Acts of Remembrance

The Royal British Legion is recognised as the national custodian of Remembrance, honouring those that have served in conflicts past and present and remembering those that have given their lives in the service of our country.

Nationally, the Legion stages the annual Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall and plays a prominent part in the Remembrance Service held each November at the Cenotaph in London's Whitehall.

The National Memorial Arboretum of Remembrance in Staffordshire has become a focus for remembrance.

Events to remember all those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom we enjoy today are staged across the country by County committees and local branches.

As part of the nations Act of Remembrance the Copythorne community gathers together each year on Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November to remember all who have fallen in conflict.

Following a special service in St Mary's Church, a parade of standards, clergy, dignitaries, veterans, Scouts, Guides, schoolchildren and other members of our village community gather at the war memorial which stands in front of the Church.  Local organisations nominate representatives to lay a commemorative wreath at the base of the memorial on their behalf.

 "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."

"As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain."

- from the poem 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon