Where to take part in your local Remembrance Sunday services

SERVICES of remembrance will be held in Henley and the surrounding area on Sunday as follows:

HENLEY

THERE will be the usual service outside the town hall at 11am, which will be led by Rev Jeremy Taylor, the rector of Henley with Remenham.

The Last Post will be sounded before a two-minute silence and then Reveille.

Anne Evans, chairman of the Henley and Peppard branch of the Royal British Legion, will read the Kohima Epitaph and after prayers led by Rev Tayler, Jerusalem will be sung.

Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward will then give a Bible reading before more prayers.

Mayor Kellie Hinton will then give her address and her three cadets, cadet sergeant Angus Timblick-Statham, cadet Aleks Kluch and cadet corporal Angelika Gwiazda, will give readings.

This will be followed by the act of commitment, the Lord’s Prayer, the National Anthem and a blessing.

Wreaths will be laid on the town hall steps by Lady Hall, deputy lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Councillor Hinton, Will Hall, on behalf of Henley MP John Howell, Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak, on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council, and Councillor Ken Arlett, on behalf South Oxfordshire District Council and John Green, on behalf of the Royal British Legion.

Wreaths from other groups, including the army, sea and air cadets, Henley Women’s Institute, Henley Lions Club and the Henley Society will be laid in pairs.

There will be a fly-past courtesy of RAF Benson prior to the service.

Following the service there will be a parade and light refreshments will be served in the town hall.

Market Place will be closed from 10.15am to noon for the duration of the service and parade

BENSON

CURRENT and former service personnel will join residents of the village and neighbouring Ewelme in a parade that will assemble in High Street at 10.40am. The road will be closed at 10.30am.

At 10.43am the parade will set off for the war memorial at the junction of Oxford Road and Church Road. The service of remembrance will begin at 10.53am and the names of the servicemen and women who died while serving at RAF Benson  since 1945 will be read aloud.

At 10.59am the exhortation will be read by Councillor Fiona Lovesey, who is the vice-chairwoman of the Oxfordshire branch of the Royal British Legion. At 11am, the Last Post will be sounded by a bugler, the standards and banners lowers and spectators shall stand.

A two-minute silence will then be observed, followed by Reveille and a reading of the Kohima Epitaph. A fly-past from RAF Benson is scheduled to take place at 11.04am.

This will be followed by the laying of wreaths, including those on behalf of RAF Benson, Benson Parish Council, the Benson and district branch of the Royal British Legion, Benson Women’s Institute, the Benson Military Wives Choir as well as private memorials.

There will then be a blessing Rev Patrick Gilday.

BIX AND PISHILL

A JOINT service will be held at St James’s Church at Bix and, weather permitting, RAF Benson will perform a fly-past ahead of the service. Visitors are encouraged to arrive at the church no later than 10.40am.

After the service, the Bix branch of the Royal British Legion is inviting members of the congregation to have a glass of wine at the community hub, at the back of the church.

CAVERSHAM

AT St Andrews Church in Albert Road, eucharist will be sung, followed by the act of remembrance, starting at 10am.

At St Anne’s in South View, a service will be held at 10am where the deceased of world wars are remembered. A blessing of graves will also take place at 2.30pm at the cemetery, off All Hallows Road.  

There will also be a ceremony at the Caversham war memorial in Christchurch Meadows, which begins at 11am and will be led by Rev Mike Smith, od St Peter’s Church. There will be no parade this year.

CHECKENDON

AT 10.55am the congregation will gather at the lychgate war memorial at St Peter and St Paul’s Church where the names of the fallen from Checkendon and Stoke Row are read out.

There will be a two-minute silence and the Last Post will be played. This will be followed by a parade of uniformed organisations into the church for a service of remembrance where the colours will be presented.

Rev canon Kevin Davies will be telling the story of a “very local” wartime tragedy that has only recently been recovered, after 80 years.

DUNSDEN

A SERVICE will be held at All Saints Church from 9am to 10am which will be followed by the act of remembrance at the war memorial on Dunsden Green at 10.15am.

EMMER GREEN

AT St Barnabus Church in Grove Road, there is an online and in person service, from 9.30am to 10.30am.

GORING

AT St Thomas Church in Manor Road there will be act of remembrance at the war memorial in the churchyard, from 10.50am, followed by a service of remembrance.

