The Strong Shield

Shields are more than the artifacts of war; they may also serve as icons of identity, capturing some understanding of who we are as a community and a culture. The Shield of Achilles, for instance, conveys artistically and symbolically the entire world view of the Ancient Greeks. As Homer sees it, that world is a cosmos, an ordered whole within which the whole array of human actions find their place. The Shield includes the images of a city at peace and a city at war.

 

The Strong Shield, to be laid up in this Chapel, shall serve, I pray, as a kind of icon of the understanding about this School, its history and its traditions, and, in particular, about the role of the cadet corps. The Shield, as named and given in honour of Major Cecil V. Strong, reminds our young cadets of the sombre realities of war, but it does so within that larger understanding of sacrifice. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."