August Last Post

We started our ceremony today with the sad news that our previous Chairman, Mr Malcolm Head had passed away this morning. Malcolm was Chair of the BLP during its most challenging period. The most recent ceremony that he attended was the July Last Post last month. Without his vision and drive, the Brookwood Last Post would not have survived and would now be consigned to history. We will miss him terribly.

Mr David Plattern, Chairman of Surrey County RBL, Mr Tom Milne and Mr Malcolm Head at the September 2017 Brookwood Last Post.

Today we held a multi faith ceremony remembering those Commonwealth soldiers killed in all wars from across the faith spectrum.

We had representatives from the Bahá’í, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths all of whom held a prayer.

Mr Simon Trick

Mr Inderjeet Singh Rehncy

Mrs Meeta Joshi

Mrs Kauser Akhter

We remembered Private James Henry Sitch, service number G/45373 who is buried in plot XIII, grave C.8A at Brookwood Military Cemetery.

Private Sitch died 100 years ago on Monday, 5th August 1918, his age isn’t listed, nor his address, but the fact that he was in the Royal West Surreys suggests that he was a local man, albeit he had transferred to the Labour Corps by the time of his death.

We read out the poem ‘The Crosses’ by Bill Mitton.

At the end of the ceremony, our Chairman, Kevin Davis and Woking Mayor, Cllr Will Forster inspected the Standards on parade.

We had four Standards on parade, and our Standard Bearer today was Mrs Sue Stallard. We had fewer Standards today as some members are attending the Great Pilgrimage 90 Parade in Belgium.

Our bugler was Mrs Ruth Moore, our Reverend was Mr Rob Bennett, and additional speakers were John Kingsbury and Paul McCue. Afterwards we went round to the Trench Experience for refreshments.

July Last Post

The hot temperatures today didn’t stop Beavers, Cubs and Scouts turning out from Woking District for the July edition of the Brookwood Last Post.

We had nine Standards on parade, five from the Scouts with Mrs Sue Stallard parading the BLP Standard.

We remembered Brookwood resident Wilfred Bolingbroke. Wilfred was the son of Alfred. He lived at The Homestead – now 142 Connaught Road. He enlisted in Bisley, joining the third battalion of the Tank Corps (formerly the Machine Gun Corps). He served as a private in Flanders and France. It is highly likely that he was part of the Battle of Cambrai-St. Quentin (27th September – 9th October 1918). This was the main British contribution to the attack on the Hindenburg line and succeeded in pushing back the Germans to the River Selle.

The war was to last just one month more, but sadly Wilfred was killed in action on 8th October 1918, aged just 22 years. He is buried in the Busigny Cemetery in Northern France.

Although we performed the long ceremony, we substituted the second hymn with the poem ‘The Life of a Soldier’ by Jodi M. Kucera.

Our bugler was Mrs Ruth Moore and our Padre was Bert Steed.

Afterwards we had some refreshments round at The Trench Experience.

June Last Post

Today in the nice sunshine, we welcomed members of Woking District Scouts for our short ceremony. The Scouts are planning to lay a wreath at the Menin Gate on 10 November 2018 and form up as part of the Poppy Parade on the 11 November through Ypres. As part of this, Scouts are attending our ceremony to gain experience with parading Standards. We are very pleased to see them with us.

We had 10 Standards on parade today with six of them from the Scouts.

Woking District Scouts in attendance

11 Standards on parade

We remembered Flying Officer Ronald Charles Wood, 12251. A flying instructor with 20 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, based at RAF Kidlington, F/O Wood was killed when the Airspeed Oxford in which he was flying collided in mid-air with a similar aircraft of the same unit on 3rd June 1943 – exactly 75 years ago. Both aircraft, on night flying exercises, crashed and five men died.

F/O Wood was the son of Alfred and Alice Mary Wood of Woking, Surrey. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Old Woking and buried in plot 23.C.12 at Brookwood Military Cemetery. He was 25 years old when he died.

Our bugler was Mrs Ruth Moore, the Union Flag was paraded by Mrs Sue Stallard, and the BLP Standard was paraded by Tom Milne.

Paul McCue read the war poem ‘Occupation’ by Roger Elkin.

Afterwards we had some refreshments round at the Trench Experience.