Rotherham Remembers

At 11 am on Thursday, November 11 - Armistice Day - the Mayor, Coun. Rose McNeely, will lead the two minutes silence at a special Act of Remembrance, organised by the Rotherham branch of the Royal British Legion, in Rotherham's All Saints Square.

This will be followed on Sunday, November 14, with the annual Remembrance Sunday Parade and Service at Rotherham Minster.

The parade, led by the South Yorkshire Police Band, will leave Effingham Street at 9.25 am and will arrive at the Minster at 9.45 am for the church service, led by the Rev. Canon David Bliss.

The Civic party will comprise the Mayor, who will be accompanied by her sister, Mrs. Avril Brasher; the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire, Col. Chris Tattersall and Mrs. Tattersall; the High Sheriff, Mr. Anthony Cooper and Mrs. Cooper; the Chief Executive of Rotherham Borough Council Martin Kimber; the Leader of Rotherham Borough Council, Coun. Roger and Mrs. Dorothy Stone; together with local councillors, senior officers, and local MPs John Healey and Denis MacShane.

The parade will include representatives of the 218 Rotherham Squadron Air Training Corps; the 146 Workshop Company, REME; the Royal Signals, the Royal air Force Association; Rotherham Sea Cadets; the Army Cadet Force; South Yorkshire Volunteer Police Cadets; British red Cross and many others.

Under the direction of the Parade Commander, S/Lt. Frazer Avill, RNR, the parade will then make its way to the wreath-laying service at the Cenotaph in Clifton Park for 11 am before the final march-past of Rotherham Town Hall in Moorgate Street, where the Mayor and the Deputy Lord Lieutenant will take the salute.

Also taking part in the parade will be representatives from Rotherham's twin town of St. Quentin in France. The nine-strong delegation, led by First Deputy Mayor, Monique Ryo, and her partner, Michel Taquet, are visiting Rotherham as part of the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the twinning agreement between the two towns. The First Deputy Mayor will also lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

**** This year for the first time there is now also a permanent memorial in Clifton Park to the men of Rotherham who have been awarded the Victoria Cross.

The names of the three recipients -  Thomas Norman Jackson of Swinton, William Chafer of Bramley and Ian John McKay - have been engraved and polished into the granite coping stones of the new pool in the Memorial Garden, which lies behind the Cenotaph.

Instigated by Rotherham Borough Council, which believed there should be a permanent memorial to local holders of the Victoria Cross, the work has been carried out by the Rotherham Memorial Co. and has been funded by the authority's Green Spaces Unit. 

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded taking precedence over all other orders. It is awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces. Only 39 VCs have been presented since the Second World War.