Visit to Ypres - Remembrance 2024
Paul Chambers is a friend of the Garrison Church Trust, and also runs the British West Indies Regiment Historical Trust. On 5th October 2024 I was among a large group including Military veterans who undertook an 18-hour pilgrimage to St George's Church in Ypres Belgium. The occasion was the unveiling of a plaque honouring the 15,600 West Indian soldiers who served on the Western Front during the First World War, and the 1500 members of the Regiment who died in that conflict.
This was the first memorial acknowledging the contribution of the West Indies Regiment in World War 1, and the Service was a moving one involving the British Army's highest ranking black officer, Brigadier Karl Harris, and other senior diplomatic representatives.
The Chaplain responsible for the Service is keen for links in the future between his St George's Church in Ypres and the Garrison Church of St George in Woolwich. I hope that we will be able to follow up that initiative, perhaps by inviting a contingent to take part in our St George's Day Service in Woolwich.
Tim Barnes, Chairman, Woolwich Garrison Church Trust
