Young Gunner officers visit to the Church
On 11 th September a group of 30 young Royal Artillery Officers from Larkhill together with instructors attended the Church. This was part of their visit to locations in London with historic links to the Gunners including the Hyde Park Memorial and the Barracks as well as to the Garrison Church.
The students were smartly turned out and 3 of them were tasked with researching and talking for 5 minutes each about some aspect of the building. This group spoke about the architecture of the church, the mosaics and the V1 flying bomb which largely destroyed the church in 1944. Tim then gave a short talk dealing with some aspects of the Church’s history and quoted the citations for 2 Gunners who were awarded the VC and whose names appear on the panels on either side of the St George mosaic. Whatever the future of the Barracks, (and the Church remains committed to doing all that it can to retain it in military hands), the links between the Garrison Church and the Royal Artillery will remain. These regular visits from young officers are a practical reflection of those links.
