Remembrance Thanksgiving and Dedication - The War Memorial, Royal Tunbridge Wells
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Remembrance
Thanksgiving and Dedication
The War Memorial, Royal Tunbridge Wells
Sunday 8 November 2020
10.45am
www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/mayor
Livestream: http://twbc.online/remembrance
Service conducted by Order of Service
Reverend Laurence Powell Rev Powell: Welcome to our Act of Remembrance. We meet in the presence of God.
Vicar of King Charles the Martyr Church We commit ourselves to work in penitence and faith for
Assisted by reconciliation between the nations, that all people may, together,
live in freedom, justice and peace.
Pastor Gareth Jones
Pantiles Baptist Church and Chaplain to We pray for all who in bereavement, disability and pain who
129 (Tunbridge Wells) Squadron Air Training Corps continue to suffer the consequences of fighting and terror.
Imam Yasser Balesaria We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow those whose lives,
in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been given and
Tunbridge Wells Islamic and Cultural Centre
taken away.
Major Ian Kelso
Commanding Officer, Skinners’ School CCF ALL: Amen.
Narrator
Mr John Cohen OBE Reading: Imam Yasser Balesaria
Royal British Legion Branch Chairman An Islamic Supplication
Declaiming Officer
Lt (SSC) Matthew Vanns GCGI RNR Prayers: Reverend Powell
TS Brilliant - Tunbridge Wells Sea Cadets Corps
Parade Commander Parade
Lt Cdr (SCC) Jon Vanns RNR Commander: Parade Attention
Southern Area Sea Cadets
Parade Marshal
David Fawcett
Director of Proceedings
Buglers of TS Brilliant –
Tunbridge Wells Sea Cadets Corps
***********
When the parade has formed, the Mayor, Councillor Joy Podbury and
Civic Party will process to the War Memorial
2 3Remembrance our Saviour, the Prince of Peace; grant that we, who are called
by his name, may yield our lives to your service, and strive for
reconciliation, understanding, and peace in all our relationships;
Declaiming for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Officer: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Reply: God of grace, hear our prayer.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. Amen.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
ALL: We will remember them
Prayers for the Nation
Last Post (NB – Gentlemen are to remove hats during Parade
the Last Post and Reveille.) Commander: Parade Attention.
Cannon
Two minutes’ silence The National Anthem
Cannon
(NB – All serving commissioned officers to salute during the National Anthem)
Reveille Parade
Declaiming Commander: Stand at Ease
Officer: When you go home, tell them of us and say
‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today’.
The Blessing
Parade
Commander: Stand at Ease Rev Powell: God grant to the living grace, to the departed rest, to the Church,
the Queen, the Commonwealth and all people, unity, peace and
concord, and to us and all God’s servants, life everlasting. And the
Placing of Wreaths blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you
all and remain with you always.
Rev Powell: Let the Mayor place a wreath Amen.
Let the Royal British Legion President place a wreath Parade
Commander: Parade Attention
Pastor Gareth Senior Police Officer, the Mace, the Mayor and Civic Party
Jones: In this year as we have remembered the 75th Anniversary of VE process off.
Day and VJ Day, we do give thanks to you for the peace our land Narrator invites everyone else to fall out.
has seen over the years. Parade
Reply: God of mercy, accept our thanks. Commander: Left Turn
We would pray to you, the God of all comfort, for all those who
continue to suffer because of war: widows, orphans, and all who
are bereaved, the wounded and the injured. Grant to them all your
healing and strength, your help and consolation, and use us in this
service, we pray; for Jesus Christ’s sake.
Reply: God of comfort, hear our prayer.
Almighty Father, you call your children to live as brothers and
sisters in love and harmony, and have given your Son to be
4 5Number of British demobilised When did demobilisation end Average time taken for
personnel after the Second for British forces? personnel to be demobilised?
Coming Home World War?
1949 On average a year
Approximately 4.2 million
In 2020 the Remembrance theme is Coming Home, drawing together VE and VJ
Day. Coming Home reminds us that “When you serve, HOME means so much How many British POWs Average time for British
more” and is therefore as applicable to veterans of the Second World War as it is How many British POWs returned to the UK from the Far personnel to return home after
to those currently serving. It is the stories around Home and what it meant to the returned to the UK from Europe East at the end of WW2? being a POW?
different parts of the Second World War generation, Home Front, frontline, British, at the end of WW2?
