Mayor: I wear poppy not for nationality but as symbol of peace

THE Mayor of Henley has said that the act of remembrance should be used to shape a better future for us all.

Councillor Tom Buckley was addressing hundreds of people at the Remembrance Sunday service in Market Place.

From a wooden lectern on the steps of the town hall he said that the poppy should not be seen as a “badge of nationality” but as a symbol of “compassion, fairness and unity”.

Some of the spectators had arrived about 45 minutes early to get a good view of the proceedings, which were led by Rev Jeremy Tayler, the rector of Henley with Remenham.

Many wore red attire and poppies and huddled in Market Place and, as it got closer to 11am, the crowd overflowed around the town hall on the closed West Street and Greys Road car park.

A recording was played over a loudspeaker of pupils from Gillotts School reading the names and ages of those who had died in the First World War.

“Edward Horton, 19, Walter Miller, 27, John Thomas Jeffery, 29,” came the names, each one read by a different pupil.

The tape has been used for the service since 2014 following the Lest We Forget project led by Mike Willoughby, who identified more than 100 servicemen lost in the Great War who were not listed on the memorial outside the town hall. At about 10.40am, four Royal Marine cadets, three male and one female, marched to place themselves on the cobbled road in front of the town hall steps.

Ahead of the speeches and a two-minute silence, a procession took place from Greys Road car park, including the Henley air, army, sea and Royal Marine cadets, members of the Henley branch of the Royal British Legion, beavers, cubs, scouts and brownies.

Representatives from Thames Valley Police, Henley fire service, Henley Freemasons, the RNLI, Henley Bowls Club, South Central Ambulance service and St John Ambulance also joined for the march. The choir from St Mary’s Church in Hart Street wore white robes as they carried a crozier through Market Place before stationing themselves to the right of the steps.

Cllr Buckley, in his ceremonial robes, Henley MP Freddie van Mierlo and town councillors made their way from the hall to stand to the left of the steps.

They were led by town sergeant James Churchill-Coleman, carrying the ceremonial mace, and David Woodgate, Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.

Father Jeremy Tayler then addressed the crowd. He said: “My brothers and sisters, today we gather, as we do each year, to pray for peace in the world God made and peace for which so many have already laid down their lives, and for which so many continue to die, day by day. And we remember them before God with grief and pride and thanksgiving.

“We pray for all who suffer still because of war and terrorism and we ask for God’s help and blessing for ourselves, that we may do his will, and that the whole world may acknowledge him as Lord and King.

“So now let us remember before God our Father and commend to his love and sure keeping the souls of those who have died for their country in war, those whom we knew and those whose memory we treasure and all who have lived and died through the ages in the service of their fellow men and women.”

Richard Pinches, chairman of the Henley branch of the Royal British Legion, read part of the poem For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon.

He said: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

Congregants repeated “We will remember them” as the Last Post was played on the cornet to mark the start of the two-minute silence.

The crowd remained silent before the Reveille was sounded as the bearers lowered their flags to honour those who gave their lives.

Mr Pinches read John Maxwell Edmonds’s Kohima Epitaph before Fr Jeremy said a prayer and the hymn Jerusalem was sung by the congregation. Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward then read Matthew 5:1-12.

Rev Jeremy then prayed for the peace of the world before Mayor Buckley addressed the crowds in which he told of Second Lieutenant Arthur Thomas Hornby, of the 6th Battalion of the Berkshire Regiment.

He said: “On a quiet patch of ground near Henley, there is a simple stone. Its words are weathered but resolute.

“On October 12, 1917, his commanding officer wrote that the way he led his platoon was magnificent and that his undoubted courage was an example to all.

“Born in Hurley, he fought through three years of war before giving his life at sea.

“We gather today, as generations have before us, not only to remember the dead, but to ask for their sacrifice of the living. For more than a century, this assured silence has bound our country together in gratitude.

