The Remembrance Service for my Grandfather Ernest Taylor was held at St Peter’s Church, Stockton on Thursday 12 October 2017, 100 years to the day he was killed in action. The service was attended by 20 descendants and close friends. We were also pleased to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress at the service.
The wreath was laid on the memorial board by his great great grandchildren Betsy and Dylan and will eventually be transferred to the cenotaph in Stockton.
Photographs and details courtesy of Ken Oliver.
Picture Stockton Archive 
What a lovely idea.
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Yours was an exceptional means of truly remembering a hero who almost survived The Great War. Thank you for memorializing him for current and past parishioners. On a personal note I was a member of the church (confirmed and married there) and a boy chorister from age seven. My mind’s eye of the church’s interior has dimmed – I am now in my ninety-first year – and today I am so pleased to see great pictures of the church that refresh my memory.
I also salute the family for their strong ties to a forebear as exhibited in this post. Thank you.
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
“In Flanders Fields” is a war poem written during the First World War by Army physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, Ontario, Canada. “In Flanders Fields” was first published on 8 December 1915, in the London magazine Punch. As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the Remembrance Poppy becoming one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in battle. The poem and poppy are prominent Remembrance Day symbols throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in Canada, where “In Flanders Fields” is one of the nation’s best-known literary works. The poem is also widely known and beloved in the United States.
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Bob
Thanks for that, we did include the first verse in the Remembrance service.
Very moving.
Ken
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