Commonwealth and Allied. The end of the Second World War resulted in the 37,000 Most were home by
demobilisation of approximately 3.8 million British men and nearly 400,000 women, 135,000 Christmas 1945, but there
all had to be reunited with their homes and families, some for the first time in were still POWs returning
The number of displaced after this from the Far East
many years. To this was added the return of thousands of child evacuees, and the
How many Jews were freed people in Germany at the end
rebuilding of the nation, communities and families.
from concentration and of the war?
extermination camps at the end The total number of refugees in
These reunions were often joyous, frequently strained and sometimes painful. of the war? Approximately 17 million Europe?
Resettlement to civilian life was a major concern of post-war governments and a
driver of social change. Approximately 300,000 Approximately 40 million
Period of greatest number of
The challenges faced by reunited families were similar to those faced by Service displaced people?
families today. The total number of refugees How many people were
worldwide? 1945-1947 evacuated in Britain during
WW2?
Coming Home Facts and Figures Approximately 60 million
Number of remaining evacuees Approximately 3 million
in September 1945, which
These facts and figures tell the story of Coming Home, of a world where the war When was the evacuation includes; unaccompanied
programme ended in Britain? children, mothers and children, Total Canadian Forces taken
had ended but massive movements of refugees, displaced persons, soldiers,
teachers and helpers, and POW throughout the war
families and communities were still to take place, where millions were still trying to March 1946 other adults.
get home or find a home. Over 9,000
Nearly 19,000
Total New Zealand Forces
taken POW throughout the war Total South African Forces
Total Australian Forces taken POW throughout the war
Over 8,500 taken POW throughout the war
Nearly 15,000
Over 23,000
Total pre-partition Indian Forces
taken POW throughout the war Total number of Canadian
Total colonial forces taken Forces demobilised to the end
Approximately 60,000 POW throughout the war of the 1945-46 fiscal year.
Over 8,000 Over 560,000
Total number of New Zealand
Forces demobilised from the
end of the war to 31 March Total number of Australian Total number of South African
1946 Forces demobilised to the end Forces demobilised to the 31
of 1947 March 1948
Over 75,000
Over 940,000 Over 245,000
6 7In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow We are the dead. Short days ago
Between the crosses, row on row, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.
That mark our place; and in the sky Loved and were loved and now we lie
The larks, still bravely singing, fly In Flanders’ fields.
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
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.
The poem was written in 1915 by John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian
Armed Forces in Northern France. Three years later he was to die in a Military
Hospital on the French Channel coast, within sight of Britain and it is said that on
his deathbed he murmured “Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall
not sleep.”
Flanders and Picardy, in Northern France, saw some of the most concentrated and
bloodiest fighting of the First World War. There was complete devastation: buildings,
roads, trees and natural life simply disappeared. Where once there were homes
and farms there was now a sea of mud – a grave for the dead where men still lived
and fought. Only one other living thing survived. The poppy, flowering each year
with the coming of the warm weather, brought life, hope, colour and reassurance to
those still fighting.
After the war Moina Michael, an American War Secretary with the YMCA, bought
red poppies with money given to her by work colleagues, and sold the flowers to
raise money to help needy ex-servicemen. Her French colleague, Madam Guerin,
proposed the making of artificial poppies, and their sale, to help both ex-servicemen
and their dependants. The first Poppy Day, held in Britain on 11 November 1921,
was a national success, and Major George Howson, who had founded The
Disabled Society to help those disabled in the war who now seemed unemployable,
recognised that the making of the artificial poppies might offer opportunities for his
Society. His proposals were put to the British Legion (now the Royal British Legion),
founded by Earl Haig, formerly Commander in Chief in France, and the outcome
was the establishment of what we now know as The Royal British Legion Poppy
Factory, which employs mainly disabled people, making poppies, wreaths and other
items associated with today’s Poppy Appeal. So, from John McCrae’s emotive
poem has arisen a powerful and achieving international charitable organisation,
which has helped many thousands of people.
Copyright No. 5156
Join the Legion and become part of an international network of people who care
about British Armed Forces personnel, ex-Service men and women and their
families. The Tunbridge Wells Branch has an interesting programme of talks and
activities. Annual membership is £17.
Call 0800 3077 773 or go to www.britishlegion.org.uk/membership.
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