Remembrance Day 2020

Expectations dashed.  Plans rewritten.  Remembrance (almost) thwarted! 

Last year, bright blue skies and sunshine on Remembrance Sunday, far removed from the wet, cold and mud of World War 1 trenches. In a moving tribute to the fallen at the War Memorial in the High Street, Remembrance Day was celebrated by club members among the enormous crowd including Air Force and Army cadets, British Legion, Scouts, Guides, Cubs, Brownies and other local organisations.

Same again was planned for 2020 but then Covid-19 struck. To comply with tiered restrictions, after consultation between the Billericay Town Council, the Billericay branch of the Royal British Legion, Revd Paul Carr and Basildon Borough Council, a short Act of Remembrance was agreed at the War Memorial with an invited ‘group of six’.  This was to follow an Act of Remembrance at Billericay churches.  So we made plans to lay our wreath after 11.30 when the war memorial service should have been finished.

Lockdown Limitations

All change again with the announcement that all England had to go into Lockdown on November 5, and all Remembrance ceremonies were banned.  We should stand instead on our doorsteps for the customary two minutes silence. 

Then new rules allowed individuals to lay wreaths and President Peter made his solitary way to the High Street to the War Memorial.  Last year thousands of spectators and participants watched as over a hundred wreaths and crosses were laid at the memorial.  This year only twenty wreaths - and ours!

President Peter did have the company of Immediate Past President Ben Clarke and immediate Past Secretary Ed Harrison who coincidentally had both chosen to pay their personal respects at that time.  Otherwise, empty streets, odd passing motorist and Sunday shoppers.  Such a contrast!

There ... Again

For the third year running, the War Memorial was flanked by two Tommies called “There but not There”, one of which had been fully funded by our club in the memory of the late club president Trevor Stansfield, also past Chairman of the Town Council and many other town organisations.  Trevor was dedicated to ensuring our War Memorial reflected the pride in which we hold those who had lost their lives for us.

At The Going Down

Of The Sun And

In The Morning,

We Will Remember Them