Upchurch is playing its part in Battle’s Over, an international commemoration marking 100 years since the guns fell silent at the end of World War I.
Organised by Pageantmaster Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR, Battle’s Over takes place on November 11th 2018, with events throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and at scores of locations overseas, including New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Bermuda, France, Belgium, Canada, the United States and Germany.
It begins at 6:00am with over 1,000 lone pipers playing Battle’s O’er, a traditional Scottish air played after a battle, outside cathedrals and other individual locations throughout the country and overseas, following which a specially written tribute will be read out.
It begins at 6:00am with over 1,000 lone pipers playing Battle’s O’er, a traditional Scottish air played after a battle, outside cathedrals and other individual locations throughout the country and overseas, following which a specially written tribute will be read out.
At 6:55pm buglers will sound the Last Post at more than 1,000 locations, where at 7:00pm WW1 Beacons of Light will be lit in a tribute signifying the light of peace that emerged from the darkness of four years of war.
Then at 7:05pm over 1,000 churches and cathedrals will ring their bells as part of Ringing Out for Peace organised in association with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, which represents 65 societies of ringers from the British Isles and overseas. Also at 7:05pm, more than 140 town criers will perform a specially written Cry for Peace Around the World, the first of them in New Zealand and then across the globe through the various time zones.
Please join us
Upchurch's WWI Beacon of Light, Brazier has been installed at the Recreation Ground on a four metre high oak post with a steel basket on the top. There is an arm on one side of the post which has a shield on it, one side depicting the trenches and the other with soldiers at ease in respect of their fallen comrades.
A memorial bench has also been purchased and installed to complement the beacon. It has been suggested that Oak Lane be closed to traffic, from Bishop Lane to the surgery, to prevent drivers being distracted during the Beacon of Light event, this will also mean there will be hard standing for residents should the Recreation Ground be wet.
Itinerary
6:55pm - Cllr Lewin will read out the names of the fallen.
The Last Post will be played by a bugler.
7:00pm - The Beacon of Light will be lit.
7:05pm - The Church Bells of St. Mary's will be Ringing Out for Peace.
Light refreshments will be served
Light refreshments will be served
Pageantmaster Bruno Peek
Battle’s Over - A Nation’s Tribute has been devised and planned by Pageantmaster Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR. He has organised major royal celebrations and international events for more than 36 years and has been working on Battle’s Over for more than four years.
“It’s wonderful to see the event being embraced by so many organisations and communities in this country and around the world. The centenary of the end of the Great War is an opportunity to acknowledge the enormous sacrifice made by the millions of men and women who died or were wounded, as well as those who worked tirelessly at home in our fields and factories. It has been a privilege to work on this project with the support of so many amazing organisations,” said Mr Peek.
Battle’s Over - A Nation's Tribute also features special tributes to two groups of unsung heroes - the Chinese Labour Corps and the WW1 Tunnellers.
About 95,000 volunteers made up the Chinese Labour Corps, who dug trenches, repaired tanks, laid roads and tracks, transported supplies and assembled shells to free up British soldiers for the front line. Their work was a vital part of the war effort but is rarely acknowledged in the history of the 1914-18 conflict. The official guide to Battle’s Over dedicates a page to the work of the Chinese labourers, most of whom were illiterate peasants.
The work of the WW1 Tunnellers has been acknowledged in a Lamplight of Peace, commissioned by Mr Peek and lit at a special service at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey, London, on August 4th 2018. It sheds light on a special breed of men who fought on the Western Front, digging tunnels and laying explosives beneath enemy trenches.
The British Army had about 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly volunteer coal miners, but they operated in such secrecy that little was known of their exploits for years after the war.
The Lamplight of Peace includes a miners’ lamp from the period, a replica Victoria Cross, British and German barbed wire, coal from a Yorkshire coalfield, trench post fragments and a soil sample from the trenches, and ballast from the railway line where the WWI Armistice was signed.
The lamp is currently being kept alight by the event’s four official charities - the Royal Naval Association, ABF The Soldiers Charity, the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and the Merchant Navy Association, before being returned to the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey, for 6:00am on 11th November 2018, where a lone piper from the Air Training Corps will play Battle's O'er.
Those millions of brave men, along with the many left at home, did their duty for their country during the dark days of war, so let us do our duty by them, remembering and honouring them through Battle’s Over.
VE DAY 2020
You might like to know that the next national and international commemoration/celebration will be the 75th anniversary of VE Day on the 8th of May 2020.
More information on Battle’s Over can be found at: www.brunopeek.co.uk/battles-over
Upchurch Parish Council
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