Town falls silent to remember fallen

ABOUT 80 people observed a two-minute silence in Market Place, Henley, on Remembrance Day.

The silence was led by Anne Evans, chairman of the Henley and Peppard branch of the Royal British Legion.

She was joined on the steps of the town hall by Henley Mayor Sarah Milller and town councillors David Eggleton, Kellie Hinton and Will Hamilton.

Bugler Stuart Henderson, from Reading, began the silence by playing The Last Post and brought it to an end with Reveille.

John Green held the branch’s standard, while James Nelson held the Henley-on-Thames Dunkirk standard.

Mrs Evans started the service with a quote from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon and finished it with the epitaph: “When you go home tell them of us and say, ‘for your tomorrow we gave our today.”

Other town councillors, including Donna Crook and Glen Lambert, watched from Market Place, along with poppy sellers, residents wearing poppies and Henley MP John Howell.

Mr Green said: “The observance of the two minutes silence in Market Place is a regular event, and this year especially there was a very encouraging number of people and the silence was kept beautifully, and was made all the more poignant by The Last Post and Reveille.”

Cllr Miller said: “It was a good turnout today, it always helps when the weather’s okay and it’s not raining. It’s a very important day for everyone to remember we live in a peaceful world very much thanks to the men and women that fought in all wars. We should never take for granted that we have our freedom.”