Little Berkhamsted Remembrance Day 2018

Little Berkhamsted Remembrance Sunday, 11 November 2018

Remembrance Day commemorations took place across the country on the centenary of the end of the Great War on Armistice Day 11 November 1918. Little Berkhamsted marked the sombre occasion by beautifully decorating the War Memorial and St Andrew’s Church with spectacular poppies, thanks to the wonderfully creative work of Sandie Ash and Diane Standbrook.

On Remembrance Sunday, a special evening service was held in the Church, with readings and prayers that reflected some of the village’s history during the Great War. A tribute to 2nd Lieutenant Christopher George Roberts, who was born in Little Berkhamsted in 1895 in Stockings Cottages, was read by his granddaughter Kathryn Simkins. Christopher Roberts enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1914, aged 19. He was posted to France in 1915, and promoted to Sergeant in 1916, later serving with the Royal Welch Fusiliers to become Acting Captain in 1917. He survived the conflict. The men from our village who did not survive, and sacrificed their lives for their country, are remembered by the inscriptions on the War Memorial. Their names were read out during the church service: John Barnacott, Edward Beacher, Henry Gaylor, James Gaylor, Albert Edward Haynes, Walter Lashford, Charles Alfred Parkins, John Stanley Ruthven, and Arthur Tyler. “Faithful Unto Death”.

Photographs and introduction by Jerry O’Reilly.