us with all his life before him.”
Fifty-six students aged between 12 and 15 visited a number of sites connected with the Normandy landings including Gold and Omaha beaches and several D-Day museums.
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