Hundreds of people came together on a beautiful autumnal morning on Sunday 10th November, Frome to mark Remembrance Sunday 2024, with a ceremony at the Memorial Theatre, attended by members of the Royal British Legion, Frome Mayor Andy Jones, Member of Parliament Anna Sabine, veterans and serving personnel, and local groups and organisations. Music before the event was played by the Frome Town Band and during wreath laying by the Memorial Theatre, who this year are commemorating the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone to the fallen of The Great War.
A procession led by the National Standard and The Silver Bugles Somerset ACF Band left the Drill Hall on Keyford and led to the memorial garden, where a service and two-minute silence at 11am joined ceremonies across the UK, commemorating the lives of the fallen since World War One.
Frome Mayor Andy Jones said “It was a privilege to represent the town as your Mayor, remembering all servicemen and women who have lost their lives in war and those affected by war and conflict everywhere. Many thanks to Jane Norris for all her work in coordinating the event and making it all run so smoothly, and to everyone who attended, from veterans to young people.”
Frome Royal British Legion Remembrance Coordinator Jane Norris said: “This poignant, unifying pause in our lives has been observed on every Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day since the 11th November 1919, one year to the hour that the Great War ended. There is nothing great in war. The Royal British Legion, as custodians of Remembrance, working with Frome Town Council, offer the constancy that We Will Never Forget. Thoughts may be for one person; for those in conflict; for many suffering; for whole nations; for peace.”
The famous Exhortation – ‘They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old’ – was read by Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers veteran Tannhauser Hughes, whose father Frank played a pivotal role as a glider pilot in Operation Market Garden, and veteran Annabel Macey read an address where significant military anniversaries were recognised. Rev Liz Dudley blessed The Frome Poppy, made up of 500 poppies knitted by Diane Perrett and Pat Hayward to the memory of their father Cpl R Smith who died of injuries in 1946. Brigadier Sharpe then read a moving letter from a soldier who was killed at Arnhem to his mother, before he passed the torch symbolically to the children of St John’s School who read the iconic lament ‘In Flanders Fields’.
A new addition to the 2024 ceremony was the laying of a black poppy wreath by Somerset African Caribbean Network, in memory of people of colour who served in the military in two world wars. The network’s exhibition ‘Windrush – the Journey People & Place’ will be in residence at Rook Lane until 19th December.
A further ceremony at the Memorial Garden at the 11th hour on Monday 11th November marked the official date and time for remembrance, exactly 106 years since the end of World War One. The occasion was also marked earlier on Monday morning, when representatives including Cllr Andy Jones, Frome RBL Jane Norris, Westbury mayor Cllr Jane Russ, Wiltshire’s High Sheriff Dr Olivia Chapple and Wiltshire councillors met the 06.53 ‘Poppy Train’ to Paddington and handed over wreaths to be added to the war memorial in the station.
Over the weekend sports events began with the Last Post and silence, and nursing homes also marked Remembrance, with Frome ensuring We Will Remember Them.
