Community and Vocational

Community and Vocational Chairman - Andrew Aukland

Rotarian Tom Williams prepares for the start of the 10k run organised by Trinity Hospice Sunday (10 May 2015)

Presentation of cheque for £500 to the RNLI

From the left Dave Eccles (Lifeboat Operations Manager), Paul Ashworth (Deputy Coxswain), David Wilde (President) and Andrew Aukland (Community and Vocation Chairman).

Presentation of 500 to the RNLI

Rotarian Tom Recovers the War Memorial Plaque of Church Road School.

In March 2011 an article appeared in the Bulletin of The Western Front Association (WFA) with a photograph of an unidentified memorial plaque from a Church Road, Council School, listing old boys of the school who had given their lives during the First World War. The caption with the photograph asked if anyone could identify the school. The memorial, a large oak panel, had been found in a reclamation yard in Yorkshire.

Rotarian Tom Williams of the Rotary Club of North Fylde identified the school and the names listed on the plaque as belonging to Church Road School Thornton Cleveleys. The memorial board is inscribed "To the glorious memory of the Old Boys of this school who fell in the Great War 1914 -1919". Recording the names, regiments, and date of death of each of the twenty eight Old Boys. It was originally unveiled at Church Road School on 6^th July 1920 by Brigadier-General G H. Gater, Director of Education for Lancashire.

Church Road School had been demolished in 1990's to make way for a new housing estate and to be replaced by nearby Millfield Science and Performing Arts College.

A few phone calls and emails later, Tom was able to organise the collection of the memorial and return it to Thornton. The Rotary Club of North Fylde, of which Tom is a member, undertook to refurbish and install the memorial in Millfield school Mr Sean Bullen, Headteacher at Millfield was delighted to have the memorial installed at the main hall of the school alongside the other honour boards from the old Church Road School.

At a small ceremony on Wednesday 13^th July 2011, ninety-one years after the first dedication, the newly installed memorial was unveiled at Millfield School by the Chairman of the Governors, Dr Harry Pindred who repeated the original dedication "To the glory of God and in undying memory of those who gave their lives for us in the Great War, I unveil this memorial".

Thanks to Rotarian Tom, the Memorial Plaque is now restored to it's rightful place in the community.