HARPSDEN

A SERVICE will be held at St Margaret’s Church, Harpsden Way, from 10.15am to 11.15am.

IPSDEN

A JOINT remembrance service for the villages of Ipsden and North Stoke will take place at St Mary’s Church at 10.45am. Wreaths will be laid at St Mary’s in North Stoke at around noon.

KIDMORE END

A SERVICE will be held at the war memorial at St John the Baptist Church in Wood Lane. Visitors are asked to assemble at 10.45am.

After the service at the memorial, there will be another service inside the church at which colours of the Royal British Legion, scouts, cubs and beavers, are received into the sanctuary.

Rev Brian Theobald, the deacon of St Michaels in Sonning Common, will be the guest preacher.

MAPLEDURHAM

ST Margaret Church will observe the act of remembrance from 10.45am to 11am.

MEDMENHAM

A WILD Church service will be held in the grounds of the Danesfield House Hotel, in Henley Road, at 2pm.

The outdoor act of remembrance will uncover behind-the-scenes events around operations that took place along the River Thames during the Second World War.

There will also be a flypast.

NETTLEBED

RESIDENTS are invited to join members of the village’s branch of the Royal British Legion at 10.30am in a walk from the village green to St Bartholomew’s Church.

At 10.40am they will parade along High Street to the lych gate, the village’s war memorial. At 10.50am there will be a guard of honour and the act of remembrance and the Last Post will be sounded.

Afterwards, everyone will be invited into the church for the traditional service of remembrance.

PEPPARD AND
ROTHERFIELD GREYS

RESIDENTS of both villages are welcome to a service of remembrance at the war memorial from 10.45am. Chairs will be provided for those who need them.

SHIPLAKE

A SERVICE will be held at St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church at 10.50am.

This will be followed by a remembrance service at the war memorial in Shiplake Cross at noon.

Parents and families of pupils at Shiplake College can attend the school’s remembrance service in the Great Hall from 10.45am.

SONNING  

A SERVICE will be held at St Andrew’s at 10.30am conducted by Rev Jamie Taylor.

SONNING COMMON

A SERVICE will take place at the village hall in Wood Lane from 10.45am to noon. A two-minute silence will be held at 11am.

Words of remembrance will be delivered by Lieutenant Commanders Alexander and Gillian Manning.

A poppy wreath will be hung in memory of former Chiltern Edge pupils Cyrus Thatcher and Barry Weston who were killed serving in Afghanistan and Francis (Fred) Slough who lost his life in the Falklands.  

WARGRAVE

A SERVICE will be held at St Mary’s Church at 9.45am and Major General Rob Thomson will be the guest speaker.

Maj Gn Thomson joined the Royal Green Jackets in 1989 and served in the UK and overseas, including Germany, Norway, Canada, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan in armoured, mechanised, arctic and light role battalions.

He commanded 2 Rifles, an infantry battalion based in Northern Ireland, deploying to Kosovo in 2008 to support a French brigade based near Pristina, and then to Afghanistan in 2009 where he commanded a battle group of 1,100 soldiers in Sangin in Helmand Province

On the back of Afghanistan, he commanded the UK’s Operational Training and Advisory Group and then led a project directed by the head of the British Army to enhance the general staff — all officers of the rank of colonel and above — to create a professional body of senior leaders.

After various other roles, which involved serving in France and Cyprus, he left the army in January and became chief executive of a London communications company.

After the service, there will be a service around the war memorial on Mill Green, starting at 10/45am. It will be supported by the St Sebastian Band and the Wargrave Community Choir. All are welcome to attend.

WATLINGTON

A PARADE will set off from the town hall to the war memorial. Marchers should assemble by 10.30am and will then set off along High Street to the Cross. There will be a service and the laying of wreaths by representatives from Watlington organisations.

There will also be a fly-past from RAF Benson.

WHITCHURCH/
WHITCHURCH HILL

RESIDENTS of both villages are invited to attend a remembrance service at St John the Baptist Church in Whitchurch Hill at 9.30am, followed by act of remembrance at the war memorial in High Street, Whitchurch at 10.45am.

WOODCOTE   

VILLAGERS will observe an act of remembrance at the war memorial from 10.50am followed by a remembrance service in St Leonard’s Church.