Romsey is preparing for Remembrance and Armistice Day with a series of events.
These include the remembrance trail, armistice remembrance ceremonies, Romsey Choral Society performing For the Fallen at Romsey Abbey and the Sunday Remembrance Day Parade.
This year Armistice Day falls on Saturday, November 11 and Romsey will have the Fort Cumberland Guard Reenactment team with their cannon display at Romsey Memorial Park from 10.30am with the canon being fired at 11am.
Romsey Old Cadet Buglers will attend to call the end of the two minutes silence.
The Royal British Legion and Three Rivers Community Rail Partnership will also conduct a Poppy Memorial at Station Approach at 11am with wreath laying and prayers.
That evening the Romsey Choral Society will perform For the Fallen music for Remembrance at Romsey Abbey from 7.30pm. Tickets are available from Romsey Visitor Information Centre or from the Romsey Abbey website.
READ MORE: Winchester Remembrance Day services: All you need to know
The Romsey Mountbatten branch chairman Peter Hurst said: “The branch has been present in Romsey for over 100 years and the Armistice Day and Remembrance parade celebrations commemorating the lives of those who have been lost in conflict is one of the main purposes of the legion. We are very proud of the fact that the Romsey remembrance services play such a large part in the lives of Romsey citizens and that these events are well supported by the local community.”
On Sunday, November 12, the Remembrance Day parade will commence from Love Lane at 9am through the town and to Romsey Abbey for the service of remembrance commencing at 9.25am.
Following the service at 10.30am, all will make their way to the Romsey War Memorial Park where a service will be conducted. Michelmersh Silver Band, Romsey Old Cadet Buglers and the Romsey Abbey Choirs will be in attendance. There will be a fly pass by an Apache from Middle Wallop just before the two-minute silence at 11am.
Once the wreaths have been laid the civic party will be led by the Caledonian Pipe Band, to take up their position near Palmerston’s Statue in the Market Place at approximately 11.20am. The parade will then march via the North Side of Romsey Abbey, past the Civic Party at Palmerston’s Statue and down The Hundred to the Royal British Legion in Love Lane.
Victoria Burbidge and Marc Thompson founded the Romsey War Memorial Archive 24 years ago.
Ms Burbidge said: “It was initially designed as an educational tribute to the 211 men commemorated on the town’s war memorial, but now the archive has gone far beyond its original intention. The in-depth research over the years has uncovered a story behind every man and his family, and school visits have given the opportunity to share those stories with Romsey’s schoolchildren by exploring the field of individually named knitted poppies, laid out in the Memorial Park as if they were rows of graves, and to lay a wreath at the war memorial.
“To gain an insight to the individual stories of some of Romsey’s fallen there is the opportunity to follow the Remembrance Trail, a series of over forty pictorial biographies detailing their connection with Romsey, their life history and how they died. Situated in shops and businesses around the town you can read their personal story and help keep the memory of those taken. We have uncovered some amazing material, instigated the correction of official records, revealed the horrendous loss sustained by local families and ensured that these men of Romsey are never forgotten.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here