Generations of Bermuda High School alumni descended on the playing field for its annual Torch Ceremony.

It was the 70th anniversary of the ceremony which celebrates the past, present and future of the school. More than 140 alumni lined the field along with more than 300 current pupils. Ninety-six-year-old Clarice Lindley was the eldest alumni to attend the ceremony yesterday.

“When I was here Marjorie Hallett was a head teacher. She went on to be headmistress and started this ceremony,” she said. “I don’t think there is anyone left from my class now.

“It is amazing how much the school has changed. When I left in 1925 when I was 11 it was only a small school. Many of these buildings didn’t even exist. We all used to ride our bicycles to school, now they have motorbikes.

“It’s lovely to come to Torch Day and see how much things have changed.”

The ceremony is steeped in tradition and began in 1937.

Students are required to line up in height order within their form classes. The alumni — or Old Girls as they are known — also line up in age order from eldest to youngest.

A lit torch is carried past the Old Girls and then handed to the Head of the school who carries it past the staff before it is handed to the Head Girl, who carries it past the entire school, starting with the older students. For the 15 minutes it takes the torch to make its round everyone stands in silence and touches it with their right hand when it passes them.

The poem “The Torchbearers”, by Alfred Noyes, is then read before everyone breaks into the school song.

The original “torch” was a tin can nailed to the end of a broom stick with a rag soaked in kerosene in the can. Later an Olympic-type torch with a short handle was donated to the school.

A few years later the handle was later lengthened for safety reasons, and ultimately a harness for the Head Girl was made at King Edward Memorial Hospital.

After the ceremony Old Girls attend a lunch with the graduating class to celebrate their transition from transition from student to Old Girl.