2025 Remembrance

A small but respectful group gathered outside the Memorial Hall to remember those who died serving in the first and second World Wars. The ceremony was led by David Graham and supported admirably by bugler Janice Young who played the Last Post.

It is now well over 100 years since the end of the First World War and living memories of the WW2 are fading too. It’s tempting to see acts of remembrance as irrelevant or at least hard to identify with. Winchmore Hill lost 18 men in WW1 from a village community that was much smaller than it is today. To put that into context, that would be like losing all the lads in the village today, all the rowdy lads that get in the Potters on a Friday night, half the crowd that help put up the marquee: all of them called up to fight with many never coming home. It would have torn the heart out of the village.

So when we say “for our tomorrows they gave their today” that’s what it means. That group of 18 and the other 5 who died in World War 2 gave their lives so that for the lads in today’s village the thought of being called up to fight couldn’t be further from their minds. And that’s why it’s so important to remember them.  The Memorial Hall was built within three years of the end of WW1 with the names of those who died carved into its stonework. So, every year we gather to read out their names and commemorate their sacrifice.