Remembrance Sunday Services Being Held in Putney and Battersea

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Mayor and Deputy Mayor to lay wreaths at war memorials

Last year's parade on Putney High Street

Men and women who have given their lives in the service of their country will be honoured across Wandsworth this Remembrance Sunday.

The borough’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be attending two services on Sunday, November 10. These will be at St Mary’s Church in Battersea Church Road and St Mary's Church, Putney High Street.

Ahead of the church services, local dignitaries and ex-servicemen and women will lay wreaths at their respective war memorials and a two minute silence will be observed at 11am in memory of the fallen.

The Mayor of Wandsworth Cllr Jane Cooper will be attending the Putney service while Deputy Mayor Cllr Sue McKinney will attend St Mary’s in Battersea.

Following the laying of wreaths, there will be parades through both Putney and Battersea involving veterans and representatives from the Royal British Legion, Burma Star Association, Royal Naval Association, army, air force and sea cadets and the Scout Movement, as well as current servicemen and women.

In Putney the parade will pass along Putney High Street and into the Upper Richmond Road, where the salute will be at Wandsworth County Court. There is a service at St. Mary's beginning at 10am.

The Battersea parade will begin at St Mary's Church just after 11am and finish in Battersea High Street.

The following day, Monday, November 11, Battersea Park will host the borough’s annual Armistice Day service of remembrance.

The service will commence at 10.45am and there will be a two minutes' silence at 11am to mark the precise time on November 11, 1918, that a ceasefire came into effect after four years of bitter fighting.

Attending this ceremony to lay wreaths will be the Mayor of Wandsworth and council leader Ravi Govindia as well as representatives of service organisations, other local dignitaries and private mourners.

The ceremony will be at the park's war memorial, which is dedicated to the service of the 24th (London) Division during the First World War. The memorial is located at the junction of Central Avenue and East Carriage Drive and was created by renowned war artist and sculptor Eric Kennington, who served as a private in the Division’s 13th London Regiment in Flanders before being wounded in June 1915.

His Portland stone memorial shows three helmeted soldiers with a serpent of war entwined through their legs and feet and commemorates the division’s 10,865 losses. The left figure is based on Trooper Morris Clifford Thomas of the Machine Gun Corps, the central one on Sergeant J Woods of the 9th Royal Sussex, while the third is based on war poet and writer Robert Graves who served as a Captain with the 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. The memorial was unveiled in 1924.

Earlier this week the borough’s mayor Cllr Cooper urged residents to please give generously to this year’s Poppy Appeal. The council says that it is a keen supporter of the appeal and has arranged for poppy collection boxes to be placed around the town hall. Every year around £40m is raised which funds practical help to men and women who are currently serving, or have previously served in the armed forces, as well their dependents, especially during times of hardship and distress.

This support includes helping widows and relatives visit the graves of loved ones buried overseas, providing residential and nursing home places, making visits to the housebound and long term sick, and representing veterans and their descendants at war pension appeal tribunals. Around half of the money raised each year is spent on grants for disabled ex-servicemen and women and on helping equip people for civilian life through interest free small business loans and job training.

November 8, 2019