Order of events

1

Meet at Giffard Park pub at 9am and sign in and announcements, then each group leaves for runs

2

Club Run (Martin) go from Giffard to New Bradwell Cemetery and then on to the Memorial of Tin Hats (MOTH) and then back for about 10.50am

Step Up run (Sophie) go to St Andrews Church and to New Bradwell Cemetery before back to Giffard

At each stop a moment of reflection

• For the Cemetery at New Bradwell we have Tim Giffen to read (club run, then Step Up)
• At the MOTHs Dave (club run)
• St Andrews Church, Eric and Theresa Randal (Step Up)

3

At the Giffard just before 11am Tim follow the ‘How to observe the two minutes silence’

Anne will play the bugle for the Last post and Reveille

4

After this group move back to the Giffard (Annette will be distributing medals from the virtual challenge)

 

Suggested Routes

Step Up route (6K):

https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/2292526060

Club Run (11K)

https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1945524401

 

How to observe the Two Minute Silence

The Royal British Legion recommends that the Two Minute Silence is observed in the following order:

1. At 11am, the Last Post is played
2. The exhortation is then read (see below)
3. The Two Minute Silence then begins
4. The end of the silence is signalled by playing the Reveille

The exhortation:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Response: “We will remember them.”

 

New Bradwell Cemetery

Remembrance Day is a day where people get together to remember the people that sacrificed their life to let us have peace. We get together to also remember those people that have gone to war and survived. In World War One, the fields couldn’t grow food, but when the war ended poppies started to grow so that is why we wear poppies as a symbol of Remembrance Day.

We are lucky to live in a safe environment with water, food, phones, a lot of trees and good quality houses to live in. We have hospitals, fire stations and police to keep us safe.

We feel grateful for what they did because we get to live in a country that has peace. For many of us today it is about remembering great grandfathers and grandfathers who fought in World War 1 and 2 and those family members who have fought and are still fighting in conflicts today.

Remembrance Day means we can show our respect to those who fought and died or got seriously injured when they were fighting, to make the world a safer place to live in. If we had one wish, we would wish that war would stop because people deserve to live in a safe environment. If we could say something to one of the soldiers that died at war, we would say, “thank you very much for your service and sacrifice”.

NEW BRADWELL – WAR MEMORIAL

The memorial takes the form of a Private of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry standing to attention with rifle, cal and belt but no webbing; he is mounted on a square plinth with a three-stepped base. There are 87 names listed for World War 1 and 15 for World War 2.

Corporal Reginald George Kightley

Today I would like to remember – Corporal Reginald George Kightley service number 265217, who is listed on the New Bradwell Memorial;.

Reginald was Redway Runners Colins Kightley’s dads 3rd cousin and therefore my 3rd cousin once removed.

Reginald was born and raised in Stantonbury to George Kightley and Eliza Jane Kightley (nee Sargent)

He was born in 1898 the eldest of 8 children (4 boys & 4 girls). Prior to the war he was a coach-maker in the Railway Works at Wolverton.

He enlisted in Wolverton and joined the 1/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, and rose to become a Corporal.

He was killed in action on 21st July 1917 he was 19 years old. He was killed on the Somme in France as were thousands of others.

He has no known grave but he is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 10A & 10D.

This memorial contains 72,000 British and South African Forces names; with no known graves, who died before 20th March 1918.

At the time of his death his mother lived at 45 Spencer Street, New Bradwell, and his father had died.

Arthur James Strong

Also in the cemetery is the headstone to Royal Naval Special Reservist Arthur James Strong Service Number: P/SR 8627 Rank: Leading Writer assigned to HMS Hood in World War 2

Arthur was born on 11 September 1918 in London. He was the deputy town clerk at Battersea Town Hall, London.

He joined HMS Hood which at the time was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy and commissioned in 1920. Hood remained the largest and most powerful warship in the world for twenty years after her commissioning and her prestige was reflected in her nickname “The Mighty Hood”.

On 24^th May 1941 early in the battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded and sunk within 3 minutes there were only 3 survivors, 1,415 service personal went down with HMS Hood that day.

Arthur James Strong was 22 years old at the time.

Thank you.

Lest we forget

Another local boy – Rifleman Albert Edward French

Killed in Action, Aged 16

Albert was born about 1900 in Stantonbury, Buckinghamshire At that time there were 6 members of the French household living at 60 Young Street, Wolverton, Buckinghamshire.

The grave of Rifleman Albert Edward French (1900-1916) is often visited in the cemetery located at “Ploegsteert Wood” where he lies buried. Young visitors in school groups are especially drawn to visit Albert because he was a sixteen year old at the time of his death on active service.

On 15^th June 1916 Albert was reported as having been “Killed in Action”. He died in a part of the British Front Line sector in Belgium near Ploegsteert Wood, just north of the French border. Albert had only been in the Theatre of War for 44 days.

St Andrews Church Great Linford

The reason why there are war graves in local graveyards is either because the serviceman died during training in the UK or they died of wounds or illness having been evacuated back to the UK. This also explains why several of the deaths took place after the end of the war.

Christopher Lorton Sapwell

During the early summer of 2014 the Gt Linford Parish Council awarded a generous grant of £400.00 towards the restoration of the Roll of Honour which records the one hundred men of Great Linford who served during the First World War. This is now mounted beneath the War Memorial inside St Andrew’s Church.

The grant also contributed to the cost of a booklet entitled “St Andrew’s Remembers”, the result of a project undertaken by a group of people from St Andrew’s Church to research the lives of eleven of the one hundred, who died during that war.