“Here, in Henley, we stand shoulder to shoulder. Veterans who remember, children who learn, scouts and brownies in proud formation, armed forces cadets, councillors, members of parliament and neighbours, united by memory and duty.

“In our stillness, we echo the silence that followed his last breath and the countless others whose courage still calls to us.”

Cllr Buckley said the poppy was seen as a symbol of the British state in Northern Ireland, where he grew up. “The poppy was not part of our story,” he said. “It was seen as political, a symbol of the British state, not of assured loss. The army, the flag and even the word remembrance itself were complicated things, tied to pain and division.

“For many years, I didn’t wear the poppy. Not out of anger but because it wasn’t meant for people like me. But understanding grows with time.

“Living here, serving this town, meeting veterans and their families, I’ve come to see that remembrance is not about politics, it’s about people. People who face the unthinkable, not for ideology but for each other.

“The poppy is not a flag, it’s a flower, fragile, red, born from the mud of devastation and it reminds us that peace is never free and that freedom is never guaranteed.

“Yet, I look around our country today and I see something troubling. I see symbols like the poppy and the flag too often twisted, turned into weapons in political battles or tests of loyalty or tools of division, that is not remembrance, that is forgetting.

“It’s time we spoke honestly about that because it is terribly easy to applaud those who gave their lives while watching other lives risked or ruined to preserve our own comfort. That is quite the hypocrisy of our age.

“We speak of courage but we reward fear. We praise sacrifice but we practise self-interest.

“The men and women we are today did not die for slogans or party lines. They died believing in something greater than themselves. The compassion and duty and justice were worth defending.

“If remembrance is to mean anything, it must be more than ceremony. It must change how we live. It must call us to the same courage and peace that they showed in war.

“Here in Henley, we carry that responsibility with pride. Our town sent sons and daughters to both world wars. Some returned, but many did not. Their names are carved in stone, but their legacy lives on in how we serve one another today, in kindness, in fairness and in community.

“This year, I wear the poppy, not as a badge of nationality. I wear it as a pledge to empathy, to integrity and to peace and to remember all who suffered, soldiers and civilians from every background and side and to ensure the peace they wore with courage is not squandered by division or indifference.

“Let our remembrance today not only honour our past but shape the future. Let it remind us that the true strength of a nation is not found in its arms, its borders or its flags but in its compassion, its fairness and its unity.

“May we be worthy of the sacrifice that we honour and may our silence speak, not only of loss but our promise to live better because of it.”

The mayor’s cadets, Corporal Monty Ward, Corporal Kiera De Sousa and Corporal Ralphie Barron, gave readings.

The act of commitment was made by Fr Tayler to commit to responsible living and faithful service, to strive for peace and seek to heal the wounds of war, before everyone joined for the Lord’s Prayer and the National Anthem.

Wreaths were laid on the town hall steps by Mr Woodgate, Cllr Buckley, Cllr van Mierlo, Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak, on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council, Councillor Ken Arlett, on behalf of South Oxfordshire District Council and John Green, on behalf of the Royal British Legion.

Other groups, including the army and sea cadets, Henley fire service, Henley Lions Club and the Henley Society, laid their wreaths in pairs, bowing as a sign of respect before walking away.

Following the service, a parade took place around Market Place took place as residents applauded, before tea, coffee and biscuits were served inside the town hall.

Stephen Ackroyd, from Henley, a commander in the Royal Marines who served in the Gulf War, said: “I was really impressed with the mayor. He was bang on the money as remembrance is to remember everyone. We have to remember what they have sacrificed.

“We have all the liberties to complain but if you take that away, all the other things dissolve. Other countries don’t have that luxury.”

l DOZENS of residents gathered outside Henley town hall on Tuesday, Armistice Day.

The Last Post was sounded at 11am and followed by a two-minute silence. Richard Pinches, chairman of Henley branch of the Royal British Legion read the Kohima Epitaph.