Two local people have worked very hard to link our town, with remembering the fallen of the First World War and have hopes of support this year. 2019 marks the Centenary Year of the official end of the Great War, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28th June 1919. A major anniversary for World War II is also marked on 6th June this year. It will be the 75th anniversary of the D Day Landings on the Normandy coastline.
Few events have captivated such public interest. In 1944, Allied Forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on occupied Europe. D Day was a significant turning point of WWII in the West and remains an inspiring and moving story 75 years later. For the veterans still alive and their fallen comrades, we should never forget the price paid for the peace we now enjoy.
Last year, Michael and his daughter Elizabeth, an A Level student, from St Joseph’s Parish in Retford, who share an interest in the history of the world wars, undertook an amazing project to commemorate the Centenary of the Armistice of the First World War. They went on three battlefield trips over the course of the year – the Spring Offensive Battlefield in March, all along the Western Front in June and the Somme to Armistice Sites in August. They placed 56 wooden remembrance crosses with personal messages written by Retford people, raising £240 from the public. However, a total number of 164 crosses were written on due to the involvement of a number of school pupils joining the project, and most of these were placed on graves of unknown soldiers, at cemeteries and memorials in Belgium, Mons, the Western Front and at St Symphorien in remembrance of the fallen of WWI.
A cross from each set taken to the cemeteries, was then brought back to the schools who had participated. Pupils from the schools then took part in the Centenary Armistice Parade in Retford on Remembrance Sunday and laid the crosses on our War Memorial thereby linking our town with the battlefields, in gratitude to the fallen. Donations from this project raised money for the Royal British Legion. Elizabeth also did a sponsored walk from Tuxford Memorial to the one in Retford, raising further funds.
Following on from last year’s project, two similar battlefield visits will be made this year. One will be in March, to the locations of the D Day Landings in Normandy. The other will be in August and will cover the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the creation of the War Cemeteries. On each of these trips, a number of locations, cemeteries and memorials which were key to these events, will be visited. A number of schools are being invited to take part in the same way as before, with wooden crosses being taken out to the places in France and then one from each being returned to be part of a planned Remembrance in Retford.
Michael hopes many more of our local schools will respond and join in with this project. Michael and Elizabeth are also keen to involve the local people of Retford who may have family members who were involved in these events. Should anyone wish to send a personal message, with them, as they make their visits, crosses may be found at the Hub near the Cannon in Retford. Any funds raised will go to the Retford branch of the Royal British Legion.