It will be an emotional and moving exhibition honouring and remembering soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War and one which illustrates the strong community spirit in one Norfolk village.
Saxlingham Remembers, 1914-1918, in the village hall at Saxlingham Nethergate, will be opened at 11am on Saturday November 9 by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham Usher, and will continue throughout the weekend.
It will mark the recent restoration work undertaken at the War Memorial and pay tribute to the 16 men from the village who went to fight in the war and never returned.
So much work and thought has been put into organising this very special event which will include 16 readings of poems by First World War poets in moments of quiet on the hour.
Readers will include family relatives, cricketers, bellringers, a 17-year-old (the age of the youngest man who served and died), two children from the village school and the Bishop of Norwich.
There will a continuous rolling film of Jan and Jeff Fox’s travels to the graves and memorials overseas, a large number of photographs, an important and excellent Saxlingham Remembers catalogue and more.
In the late 1990’s Janet Capon, a teacher at the village school, was asked by the head teacher to do a project with the children about the War Memorial. She soon realised this involved a huge amount of research so she and her friend Jan Fox, set to work.
This involved years of research, visiting graves and memorials across this country and further afield in France, Belgium, Greece and Canada.
Following Janet’s death in 2008 Jan, and her husband Jeff, continued with this heroic project. More information on saxlinghamwarmemorials.org.uk
So many people came together to make this exhibition possible including South Norfolk District Council under the Pride of Place community scheme.
Parish Council chairman Roger Stocks says: “The impact on a small Norfolk village community of the sequence of catastrophic world events leading up to this country’s declaration of war against Germany on August 4 1914 is the theme of this exhibition.”
Less than three months later, in October 1914, George Henry Last Brighton, serving in the Norfolk Regiment died from wounds sustained in battle, five days after his 21st birthday. His body has never been found.
George had been born in the union workhouse in Swainsthorpe and spent most of his childhood at Smock Mill cottage, Saxlingham Thorpe with his mother and grandparents.
He is remembered at Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, among 13,389 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave who were killed in the area.
Now he, others who died, and those men who survived, are all remembered at the exhibition which will include the playing of the recently re-mastered Decca recording of Britten’s War Requiem on the Saturday evening, an informal event so people can walk round in semi-darkness, looking at spot-lit photographs of the villagers who died fighting for our freedom.
Saxlingham Remembers will be open between 11am and 8pm on Saturday November 9 and from 2pm and 6pm on the Sunday.
*With thanks to William Goff and Julia Burton and all those involved in this important event and publishing the catalogue Saxlingham Remembers, telling the story of the men who fought in the war and looking at the history of the village.
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