Poignant memories for Horncastle rector ahead of Remembrance Sunday

The Rev Canon Charles Patrick will again preside over a joint Remembrance service and parade at St Mary’s Church in the town on Sunday (November 8) morning.

And in the November issue of the parish magazine, he has been moved to write about his own father’s experiences during the Second World War.

Mr Patrick, who oversees seven churches within the parish, notes: “We are reaching that point where just a few of the brave veterans from war are still alive and who hold personal memories of action during that particular conflict.

"I was reading the memories of one veteran, Kenneth Hay, who sadly died in September at the age of 101.

"He was taken prisoner in the Battle of Normandy in July 1944 and was made to work in atrocious conditions in a Polish coal mine.

"He subsequently took part in a forced march of several hundred miles, in often bitter cold with pitiful footwear, before reaching eventual freedom.

“Reading his obituary, I was personally very struck to read the description he gave of an encounter he had had in the early days of the campaign before he was taken captive.

"It reads: ‘At the village of Cheux (in the Normandy region of north-west France), we relieved the 15th (Scottish) Division. They had been absolutely hammered. They had no equipment, not even steel helmets, and looked completely dazed. The division had taken part in Operation Epsom and had been involved in heavy fighting.’

“I had a sense of shock because my own father was involved in this operation and in liberating the village of Cheux.

"Indeed, I can remember when, decades later, we retraced his footsteps during a family holiday. Cheux was one of the few places that my father didn’t want to revisit. His memories of that particular location were just too awful to recount.”

Mr Patrick went on: "It will be sobering to reflect, at Remembrance, on the stories of family members and of the many young people from our own town who were caught up in the two major wars and other conflicts of the recent past.

"I feel fortunate not to have fought in a war. And surely, we live in a fortunate generation, which has enjoyed relative peace for more than 80 years.

"Of course, there have been many smaller, and very tragic, conflicts across the globe over those years.

"Some might contend that many of these have been proxy wars for something bigger, with the major nations not daring to go into open conflict with each other for fear of a major escalation.

"Whatever the reasoning, we can be thankful that we have not seen a worldwide conflict over that time.”

The service at St Mary’s starts at 9.45 am, to be followed by a parade of uniformed organisations through Horncastle to the town’s war memorial for the Two-Minute Silence at 11 am.

Looking ahead to Remembrance Sunday, Mr Patrick urges people to cling on to the “gift of peace” and not to seek extremist solutions for the problems of the world.

He writes: "Remembrance offers that moment to consider, once again, that we have to be so careful not to lose this precious gift of peace. There are always stresses and strains upon us, and changing factors which can affect how nations relate to each other.

"We are certainly seeing plenty of these at the moment. And there seems to be a polarizing of positions, with many people looking to more extreme and populist perspectives to arguably ‘solve' the ills of our day.

"History tells us that moving to the extremes seldom has this outcome. Rather, we need to look to those things that we hold in common and redouble our efforts to maintain the precious peace that we hold so dear.

"In the Remembrance Service at St Mary’s, we will be making a pledge to ‘strive for all that makes for peace’, to ‘seek to heal the wounds of war’ and to ‘work for a just future for all humanity’.

"May this pledge be more than just words. May it be a commitment that is truly taken to heart and acted upon, in order that we might make a real difference in our own day and that the tremendous sacrifice of so many in the past still holds sway.”