Town pays respects (From Penarth Times)

Town pays respects

PENARTH people remembered their war-dead on Sunday, as the Armistice Day march paraded through the town.

The procession met at Station Approach at 10.30am and made its way to the Garden of Remembrance in Rectory Road. Led by a brass band, local dignitaries and older armed forces personnel, it was followed by cadets of all ages.

They congregated outside the garden for a service read by Rev Maxwell Evans, as the mayor and other dignitaries laid poppy wreaths.

The Royal British Legion celebrated its 80th anniversary this year. It is the first time for nearly 20 years that Armistice Day has fallen on Remembrance Sunday.

Last year, while the Poppy Appeal raised £20.1 million, the Royal British Legion spent more than £40 million in its work with ex-servicemen and women throughout Britain.

The two minutes' silence was observed at 11am, when the coastguard set off maroons to signal the start and finish. It was marked by a bugler playing the Last Post and the Reveille.

The standard bearers lowed their poles, raising them again at the end of the silence.

The band then led the procession through the town, arriving at St Augustine's Church.

Here, another service was given. Mayor Carole Clifford read Chapter 15 from the book of St John.

Many people felt that there was a greater meaning this year than for many others past. The Sunday service also fell on the day that marked two months exactly since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Mr Evans said a prayer for Tony Blair and George W Bush. The congregation sang hymns and the Welsh and British national anthems.