100 years ago today, on Armistice Day, the end was announced of one of the most devastating wars
our world has ever witnessed.
A war which caused unthinkable pain and suffering, but on that same day,
from the shadow of darkness a bright beacon of hope was lit
by the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Dr Ashley Clark began a campaign to establish a university in honour
of those who'd made sacrifices in the Great War.
We are the only university in the world established as a living memorial to the First World War,
thanks to donations large and small made by the local community.
I can only imagine the clarity of vision and the greatness of heart
it took for the people of this city and the surrounding counties, just emerging from World War I,
to decide their most fitting war memorial would be a university.
Without their generosity and particularly the leadership shown by members of the
Leicester Lit. and Phil. Society, we would not be standing here today.
Having had the experience of living an intimate association with large masses of soldiers during the war
and having been personally responsible for the medical examination of many thousands,
I am particularly struck with the exceedingly fine national asset we possess in our lads of eighteen.
To the honour of those who took their part in the great war, to the glory of those gallant fighters
who came through and to the memory of those devoted heroes who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.
Education alone is an asset of which an individual cannot be robbed,
let us therefore offer higher education as our War Memorial.
Today we will be dedicating this site as Centenary Square
and through this dedication we look forward to the next hundred years of the University, our second century.
This University as the city itself, is notable for its general humanity and support
of the community in which it is placed,
you have now become a university of sanctuary, offering scholarships to people who come here
for many reasons to seek safety and sanctuary and learning
and you the citizens of this city will be supporting them and I hope will continue to support them.
It is a proud boast that I have that I was reared on this campus, it is a wonderful university,
I feel it in my blood and I am truly privileged to be here at this epoch-making event,
launching yet a new enterprise and generosity from you the citizens of this City.
We look back from a position where we are very proud of our University,
it has a richly deserved national and an international reputation for its teaching and its research
and I'm particularly aware of what we all owe by way of a debt of gratitude to our forebears
from the City and the Counties when they envisioned the creation of this great institution, as the fitting,
as a lasting and above all as a living memorial to those who've been sacrificed during that conflict.
Earlier today we began a pilgrimage that will span three years,
it marks the occasion when the fund to create the University College was established
and will stretched to November 2021,
the centenary of the year when the University College was opened.
This morning, at the arch of remembrance at Victoria Park
Sir David and Michael Attenborough, along with Lord Willetts and I,
we laid a poppy wreath on behalf of the University.
This marked the start of a pilgrimage to lay poppy wreaths
at memorials across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland over the next three years.
Later today eleven of our Centenary Scholars will represent the University
laying further wreaths at memorials across the City and Counties.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Together we remember, together we honour those who lay down their lives for freedom
and together we share the vision of those who established this University
as a beacon of hope for the future.
Ut Vitam Habeant, so that they may have life.