Remembrance services and parades will take place across the area, and a Beacon of Light will be lit at Branscombe
Remembrance events will be held throughout the Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary area on the weekend of November 10 and 11, with a particular emphasis on the centenary of the end of the First World War.
In Ottery St Mary, on Saturday November 10, a concert of songs from the WW1 period will be held at the Parish Church to commemorate the lives of all those who died or suffered as a result of the conflict. The organisers have done their best to contact the relatives of the 87 people named on the Memorial Plaque in the church, and at least six of them are expected to attend.
There will also be a remembrance service at the church on Sunday, November 11, along with those at other churches across the area.
In Sidmouth, there will be a parade from the town centre to the war memorial on Sunday morning, starting at 10.30am. A service will be conducted there by the Reverend Peter Budgin, and afterwards, members of the public will be invited to place their own poppy crosses in the metal crucifix at the side of the Parish Church.
On the Sunday evening, there will be a chance to join the national Beacon of Light ceremony, to mark the end of the First World War.
Four years ago, Britain marked 100 years since the start of the war by switching off the lights in Parliament, churches, theatres, public buildings and other important sites. It reflected the remark made in 1938 by the then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey when he knew war was inevitable: “The lamps are going out all over Europe.”
On the evening of Sunday, November 11, a beacon will be lit on Branscombe Beach, as similar beacons are lit in multiple places across the UK and abroad. People are invited to gather at 6.30pm, prior to the lighting of the beacon. Round the fire, there will be an act of remembrance for the twelve Branscombe men who died serving their country in WW1, who are named on the war memorial outside St Winifred’s Church in Branscombe. It will be a chance for everyone to remember the war dead from their own families or home towns, and the signing of the armistice which finally brought an end to the dark days of war.
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