Moths celebrate Remembrance Day with spectacular parade
The Botha Shellhole of the Memorable Order of the Tin Hats (Moths) in the city celebrated Remembrance Day with pomp and ceremony on Sunday.
POLOKWANE – The event started at 11:00 with a fly-past by three civilian aircrafts, followed by script reading. Brigadier General Lancelot Mathebula, General Officer Commanding of Air Force Base Makhado, officiated at the medal parade and presented medals to: Izak Cilliers (10 Year Service Medal), Collin Edwards (Pro Patria Medal and General Service Medal), Frans Pretorius (General Service Medal), Anton Prinsloo (Pro Patria Medal, General Service Medal, Unitas Medal and John Chard Medal), Roelof Lourens (Pro Patria Medal, Southern Africa Medal and General Service Medal), Anton Le Roux (Tshumelo Ikatelaho General Service Medal), Trevor van Zyl (Southern Africa), André van Aswegen (Tshumelo Ikatelaho General Service Medal) and Willem Weideman (Pro Patria Medal, General Service Medal and John Chard).
Certificates of Excellence, which is the second highest Moth award, were presented to Moths Anton le Roux, Ben Vorster, André van Aswegen and Des Mellett.
The programme also included a brief presentation by historian Louis Scott, which included interesting facts about the First World War.
Scott explained that Remembrance Day, informally known as Poppy Day, is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who died in the line of duty.
Remembrance Day is observed on the closest Sunday to November 11 in most countries to recall the end of the hostilities of the First World War on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 05:12 and 05:20 that morning.
The First World War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919.
The ‘Last Post’ was sounded, followed by a two minutes’ period of silence and the sounding of Reveille.
A highlight of the Moths event was a wreath-laying ceremony with representatives of military units, Hoërskool Pietersburg, Pietersburg Laerskool, the Voortrekkers and relatives of deceased soldiers.
The proceedings concluded with the playing of the national anthem and the Moth prayer, followed by a toast by all who was present.
