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Parish Info War Memorial Rededication of the War Memorial 2008
Parish Info War Memorial Rededication of the War Memorial 2008
| Rededication of the War Memorial 2008 |
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| Parish Information - The War Memorial | |||
%20resized.jpg) At a little before 7.00 p.m. on Friday 25 May 2008 more than two hundred people stood in silence around the war memorial in Bergh Apton’s churchyard, just as others had done, almost to the hour, exactly eighty-seven years before. The first time, on Friday 28th May 1920, had been the dedication of the memorial, with the names of twenty men of the village carved on its stone. This second time the memorial was being re-dedicated, and the names had risen to forty-one.Erosion, weathering and the pure passage of time, in the years between, had begun to obscure the names of the men that had been killed in World War One. It had even begun the same process on the names that had been added in 1968 when, albeit a little late, the Roll Call rose to twenty five when the names of five boys who had died in World War Two were added. Now, in 2007, on an evening that had threatened rain, but had relented to give us a quiet if rather overcast day’s end, we stood there to mark three things. The first was the conclusion of a process that had repaired and cleaned the memorial, so that it stood once again as it had been in the beginning. The second was that the names of the twenty five men now stood out once more, clearly readable, having been carefully re-carved. And third was the addition of the names of sixteen more Bergh Apton boys who, for a variety of causes, had not been there before. Their names and their death in war had been revealed in a passage of seven years of research and investigation in the archives of newspapers, Norfolk Records Office, Army records and elsewhere that revealed their sacrifice, meriting their place alongside their peers. So there we stood. We were the families of the men who were already on the memorial and from those whose names were new. We were people of today’s village, and we were representatives of Regiments and Services in which our men had served. We were from many Nations. We included Lt Colonel Lee Nickerson of the Canadian army with whose forces two Bergh Apton men fought and died and Andrew Parsons, representing the Newfoundland Regiment and with whom yet another was killed. We were friends of the village across many years including Alf Weeks who had lived here as an evacuee in the Second World War at the same time as some whose names were now on this memorial. We had sung Hymns lustily and we had listened as Rebecca Parfitt, Derek Blake and Patricia Waters read poetry, prose and a Bible passage with such intensity and understanding that many were moved to tears, and we listened to Bishop David’s sermon that spoke of the simple men whom we were here to honour. And then we went outside to stand together at the memorial where the Bishop re-dedicated the memorial and Alex de Bunsen, Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk (and Kirby Bedon neighbour) unveiled the memorial by removing the Union Flag that had concealed the new carvings. Chris Johnson called the Roll, Christopher Meynell read the exhortation “we shall remember them” and, in a moving closure to this passage of declarations, George Osborne of the 2nd Royal Norfolks, a veteran of India’s Battle of Kohima in 1944, read “The Kohima Salutation”. The element of ceremonial that concluded this historic evening was the sounding of “Last Post” and “Reveille” by Bob Kerry from the top of the church tower. The sight of the Kings’s Colour and the fourteen Regimental standards that were present being lowered in unison as Last Post sounded, to lie at the foot of the memorial for the one minute’s silence, is one that many of those present will recall for many years to come as one of enormous gravity and sense of occasion. In a final flourish of the Re-Dedication Service, as Bob Kerry sounded “No More Parades”, the King’s Colour and Standards were dismissed by the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant on the command of Parade Master Bill McLintock of the Royal Norfolk Veterans’ Association. resized.jpg) Then the mood changed. A slight hiatus made it clear to all present that something was about to happen, but few expected the sight and sound of a wartime Lockheed P51 Mustang passing little more than 250 feet above their heads, and with the snarl of a Merlin engine, as Maurice Hammond from nearby Hardwick airfield did a fly past, two passes at low-level, to conclude the Service. There can be few better ways of saying “Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s all”!!The day then concluded with what was, perhaps, a quintessential Bergh Apton touch. The entire congregation was invited to supper at the village hall – all 200 of them. (Too many for the capacity of the hall itself? No problem - let’s erect marquees to shelter those who can’t get into the building itself!) The hall became a babble of sound as those present talked of the events of the past few hours. Old friends met again, including the pleasant surprise of his friends when former Bergh Apton resident Terry Fitchett (of White Heath House) appeared as a representative of the Submarine Service, to honour brothers Eric and Maurice Barnes whose names are now on our memorial. Perhaps the best accolade we had was the comment by Lee Nickerson of the Canadian High Commission, who told us that he had been to many such events, but none where he had witnessed the same sense of honour being paid to the Fallen and had received such warm hospitality from a whole community. I think that tells us that we achieved what we would have wished to achieve when we set out on the process of organising this very special day. Our thanks (in no order of value – they are all stars!) to those who contributed to the day’s success
o And to all those others who also deserve our thanks for what they did to make this day a memorable and successful village event.
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