During the research, it was discovered from the Parish records that one of these, CHRISTOPHER LORTON SAPWELL, was buried in St Andrew’s Churchyard in an unmarked grave which we have been unable to locate. Following communication with and enquiries to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), they have agreed to place a head stone in St Andrew’s Churchyard in recognition of Christopher’s service on the Somme.

Christopher was born in January 1888 to Fred and Lucy Sapwell of 30, High Street, Great Linford. He was the eighth of their ten children according to the 1891 Census and at the age of 13 was a House Boy at Great Linford Manor.

Christopher married Louisa Temple, also from Great Linford, on 27 February 1909 but at the time of the 1911 Census, Louisa is shown as living with her parents and two brothers in Rivetts Yard, Great Linford, whilst Christopher was in Northampton Hospital.

Christopher joined the Army Veterinary Corps, Regimental No 9470, on 12 June 1915, having served two years in in the Bucks Volunteers. At this time he gave his occupation as Horse Keeper and stated that he was unmarried, giving his next of kin as his sister. We were unable to find any trace of Louisa Sapwell after the Census of 1911. This was recorded in “The National Roll of the Great War”:

After volunteering in June 1915 he underwent a period of training and was later drafted to France. During his service in this theatre of war he did excellent work attending to sick and wounded horses. Later in 1916 he was invalided to England with pleurisy and was finally discharged as medically unfit for further service on 14 June 1916. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the General Service and Victory Medals.

Christopher died on 16 August 1918 aged 30. TB was given as the cause of death. The Bucks Standard newspaper reported his funeral as follows:-

The mortal remains of Christopher Lorton Sapwell, late Army Veterinary Corps whose death we briefly reported last week, were laid to rest on Monday afternoon August 19th at Great Linford. The body was conveyed to the church on a gun carriage, the coffin was covered by the Union Jack and was attended by twelve Royal Engineers from the Newport Pagnell Wireless Depot” (Family and friends attending were then listed)

Three of Christopher’s brothers who also served, Lance Corporal Albert Sapwell, Private Ernest Sapwell and Sergeant Walter Sapwell, all returned safely from the war.

A copy of “St Andrew’s Remembers” can be read in the reference section of CMK Library.

 

Memorable Order of Tin Hats – MOTHS

History of the Order

The Memorable Order of Tin Hats or the MOTH as it is more popularly known is an ex-serviceman’s organisation founded in Durban, South Africa, in May 1927 by a remarkable man Charles Alfred Evenden by name. He was born in London on the 01st October 1894 and as a young man immigrated to Australia and served with the Australian forces in Gallipoli during World War I where he was wounded and evacuated to England. After returning to Australia, he was discharged from the army.

Witnessing the annual ANZAC parades, Charles Evenden turned his thoughts to the formation of an association of front line soldiers to perpetuate the comradeship gained from front line service. Later, he settled in South Africa where he worked as a cartoonist on the staff of the Mercury, a morning paper in Durban, under the pseudonym of “EVO” by which name he soon became popularly known to most people.

In 1927 he saw a war film that included an impressive scene of marching troops wearing tin hats, and muddy uniforms all carrying trench equipment. Looking at the scene, it made him wonder what had become of his comrades in the army; where they were and what they were doing. This line of thought inspired a cartoon on forgetfulness of a comradeship that had apparently ceased to exist. From this one idea other ideas came to the fore, then discussions with colleagues and friends and, eventually, the founding on the 07th May 1927 of an ex-serviceman’s organisation known as the Memorable Order of Tin Hats or simply MOTH.

Meetings of Moths are known Shell Holes

At the memorial American serviceman Dave said:

We are here at a memorial that commemorates the fallen men from South Africa and across the Commonwealth who gave their lives not in the defense of their own soil, but an ideal of freedom and liberty for their brothers.  They knew that tyranny must be confronted and defeated, not only in their own itneighborhoods but anywhere it is found the world.

The men and women memorialized here offered the greatest sacrifice in the name of brotherhood and to overcome evil with good.  To overcome hate with love.  To overcome division with unity.

It is even more poignant in our current age—where people are divided and more full of hate and vitriol than ever before.  Let us remember that there was a time when the world came together, fought together, bled together, died together.  Let us be reminded that there are higher causes—higher callings—than the normal ebb and flow of daily life.

The book of John 15:13 puts it this way: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Over 5 million allied personnel died in World War 1, from over 20 nations.  In the Central Powers, another 4 million gave their lives.  Another 8 million civilian personnel died directly or during the aftermath.

I would like to close by giving the roll of Allied nations and their fatalities and closing with a short prayer.

Fatalities in Allied Countries

• Russia                      1,800,000
• France                      1,400,000
• United Kingdom     880,000
• Italy                           650,000
• Serbia                       270,000
• Romania                    250,000
• India                          74,000
• Canada                     65,000
• Australia                  62,000
• United States         53,000
• Belgium                    38,000
• Nepal                         30,000
• Greece                     26,000
• New Zealand           18,000
• South Africa           9,000
• Portugal                   7,000
• Montenegro            3,000
• Japan                        400
• Brazil                         100
• Siam                          19
• Monaco                    8

Our heavenly Father, thank you for our strength and health and the ability to run today.  But thank you most of all for your picture of ultimate sacrifice, your son Jesus Christ, who gave his life on the cross so that we can have life more abundantly.   I thank you for the men and women who gave their lives on our behalf so that we can live lives of freedom and liberty.  We ask that you help us to honor these men and women by our actions each day – to help to unify, to combat oppression and evil, and to love our neighbors.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.