RUGBY will remember the fallen next week.
On Armistice Day (Friday November 11), Rugby Borough Council will support the Royal British Legion in the tradition of a two minute silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – in memory of those who gave their lives for their country.
Maroons will be fired at Whitehall Recreation Ground, in Hillmorton Road, to mark the beginning and end of the silence – 11am and 11.02am. Members of the public can attend.
Meanwhile, members of the Hillmorton Branch of the Royal British Legion will gather at Hillmorton War Memorial for a short service, including a two-minute silence at 11am. Everyone is welcome to attend.
St Andrew’s Church will host a Festival of Remembrance on Saturday November 12 at 7pm, in aid of the Hillmorton Branch of the Royal British Legion.
The evening will feature the Jaguar Land Rover Band and soloist Mel Cotton. Tickets cost £10 (£8 concessions) and are available via 01788 565609 or 07732 3453599.
The Borough’s annual remembrance service and parade will take place at the War Memorial gates on Remembrance Sunday (November 13).
The Mayor of Rugby, Coun Carolyn Watson-Merret, and the civic party walk from the rear of Lesley Souter House, in Whitehall Road, to the War Memorial gates in Hillmorton Road to participate in the parade and service.
Representatives from around 20 contingents, including the 250 Squadron of the Queen’s Gurkha Signals, the Royal British Legion and ex-service organisations, will gather in Hillmorton Road – between Whitehall Recreation Ground and Temple Street – at 10.25am to be reviewed by the Mayor before marching on parade to the War Memorial gates.
Members of the public can attend the service and parade, which takes place from around 10.50am to around 11.30am.
A two minute silence will take place during the service. The Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, the Mayor and representatives from the contingents will then lay wreaths at the memorial gates.
Members of the public can lay wreaths at the gates when the service has concluded.
The Reverend Canon Edmund Newey will lead the service, assisted by Father Aji Alphonse. Martin Myatt, of the Rugby No.1 branch of the Royal British Legion, will deliver the exhortation, while the Mayor’s Cadet, Leading Cadet Luke Ashton of the Sea Cadet Corps (Rugby) TS Tireless, will read the Kohima Epitaph.
The Salvation Army will provide music for the service.
The Hillmorton Branch of the Royal British Legion will also hold its annual parade on Remembrance Sunday.
The parade will assemble at Hillmorton Ex-servicemen’s Club. Members of the Jaguar Land Rover Band, service veterans, and members of uniformed and youth organisations will parade to the Hillmorton War Memorial for a short service at 10.55am. All are welcome to join the parade and to gather on the village greens.
Branch Chairman Kathryn Lawrence said: “This year is the 40th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict. Our piper will be playing Crags of Tumbledown, and the youth organisations will be carrying the badges of those regiments who were involved in the conflict as we remember the events of 1982.”
The following road closures will come into operation for remembrance services in the borough on Remembrance Sunday:
Rugby
- Hillmorton Road (from Temple Street to the Whitehall Road roundabout) – 8am to 12 noon.
Whitehall Road – 8am to 12 noon.
Bruce Williams Way – 10am to 12 noon (vehicle access to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Centre maintained via Moultrie Road and/or Hillmorton Road, from the west side of the Whitehall Road roundabout, until 10am).
Diversion from Hillmorton Road to Lower Hillmorton Road via Temple Street/Caldecott Street and from Hillmorton Road to Clifton Road.
Hillmorton
- High Street (from its junction with Deerings Road to its junction with Fenwick Drive) – 10.30am to 11.45am.
Stretton-on-Dunsmore
- Brookside Medical Practice, halfway along Brookside (opposite Kaysbrook Drive), to All Saints Parish Church, Church Hill – 10.20am to 10.30am
