THE autumn leaves were falling as children and staff of St Augustine’s Priory, the Ealing Catholic independent day school for girls, commemorated Armistice Day (11).

Exactly 100 years after the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, the whole school gathered in the grounds and observed the two-minute silence at 11am.

The school has learned that one staff member is the great-great niece of 2nd Lt Julian Smith, of the Intelligence Corps, who died in 1914. He is thought to be the first volunteer to die in World War One.

This same member’s grandfather was instrumental in evacuating troops from the beaches at Dunkirk in World War Two.