Remembrance Sunday 2018
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 it was hoped to have individual engraved stones placed around our village War Memorial in St. Johns Church garden and fundraising started in 2017. There was a lot of support and events were held and stallholders donated from the Sussex Day Fete held in the June.
Plans were discussed to alter the corner layout and have a secure area around the memorial with seating. In June 2018 the Diocese advised this was not possible.
£3500 had been raised at events and donations which covered the cost of the engraved bricks, and promises were made to cover the cost of laying.
Following the diocese decision, refunds were then offered to the donors or to transfer to the Southbourne Parish Council, who at their July 2018 meeting decided to open a War Memorial Fund.
After returning most of the donations an amount of £865 was transferred to the Parish Council with a list of the donors. I was assured in Spring of 2023 that this amount was being held by the SPC.
After being told the engraved stones were not permitted, I decided to to a memorial booklet of names to record all the information gathered. I also did individually named poppies for a display, see picture below. The new issue of the Pictorial History, the Memorial Booklet of names and the poppy display were at an event held at Age Concern on 28th September 2018.
Gathering information for the memorial booklet proved difficult as no written record to establish why a person was included on our memorial can be found, and we assume they were nominated by a relative, neighbour or employer. We have been unable to identify some of the men from the limited and unverified information listed. Some survived or were invalided out and this has been included. It is believed that service men's deaths up to 1921, could be included on war memorials.
As part of the fundraising, Men's Shed made aluminium poppies, which were very popular. A Postcard giving details is shown below right.
In 2021 - 90 Individual named poppies were laminated and put on lamp posts around Southbourne for Remembrance Sunday.
The Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall in London
Its origin is in a temporary structure erected for a peace parade following the end of the First World War, and after an outpouring of national sentiment it was replaced in 1920 by a permanent structure and designated the United Kingdom's official national war memorial.
Designed by Edwin Lutyens, the permanent structure was built from Portland stone between 1919 and 1920 by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts, replacing Lutyens' earlier wood-and-plaster cenotaph in the same location.
An annual Service of Remembrance is held at the site on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to 11 November (Armistice Day) each year.
Lutyens' cenotaph design has been reproduced in other countries of historical British allegiance including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Bermuda and Hong Kong.
