THE national launch of The Poppy Appeal will take place on Thursday, October 22 with an event in Horse Guards Parade in London at 12 noon.
The theme for this year's appeal is helping the Afghanistan generation of the Armed Forces and their families today and for the rest of their lives.
The Legion is always delighted to see anybody wearing a Poppy but sometimes you do wonder when you see on TV, often a politician, somebody wearing a Poppy before the Appeal has even started and it does make you wonder why.
Here in Lincolnshire w
e launch the Appeal with an event at East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre on Saturday, Octoberalso beginning at 12 noon to which everybody is invited. Guest of honour will be Sergeant Mark Sutcliffe of The Royal Anglian Regiment who has seen recent service in Iraq. The launch of The Poppy Appeal in Boston this year will have already been held the day before, when The Mayor of Boston, Councillor Maureen Dennis along with the Mayoress will have attended a lunch on Friday, October 23 at PJ's Pie Pub on High Street
Collections will be held at Somerfield and ASDA from Saturday, October 24 to Saturday, November 7 and at Tesco from Thursday, November 5 to Saturday, November 7 and collection boxes and tins will be found throughout the town – please look for the little sticker we are asking sites with a collection box to display on an outside window.
Each year, The Legion establishes a Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey and in Cathays Park, Cardiff and if any of your readers would like to have a Remembrance Cross dedicated at either of these sites they are invited to ring 0845 845 1945. Here in Boston we will have our own, albeit a little smaller, Field or Garden of Remembrance, to be established on Thursday, November 5. We will have a short service to mark the opening at 11am. Every year "regular" Crosses of Remembrance appear with photographs of missed loved ones or poignant messages attached some going back to a relative lost in The First World War and by Remembrance Sunday they make a lovely sight.
Our Branch Standard Bearer, Mr Alex Hackett from Rosebery Avenue will be seen on TV at The Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, November 7 when, as National Youth Standard Bearer, he will be seen coming down the famous steps just behind the National Standard and Union Flag at the beginning of The Festival of Remembrance shown on BBC1 that evening.
We then have Remembrance Sunday on November 8 and every reader is very warmly invited to come down to The War Memorial for between 10.30 and 10.45 am.
We then move back up Strait Bargate to St Botolph's Church for the Remembrance Sunday Service. Other services will be held at other churches in Boston and in the surrounding villages. After the service their will be a parade from the Church through to The Market Place. Lead by the Band from The Boston Citadel Corps of The Salvation Army, closely followed by a detachment from RAF Coningsby, we then have a group of veterans and this year the Legion very, very warmly invites any serving member of the Armed Forces home on leave to join us.
Remembrance Day or Armistice Day is this year on Wednesday, November 11 the Legion will be planting a Field of Poppies in Flanders next to the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium and if any of your readers would like to dedicate a Poppy they are invited to visit a website www.poppy.org.uk/remembrance/flanders'-field-of-poppies and they can dedicate a Poppy there. In Boston Remembrance Day will see quite an event.
The people of Boston are invited to "Pause to Remember" with two minutes silence and If they are in the town centre, especially with it being a market day, they might like to witness the two minute silence at The War Memorial. After the two minutes silence a service will be held to dedicate eleven more memorial plaques in Veterans Way.
The service will see the dedication of the memorial plaques for The Royal Air Force, The Royal Naval Association, Submariners Association, The Royal Navy and Royal Marine crews of Landing Craft, The Royal Artillery, The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, The Royal Anglian Regiment, The 8th Army – "The Desert Rats", Suez Veterans Association and The National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association. Veterans Way is now recognised as one of the most striking memorials of its kind, certainly in Lincolnshire and if they haven't already had a look your readers are recommended to take a stroll through The War Memorial Garden.
To bring Remembrancetide to an end there will be a Service on Sunday, November 15 at St.Botolph's to mark the laying-up of the Standards belonging to The Burma Star Association, The Normandy Veterans Association and very sadly for us at The Legion, The Boston & District Branch of The Women's Section of The Royal British Legion. This Service will start at 10.30 am.
If you can help during The Poppy Appeal the Boston Poppy Appeal Organiser, Mr Andy Holland would like to hear from you. Andy can be contacted on Boston 358075. We all need your help and it will always be very welcome. "We Will Remember Them"
Stephen Morrison
Branch Secretary, Boston RBL
