Remembrance Sunday Service
Our annual Remembrance Day Service was held on 12th November a grey autumnal day with a smattering of rain. Our two Royal Artillery Tents provided cover and the Service was well attended by soldiers, local community representatives and friends of the Garrison Church.
Adam Scott, the Honorary Chaplain to NFRHQ RA, presided as he has done at so many of our Services with good humour and reverence. The time-honoured elements of the Remembrance Day Service; the Last Post and Reveille, the 2 minutes' silence and the Kohima Epitaph were included. And 14 wreaths were laid by representatives of the Judges at Woolwich Crown Court, our MP, the police, our local Councillors and Mayoralty, the Lieutenancy, representatives of the Armed Forces and Army Cadets, and members of the local Gurkha Community.
We retained the tradition of paying tribute to 2 of those named on the VC Memorial and the local Memorial (to those who have died on active service or as a result of terrorist activity since the end of World War 2 and who had links with the Royal Borough of Greenwich). In the first category a tribute was read by Cllr Denise Hyland to Alfred Smith, a local man who won the VC during the battle of Khartoum in 1885. The second was read by an Officer of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment to Jake Alderton who was born in Bexley and died while serving with the Army in Afghanistan in November 2007.
The hymns including Abide With Me, Eternal Father Strong to Save and Immortal Invisible God Only Wise, were sung and there was a good-sized congregation. most of whom stayed on after the Service for refreshments.
The Remembrance Day Service is one of the central events in our calendar and the one which brings the Woolwich Garrison Church Trust and the local community together.
To view the full Order of Service, please click here.
