On tour to remember the fallen of WW1

Mayor of Thame, Nichola Dixon, lays a cross at the gravestone of Brian Perry

THIS weekend, October 30-31, forty people from Thame will be visiting the WW1 battlefields of France & Belgium as part of the Thame Remembers project which aims to honour the town’s war dead by challenging the people of Thame to deliver a cross to the grave of every man named on memorials in the town, wherever in the world they may be.

The tour, which will be joined by a reporter from BBC South, will visit some of the Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries as well as the major memorials at Thiepval, Tyne Cot, Vimy Ridge, Arras, and Cambrai. A highlight of the tour will be at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres on Friday evening, where a wreath on behalf of the town will be laid during the nightly Last Post ceremony.

The party will also visit a German War Cemetery at Langemark, the preserved trenches at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, the Lochnagar Mine Crater, and other locations along the Western Front where so many died in the so-called ‘war to end wars’.

Nearer to home, Thame’s Mayor, Councillor Nichola Dixon, visited Rectory Lane Cemetery in Berkhamstead last week to commemorate Sergeant Brian Perry, who was educated at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, and was just 18 years old when he died. He served with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, nicknamed The Devil’s Own, which occupied tented accommodation in a field near Berkhamstead railway station throughout the war. In June 1915, Brian contracted meningitis in the camp and died in hospital in Wandsworth. Although he had not seen active service, he was given a military funeral.

Councillor Dixon said: “It was an honour to place this cross for Thame Remembers, something I have been wanting to do since the project was launched. It’s a tremendous undertaking and one that has gathered so much support from the people of Thame, and reminded us of the sacrifices made in two world wars. I look forward to seeing further crosses delivered and helping in any way I can as the project continues.”

To date, 88 of the 213 graves and memorials to men from Thame have been visited by members of the community, and crosses have already been delivered as far away as Tanzania, New Zealand, India and Korea. The project still has three years to run but many challenging locations remain, including Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, and Bahrain.

You can find out more about the Thame Remembers project by visiting the website HERE