Hinckley remembers...

Thousands attended Remembrance Sunday services across Hinckley and Nuneaton.

Thousands of people packed Hinckley’s Memorial Gardens to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War One on Remembrance Sunday. 

The event was one of many poignant events held throughout the day across the borough to honour and remember the fallen.

Events in Hinckley commenced with the annual Remembrance Sunday service and parade at the war memorial which was attended by an estimated five thousand people.

Mayor of the Borough, Councillor Jan Kirby, said: “It was a fantastic turn out on Sunday.  I was so proud to see the thousands of people who took the time to come along and pay their respects. It has been moving to see the thoughtful and poignant displays around the borough to commemorate this very special Remembrance Sunday. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the many beautiful tributes. I’m honoured to have been Mayor during such a momentous occasion.”

The tributes continued in the evening at the ‘Lest we Forget’ illuminated sign located on the corner of Station Road. The lights, which have been continuously lit for the last four years to symbolise the duration of World War One, were turned off to mark the guns falling silent at the end of the war.

Hundreds of people then made their way to Argents Mead where the rest of the evening’s events took place, including the playing of the last post and the lighting of a beacon to signify the light of peace that emerged from the darkness of four years of war. This was followed by the ringing of the bells at St Mary’s Church as part of a nationwide tribute. The evening’s events drew to a close with Hinckley’s Town Crier Joe David’s delivery of a specially written piece entitled ‘Cry for peace around the world’, a nation’s tribute.

Executive Member for Culture at the Borough Council, Councillor Maureen Cook said “The events are a poignant and humbling reminder to us all of the sacrifices made by our forebears all those years go whilst being thankful that hostilities were eventually terminated. To those who did not come home it is right and proper that we will continue to remember them.”