Forty Years On (song)

"Forty Years On" is a song written by Edward Ernest Bowen and John Farmer in 1872.

It is the school anthem for Harrow School as well as Woodford County High School for Girls; it is specifically about life at school; is meant to give pupils now an idea of what it will be like in forty years when they return to their old school, and to remind old boys about their school life. It is the main school song of Harrow School, and is sung there at the end of any songs (this is an occasion when old boys of the school return to hear the schools songs being sung by current pupils, or an occasion within houses for singing the same songs at the end of each term), followed by "Auld Lang Syne" and the British National Anthem ("God Save The Queen"). The "Churchill" was written to celebrate the life of the most famous Old Harrovian, Sir Winston Churchill. Traditionally, verse three is sung by Old Harrovians in attendance at School Songs. The Churchill verse is only sung once a year at a special Churchill Songs. The penultimate Follow Up! in each chorus is sung unaccompanied by the School XII, which is made up of the best singers in the top year.

It inspired the title of (and is sung in) Forty Years On, a play by Alan Bennett. The song was also used in the films Young Winston (1972) and Never Let Me Go (2010).

Forty years on, when afar and asunder
Parted are those who are singing today,
When you look back, and forgetfully wonder
What you were like in your work and your play,
Then, it may be, there will often come o’er you,
Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song –
Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,
Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along,v

Follow up! Follow up! Follow up
Follow up! Follow up
Till the field ring again and again,
With the tramp of the twenty-two men.
Follow up! Follow up!

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Wikipedia