Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/08/2014
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Location
St Mary’s Church
Church Rd
Thame
Oxfordshire
OX9 3AJ
United Kingdom
On the date of the centenary of the eve of WW1, Thame will host a very special free event to commemorate the outbreak of war by laying crosses at the 32 graves and memorials in St Mary’s Churchyard.
The evening will commence with a commemorative church service (optional) at 6.00pm and then participants and public will assemble on the outfield of Thame Cricket Club, adjacent to the churchyard and accessible from Thame Barns Centre.
A lone piper from the RAF Halton Pipe Band will play in the churchyard whilst local dignitaries and representatives of local youth groups take position, announced by members of Thame Players Theatre. The ceremony will be conducted by a series of bugle calls, in the tradition of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry and as befits such an occasion.
Throughout the evening there will be displays relating to the project and to WW1 in general, and refreshments will be available. Following the event the church will remain open for anyone wishing to reflect in their own private vigil.
Families of those remembered are invited to participate in the cross laying ceremony but we would ask that they please make their wishes known in advance through the contact form on the web site or at Thame Town Hall.
We hope that the community will turn out to remember and commemorate the sacrifices of men from Thame, and to commence our ambitious project to place Thame Crosses at all 190 graves and memorials, wherever they may be in the world.
Will feature a large scale map pinpointing the locations of all the memorials and graves, plus some of the displays and artefacts from the current WW! exhibition at Thame Museum
The Durand Group (named after the Durand Mine found at Vimy Ridge in 1998) are a fraternal group of individuals dedicated to researching, locating and exploring WW1 tunnels and other subterranean features of that era. The display consists of a number of banners showing historical maps, plans and pictures along with photographs of current group activities. There are also original artefacts recovered from various tunnels, including an empty explosive AMMONAL bag recovered from the Durand Mine.
The display will show examples of a number of different WW1 munitions, all of which have been certified Free From Explosive. This will include both British and German aircraft bombs, shells and grenades. There will be sectioned shrapnel and high explosive shells showing how they work. In addition there will be information about the expenditure of ammunition during the war and the problems caused ever since by unexploded ordnance littering the battlefields.