Presentation of the Roll of Honour to the Wivenhoe Branch of the Royal British Legion

This Roll of Honour records the names of everybody from Wivenhoe who served in WW1

by Peter Hill

The Roll of Honour in its display case in the Legion Hall
Photo by Frances Belsham
Peter Hill giving his short talk with Karl Douzier seated on his left, and standing on his right Ian Valentine, Gill Strudwick and Vince Rayner
Photo by Frances Belsham
Tim Beighton, Chairman of the Wivenhoe Branch of the British Legion, who responded on behalf of the branch.
Photo by Frances Belsham
Deputy Chairman Gill Strudwick showing one of the paperback copies of the Roll of Honour in which people can read all of the names and the branch of the Services into which they enlisted.
Photo by Frances Belsham
Gill Strudwick, History Group Deputy Chairman who has been leading the Roll of Honour project receiving a cheque for £375 from Frank and Gillian Baker towards the project
Photo Peter Hill

On Wed 11th January 2017, at a small gathering in the British Legion Hall, the WW1 Roll of Honour which had been created by the Wivenhoe History Group to honour all the residents of Wivenhoe who had served in WW1 was presented to the Legion.

Peter Hill, Chairman of the Wivenhoe History Group said:

On behalf of the Wivenhoe History Group,  I am very pleased to present the Wivenhoe Branch of the Royal British Legion with this Roll of Honour in which the names of all the people who served their country in World War One who were from Wivenhoe and who served in the various branches of the Military, Navy, Merchant Navy, Royal Naval Reserve, and the women VAD nurses who went to France to help injured soldiers,  that Ian Valentine has been able to discover though his extensive researches up until early summer last year, and I charge Tim Beighton, as Chairman of the branch, and his successors, to look after this document, it having been dedicated and blessed by the Rev Erwin Lammens in St Mary’s Church at the Annual Service of Remembrance on 13th November 2016.

I should like to formally thank, before this gathering of people, including the many members of the British Legion who are here,

Ian Valentine – who researched the names

Gill Strudwick who, as  Deputy Chairman of the History Group took on the Project to turn Ian’s list of names into a book

Vince Rayner – who donated considerable time in the typography and design of the book

Frank Baker – who provided the illustrations which are incorporated in the book

And Karl Douzier who made this special case for it out of an oak tree which was growing at Sunnymead Farm and who organised the making of the acrylic case.

I have put all of the names of all the people who served onto the Wivenhoe History web site which we intend to keep up to date as more names are found who served, and as more information about those people come to light.

Thank you all very much for coming this evening.

Tim Beighton, Chairman of the Wivenhoe Branch of the Royal British Legion, responded by saying that he felt it was fitting that the Legion should have been chosen as the place where the Roll of Honour could be displayed and kept.

To see the full list of names, click here

About the Roll of Honour – click here

Acknowledgements:

We should acknowledge the financial support of Frank Baker who donated the profits of his book Wivenhoe’s Fallen towards the production costs of the Roll of Honour and that of the Heritage Lottery Fund for their financial contribution too. http://www.wivenhoehistory.org.uk/content/new-contributions/about-the-wivenhoe-roll-of-honour-for-ww1The cost of producing this Roll of Honour was part of the Wivenhoe History Group’s application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for its overall World War One Project.

 

This page was added on 15/01/2017.

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