The Ripon branch of the Royal British Legion has held a dedication ceremony at the city’s Garden of Remembrance, where the dead of two World Wars and other conflicts are remembered.
The event, a week before Remembrance Sunday, went ahead following consultation with Harrogate Borough Council.
Numbers in attendance were kept to a minimum and social distancing measures were in place, as the Dean of Ripon, The Very Revd John Dobson, blessed the garden and led prayers.
The Dean of Ripon, The Very Revd John Dobson leads prayers at the Garden of Remembrance
In the shadow of Ripon Cathedral, where the dead of many battles and wars have been mourned over the centuries, he said:
“We assemble today in the presence of almighty God to dedicate this ground as a Garden of Remembrance.”
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He added:
“This coming week, tokens of remembrance will be placed in memory of those who fell in the cause of freedom for our country.
“In the name of the Royal British Legion, we pledge ourselves to help, encourage and comfort others and to support those working for the relief of the needy and for the peace and welfare of the nations.”
With the coronavirus crisis and a second nationwide lockdown coming into effect on Thursday, this has been a challenging year for all charities and has impacted heavily on the annual Poppy Appeal run by the Royal British Legion.
Ripon branch chair, Jeet Bahadur Sahi, who organised the dedication event, told the Stray Ferret:
“In these difficult times, we all have to be careful and as well as limiting the number of people in attendance at the ceremony we have followed strict social distancing to ensure all are safe.”
He added:
“The lockdown has seen the cancellation of Remembrance Sunday services across the country, but people can still come individually to put a cross in the ground at the garden, in memory of friends or family members who have fallen in war.
“I would just stress that people must follow the government’s social distancing requirements if they come to the Garden of Remembrance.”
The covid pandemic means Poppy Appeal street collections that normally raise up to £20,000 to support the Royal British Legion’s work, cannot be held this year.
Supermarkets across Ripon have poppies on sale.
Harrogate district to mark Remembrance Day at home this yearHarrogate district organisations are urging people to commemorate Remembrance Day at home this year after covid restrictions forced traditional annual services and parades to be cancelled.
The Poppy Appeal, organised by the Royal British Legion, will continue to go ahead but collections and activities have been disrupted by social distancing requirements.
Remembrance Sunday activities on November 8 have also been affected, forcing local branches of the Royal British Legion and other groups involved to adapt.
The Knaresborough branch of the Royal British Legion is asking residents to hold their own two-minute silences at home as the church service and parade through the town will not go ahead.
David Houlgate, vice-chair of the branch, said:
“Arrangements are being made to lay wreaths safely but townsfolk are discouraged this year from attending at the war memorial.
“We are having to limit the number of collection boxes we can distribute this year to 20% of our usual number of boxes.”
Despite the limitations, the branch is asking people to continue to support the Poppy Appeal, as funds help servicemen and women, veterans and their families.
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The service at Harrogate war memorial has also been cancelled. The Harrogate Mayor, councillor Stuart Martin, said:
“I urge people across the district to observe the national two minutes silence with your family and show your support for the armed forces community by displaying a poppy in your window.”
The annual remembrance service at Stonefall Cemetery has been cancelled. Credit: Guy Wilson
The annual service at Harrogate’s Stonefall Cemetery, organised by Harrogate Brigantes Rotary Club, has also been cancelled.
A private wreath laying and blessing ceremony has been organised instead.
At least 13 wreaths will be laid on behalf of British and Commonwealth forces. Event co-ordinator Guy Wilson said:
“While this year we cannot meet together to remember those who gave their lives for us and the freedoms we now enjoy, we nevertheless recognise that the act of remembrance is important and will see that it is done with proper respect. Over 1,000 lives given for us lie in Stonefall. We will be there to honour them all on November 8.”
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains Stonefall, has launched a tool that allows people to find out about the lives of local servicemen and woman who died in battle.
Barry Murphy, CWGC’s director general, said:
“This year has been like no other, and sadly this will have an impact on the usual traditions around Remembrance Sunday.”
“Where an event is planned well and follows the covid-safe rules and the government advice, we have no objections.
“Some events will have already taken the initiative to modify or cancel and we follow the organisers’ better judgement on these matters.”
The Ripon branch of the Royal British Legion has received a £1,000 donation from the city council.
In a year when fundraising initiatives for the Poppy Appeal have been scaled back, Jeet Bahadur Sahi, chair of the Legion’s Ripon branch, said it welcomed the donation “with open arms”.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“We greatly appreciate this support from the council, as our selling of poppies this year is necessarily having to be on a much smaller scale than in normal years.”
The money is from the council’s events budget. Council leader Andrew Williams, said:
“We decided that the money we had set aside for the Remembrance Sunday service, which cannot go ahead, should be given to the Royal British Legion.”
Mr Sahi, who served as a Gurkha for 22 years and has been chair of the Royal British Legion Ripon branch since 2013, said the coronavirus crisis prevented the Army Cadets, scouts and Air Force Cadets from collecting on the streets this year and there would be no stall on the market.
The appeal has, in recent years, raised up to £20,000 but this year’s fundraising efforts will rely heavily on people buying poppies from the city’s supermarkets.
Cllr Eamon Parkin, Mayor of Ripon.
Although fundraising activities have been disrupted, acts of remembrance will still be held in a safe and limited way.
At 11am on Saturday, October 31, standard bearers will be at the Royal British Legion garden of remembrance, which opened next to Ripon Cathedral in 2018 after a successful fundraising campaign headed by Mr Sahi and supported by Econ Engineering.
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After the ground is blessed by clergy from the cathedral, members of the public will be able to place small wooden crosses near the plinth.
Cllr Parkin said:
“I hope people will be as generous as possible when buying their poppy in this difficult year for all charities.”
This year, the Ripon Community Poppy Project, run by local residents Hazel Barker, Carol Dunkley and Cllr Stuart Martin, will again see knitted poppies put on display at prime locations in the city, in the run up to Remembrance Sunday and a few days beyond.
Ripon remembers the fallen on VJ DayThree months and one week after the socially-distanced celebrations took place for the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Ripon marked VJ Day in more modest fashion.
Victory over Japan, which followed the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, brought an abrupt and brutal end to World War II and meant that British and Commonwealth troops, who fought in the Far East, could return home.
But tens of thousands of the 1.3 million men and women who made up the South East Area Command and what subsequently became known as the ‘Forgotten Army’ did not return to loved ones and their names can be found on War Memorials in the UK and around the world.
The War Memorial at Spa Gardens, Ripon
Today the ‘Forgotten Army’ will be remembered, across the UK, with a two minute silence; the sounding of church bells, a fly past of World War II aircraft and a national service of remembrance attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, broadcast live by the BBC.
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The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, provides the setting for the BBC’s coverage, while an hour earlier, in the similarly sylvan surroundings of Spa Gardens, Ripon, the city’s Mayor Councillor Eamon Parkin, laid a wreath at the war memorial.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“Our city, which is home to the Royal Engineers, has a proud military history stretching back to 1915 and on landmark days like these, we take a few minutes to remember what the men and women of the armed forces have done for us in every theatre of war and continue to do for us in keeping the peace.”
Cllr Parkin, added:
“Sadly, the necessary coronavirus restrictions prevented us from staging the large-scale events that we had planned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day and also affect today’s commemoration, but that does not stop us from remembering those who fought and fell in the Far East and indeed, all our war dead.”