Impressive Conisborough Rememberance Service

November 1939

Mexborough & Swinton Times, November 4, 1939

Impressive Conisborough Remembrance Service

It was an impressive scene. Laurence Binyon´s “They shall grow not old”, had been spoken, the bugle had sounded ….. a pause then the cry “The legion of the living salute the legion of the dead”. A sudden hush came upon the crowd. Conisborough remembered …. and remembered deeply. That stillness, charged with such emotion, was almost overwhelming. The bugle sounded again, the National Anthem was played and the four young soldiers, serving soldiers this year, stepped smartly down from their vigil at the four points at the base of the War Memorial. The band struck up martial music, the mourners, the marchers and the multitude moved away and Conisborough had again with quiet dignity honoured its war dead. This was on Sunday, Remembrance Day.

The parade began from Ivanhoe Road and proceeded to the Cenotaph by way of Leslie Avenue, Chambers Avenue, Welfare Avenue, Old Road, Conan Road, Daylands Avenue, St. Peter´s Road, Park Road, Morley Place, Church Street, Dale Road, Burcroft, and Low Road. Many people lined the route and there were many more in the vicinity of Coronation Park.

First came the Conisborough Section of the West Riding Special Constabulary (under Section Commander C.E. Webster), next the Denaby St. John Ambulance Band, followed by Corps Officer C.J. Pickett (who was in command of the parade), and Coun. George Oldfield, the Legion Standard, with the colour party, the British Legion, with soldiers old and new, and representatives of that new branch of the Army in this present war, the Home Defence Corps.

Following were the St. John Ambulance Brigade and the Nursing Division with Mr. Charles Farrell at their head, the Fire Brigade, under Captain J. Waterhouse and Vice-Captain W. M. Burton, their Auxiliary Fire Service members presenting a particularly smart appearance in their new uniforms, being worn in public for the first time. Head Warden Coun, A. M. Carlin led the A.R.P. Service representatives, and in the rear, with the Scout Band were the 10 th Doncaster (Conisborough) Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and the Parish Church Company of the Girl Guides.

At the War Memorial there were made two changes from usual custom. There was no service and only one unit was allowed in the Park at a time for the laying of wreaths. Special constables kept the square clear, and after wreaths had been laid the various parties passed across the Memorial steps and, reforming at the rear of the Park, marched back to Low Road for the March Past.

Wreaths were laid on behalf of the officers, N.C.O´s, and members of the Conisborough Nursing and Ambulance Divisions, the 10 th Doncaster Boy Scout Troop (an emblem made by the boys themselves with a number of Flanders poppies), the Conisborough Air Raid Wardens, the Conisborough and Denaby Fire Brigade, the Conisborough British Legion, and the Conisborough Section of the Special Constables.

In the garden round the Memorial were two crosses, marked the “Garden of Remembrance”, and “They shall not grow old”, and in this plot individuals planted thirty small wooden remembrance crosses, some bearing the names of their dead.

The proceedings drew to a close. Mr Philip Brocklesby (treasurer of the Conisborough branch of the British Legion), declaimed Binyon´s words, a bugler sounded the Reveille and the Last Post, and the Band played “God Save the King”.

A last word- the British Legion ask residents to take it that the planting of poppies in the Garden of Remembrance was concluded by the ceremony on Sunday, but to continue to plant their crosses in the plot which has been specially allocated for the purpose by the Urban Council.

 

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