FROM THE URC ELDERS

Did you know that the artificial poppies that we buy for Remembrance Day are made in the Poppy Factory in Richmond?  This factory has been employing wounded and sick ex-Service personnel since 1922, when it was founded by Major George Howson MC, an engineer who served on the Western Front in the First World War.  The artificial flowers were designed so that someone who had lost the use of a hand could still assemble them using special equipment.  The factory today makes the poppies, remembrance crosses, sprays and wreaths for The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal and Remembrance Day, as well as all those red petals that fall in the Albert Hall during the Festival of Remembrance.  The Poppy Factory is also responsible for planting and hosting The Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey each year.

At the eastern exit of the town of Ypres in Belgium lies the Menin Gate.  This marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town, a road that led Allied soldiers to the front line in World War I.  A memorial built here, and opened in 1927, contains the names of almost 55,000 soldiers from that conflict whose remains had not been found or identified.  To express their gratitude to these men, who had given their lives for Belgium’s freedom, but had no named grave of their own, the citizens of Ypres conduct a ceremony of remembrance every evening at 8pm.  The road which passes under the memorial is closed, and buglers from the local fire brigade sound the ‘Last Post’.  Except for the period of occupation by the Germans during World War II, this ceremony has been carried out in Ypres almost uninterrupted ever since.

Throughout the beautifully tended military cemeteries in France and Belgium are many graves with just the poignant inscription “A soldier of the Great War” because the identity of the person buried there could not be discovered.  Inspired by one such grave, military chaplain Revd David Railton had the idea of honouring all the unidentified dead.  So, on the morning of November 11th 1920, the second anniversary of Armistice Day, the body of An Unknown Warrior, taken from one of the main British battle areas in France, was drawn on a gun carriage in a procession to the Cenotaph, where King George V placed a wreath on the coffin.  After the nation observed the two minute silence at 11am, the body was taken to Westminster Abbey and buried at the west end of the nave.  The grave contains soil from France and is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble.  Now one of the most visited war graves in the world, it is the only part of the Abbey floor that is never walked on. 

Soldiers known but unfound; Soldiers buried but unknown; We may not know the full story of these lives, but God our Maker does and He treasures every one of them.

Remembrance Sunday, this year on 10th November, is a special time to honour all who have given their lives - in past and present conflicts - that we might live in freedom and the world become a safer place.  Our Sunday morning service that day at the URC will welcome as usual the young people of our Scouts and Guides units, their leaders and families.  And of course we extend an invitation to anyone else who would like to join us on this special occasion. 

In order that we are ready to join with the two minute silence from the Cenotaph, please note that the service begins 10 minutes earlier than usual at 10.50 am.
Celia Miller

ST GILES’ CHURCH STREET PRAYER LIST

Each Sunday at St Giles’ Church we pray for all the people who live or work in a particular road in the Parish.  During November we will pray for the following roads: 

Nov 3rd              Burnham Avenue
Nov 10th            Bushey Close
Nov 17th            Bushey Road
Nov 24th            Campden Road

If you live in one of these roads why not join us at our 8am or 9.45am services?  You will be most welcome. 

FROM THE CHURCHES’ REGISTERS

Cremations at Breakspear Crematorium
Sept 17th           Barbara Smith, aged 83 (after service in St Giles’)
Sept 20th           Valerie Newton, aged 70
Oct 4th               Sydney Dyer, aged 93
Oct 14th             Gwendoline Hunter, aged 87