Town pays its homage to the fallen

The calls came from both the president of Bexhill branch of the Royal British Legion, Fred Hermon, and by the branch padre, the Rev Robert Coates, Vicar of St Augustine's.

Led by two Scots pipers and by the Newhaven Youth Marching band and with standards flying, the young people marched with ex-service veterans from Devonshire Square to the sea front war memorial.

As the parade approached along Marina the band struck up Sussex By The Sea, marching song of the former Royal Sussex Regiment.

Showers turned to continuous rain as the traditional service around the war memorial progressed. Brollies rose and fell in time with the showers. But the size of the town's observance was undiminished.

In a speech of welcome, the Legion president said it was gratifying to see so many young people taking part once again.

It was to the youth of today that the veterans of past conflict looked to carry on the act of Remembrance for those who had fallen to ensure the nation's freedom, he said.

Looking out on a sea of scarlet, the president thanked all those who had again poppies and supported the legion in its ongoing work of welfare on behalf of those who had served and their dependents.

This year's Remembrance poem written by Hilary Malpass was read by Scouts Jacqueline Davidson and Connor Dukin.

The padre led prayers for those who had fallen in the two world wars and the conflicts that had followed, for the sovereign, for the work of the Royal British Legion and for peace.

Rain dripped off hats and soaked Scouts' shirts as the Rev Coates used a trip to Flanders to illustrate the huge sacrifices of the past.

His trip to Flanders had been something he had wanted to do for many years.

"I went to Bruges for five days. Part of that was to see the First World War battle sites. "

He had seen Hill 62, been to Paschendaele to see one of the old communication trenches, visited Ypres - 'Wipers' to the Tommies - and stood at the Menin Gate memorial.

Tyne Cott war graves cemetery was the largest of its kind. It was named because the huts that soldiers from Newcastle on Tyne saw when they arrived reminded them of the cottages of home.

"I was amazed.

"I am ex-service, as you know, but I was amazed to see the rows and rows and rows of graves with the inscription 'Known only unto God' - words from one of the First World War poets.

"Memories are in all of us. Our whole lives, our whole beings, are structured by memories.

"But it is no mistake to understand that the few are becoming fewer and there is only about two left from the First World War now...

"Those memories must be passed on from generation to generation. As the president said, it is so nice to see so many young children here and we hope that that will continue."

The average age of the young men in the war cemeteries was little more than twice that of his own young son and little more than that of many now surrounding the war memorial.

"So let's keep those memories going. Let's pass them on to the next generation. The First World War is almost out of living memory; the Second World War's are still going strong.

"What they died for will never be lost if we hand it down."

They died for a freedom that was often miss-used. Encouraging everyone to go and see the memorials to the fallen he concluded: "May their memory live on for ever."

A ceremony which had included the hymn Abide With Me, continued its time-honoured course, the Exhortation - Laurence Binyon's words from For The Fallen, the Last Post followed by the boom of the Sailing Club starting gun, the Two Minutes' Silence, Reveille and, an innovation this year, the pipers playing the haunting Flowers Of The Forest.

And then the laying of the wreaths; the first by Rother chairman Cllr Martin Kenward, the second by Town Mayor Cllr Paul Lendon.

There were similar scenes at Little Common where, followed a service at St Mark's Church, members of the recently-affiliated No. 2262 (Bexhill) Squadron, Air Training Corps marched with ex-service veterans for the wreath-laying at the village war memorial.