Lost Sons of Staple Event

 

The British Legion was founded by veterans of the First World War who adopted the poppy as their symbol of remembrance and hope.  The ‘Legion’, and the poppy, remain the custodian of the Nation’s remembrance and in the Centenary years of that appalling conflict Branches were asked to consider means of commemorating the centenary at a local level.

 

Staple Branch came up with two ideas, both based on the young men of the village named on our War Memorial. 

 

The first was to plant trees, one for each name, on a derelict piece of land by the village hall – the story of that can be seen on the Remembrance Garden link above. 

 

The second idea was to research the names and put the information on a memory stick to present to the children of the village. 

 

Research began, with the results reported regularly to the Branch members and the gradual transformation of this sad list of names, read out in Church every Remembrance Sunday, to young men leaving their lives and families in the village to go with such high hopes to war was fascinating, exciting and deeply moving.  They had become real to us and we felt that this should be shared with all who lived in the village so that the Roll of Honour read out on Remembrance Sunday will never again be just a list of names.  Thus, the Lost Sons of Staple event was conceived.  It was to be a ‘Commemoration in Words and Music’ with poetry and prose, sketches and songs of the period interspersed with the readings of the profiles of our ‘Lost Sons’.

 

Legion members, families and friends from in and around the village were all co-opted to help and a huge amount of enthusiastic effort went into the production.  People gave so generously of their time and expertise and the evening was a huge success.  Even the interval refreshments were authentic with WW1 cakes and biscuits, paid for with old pennies as tokens and fetchingly served by WI ladies in mop caps.  The Cubs and Scouts sang with gusto, the audience joined in and we finished with a hauntingly beautiful ‘Sunset’ with the Royal Marines Band on film.  Many a damp eye was dabbed as the lights went up.

 

Mission accomplished!

 

You can read the profiles by clicking the links below -