Lowvelders remember fallen
A fly-past by light aircraft added to the solemnness of the ceremony.
Several representatives from the Lowveld community gathered at the MOTH Shellhole in White River on Remembrance Day to commemorate 100 years since the end of hostilities of World War I.
Remembrance Sunday is always held on the second Sunday in November which is the nearest to November 11 – known as Armistice Day. This year Armistice Day fell on that Sunday and the ceremony was held at 11:00, 100 years since hostilities ended in 1918.
The Stevenson-Hamilton Pipe Band led the participants into parade, and Rev Eddie le Roux of the White River Dutch Reformed Church conducted a short sermon.
The names of fallen soldiers from the region were upheld by Stuart Charlton.
After The Last Post was played, a minute of silence was observed, with many people also remembering that this symbolic moment was initiated by Lord Milner, the same man that initiated the founding of White River as town. Milner forwarded his friend Sir Percy Fitzpatrick’s suggestion of a period of silence to King George V’s secretary and the king took to the idea immediately.
He issued a proclamation asking for a “complete suspension of all normal activities… so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead”.
A fly-past by light aircraft added to the solemnness of the ceremony.
Wreaths were then laid in remembrance of fallen soldiers by representatives of organisations and families, civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces, regular and reserve units and youth organisations and schools.
Guests wore the remembrance poppy, a symbol used since 1920 to commemorate soldiers that have died in war. This was inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae. The opening lines refer to the many poppies that were the first flowers to grow in the churned-up earth of soldiers’ graves in Flanders, a region of Europe that saw some of the worst fighting of the war.
After the ceremony, Moths and friends enjoyed refreshments in the shellhole.
