The centenary of the fateful day that World War One began for Great Britain is being marked at a service at Sidmouth’s parish church on Monday (August 4).

The muffled bell will sound from 8.30am until 8.58am before the remembrance service begins in the church of St Giles and St Nicholas at 9am.

Royal British Legion Sidmouth branch president Kim Smith wrote in the Herald last week: “[We feel] strongly that this landmark in the history of the last century should not go unmarked and we should not forget. For some who served in World War Two, there is perhaps the memory of the fiercest fighting at Kohima, Monte Cassino, or in the invasion of France – but there is a special horror of World War One, with the obscenity and the squalor of the trench warfare...

“Let us not forget and meet at 9am on Monday, August 4, at the war memorial to show our respect for those who died in the service of our country all those years ago.”

The parish church is also hosting a unique touring exhibition of a specially commissioned archive book and five chairs – one for each year of the conflict – from St Audomarus Church, Passchendaele, on Wednesday from 10am to 4pm.

The book carries the names of nearly 174,000 people from Britain who died in Belgium during the war, with empty pages for residents to write their personal stories.

See how the outbreak of the war was reported locally in a special feature on page 24 of this week’s Herald.