Ninety years of remembrance

Remembrance Sunday dawned mercifully dry although cold and blustery. After a moving service and thoughtful sermon in the Parish Church, the Rector, Reverend Doctor Anthony Swindell, led the Service of Remembrance at the Memorial Cross outside the Parish Hall. I laid a wreath on behalf of the Parish and it was joined by one from the Women’s Institute and the 3rd Jersey (St Saviour) Scout Group, whose young Beavers came forward to plant their own carefully made red poppies in the Garden of Remembrance. In the quiet of a busy road with traffic brought to a standstill by our Honorary Police, we were able to observed the two minutes silence amid the rustle of autumn leaves. We had a good number of people attending the short service and the young Beavers behaved admirably. Afterwards, we went up to the Parish Hall for refreshments and a chance to get together and chat. My thanks go to everyone who helped to make this 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, a quiet but touching tribute to our countrymen and women who have fought and are still fighting to make the world a better and more peaceful place.
"We shall remember them".

A moment of peaceful reflection

The annual Poppy Appeal was launched on Sunday, 26th October at the Cenotaph in the Parade and we, in St Saviour, played our part. After a quiet and thoughtful service in the Parish Church, the congregation were invited to proceed to the graves of the four parishioners known to have died in action. Two solemn youngsters from the 3rd Jersey (St Saviour) Scout Group placed one of the distinctive small wooden crosses with a poppy firmly fastened to the front at each grave as we joined in a short prayer and spent a few moments noting each individual, where, and at what a young age, he died.
A mother who lost a soldier son in the Second World War said: "To the world he was a soldier, but to me he was the world." My generation has been very lucky in not being called to serve our country in this way and, even more importantly, we have not had to watch our sons go off to war, although it is a sad fact that British service personnel have died in action in every year from 1900, except in Aden in 1968, and each one had someone at home to receive the sad news.

Since our little ceremony in the churchyard, Elaine has discovered a grave which commemorates the loss of a young soldier posted as "missing" at Oppy, in Northern France, in 1917, whose body was never found. We will include his memorial next year.