Back in 2010, the Group decided that on Remembrance Day, rather than just stand by the War Memorial at St. Andrews Church for the Act of Remembrance, we would revive an old tradition and parade down from the Church Hall to the Church. This we did, led by John playing a borrowed drum (this led to a number of the Scouts saying they would like to play a drum and after Christmas the Drum Corps was born!).
The following year, now with our own Drum Corps, we got a little more ambitious, and rather than going straight to the Church, we paraded from the Hall around the streets of Porthill, past houses that our Scouts from the past (including those killed in the 2 world wars) would have lived in, to Church and the Act of Remembrance.
In 2012, we had the idea of parading from Bradwell to Porthill and to bring the vicar and some of St. Barnabas Church’s congregation with us. This needed a bit more planning and more help from the police, but was a great success with lots of people joining us.
We did the same the following year.
2014 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, so to mark this, we asked our friends from 14th Basford, 36th St. Wulstan’s and Centurion Explorers, along with local Guides and Brownies, to join us. We did the same as in the previous two years and paraded from Bradwell to Porthill, had and Act of Remembrance at the Porthill War Memorial, followed by the service in St. Andrews. However, after the service finished, we all came out of Church and paraded up to the Wolstanton War Memorial. This was the first time for many, many years that such a parade had gone from Porthill to Wolstanton.
At the Wolstanton War Memorial, by St. Margaret’s Church we held another Act of Remembrance and walked the short distance to St. Wulstan’s for dismissal.
Thank you to our friends from Basford, St. Wulstan’s & Centurion and the Guides for joining us.
The drums were brilliant as ever and Natasha did a great job playing the Last Post.
Well done to all who came, you were a credit to Scouting and to the memory of those killed in conflicts.
