As padre to the Ilford branch of the Royal British Legion, I shall be leading the Armistice Day service at Redbridge Town Hall on Friday 11th November, the Civic Service of Remembrance at Ilford War Memorial on Sunday 13th November, and preaching at the Service of Remembrance, held with the Ilford branch of the Royal British Legion, at St John's Seven Kings, 6.30pm, on Sunday 13th November.
It is a privilege to lead others on these occasions in remembering the sacrifices made by all those who give their lives in the service of others in times of conflict and within the armed forces. This year is additionally significant because 2011 is the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion and because the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 2011 is a once-in-a-lifetime moment of remembrance on Armistice Day.
The Remembrance service at St John's Seven Kings this year will also have particular poignancy because of the addition of two names to our WW1 War Memorial earlier this year. Representatives from the families of Charles Brooks and Frederick Allam Smith, whose names were added to the Memorial, will be present at this service as we remember these two brothers, and the sacrifice of their lives, in particular during this service
The absence of the names of Charles Brooks Smith and Frederick Allam Smith from the memorial commemorating those from the parish who in the First World War was discovered as a result of a successful entry in 2006 to a TV competition in Channel 4's Lost Generation season.
Sara James, one of our young people at St. John’s Seven Kings, together with her friends Rebecca Smith and Zeenat Pelaria, won first prize out of 1000 students who had entered the competition. Entries were open to students aged 11-16, working in groups of three or five to create a short project about World War One. For their project Sara, Rebecca and Zeenat decided to adopt the war memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives in the First World War from St. John’s. The three 14 year olds represented the Chadwell Heath Foundation School and were up against GCSE students from the best private and grammar schools from all over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Initially they obtained information from historical research of St. John’s. They then compared the names on our War Memorial with a photograph of the church football team from a few years before the war and found that several of the names matched. They were able to obtain more information on the internet using sites such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 1837 Online and the Western Front Association in order to find out more about some of those who had died.
Their competition entry, along with all the others, was judged by a panel of historians, writers, teachers and others involved in Channel 4’s history programmes. They won a ClipBank History Library worth £700 for their school’s history department, which will enable everyone to obtain further wide-ranging historical materials about the two World Wars. There was also a VIP trip for Sara’s class of around 30 students, along with some humanities teachers, to the Imperial War Museum in London.
As a result of their research featuring on the website of St John's Seven Kings we were contacted by the family of Charles Brooks Smith, in the football photo, and his brother Frederick Allam Smith. Both had been killed during WW1, Charles Brooks Smith at the Somme, but their names had not been included on the War Memorial. Their family, therefore, asked whether their names could be added to the Memorial and that was done in May 2011, with the letter cutting being undertaken by Mark Tremaine of Woodenyou.
More information about the Lost Generation project can be found at: http://www.stjohns7kings.org.uk/ and http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/L/lostgeneration/competition.html.
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Annie Lennox - Into The West.
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