Thanks to Ed for sharing details of this event on behalf of the Royal British Legion First World War Committee. Ed
A Commemoration of Ventnor men who died in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago will be held at 3pm in Ventnor Park on Sunday (4th September) with the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, MP and Mayor present.
The event is one of a series organised by the Ventnor Branch of the Royal British Legion to honour all the men whose names appear on the Ventnor War Memorial.
Danny McMeechan, Chairman of the Ventnor Branch said,
“Our sequence of events brings home the loss that Ventnor families suffered during the First World War.
“To my knowledge, we are the only Legion Branch in the country that is honouring, over the four year period, all those locally who gave their lives.”
Ventnor soldiers
Nine Ventnor men who died in August and September 2016 will be remembered, six of them in the Battle of the Somme which lasted from 1st July to 18th September 1916.
More soldiers died in the first day that any other day in the history of the British army.
Joining the commemoration
Quintisle and the Sandown and Shanklin Military Band will provide music and the service will be conducted by Dr Jennifer Hopkins Holder from St Catherine’s Church.
The poem ‘The Quiet Man’ by local poet Lionel Thompson acknowledges those who suffered shell shock and were punished for it.
RBL Isle of Wight President Ian Ward will read the Exhortation and local bugler William Nixon will play the Last Post.
