WW1 100 years Remembrance at Bere Regis 2018

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

In addition to the usual Parade and Service on Sunday (Parade sets off from the Scout Hut at 10.30 - everyone is welcome to join the parade)
There is to be a commemorative lighting of a beacon on Soul's Moor in the evening at 7.00pm.
This is part of the national lighting of beacons around the UK.
There will also be a celebratory peal of bells from the church, including the 'PAX' bell hung in the tower at the end of the War.
Afterwards everyone is welcome to come back to the Scout Hut for soup and rolls (provided by the WI ) and to join in a sing-song of First World War songs.
Do come along.

Philip Ventham

I thought Bere Regis village might like to know that Private Alfred Applin (Dorset Regiment) was remembered yesterday in a service at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Bere Regis resident Alfred who was my Great Uncle was one of 7 men from the Applin family that fought in WW1.
He was a machine gunner and was badly injured.
As he convalesced at the Star and Garter home in London he, along with other injured soldiers, embroidered the Altar Frontal for St Pauls Cathedral. (photo left)

He died in 1920. I know he is remembered too on your memorial.

Heather Frazer

November 11th. 2018.

BERE REGIS JOINS WITH CÉRENCES TO REMEMBER

A delegation of fourteen people led by Ian Ventham,as Chairman of the Parish Council, and Roger Angel,Chairman of the Bere Regis Twinning Association and Chairman of the Dorset Twinning Associations,attended the Commemoration for the end of the First World War in our twin village of Cérences.

Invited by the Mayor M. Jean Paul Payan and the Jumelage of Cérences, this was a formal reciprocal visit following 2014 when they came to us.
We all felt that being a part of their community for this event gave us a greater insight into living in an occupied land, the desperation and privation of life in the First World War as well as the great cost to their commune in losing 68 young men from a community so similar to Bere Regis.
We attended their exhibition and a lecture, as well as a civic dinner.
Gifts were exchanged and the short speeches from Ian, Roger and Jean-Paul spoke of the past and strength of the future that is the real reason for the bonds that Twinning provides.

On Remembrance Sunday we were part of their Parade to Church for a sung Mass followed by the laying of wreaths at the War Memorial,our poppies alongside their flowers. Our National Anthem had been sung in church.
The children of the Cérences’ schools read their roll of the dead, so many family names that are familiar to our Twinning members, and the children sang the Marseillaise before releasing balloons, each with the name of a fallen soldier.
It was a very moving sight watching so many red, white and blue balloons rising into a blue sky above the church.

Four of us attended the annual lunch of The Veterans Association, the equivalent of our Royal British Legion.
A great honour and a great strain on our French as no one there spoke English.

In his report for the Jumelage de Cérences, Arnaud Dechen, their President wrote,‘…..nous avons surtout organise ce week-end avec tout notre coeur, simplicité etamitié.’

Simple, from our hearts and with love

Judy Newton

BERE REGIS BELLRINGERS RINGING FOR REMEMBRANCE DAY 2018 - 100 YEARS ON

For the morning Service of Remembrance on Sunday November 11th we rang with the bells half-muffled for the solemn occasion.
By attaching a leather cover to one side of each clapper, the bells ring with a quieter, eerie tone whenever struck by that side.
The haunting, echoing effect was particularly moving for those gathering quietly round the War Memorial before 11 o’clock on this, the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice.
Ringing half-muffled calls for an extra effort from the ringers.
We ring more slowly than is usual and it is more difficult to keep the striking regular.
So it was very gratifying that our three newest recruits had practised diligently enough to take part and to earn commemorative insignia to mark the occasion.
Well done Nancy Jones, Moira Mathers and Norman Reid.
It was a special occasion too for our lightest bell, the one that sounds first on every round.
She was cast in 1919 to commemorate the cessation of the Great War and bears the simple inscription “PAX 1919”.
In the evening, we joined ringers throughout the whole of the UK, in “Ringing out for Peace” as part of the “Battle’s Over Tribute”.
A happier occasion this, with the muffles removed, and the sound of the bells floating down to those gathered around the beacon lit on Souls Moor.